Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

The warband silently strode through the ruins, leaving the butchered cultists behind them, the former Dark Apostle, Kol Vectna, was cleaning the blood from his crozius Arcanum, his old helm gone, replaced by the skull-like visage of a loyalist marines chaplains helmet.

The warband was one of the few. Deemed heretics by traitors and loyalists alike, they occupied the grey area in between. The galaxy was unforgiving to such individuals. And as such each of his men was worth more than a titan legion in Gra’zzt’s opinion. Their small Gladius, class frigate, Warforged was in space above cloaked. They rid this world of the ruinous powers. One. By. One.

They were not loyalists, nor were they heretics, thy were excommunicate traitoris, but they aided only the common man.

And themselves,

Heretics, penitent

Nope because an inquisitor would wake lotus when its time read previous threat

Fine.

The Assassin awoke, the Cryo chamber was collapsing and fire was consuming the ship. Quickly Lotus escaped from the disintegrating chamber and was confronted by her strike team who where boarding a shuttle. She entered as the corridor behind her burst into flames, the shuttle escaped as the Inquisition ship exploded violently over the target planet, the Strike team was ready for their greatest mission.

A massive structure appeared in the distance, as the Warband observed the Iron-Warriors great fort they realised that several large groups of Cultists and Renegade Guard were approaching their position increasingly fast, the large numbers could prove to be a minor threat.

Objective 1: All Players
Infiltrate the fortress undetected and gain information on the Employers plans.

Beltayn had his head bowed as Ludias spoke, this disabled the human sniper from seeing the smirk on Beltayn's face at his mocking tone. he raised his head and rubbed his hand across the rifle; a piece of xeno tech sitting across his lap.

"What I am called has nothing to do with pride for that is the predator's downfall, I was always taught to respect my prey or risk becoming him. No, a name is a tool to make others fear me, in my three centuries there has been no pit to low for me to crawl. I think the word rat is apt, Ludias, it defines opportunism and is that not what we are? What hunters are?" Beltayn shrugged. "That is what I think anyway. As for the garbs, remember that there are many factions contesting for this fortress, while that tactic may be useful for a single enemy, we fight many and may be attacked anyway, it is better to rely on stealth." Beltayn smirked at Ludias. "Unless you think these pathetic excuses for soldiers might see that mask of yours?" He said in a return quip. Before Ludias could respond, however, the noise of bootfalls for a way off greeted their ears


The patrol began to come towards them, going on a path perpendicular to their position. Beltayn stiffened, molding his body to the shape of the tree behind him, in front of him Ludias was already in a stealthy position, the patrol could not have seen the two snipers even if they were searching for them. Ludias gave Beltayn a hand signal indicating the numbers and armaments of the patrol. Beltayn nodded slightly, his hands gripping his rifle firmly and he gave Ludias a special hand sign that both the snipers had agreed upon long since.

"Shall we take them?"

The leading Cultist Major turned to see his troops and grunted, he hated leading these rejects. He would have even preferred monitoring the Fell creatures the inhabited the depths of the Fortress and required great lumps of raw fresh meat or in other terms unwary guards who found the beer in the storage room, even Chaos champions had been ripped apart by the starved creatures. He sighed and barked an order to his troops

"Were moving back to the out-post now, anything on the scanners?"

A Cultist spoke up, cyclops moved towards the major. His name came from the highly customised helm he bore which had a single red-eye and horn in tribute to Nurgle and allowed him to scan for enemy troops and study the vox channels.

"Nothing sir, something earlier but probably a mutant or two searching for food."

(OOC) Will create new thread later and Rping will be done there.

(In the mean time....)

Ludias drops to a snipers crawl his rifle clicking into its recoil slots on his suit. His muttered remarkmakes even himself smile a little.
"Of course we should take them"
He sights along his scope at the headman of that particular patrol. Seeing the DKoK uniform some thing clicks in his mind and he hesitates.
"Wait... we have two rifles theres..." He does a quick head count "About 20 of them... Theres no way we can floor them before one radios, then we will have an even worse issue on our hands... I say we pull back to our cham hide and wait till they pass. But we should be ready for if they get... Uncomfortably close"

The Cultists begin to move back towards the Out-post in the distance keeping a defensive position but three groups of two troops move away from the main group, one moves fairly close to the sniper team while keeping in a defensive position. The Main group dispersers in the distance while the small group begins to dig into the ground while the other keeps watch.

"Lets repair the cable and move."

Ludias pokes his rifle's barrel through the fire port on the Cham hide and draws a bead on the closest of the guardsmen.
His whisper is so quite that the only way Beltayn could hear it is through the tight channel two way vox link they kept permanantly open.
"Lets take these two and then pick the others of, get the stragglers and guards first then get closer and rip into the other group, then i think we should see what this cable is. Maybe we can use it to sabotage the fortress.
on your mark Jackal"
Ludias's smirk hidden by his mask is however completely obvious in his voice

(Just now noticed the Chaos Lord's name is Harlow, lol, same name as my character in Blood Moon...)

Beltayn's blank stare and slight nod was enough to confirm Ludias' proposal.

"Most of them are leaving." He whispered through the vox. "Lets do this so they don't come back." His smirk returned. "Think you can handle that?" Before Ludias could respond, Beltayn continued, now deadly serious. "Three on the right, three on the left, follow my lead." He said, putting his hood over his head and leaning out from the tree ever so slightly, just enough to aim his weapon.

His body made no sound as it moved, even his breathing was silenced, he swiftly became absolutely still, after less than a dozen seconds, he had the target on the right lined up, his sights following the movement of the cultist's head. He waited fro the most opportune moment when all the other cultists were looking away and slid the rifle's slide back into firing position. Just as he had done countless thousands of times before, Beltayn held his breath and squeezed the trigger ever so slightly...

The bolt flew from the lengthened barrel leaving nothing in its wake, the projectile was visibly but a spark the size of a pinhead but held as much power as hotshot lasgun. It was a piece of ammunition designed specifically for surgical strikes and it embedded itself squarely between the cultist's eyes. The figure dropped without a single noise and was still, a millisecond later, and almost silent cough from Beltayn's rear told him that the other target had been dispatched. Beltayn had already set his rifle down and was now stalking the other targets who had yet to see anything. While moving forward unseen, Beltayn headed towards the two cultists on the right and waved slightly with two long fingers for Ludias to go left, knowing this would be the last seconds of those cultists lives.

His approach was unseen as he matched his prey's gait and stride, He already had his knife in hand, he may have been outgunned but his two victims were outmatched. Like Lightning, Beltayn's knife plunged into the first cultist's neck and dropped him. He expertly pulled the knife back into a striking stance within but a moment of that death. Then and only then did the cultists see what was going on and only had half a second to respond which was not enough. The cultist raised his rifle but Beltayn had anticipated the move long before, he had anticipated the move since he had lined up on his first target, he had planned this entire fight out, every step, since he leaned out from that tree trunk. The knife came down, its monomolecular blade tearing through the end of the cultist's weapon before he could even so much as say a word. The backstroke found the cultist's sternum and impaled his heart with but a small grunt. Beltayn went over with him, blending back into the landscape.

In a matter of less than twenty seconds, the two had bested six men and not a soul had lived to see them...

Ludias watched the soundwave register in his masks HUD while sighting his shot on the cultist he was aiming at. He waited patiently watching the soundwaves drop slowly to a minimum, then as the machine registered the ratcheting of the almost silent trigger of Beltayns rifle Ludias also took his shot. The muted sound of the weapon flicked through his mask and he checked the readings for anomalies, almost on instict however as he knew already that the shot succeded. The cultist dropped to the ground his neck a mass of blood and bone from where the bullet had entered just above the ribcage, ruptured a lung and severed the spine before detonating softly ripping the mans vetebrae apart.

He watched his partner decend to the ground from his half dead tree with the grace of a panther. Ludias wasnt quite as graceful being human however once Beltayn flicked his fingers Ludias imperceptibly shifted his weight backwards onto the heels of his feet before letting his rifle hang on its shoulder strap. With one hand firmly gripping the branch below him Ludias drew one of his pistols with the other. The moment he saw Beltayn moving he kicked of from the trunk of the tree and swung around the branch. Letting go it almost felt like slow motion as he backflipped over the top of the other two cultists. One hand holding his rifle against his chest and his other hand coming up (Or down as he was upside down at this point) and depressing the trigger on his pistol twice swiftly. The pair of muted gunshots made the cultists jerk to the side, 11mm bullet holes in thier necks.

11mm being Ludias' preferred caliber as its weight was insignificant when he made the bullets and they had enough stopping force and accuracy for the short range firefights and assassinations he relied on them in.

Ludias finshed his flip calmly holstering his pistol in midair before landing lightly on his feet with only a slight sound. His entire body seemed to collapse down absorbing the shock of the fall. Moments later the cultists bodies hit the ground. Ludias stood slowly as Beltayn walked up to him a quite respect of proffessionalism flowing between the man and the Eldar.

"We should hide the bodies before any one comes around to check on them. And lets check this cable."

The Large wires run underneath the ground leaving only a few exposed were the Cultists were digging, each is filled with extremely powerful energy, large insects scuttle from underneath seeking its immense heat. It seems that the Cultists were fixing a power battery which powered the Comm lines in this area. But something was amiss, the shadow of something so dark and vile was cast over the area and reached into the minds of the snipers with dark intent.

"You cannot defy us."

"You will fail like all other"

"We shall feast on you"

A new proper discussion thread will be up soon but this will now be the RPG. This is currently only the prelude of the main story for the RP.

Ludias thought for a moment on the voice. His mind pulling forwards everything he knows about the Eye and organising it for inspection soon he comes to a conclusion.
"Daemons"
His pistols are out of their holsters and hes down in a semi crouch before the word is fully out of his mouth. After a few seconds when nothing else happens he gets up calmly holstering his pistols once more.
"If they were trying to repair the cable we definitly want it to stay broken. Shall we lay a couple of prox charges and head out? If they get to close itll just make the problem worse when the charges destroy part of the cable and it may even cop a few cultists. If their comms are down we may want to make that semi permanant by scouting their vox towers as well. Additionally they wont even think that the blasts are caused by explosives, just bad luck that one of these bugs cooks itself and causes an overload as they get close.

What do you think Bel'?

Another small group of Cultists appear, they do not instantly spot the snipers but soon become aware of them and begin to fire at the Snipers who instantly dodge and begin to raise their weapons.

The two had already hidden most of the bodies; two were now at the bottom of a large pool of murky, fetid water that had collected in what appeared to be a large shell hole, two had been placed in a rock crevice where they would not be seen unless somebody were to look directly into it, an one had been thrown into the hollowed out husk of a tree where it was out of sight, just as Beltayn prepared to dispose of the last one, the voices thundered in his skull, they may have been no more than a message but the Eldar as a people were far more psychically sensitive than humans and so the whispers affected him more. He winced as the darkness of their voices clouded his mind, planted their message, and then left. Beltayn cursed silently, he hated the warp with every fiber of his being.

After it was over, Beltayn looked around as if he expected to see someone next to him shouting in his ear but there was nobody around. It was then that Ludias popped his question and Beltayn shook his head.

"No, leaving behind our own munitions will be too suspicious, a trained eye could determine the difference between the results of a booby trap and an accident."

As he was saying this, he grabbed two grenades from the dead cultist's webbing and fixed them to a hair trigger under the battery. Such practices were a trifle to him as he had knowledge of every sort of trap conceived and he finished the process swiftly with his deft hands.

"There, now if they come back and move this to get to the cable, they'll think some other faction of soldiers layed a trap for them instead of two trained hunters with precise proximity weapons. Though, I do agree with you about the vox towers, we need to move away from the kill site anyway, might as well add to the confusion, it will help cover our tracks."

Beltayn was silent for a moment as he followed the direction of the cable's path with his trained eyes. He pointed in the direction he thought they went.

"If we follow the cables, we find the tower." He said and looked up from his crouch to Ludias. "You want to take point--" He stopped as the sound of footsteps began to get closer, they were immediately followed by chatter and then gunfire. The two were already in motion, going for weapons and taking cover.

"Khaine take this! Evade them lets get out of here before more come." Beltayn whispered over the vox grabbing a smoke bomb and tossing over his shoulder. Soon the area was covered with dark grey smoke, providing excellent cover for the two to escape.

EDIT: Sorry, ninja'd by Blood...

The Snipers escape while the Cultists are left dazzed and confused firing rapidly into the smoke failing to hit the elusive pair who are able to escape them, they soon are able to continue in the direction of the cables and begin to approach a Out-post.

"Brothers and sisters what happened and where are we going? Do we have a mission?" Lotus stood up and walked towards oni.

"Evesor i know you have anger stimulants but keep calm ok we need to get onto the planet safe. I know something for you to focus on." She takes a piece of metal. And gives it to oni. "Can you make me a nice knife for me? I dont want it made by the mechanicus i want it made by you." She walks back to her place. " oni let me say one thing. I dont want. That thing thrown through the room ok?"

"Brother informaticus (dont know the official name but this is the temporary one) what is the info available?"

Ludias nodded at the Grenade idea before the cultists came around the corner and started firing at them. He rolled behind the tree he had vacated drawing his pistols for the upteenth time but when the smoke grenade hissed out he exploded out of his crouch and into a sprint. With Beltayn close behind they moved out of their hide and around in a loop the cultists still firing blindly into the smoke, unable to hear due to thier own gunfire they made it easy for Beltayn and Ludias to evade them.

Soon the pair of Snipers were moving olong the line of the cables, Ludias using his masks audio receptors to listen for the concentrations of bugs that seemed to be attracted to the conduits. They moved slowly across the landscape, Ludias ensuring he diddnt make a mistake. After a klick or so they saw the outpost, its radio spire what they were looking for. The pair crawl into some half dead shrubbery and starre through their scopes. A few cultists roam around patrolling but apart from that they dont see any resistance. Ludias spots a small rise he could use as cover and he knew Beltayn was quite capable of setting up a snipers hide.

"Bel' theres a rise over their, I'll make a dogleg around behind it and get into position, Im thinking the pair of us laying down overlapping arcs of fire should be enough to eliminate that lot. We should just hope there arnt any Marines in there or this could get messy fast."

"Our targets are named the Employers, we have very little info but believe that their Headquarters is stationed here. Once we land we will have to find a significant target, a Iron Warrior fortress that lies within the central region of the planet."

The ship shakes as it enters the Daemon Worlds atmosphere and begins it's decent towards the surface. 

The Out-post is small but does have several guards who appear also to be former Death Korps troopers who still use their original but defaced weapons, in the centre of the base a large blast door lies on the surface and opens allowing a raising panel to empty it's contents. 

"Eversor you stay here. Finish that knife for me and remember no damage he. Informaticus you stay with him and venemum will so to. Callidus vindicare and myself will engage." Lotus asked for a holofield map of the outpost and asked tactics.

"This will be no easy task, this is far more than a mere out-post Assassin it is a City fortress that is guarded by massive numbers of Adeptus Astartes of the Iron Warriors legion. The outer areas of the fortress are also heavily infested with Daemons and Mutants, we will have to infiltrate the fortress to gain any further information on the Employers and their servants. We believe a Iron Warrior Tech-Priest by the name of Delta-Omega has begun amassing a large army. We have some vague blue-prints of the bases basic turret defenses but that is all and member that we lack resources and information Lotus so do not expect them ."

Beltayn nodded at the suggestion.

"If we do this right, they wont see it coming. When all visible threats are dead I'll move in, that rise up there should be perfect for overwatch, cover me and this will be over quickly." He said looking to Ludias who nodded almost imperceptibly. The two split up and as they separated, Beltayn looked back.

"Storm...don't blink." He said, his face was cloaked by the hood so Ludias would not have seen the smile, but Beltayn was sure he could have perceived it in his tone.

After a few minutes of crawling Beltayn was in position in between a rock crevice and some half dead shrubs. He was a few hundred yards from the outpost and through his lens he could see the patrolling cultists, a few wore strange helmets and gas masks, for what, Beltayn did not know but that was irrelevant. Beltayn signaled Ludias that he was in position, he got a vox blip back confirming that they were both in position. Beltayn leaned into his rifle and settled in, there was a moment of silence before he voxed a small whisper.

"Alright, start the clock." He said, a few moments passed and He watched Ludias take the first shot, a perfectly executed beauty, he had angled it perfectly; two cultists were walking single file away from his position, their backs to him. They were making this too easy. Beltayn watched as the bullet passed through the back of the first cultist's neck and kept going until it lodged itself into the spine of the one in front of him. Both toppled separate ways, the shot making no audible sound. Beltayn smirked to himself, the other guards hadn't seen it yet.

And so the game started to see who could best the other as a sniper, Beltayn had never backed down from these nonverbal challenges that the two had sometimes but then again he hadn't won all of them either...

Beltayn lined up on another two cultists who were walking next to a fissure in the ground, both were scanning the area. Beltayn lined up on the first cultists as they both stopped, they were very close but not close enough together or at the right angle to get a one shot kill on both...or were they? Beltayn put his cross hairs on one cultist and pulled the trigger, the shot hit center mass with no sound and the cultist toppled forward towards the fissure. The movement was so sudden that the other tried to grab his comrade and right him. The cultist lost his footing and both went headlong into the fissure, disappearing from sight without another sound. Beltayn chuckled at his own handy work, Mon Keigh were almost as clumsy as orks...

Beltayn revised that thought as soon as he heard Ludias' conformation blip on the vox, no, not all Mon Keigh were clumsy, in fact, Beltayn had known many rangers less skilled than his partner. Bletayn forced his thoughts back to the task and for the next few minutes the two took turns taking guards out silently until neither of them could see any others alive. After a few moments, Beltayn strapped his rifle to his back and crawled forwards.

"Alright, I'm moving in, keep in touch." Beltayn said as he advanced on the outpost's perimeter.

The out post was obviously poorly maintained, the turrets that surrounded the Out-posts four sides where in need of major repairs and were off-line currently while the Cultists where busy gambling or sleeping. Two carrying a large case moved slowly towards the hatch, the case read in large white letters;

[ENERGY CORE]

They placed the large case onto the raised platform and walked off as it lowered back into the open hatch, as it closed the Cultists fell to the Sniper fire of the Eldar Ranger allowing him a safe passage into the ill defended out-post which now lacked any defenses at all.

Informaticus you need to infiltrate your animals inside the fortress search for any info you can find and send it to us. Furthermore i think i can expect some resistance so why dont you already try to infiltrate callidus? Your mission is to get as close to that techpriest as possible but keep yourself safe. I also want oni to stay here and venemum make a poison that the callidus can use to "put the techpriest to sleep" i expect from all of you your cooperation. And vindicare i have a little job for you. You need to locate weakpoints in the enemy's defence's send all the info you find to informaticus."

(OOC) Nocturne I need more detail about you're characters and their abilities, I need more information about what they are and what they can do and don't expect to get into the fortress so easily.

The Calldius leaves the wreckage and begins to move towards the fortress while the Vindicare leaves afterwards, leaving the strike-force in the remains of the downed shuttle-craft. The sounds of movement outside stir the assassins as Cultists move towards the wreckage.

Ludias saw his partner move over to the building and take a couple of shots through the window the building cleared Ludias Itched to see what was inside but true to form he activated the cloaking polymers on his suit which took on the texture and colour of the sandy dirt he was laying on. Now camoflagued efficiently he settled down into his snipers crawl keeping his eyes on the area around the building. However he places a small camera next to hi facing backwards that links into his mask. This lets him watch both fronts simoultaneously. His rifles muted clicks were all he heard for a time as he went over it carefully checking for abrasions or blockages. Satisfied that his favoured weapon was in good repair he checked his ammo supplies. His ammo pouches were as usual well stocked and he fingered a couple of "Marine-Killers" Bullets designed to release a pulse of EM energy on contact locking up power armour. Coupled with the caustic gas in the bullets polymer resivoir the bullet would immobilise and dissolve any marine caught by the shot, regardless of where he was hit. It would be a painful death but the science was perfect and he had no qualms about using them on Chaos marines. He even knew that they would kill the followers of Nurgle as the Caustic gas simply dissolved living tissues. The Bullet would pierce through the power armour of a marine the contact releaseing the EMP which would lock them in place and then the gas would be released into thier system dissolving them from the inside out.

Painful. But perfect. He took his eyes away from the bullet hoping that he wouldnt have to use it anytime soon. Looking around the sand pains were completely deserted and he resigned himself to a long watch. Placing the bullet carefully back in his Ammo pouch he raises Bel' on the vox.
"No sign of Charlies, Mikes, Or Deltas out here Bel' Hows it going on your end?"

(Charlie Mike and Delta are military alphabet for C M and D I.E Cultists Marines and Daemons)

(OOC) The Chaos marines don't know that their comm channels are dead

Ludias ducked as a Chaos Storm-trooper swung his power sword at him madly, his skills with a blade where slow and sloppy but he still posed a threat as he charged the Sniper with sinister intent while two Chaos Marine moved from buildings to counter the Eldar Ranger. Both armed with Stalker pattern bolters and moving in quickly for the kill.

(sorry man I was banned)



They reached the compound, a combat squad, the others were going to pick them up in a thundehawk if they needed extraction.
Several traitor marines, Iron Warriors, were patrolling the low walls. Gathering himself and leaping up, along with Baphomet, Kol Vectna, Vulcarik, and Solas. The first Iron Warrior to see him was swiftly decapitated by Gra’drach’nen’. As the daemon sword slashed again, another head fell. One of the pirates, armed with a missile launcher, aimed it at the sky to serve as a warning flare, darting forward, Gra’zzt crushed the man’s skull under his storm shield.

The other pirates were all dead by the time he had finished. Entering the compound, the terminator simply crashed through the walls and into a large room. The surprised slanneshi cultists inside staring at him, in the middle of their ‘ritual’ involving a captured howling banshee.
Almost absentmindedly he yanked up the banshee and hosed the room with powerfist-mounted stormbolter rounds. Before slinging the almost unconscious bashee over his Backpack. And kicking the next wall to bits of cinder ands steel


as he entered the next room he saw it was full of deamons.

"Penitence. for Him who I hath shunned." snarled the massive black legionnaire, and raised the massive blade in his powerfist

(OOC) OK, what compound? I never mentioned one in fact I posted a message saying you where attacked by Cultists. You can't just eliminate Chaos marines that quickly they are trained at both defense and offensive tactics and could probably handle you. Anyway you aren't fighting them and you're fighting Cultists. If you can explain why you are their I'll let you do so but you will face resistance.

oops it appears I missed the "attacked by cultists" bit.

also, I am a (former) chaos marine terminator lord. I can eat iron warriors tactical marines for breakfast. the books have multiple instances of chaos terminators wiping out entire companies of loyalists

and by compound I meant that fort-thing