'Sir, master lord champion! I can sense people nearby!'

Finally, he spoke up. Lucius was getting a tad bored of moving around in seemingly aimless fashion, even if the mutant claimed to be heading towards an incredible surge of psychic power, or at least in that sort of direction. 'Are they our people?' he asked, hands moving to his bolters regardless.

'Uh... I-I'm not sure, O lord high master Scion, I'd need to-'

He was interrupted as a small troop of men, dressed in the same armour as... God-Emperor, had it really been so little time since he'd been on that wretched space hulk? And the details of the soldiers his former Ogryn minion had been part of were already fading, only to be renewed by the details from this very similar group, sans abhuman brute or notability, and apparently sans willingness to listen too judging by the lasguns immediately aimed at him.

'Ho, Space Marine,' the leader called, not that much different from his minions. 'I did not believe we had any of your number on our ship... explain yourself, or I will be forced to believe you're a renegade.' Lucius was highly tempted to roll his eyes, but wondered if he could convincingly trick these men into believing he was on their side, at least for long enough to bring them into melee range. Certainly, they couldn't be allowed to tell others he was here.

'I beseech you to relax, Armsmen,' Lucius uttered calmly, hands loose and slightly out from his sides to show he meant no harm. 'I am Thorn, a Marine of the Dark Angels, and the man beside me is a serf. I've been sent as an emissary, of sorts.'

'Oh yeah?' one of the other soldiers asked, far less respectfully than if he had been truly taken. 'Where's your armour, and what's with the voidsuits?'

'A necessity to get here. I was in disguise for a prior mission, which I had no time to dress out of before being called away without my armour. Would that I could-'

'What, you had no time to-'

'Is this how you treat all Space Marines?' Lucius asked coldly. 'With such minimal respect that it'd be within their rights, [i]my[/i] rights, to slay you for it?' He couldn't let them figure out the holes in his story; he had to push and push and push until he could get in close. 'And you, commander; do you allow your troops to simply walk roughshod over you whenever they so please?'

'Uh... I don't-'

'And furthermore,' Lucius continued, casually walking toward the soldiers, 'I'm hard-pressed to believe that this equipment has been maintained properly. Just look at the barrels, they're so badly tarnished it's unbelievable, and the powerpacks barely connect to the ammunition ports.' At first, they'd aimed their weapons more sternly at him, but at the mention of their weapons being poorly maintained, a large number of them brought the lasguns closer to their eyes to see what the Marine was talking about.

Not all of them, but enough. Before the leader could chastise them for dropping their guard, Lucius' hands dropped to his blades as he charged the last couple of meters into the crowd.

No more than five seconds of flashing blades and minimal lasfire later, the guards were dead to a man, and Lucius was no more than sore from his pre-existing injuries. Cleaning the weapons off and sheathing them again, the Dark Angel strolled lightly back over to the cowering psyker who called him by too many titles for his own good, and lifted the man to his feet by the scruff of his neck.

'If we have more random encounters like that, I will hold you personally responsible. Do you have any means that would let you figure out where the others are more accurately?'

'B-b-buh... m-master, I don't- wait, I do!' he realised with a mildly relieved smile. 'M-maybe. I can contact them via-'

'The other Dark Angel, now,' he responded, dropping the man back to his feet and turning to move on. 'Ask him where he is, and we can figure out his location from there.'

Alternatively, a pillar of black smoke could shoot up behind the worm, the dread magus from before stepping out and placing an arm round the minion's shoulders, drawing a gasp, and then what seemed to be a mild panic attack.

'You should be careful with your gift, you never know what monsters lurk in the shadows,' the Heretek explained, almost as if he'd known what Lucius had just said... although, if he'd been here all along, perhaps he had. Or he was just sensing the snivelling coward's own psychic abilities, since the man had been using telepathy for an extended period of time.

'You'll probably give him a heart attack if you go about like that,' Lucius said bluntly, 'and I'd much rather he remained alive for now. He is of minor use to me, after all. I suppose your presence is somewhat appreciated, though, if you happen to know where Xepherial and the others are... did I ever get your name, incidentally?' he asked, not certain he'd even spoken to the psyker yet.