Necroes

Are We the Bad Guys? - A WH40k RP [Mature]

Vespin went flying down the long, narrow corridors of the large ship's various service hatches and air vents. It had taken a great deal of time to learn to properly read the extremely elaborate schematics that went along with Imperial naval craft. However, it was time well spent, as it allowed him to move at what many officers thought of as an almost supernatural pace. As it happened, and as with this case, that rarely proved to be a bad thing, when he was suddenly in need of an alibi somewhere else in the ship.

Before too long, he had found himself coming out on the upper-floor of the large armory. Here was stored the various heavy weapons platforms, ready to be lowered down into the waiting transports below as a moment's notice. His memory had served him well, as he was happy to find the room's layout had not been changed since his company had come on board.

Going across one of the many catwalks acting as the room's second floor, he couldn't help but grin when he found what he wanted. Using the pulley to tug it onto the metal of the walkway, it takes only a minute or so to get the tarp off and the hoists clear. Underneath was the autocannon that had been taking up so much space in the chimera he'd ridden aboard in. As soon as it was on level footing, he jumped behind the gun shield and slid the firing mechanism into its rarely used single-fire position.

Aiming down at the room's closest entrance to the brig further down, he waited. Cursing his luck for the lack of a proper scope on the large gun, he had only the sights to go off of, and just had to hope it was properly aligned. Just as he considered taking a single shot to get an idea of its accuracy, he looks down the barrel to see the first prisoner entering the room. Without warning, he lets fly with the first round, turning the man's head into smear along the floor behind him, with a rather large dent in the middle of the spray pattern.

The forward display had the effect he'd hoped for. Though all criminals, each had served at the least on their world's PDF. An autocannon was designed almost specifically for cutting swaths through hordes of infantrymen, and a choke point would mean their death if they were dumb enough to just rush in.

Luckily, a quick look told him the man he'd shot happened to have been heading to trial for shooting his squad mates. In the guard, that was unforgivable, even among penal legion troops. That meant he had a chance at talking with them, as no one would morn the man's death. Calling out across the room, he introduced himself, hoping to catch the ear of someone with a brain between their ears. "This is Vespin Longshank, Corporal of the Cadian 534th! I'll give you lads one chance to try and talk this out. I've got enough ammo and the right angle to take out all of you as soon as you pass that doorway. My men are hot on your tails, escorting a commissar with an even bigger stick up his ass than usual. You boys are gonna want to figure out terms with me, before you get pinched between me and my men, and I'm forced to hand command over. Send someone out with a white flag to talk terms. No flag, and whoever steps out gets a bullet between the eyes."

Are We the Bad Guys? - A WH40k RP [Mature]

No longer directing a psyker, I suddenly feel much less concerned about the ship's astropath(s) and his/their retaliation to Lucius' pet psyker.

That said; RIP minion. We hardly knew ye.

Are We the Bad Guys? - A WH40k RP [Mature]

@BCTheEntity Not to nag, but your post conflicts somewhat with the last one @Klomster made.

Are We the Bad Guys? - A WH40k RP [Mature]

Are you all waiting for me to post for Vespin again, or was someone else going to post?

Because, I've been waiting for someone else to post so I wasn't doing mine back-to-back.

Are We the Bad Guys? - A WH40k RP [Mature]

If I'm not mistaken, the main people Oskar wants dead are actual, hard-core criminals. Vespin wouldn't be killing them to befriend Oskar; he'd be doing it to protect his own men.

Remember, at present, Vespin is still loyal to the guard. It's a group of ratlings that were sent to deal with the prisoner escape. That's going to mean him loosing allies, customers, and possibly even friends if things go sideways. He intends to avoid that.

The plan is going to be for him to use a superior knowledge of the ship's interior to chart a shorter route than the one Oskar is taking to get to the armory first. It's feasible that he could, given a wider array of routes to take, because he doesn't have to stick to the ones big enough to accommodate a prison's worth of men and is half the size of most of them to begin with.

Once there, he's going to use what little time he has to find an autogun turret with a bullet shield, set it to single-fire, and start splattering criminal across the wall as soon as they cross the threshold. Ideally, after killing the criminals he knows from his connections are bad news, he'll announce himself to try and ease tensions with the group by talking them down through his connection to some of them. One of those people he'd have a (albeit shaky) connection to is Oskar.

Are We the Bad Guys? - A WH40k RP [Mature]

Well, if all of them went literally between the eyes, it would be somewhat hard to believe it Wasn't intentional. But I digress.

My point is, it wouldn't cause undo tension between them, Vespin and Oskar I mean.

Are We the Bad Guys? - A WH40k RP [Mature]

Hmm... would it be well-received if the 'warning' shots Vespin fires off when the prisoners get there 'accidentally' goes between the eyes of the problematic prisoners? The ones that actually Should be in prison, that is to say.

Are We the Bad Guys? - A WH40k RP [Mature]

@Sophrus What would you say the over-under is on Oskar knowing/knowing of Vespin? And what about the other way around? Given they're both protagonist tier characters on the same ship.

Are We the Bad Guys? - A WH40k RP [Mature]

When he'd woken up that morning, Vespin knew he was going to have a bad day. He knew this, because his left ankle was acting up. Not the actual ankle, of course, that was off on some moon in a system he'd likely never see again. No, it was a phantom pain, that hurt just enough to put him in a foul mood on the days it decided to act up. Which seemed appropriate, given it only ever seemed to hurt on days that would put him in a foul mood anyway.

As the morning began, though-morning being a relative term-he couldn't quite tell what it was that seemed like it should go wrong. His group had been picked up for deliver to another system some time ago, and were on their way to the drop off location, along with a group of penal legion. A friend among the navigator's retinue, a very well payed one, had informed him that they would be exiting the warp for a short time. While they hadn't said why, it wasn't all that important. Sometimes ships needed to exit warp space for a short time, for any number of reasons.

Morning beyond that was business as usual. A commissar had been invited to take breakfast with a company commander, and the commander had payed Vespin to prepare the meal. Doing as best he could with what little he had, he managed to whip up two lobster-tail omelettes dressed with chives and shredded cheese. Or, more specifically, something that very much tasted exactly like how someone who'd never had the real thing would likely imagine it tasted. He knew, because he had tasted the real thing, and what he made tasted like what he'd expected it to. Of course, he had had a rather hefty sample for himself to make sure of that, along with a stiff cup of 'coffee' to go along with it.

Once that was out of the way, he'd begun to make his rounds. He had goods that he needed to sell, and they weren't going to do it themselves. Having planned to make his way around the ship, stopping by the places he was known to spend his time at very specific times, the usual routine had him near the prison area right about the time everything went ass-up. While he'd been down there to open negotiations with some of the prisoners to see if they were interested in trading off what little money they technically had left to their name for something useful, a call for hands to battle stations had gone out.

It wasn't until he managed to make it back to his barracks that he found out what had them leaving warp space. Apparently, someone had put out a call for aid in a battle against Eldar. While definitely not good, from the sounds of things the Eldar weren't likely to win, and their ship was only there to provide support. No, the real issue was that some uppity commissar had come along and taken his men to go hunting for psykers.

Having made the decision to go in light, Vespin managed to catch up to the group of his fellow ratlings. It had taken a lot of leg work, and a very helpful schematic of the ship, but he'd managed to pull it off. Unfortunately, the sound of gunshots told him that they had found something. Only carrying his shotgun, a dozen rounds for it, his armor, knife, and nothing more, Vespin suddenly felt somewhat naked. He had his usual tools squirreled away in his leg as well, of course, but none of that was going to help take down an Eldar.

Making a decision, he held back in stead of stepping up to join the group. When he heard that the prisoners had escaped, and were making their way to the armory, he knew his men would be walking into a killing field unless someone got there first. Taking out his schematic, he looked over it quickly, long enough to mark his route in his mind before heading out. It would have him squeezing through some tight spaces, but if he managed to judge it right, and it hadn't been too long since the prisoners had left, he should make it there a couple minutes before they do. What he was going to do in two minutes, he had no idea, but that didn't matter until he had them to work with, so he decided that was a bridge to cross if he got to it.

Are We the Bad Guys? - A WH40k RP [Mature]

I've been waiting for a 100% okay from JB to finalize Vespin before I make his intro post. I assumed he was going to get something up before then, to depict Vedius's actions and kill the ork.