Edge of the Void - Campaign Turn 7

Mistakes have been made, now Tareefa and her crew face nigh impossible odds. Will they redeem themselves or is this the end of the line for the Rogue Trader?

Chapter 7 - The Inquisitor

Inquisitor Konnar Marburg paced slowly in the small office, their compatriot Proctor Cole Hartmann meanwhile, stood stock still. The Inquisitor periodically checked this chrono and glared at the subject of his ire. Rogue Trader Tareefa el-Khatib remained silent, quite honestly, she welcomed the wait. Since the discovery that she and her crew had inadvertently killed a number of Inquisitorial Agents things had progressed in a panicked flurry. It hadn’t mattered; the Inquisitor and his retinue were waiting for them when they returned to Lady Yasmin’s manor.

The distant rumble of retro jets firing signalled the arrival of Tareefa’s Seneschal, Martyn Hames. A few moments later he was shown into the room. He also, to the surprise of everyone else in the room, had a combat shotgun slung over his shoulder. Proctor Hartmann cleared his throat and held out his hand to which Hames handed the shotgun over to the Arbitrator without hesitation. The firearm was placed on the small desk along with the Rogue Trader’s pistol and sabre.

“Are we done posturing?” the Inquisitor’s voice was low, gravely and was not looking for a response.

“Time is not on our side,” he continued, “and we have wasted enough of it already.”

Proctor Hartmann stepped forward again, but this time handed a dataslate to the Rogue Trader. Displayed on the dataslate were some co-ordinates, presumably somewhere on Mehara, and a brief estimation of combatants.

“What you hold in your hands is your potential redemption. You have irreparably damaged my operation here on Mehara and those I was hunting will soon know that, if they don’t already. So, I need you to finish what we’ve started so that we can remain unseen.”

Tareefa understood, if the Inquisitor and his forces acted then it would alert the wider conspirators to their presence. But if it was the Rogue Trader and her crew, there would be no such risk.

“Excellent, Proctor Hartmann will show you back to your gun-cutter. Your Seneschal and Armsmen will remain here for the moment. The rest of your retinue is aboard.”

Minutes later Seneschal Hames stood at one of the manor’s windows with the Arbitrator watching the Stormspite blaze its way southwards.

“Probably best you stayed behind,” said Cole, handing the shotgun back to Hames, “given there’s no shells in it.”

Martyn took the weapon and slung it over his shoulder.

“I would die for the Lord-Captain, but I am not an idiot.”

Proctor Hartmann answered with a shrug.

“Fair to say. Now if you could please follow me, Armsman Solis’ interrogation should be finishing shortly. And the Lord Inquisitor has some questions we feel you could answer…”

Battle 7 - Battle Beneath the Crown

The mood on the gun-cutter was grim to say the least. Some were angry, some were merely pensive. Tareefa attempted to maintain an air of strength and pragmatism, worrying about her upcoming execution would just have to wait. Right now, they were flying into the belly of the beast and at best they would be outnumbered two to one. The Lord-Captain lamented her lack of options; were it not for the Inquisition crawling all over the Glorious Endeavour she’d be able to call in a lance strike and soften things up. Likewise, she had a small army of Armsmen she could deploy to the field. She was half-tempted to fly the Stormspite into the enemy camp like a missile and be done with the whole affair.

Tareefa let out a sigh, spite would not carry the day here. It would be faith that ensured their survival. Faith in the God-Emperor of Mankind. Faith in her crew. And perhaps most importantly, faith in herself. She had Guillermo lead the crew in prayer while the gun-cutter made its final approach. Even that did little to elevate their spirits.

The Stormspite set the crew down a kilometre from the coordinates that the Inquisitor had given them. Before they set out, the Lord-Captain calls her crew to gather round. It takes a few seconds for her to find the words.

“I may not have been your Captain for long but if this day will be our last then I would have none other by my side. And come what may, I am proud of all of you.”

That did it, the three of them stood a little taller, held their weapons with a little more assurance.

“Now let us go, the Enemy thinks they have a foothold here. By faith and hatred, we shall disabuse them of that notion. The Emperor Protects.”

The crew check their weapons and get ready for the fight of their lives.

It doesn’t take long for Tareefa and her team to find the enemy camp. It would look like any other street on Mehara, with prefabbed stacks and boarded-up ruins, except that no other street on Mehara has a towering ring of dark green stone carved with unholy runes that hurt to look at. This crown of runes was itself set into a metal ring that held it in a vertical position, this second ring thrummed with power and occasionally spat a shower of sparks. The whole assembly was mounted on a dais or platform that hung with chains and skulls. Tareefa had never seen anything like it, and honestly, she never wanted to again.

The Rogue Trader and her crew waste no time, the enemy knows they’re here and will not hesitate to overwhelm the crew with their superior numbers. The crew split into two teams, Guillermo and Shai taking the alleyways to the right, and Tareefa and Gluvico taking the more open approach to the left. This way they can deal with the cultists piecemeal. Or so the plan is anyway.

The cultists however have nothing like a plan of attack. In the shadow of the Noctilith Crown dark whispers have eaten away at their psyche until they’re little more than slavering beasts. With a guttural roar the host of filth surges forward, the abhorrent leader of the cultist gang spits bile and sprints along the walkway.

Tareefa and Gluvico advance cautiously, the square in front of them has little in the way of cover beyond some rubble and a cache of barrels. Just as they slip past the barricade a cultist appears on the walkway, shooting wildly and waving a large blade around with equal abandon. Tareefa and her Tech-Adept linger for a moment, inching around the barricade. Hesitant to cross into the open, neither of their weapons has the range to reach the cultist leader on the walkway.

Armsman Solis joins the fight

The sound of a large calibre round discharging behind them nearly has Tareefa and Gluvico jump out of their skins. They wheel around weapons ready to find Armsman Finn Solis standing behind them, smoke gently coiling from the barrel of his hunting rifle. He looks haggard from the interrogation, but there isn’t time for niceties. The Lord-Captain takes the opportunity to sprint across the open square, making for the stairs on the opposite side. The cultist leader isn’t on the walkway anymore, but there is a large splatter of blood where they used to be standing. Gluvico meanwhile uses his pistol to lose a few shots at the cultists that have made it to the square, he doesn’t hit any of them but does succeed in keeping them from shooting at either himself or the Lord-Captain.

Meanwhile Guillermo and Shai slip silently into the alleyway. It’s currently empty but judging by the shouts and whooping coming from the other end, it will not be long before the cultists find their way here. The Crusader and the Assassin make their way past the piles of refuse and puddles of brackish water to a small side alley that passes under a walkway. Pressing themselves against the filth encrusted wall they wait with bated breath as the sound of footsteps gets louder and louder.

The Rogue Trader races to the top of the stairs, her duelling pistol ready. Turning onto the walkway there is a cultist not ten meters away and running right at her. Tareefa hastily snaps off a shot that catches the cultist in the shoulder, the force of the bullet spins the cultist and pitches them to the floor. With the Lord of Decay gibbering in his mind the cultist barely registers the bullet wound, instead spraying a hail of rounds from their autopistol in the rough direction of their attacker. At such close range they can hardly miss and a trio of rounds strike Tareefa in the torso. She staggers back, her armour absorbing most of the impacts but one makes it through. A hot spike of pain just below her ribs and a warning rune in her helmet tells her as much.

The Lord-Captain ascends to the walkway,

On the ground meanwhile, the group of cultists move up to the barricade in the square, firing ineffective shots as they do so. Armsman Finn doesn’t see them, he is too focused on what is happening on the walkway. Thinking quickly, he cycles the action on his hunting rifle and puts a round through the midsection of the cultist that has just shot his Captain. Seemingly girdled by warp magicks, all this seems to do is pivot the cultist’s attention from the Rogue Trader to Finn, who promptly sprays the remainder of the autopistol's clip down at him. Gluvico seems to equally have issues putting down the cultists, managing to land a couple of hits on one that they seem to just shrug off. For his trouble, a cultist with a shotgun fires back at the Tech-Adept causing him to duck behind the barricade.

Finn’s distraction gives the Lord-Captain enough time to rip a medicae-gel canister from her belt and jam it into her wound before pressing the activator. Sterile gel floods the wound, hardening to a thick resin in a few seconds and stopping any bleeding. As an added bonus, Tareefa can feel the gel leech a number of painkillers and stimulants into her blood. Satisfied that death has been staved off for the time being, she returns her attention to the cultist who shot her. Who at the moment is attempting to reload his autopistol with their one working arm before they bleed to death. Not wanting to risk the chance that the diseased maniac might actually complete their task, Tareefa steadies herself and puts a bullet through the cultist’s skull.

Bron arrives just as Shai and Guillermo spring their trap.

A crackle over the vox announces the arrival of Armsman Bron Duke to the field of battle, the Lord-Captain orders him to support Guillermo and Shai over in the alleyway. Without missing a beat Bron moves to the corner of the stack and blasts the encroaching group of cultists with his shotgun. One drops with a shout and a spray of blood. Poised in the side alley, Guillermo and Shai take this as their signal to burst from cover and engage the remaining two cultists. Maddened by warp-borne whispers the cultists react to the new threat with surprising alacrity, blocking initial strikes from the pair and even fighting back. The Crusader runs one through with his sword but the deranged cultists scarcely notices, flailing and clawing at Guillermo’s armour. In a final fit of madness the cultist manages to wedge their scrap pistol into a joint in the armour and pulls the trigger as many times as their dying body will allow. Both the cultist and the Crusader slump silently to the floor. Shai hasn’t time to react to Guillermo falling, the cultist she is brawling with is no less insane. It’s several long heartbeats before Shai can find an opening but eventually the cultist’s reckless flailing exposes their neck, which she capitalises on by decapitating the wretched creature.

Behind the barricade Finn switches from his hunting rifle to a shotgun and proceeds to unleash a barrage of shells at the three cultists in the square. Two of the crazed cultists are pitched to the floor, one of them dead and the other merely stunned. From the walkway, Tareefa braces herself against the corner of the stack and puts a well-placed bullet through the remaining cultist.

The stunned cultist pulls themselves to their feet as their two comrades gurgle their last breaths. Incensed from their wound they fire wildly at the Rogue Trader, but the poorly aimed shots hit nothing but air. Not wanting to see their Captain shot again, Gluvico charges from cover shooting equally wildly at the cultists. The first two shots miss but the third finds its mark, blowing the last cultist’s skull apart in a shower of gore.

Aftermath

Seneschal Hames managed to keep his composure as the team disembarked from the gun-cutter. The Rogue Trader limped down the ramp first clutching her side. She was followed by Finn, Bronn, Gluvico and Shai who between them carried Guillermo’s Crusader shield. Upon the shield, stripped of his armour was the lifeless form of Guillermo himself. Proctor Hartmann was already calling for medicae services.

“Lord-Captain, are you…” Hames started before Tareefa interrupted him.

“A flesh wound, it isn’t deep.” Before turning to address the Proctor.

“You can tell the Lord Inquisitor that the cult is no more. They were building something, a structure, a ring of some sort. Whatever it was, we set melta-charges and reduced it to atoms.”

A flash of recognition crosses Hartmann’s face before he answers.

“I shall relay your success to Inquisitor Marburg. Now please, see to your wounds and wounded.”

The Rogue Trader doesn’t answer, stepping past the Arbitor to an awaiting medicae gurney as Hames helps to remove her armour and weapons.