Eisenhorn

WARHAMMER 40K: THE TARSON INCURSION

Yeah, afraid I really don't have anything worth posting at this moment, or I would have broken this chain of silence by now.

A Tale of Three Moons

"Right, get that to the mages now mates, those critters on our way out of that place slowed us down more than we thought! Don't forget to track down that Adventurer who is holding our pay, we don't work for free after all!" A group of mercenaries that had been hired on by the Adventurer's guild were making their way in from one of the side ways into the town, among them being a man who looked a tad old for simple mercenary work. Of course, he was very much beyond a humble mercenary, but he wasn't one to brag. Instead, he was currently tracking down the Guild liaison he had to report the artifact's arrival to, since they had been delayed by unforeseen circumstances. Of course, it did not take terribly long to track down such a man, as he had been trying to track down the mercenary as well. The two did not speak for long, little of consequence outside coin changing hands for services rendered. Sometimes such Guilds needed to contract outside their typical manpower, for a variety of reasons, and men like Weiland Voss often found themselves filling in for such roles. Tipping his imaginary hat to the man as he rushed off to facilitate the relic being added to the displays discreetly, Voss reckoned he might as well stay for awhile and see the sights. He hadn't been this far out of the way of his usual stomping grounds, as it were, in quite some time and it was clearly a festival day after all.

Slipping his hands into the snow white pockets of his coat, Weiland strolled into the main streets of the town where the stands and displays were set up proper, idly wandering along humming to himself, pausing at random to inspect the odd relic or food stand. They all seemed to be serving similar versions of the same dish, not that it looked bad, it looked a damn sight better than the rations he had been eating during the trek out and back for the item they were contracted to find. He would have to snag himself a bowl at some point, but he wasn't quite hungry enough for that gamble yet. Besides, he needed to maintain the light schedule of eating he typically worked on when, well, working. He had to adjust how his heavy looking blade and pistol rested, mostly to avoid jostling people or otherwise hooking onto things he most certainly did not want to, while the pistol was shifted to prevent it from being easily grabbed. Old tricks, paranoia even, but having his weapon snatched at enough times taught him that lesson all too well.

Considering he wasn't actively paying attention to where he was walking, busy with adjusting how his kit was being carried, Voss completely failed to avoid running into a young....man? Woman? Weiland was snapped out of his distracted state, realizing he had run into someone a couple inches shorter than him, far more fancifully dressed, and had seemed rather focused on the food around them, to an almost obsessive degree to a casual observer like Weiland. Still, he hadn't meant to jostle the young...person, as he still couldn't pin a gender down pat, and apologized frankly enough. "Agh, sorry 'bout that friend. Guess I got distracted by all the goings on 'round these parts right now, eh?" He chuckled easily, taking the blame for the collision without any hesitation, it had been his fault after all, and the last thing he needed was to be getting into trouble so soon after his return. Though he had to admit, he was rather curious at how solid the impact had been for someone as slight looking as this...person had been.

@Lumiere

Fire Emblem: A Blinding Light

Voss

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"I'd much rather you quietly surrender and stop making a needless amount of noise, but you seem hell bent on suicide by combat..." The Shaman was muttering under his breath now as the man, instead of charging him like any decent man might, instead grabbed the thief and carried him along like a living missile. Add in the fact the man had decided to lob a disabled man at him to try and force an edge in the fight, and Voss had to conclude that the man's intelligence was certainly not among his strong suits. Though he was alarmingly accurate, Voss had few options in regards to direction. Backwards, which wouldn't actually get him out of the way, either side would invite a gold toss as to whether or he guessed the man's dominant sword hand right. That left a rather obvious choice, albeit one that would likely hurt. Running forward, he quickly swapped to his Nosferatu tome in anticipation for injuries, throwing himself forward to avoid the thief and aimed to tumble past the sword arm side of Morag, hoping to get past him with minimal injury by robbing him of that diagonal stroke's intended location.

Voss knew full well he had likely been clipped by the blade, which would have damaged his robes as well as himself, he narrowed his eyes briefly as he raised his palm towards Morag. Unlike the Flux he had entered the room with, he still clung onto his Nosferatu tome, channeling a singular strike with the spell. He always prided himself on landing his hits, even if he couldn't overwhelm his foes in a barrage of attacks, and it would hopefully give him an edge in keeping himself alive longer.

Fire Emblem: A Blinding Light

I shall endeavor to have a post out no later than Friday, assuming everything goes smoothly it will be before that.

WARHAMMER 40K: THE TARSON INCURSION

"That will suffice ma'am, once we are close enough, stealth will likely no longer be an option regardless of our ability to scout ahead. Chaos forces have a tendency to detect intrusion into sufficiently corrupt areas despite better efforts." Considering 'that will suffice' was as close as the Krieger was going to get to saying thank you, he turned his attention to the tech heretic as she spoke up about explosives. The Grenadier cocked an eyebrow under his mask, the gesture unreadable due to the rebreather, but one could almost sense the reaction that a veteran Guardsman might have with a mercenary just jumping in and effectively doing his job for him. But, he didn't say a word in regards to her remark, instead he was about to sling the bag of explosives he was carrying up to this point over for the mercenary to sift through when the Psyker once again garnered his attention.

Her remark on the melta bombs was accurate enough, considering the plan he suspected that the mercenary was putting together simply boiled down to strap as many explosives as she could into one massive bomb, plant it on a load bearing support, and detonate. It would probably work from sheer brute force, if nothing else, but he would have much rather simply plant them in several locations and detonate at once. But the psyker's question warranted a response, even if her glare could be detected well enough given her intense downward stare, which the Kriegsman had yet to even look up to meet the much taller gaze. "I have frags, which will not help, krak grenades, which could provide secondary effect, and a few demolition charges. She can utilize all explosives I have except for two demolition charges, the other two I will retain for secondary demolition needs. The Psyker should save her melta bombs for vehicles or Traitor Astartes, as needed."

With that, he set the bag of explosives Ansgar had been hauling around down in front of the tech heretic for her to sift through. True to his word, there were a number of frags, kraks, and four demolition charges. Considering she had free access to all but two demo charges, it should likely be enough explosives to more than suit her needs. Leave it to a Grenadier to have enough explosives to clear an entire building out, or even outright collapse it. It was at this point the Krieger chose to meet the strange, staring gaze that the psyker had been giving him up to this point, simply making an open remark towards her gaze with two words, muffled yet neutral despite the accusatory nature one might feel from such a gaze. "Yes, ma'am?"

WARHAMMER 40K: THE TARSON INCURSION

Well, if you insist @Andromedai.

WARHAMMER 40K: THE TARSON INCURSION

Ansgar was silent in regards to the Psyker's explanation on the name she had yelled. The grenadier had missed this during the explosion, the concussive force having robbed him of being able to hear the name over the sound and sensation of being thrown clear of a vehicle as it erupted in a roaring inferno. While others might have started noticing the tenuously thin fabric of reality, Ansgar was oblivious to its usual signs, prior exposure plus the debriefing he'd received at the hands of the Ordo Malleus had left him numb to the warp. Still able to be affected by it, but resilient to its taint and whispers all the same. If the others were blunts, he might as well have been as blunt as a brick wall. That didn't make him unawares, that same experience demanded his full awareness of how easily reality could fail this close to a breach leading to the Immaterium, he merely couldn't rely on certain conventional signs. Whether he believed the psyker or not really depended on whether or not the Celestian did, and he would follow orders as necessary beyond that.

The psyker backing up his statement was, while welcome, unnecessary. He spoke from experience, and he would let his superior take that information as she saw fit. She did seem to misconstrue things a tad, considering it was unlikely they had any sort of waiting Ace, as she had put it. They had what was on them, and the Emperor's blessings, and that would have to suffice. "As I said already ma'am, the odds of friendly reinforcements are slim at best. It falls to us to bring this gate down, before it reaches its peak functionality. However, we may not have to proceed along this main access tunnel. When we encountered the first wave of mutated cultists, who were surging out to oppose us, they were using secondary tunnels. Which likely means there are multiple access tunnels into this main opening beneath the Cathedral. If they are expecting a continued frontal assault, they will concentrate their forces in this primary access shaft, which could give us an edge in flanking them and striking at the gate directly while they attempt to organize their response. Chaos is many things, but disciplined and organized are rarely chief among them."

The grenadier paused, checking his explosives bag he was carrying for how much he had left. Several frags, kraks, and a few demolition charges he had acquired from the forge armory, the latter would likely be enough to render the gate inoperable at worst, or destroyed at best. He was not comfortable with how much he had spoken at this point, considering it out of place normally, but here he was probably speaking more in this situation than he had the entire rest of the time surface side so far. Even so, he had been addressing the psyker's remark towards an ace in the sleeve, as she had put it, with a plan that would, with the Emperor's blessing and a bit of luck, mitigate the odds of them encountering further traitor marines. "Ma'am, as we move forward, is it possible for you to discern active physical threats from immaterial ones that are yet to manifest? That would expedite our approach immensely."

WARHAMMER 40K: THE TARSON INCURSION

<Snipped quote by Eisenhorn>

This is Ansgar and Adrianne's chance to kick off on a long, pointless 30 post long conversation about something random/a party member to the chagrin of the slower posters!!! >:D

@Rithy

Well, when you put it like that, I would be remiss to not post something at least.

WARHAMMER 40K: THE TARSON INCURSION

I don't have much else to post rather than the Krieger just sitting around and continuing to wait.

WARHAMMER 40K: THE TARSON INCURSION

Ansgar was listening to the discussion going on regarding what warband the traitor marines belonged to. While the Kriegsman had encountered numerous and varied traitor forces before his assignment to the retinue, these Word Bearers were not among them. They fought no where near as savagely as the red and brass colored Traitor Astartes that his regiment had encountered in the past, though their name was similar sounding. Still, dead traitors were dead traitors, and the Grenadier knew full well the odds of besting them in single combat was slim for a mere human, let alone multiples. His divided attention was then caught by the tech heretic as she spoke on the matter of the gate that had been built. Continuing to sweep the perimeter they had secured with his weapon, the Skitarii having moved into positions that would allow them to efficiently sweep and cover the area, he remarked rather calmly despite the injuries he had sustained. "The mercenary is right, as is the psyker to a degree. A gate of this size and power, capable of corrupting the hallowed ground a Cathedral is built on, would warrant unusually precise ritual and corruption."

The one Skitarii moved to Ansgar's position, relieving him so he could focus on the planning at hand. Normally, the Krieger wouldn't have accepted that sort of relief, but he was of more use sharing what he had learned through hard experience over staring down a dark tunnel. Doubly so, considering the Skitarii were augmented for such difficulty conditions. "This is the second time I've encountered scheming on this level, and the last time half succeeded in turned the planet into a Daemon controlled foothold on reality. Losing the planet to the warp is a more likely outcome than it is not. If this gate is anything like the last one, generally speaking, destroying the primary gate will cause it to cascade and collapse the network its connected to planet side. Sufficient explosives to collapse the physical gate would destabilize its connection to the immaterial, violently. It takes a mind of extremely cunning, heretical, but cunning thinking to put something of this magnitude together. Thank the Emperor it only takes a faithful soldier with high explosives to bring it crashing apart. Which, as the Psyker pointed out, would require manpower we do not currently possess for frontal assault." The way he ended that statement indicated that the Kriegsman might have an idea on how to proceed beyond that, but he didn't say at the moment. It wasn't his place to make plans or dictate the order of battle, all he was doing currently was providing what information he could, that was useful to the situation at hand.

It was a lot more than Ansgar was comfortable with, in terms of amount of words spoken, but it needed to be said. If his experiences in the Death Korp could serve here, then he would be remiss in holding any information that he was allowed to speak of back. At this point the Celestian joined them, speaking of scouting ahead and radioing in the local Guard forces for assistance. Coughing briefly to get her attention, partially due to the internal injuries if he was being honest, he spoke of his current opinion on the Guard surface side now. "An involved set up like this, beneath the very foundations of a major city's Cathedral, would not go unnoticed by competent forces. If this gate can call in Traitor Astartes in number, alongside such rampant mutation we have encountered, they have likely been working at this since before the Ork's arrival. If that is the case, the local forces are either inept, or compromised. The former, they are likely to die en mass to either Orks, should they breach the walls, or the Traitors when they rise up from beneath the city without accomplishing much. If they are in allegiance with the Traitors, then we are on our own with the threat of hostile air coverage and artillery should we surface within effective striking distance."

Ansgar lacked the advanced, integrated HUD that was being utilized by others in the retinue, having only what his eyes and senses showed him, which meant he did not know where they were beneath the city, or even how close they were to any sort of destination. Such was another of the differences between the power armored Sisters and Marines, versus the Guardsmen. It was frankly too cost inefficient to issue such gear to rank and file Guard, and even the Grenadiers of the Death Korp, stomrtroopers in almost every way but name (And grav chute training) did not receive such advanced wargear. Such considerations were for another time, however, for when the Celestian mentioned the psyker shouting some unknown name, the Krieger didn't overtly move. However his posture had subtly shifted none the less, instincts sensing a potential danger to the mission. Psykers shouting unknown names after shock and exposure to traitor forces never boded well, and the Kriegsman was ready to act should the need arise.