To Plunder The Stars Themselves, Episode III

[Necronaut]

+++ Placeholder +++

 

Initiative roll:

AG 6

Initiative: 1d10+6 15

[A.T.]

Odysseus strode rather than charged from the boarding craft, an oath of glory seemed wasted on such opposition if that is what it could be called. Let the others sate what bloodlust or boredom they would, let Kai meet his first true test of command.

 

A faint flicker of psychic energy played across the librarians armour as he stepped into the hold and surveyed the scene, the cold of the void touching upon the hold as if the atmosphere had fled. Another portent of woe upon the hapless defenders.

 

 

Init = 8 + 5 = 13

Odysseus causes fear(1) in the mortals.

[Lysimachus]

ROUND 1:

Kill-Team Cohesion: 7 (Kai's Fel Bonus 5, +1 Command, +1 FavSon)

Initiative Order:

[ ] Vesalius | (SOLO) | AG6+9 = 15 | WOUNDS 20/20 | FATE 4/4

[ ] Odysseus | (SOLO) | AG5+8 = 13 | WOUNDS 22/22 | FATE 4/4

[ ] Svelk | (SOLO) | AG4+9 = 13 | WOUNDS 23/23 | FATE 3/3

[ ] Rating Officer A | AG4+9 = 13 | WOUNDS 15/15

[ ] Brynjarr | (SOLO) | AG4+7 = 11 | WOUNDS 23/2 | FATE 4/4

[ ] Rating D | AG3+8 = 11 | WOUNDS 10/10

[ ] Kai | (SOLO) | AG4+6 = 10 | WOUNDS 23/23 | FATE 4/3+1

[ ] Rating F | AG3+7 = 10 | WOUNDS 10/10

[ ] Rating C | AG3+6 = 9 | WOUNDS 10/10

[ ] Rating Horde 1 | AG3+5 = 8 | MAGNITUDE 15/15

[ ] Decimus | (SOLO) | AG3+4 = 7 | WOUNDS 22/22 | FATE 3/3

[ ] Rating B | AG3+4 = 7 | WOUNDS 10/10

[ ] Rating G | AG3+3 = 6 | WOUNDS 10/10

[ ] Rating E | AG3+2 = 5 | WOUNDS 10/10

Ratings all have TB3 (Officer has TB4) and Flak armour (4)

Fear Tests for Defenders:

Rating Officer, Wp45 - 28 Pass!

Ratings are Wp 35

D - 84, Fail 4DoF. Shock Test: 74 + 40 = 114. Faints! Unconscious for (d5) 2 Rounds.

F - 45, Fail 1DoF. Shock Test: 02 + 10 = 12. Half Action in 1st turn, then recovers.

C - 15, Pass!

Horde Immune

B - 23, Pass!

G - 33, Pass!

E - 57, Fail, 2DoF. Shock Test: 94 + 20 = 114. Faints! Unconscious for (d5) 5 Rounds.

NB. To save on wasted time, if you wish to post your Actions/Rolls out of initiative order, please do. If the target of your attack has been removed by the time we get to your turn, we can simply allocate any hits to an alternative enemy.

[A.T.]

The ratings stood their ground, or perhaps were frozen with fear. No matter as they would serve well enough to make a point. Throughout the journey Odysseus had forgone the sparring by which his allies had measured themselves against one another and had felt their unspoken scorn, now they would see his restraint.

 

The faint flicker of energy around him turned to a bright glow that coalesced around his hand as he raised it towards the officer, arcs of energy flashing away from his body carving patterns into the deck as a bright flash and deafening crack echoed around the room - not truly lightning nor thunder but something unnatural and terrifying. As the instant passed the officer was gone, blown to ash and a dozen of the men around him burnt and broken on the ground.

 

Electricity continued to arc around the room without source or pattern scouring deep burns into the walls. Odysseus knew the folly of such barely contained power but his point had been made. He turned from the carnage and stepped forwards into the hold.

 

Smite on the officer, Pushed (while I have fate points for rerolls :p)

Focus test = 87 vs WP55+35 = barely a pass.

Automatic phenomena = 40 = nothing of note (food spoils nearby)

 

The officer takes 27 damage, pen 7  (23 wounds after toughness and armour)

The horde takes 6+7 magnitude damage = 13 magnitude

 

Odysseus manages to avoid summoning any daemon princes or warp rifts while showing off... this time :p

[Necronaut]

Upon exiting the ramp, Vesalius quickly moved to the corner of the closest container, raised his boltgun and fired upon one of the naval ratlings in his line of sight. To his left, a great gout of psychic lightning discharged from the fingertips of Odysseus, brutalizing a pack of ratling crew and vaporizing their officer. He had never fought alongside a librarian before and the display of raw psychic might was dazzling to say the least.

 

 

half-action move: 6 meters

semi-auto burst vs Naval Ratling F

TN: 40 (BS) + 10 (SAB) + 10 (short range) = 60

Semi-auto Burst: 1d100 5

Success! (5 DoS)

 

Damage: 1d10+9X, Pen 4

Bolter Damage: 2#1d10+9 14 17

17 (Tearing, Pen 4) - 3 (TB) = 14 damage

 

Bolter Damage: 2#1d10+9 16 18

18 (Tearing, Pen 4) - 3 (TB) = 15 damage

 

Bolter Damage: 2#1d10+9 17 16

17 (Tearing, Pen 4) - 3 (TB) = 14 damage

 

no kill like overkill

 

Edited May 24, 2021 by Necronaut

[Trokair]

As the ramp hit the deck and the Astrates spilled out of the boarding craft Brynjarr spotted two Ratings directly ahead of him, but before he could take any action they collapsed into a heap. Whether from some injury sustained from their entrance or some outer cause he did not know.  

 

To their right two further Rathings where in evidence, advancing towards them he snapped of a single shot at one of them, clipping the humans shoulder the bolter shell exploded on impact with the wall behind it and the shrapnel backwash appeared to finish the rating of.

 

From the brief glance to his left as he had descended the ramp Brynjarr knew that a great cluster of Ratings was there, and from the sound of it some of the others were already dealing with them.

 

 

Half action Move, 6m towards F and G

Half Action, Single shot at G with Naval Bolter

BS: 43 +10 (Bolter Mastery) + 10 (Range) = 63

D100: 62 Hit, 0 DoS (yikes, that was close)

Damage 1D10 (Tearing, rolls 8 and 1, take 8) + 9 + 2 (Bolter Mastery)  = 19 at Pen 4

Edited May 24, 2021 by Trokair

[Beren]

Svelk felt it. The void clawing at his bones. Its breath frosting across Odysseus' armour. He saw two ratings collapse side by side as if the will had beencchocked from his bodies.

Chill- blooded indeed. A second later the librarian's hand was lifted, and a storm was unleashed, flinging its confiscating body at the clustered ratings at the other end of the hold. Svelk saw the light, but not the effects it hand on its target.

He was already moving at a full sprint, straight towards an isolated rating. His axe-rake swung up, then down again with all the force of Svelk's inertia behind it.

 

Charge Action at Rating C:

WS: 55 (+10 charge bonus)

D100: 94 (3 DoF)

 

Edited May 24, 2021 by Beren

[Lysimachus]

Round 1 Summary

 

Ratings D and E Faint.

 

Vesalius moves forward and shoots Rating F

Rating F attempts to Dodge Ag30 - 68 Fail

Rating F is killed.

 

Odysseus kills Officer and does 13 Mag Dam to Horde. Horde reduced to Mag 2, auto Breaks and flees towards left bulkhead door.

 

Svelk charges Rating C

(Waiting for rolls)

 

Brynjarr shoots Rating G

Rating G attempts to Dodge Ag30 - 92 Fail!

Rating G is killed.

 

Rating D - Unconscious for 2 Rounds

 

Kai moves forward and shoots Rating B

Single shot:

BS55 +10 Bolter Mastery +10 Laser Sight +10 Short Range = 85 - 46 Hit

Rating B attempts to Dodge Ag30 - 24 Pass!

 

 

***

 

Even as the witch obliterated most of their opposition, Kai strode forward from the mouth of the Shark, calmly raising his bolter and firing. The Rating, stumbling wildly around in horror after seeing a dozen of his fellows turned to ash in a fraction of a second, somehow staggered out of the path of the bolt! With a sigh of irritation, Kai opened his vox to Decimus.

 

+Devastator, if you will, please.+

 

***

 

[ ]Rating C | AG3+6 = 9 | WOUNDS 10/10 (Trooper Schrodinger, waiting for Svelk's rolls)

 

Rating Horde 1 | AG3+5 = 8 | MAGNITUDE 2/15 - Fleeing

 

[ ]Decimus | (SOLO) | AG3+4 = 7 | WOUNDS 22/22 | FATE 3/3

 

[ ]Rating B | AG3+4 = 7 | WOUNDS 10/10

 

Rating E - Unconscious for 5 Rounds

[Black Cohort]

"As you will, squad leader"

 

The devastator moves forward and fires a single shot from his bolt pistol at the offending rating, the chainsword in his other hand idling.  For now, his heavy bolter was stowed no need to waste valuable rounds on these dregs.

 

BS 48, normal range, no other bonuses.  Roll 44

Damage roll 5 and 6 (tearing) keep 6+11 =17 damage 4 Pen

 

The round strikes the rating in the chest.

Edited May 24, 2021 by Black Cohort

[Lysimachus]

+++STRUCTURED TIME ENDS+++

 

 

+++NARRATIVE TIME BEGINS+++

[Black Cohort]

With the majority of the ratings quickly killed, demonstrating the raw power of astartes unleashed, Decimus hunted down the two ratings that had attempted to run, finding them cowering behind some containers.  He debated using the bolt pistol, but decided that these cowards weren't worth wasting the pair of rounds on.  His chainsword revved up and a pair of screams .

 

"It is done, I have put down grox with more fight in their eyes."

[Beren]

Svelk hates it when they do that.

 

The bloody idiot had fallen over, and as happenstance would have it, underneath the arc of his blow. Instead of crunching into the rating's skull, the rake-axe's head thundered into the side of one of the storage containers with a resounding clang. For a moment Svelk glares down at the stricken rating, then he reverses his blow so that the hook-billed pick head of the axe-rake plummets down into their chest.

 

There is no more resistance. A glance down the far side of the room sees heaps of bodies mangled by unnatural burns and contortions, whilst Decimus puts his chainsword to use. Good, though their armoured gauntlets and boots would finish of a mortal just as well as a chainsword. A handful of other ratings have been put down by precise bolter fire from the rest of the team, though the couple that collapsed may still be alive.

 

Svelk's gaze switches to Odysseus. It had been... quite the display. The librarians strength, their connection to the deepest parts if the void where unseen things wreathed beyond even starlight.... The assault marine shifts uncomfortably. Ever has he heard the call of the void, but to feel somebody drag it closer in such a manner....

[Necronaut]

Vesalius stowed his bolter and drew his wicked combat knife, advancing upon the unconscious forms of one of the railings who had fainted from fright at the sight of Odysseus. He towered over the little demi-human contemplating the fragility of mortals. He then grabbed the rattling crewman by the front of his jacket, hoisted him up to eye level and shook him awake.

 

+Wake up, mortal! What is the shortest route to the bridge of your ship? Have you any other forces or defensive measures? Speak quickly and you might keep most of your skin!+

 

For emphasis, Vesalius traced a line down the ratling's cheek with his knife, just hard enough for a small trail of blood to well up to the surface. He could smell the shipman's fear, and could hear the thundering of his little heart in response to being so close to an apex predator. Vesalius smiled cruelly under his helm, his black eyes drinking in the tableau of suffering from behind his red lenses, his helm picter capturing it all for later analysis.

 

 

Interrogation

TN: 47 (interrogation +0)

Interrogate: 1d100 15

Success! (3 DoS)

 

Edited May 25, 2021 by Necronaut

[Lysimachus]

The stink of fyceline from expended bolt rounds is everywhere, almost matching the other pervading smell, that of bodies incinerated into ash. Several of you look at the psyker with poorly concealed mistrust. All that can be heard are the gasping breaths of the mortal held in Vesalius' fist, eagerness to tell you everything he knows fighting to overcome his sheer terror. Suddenly he starts to babble.

 

"After, aft! Out through that portal," he waves desperately towards the closed bulkhead door at the other end of the hold, "down the main accessway to the lifts, up six levels to the Command Deck! No, no! Throne, after what you just did here, nothing can stop you getting to the bridge!" He starts to squirm, unable to stop himself from trying to flee. "God Emperor save me, what are you?!"

[Trokair]

With the boarding site secured Brynjarr took a moment to observe the Astartes he would be working alongside. They had made short and efficient work of the defenders, so that spoke of an acceptable level of competence.

 

Judging by the damage, and the tinge of ozone, one was a psyker, and while Brynjarr had not seen who it was the stares of some of the others did not leave much to guesswork, someone to keep an eye on.

 

Time for introductions, opening the squad channel again he picked up the conversation trail from before.

 

+++Oh I think Tyrant Varn knows what he is doing sergent Kai, even if he won’t bother to actually let us in on the plan. I am Brynjarr.+++

Edited May 25, 2021 by Trokair

[Lysimachus]

Kai turns his attention to Brynjarr. His helm, with its blood red stripe running all the way down the grey beak, dips in a brief nod. He is still cold and clipped in his manner, but having been in combat, even as brief as this action, seems to have... relaxed him somewhat?

 

"Kai will do. Rank has little meaning here. And you may be correct." He looks around all the team. "Good. Expected, given the number of voidwar specialists, but good nonetheless. Odysseus, that was… impressive. Remind me to listen more carefully next time you tell me about your abilities."

 

He turns to look back at the boat's ramp.

 

"Holger! You can come out now!"

 

Behind your line, from the open maw of the Shark, another figure edges cautiously out, gawping at the carnage an Astartes Kill-Team can cause in a matter of seconds. Holger is a pale, wiry man with a squint and perpetual stoop, presumably the result of a lifetime spent hunched in voidcraft maintenance shafts. He wears dirty, dark overalls and carries a multitude of devices about his person; tools, data-slates, and other, more esoteric items. A careful observer would note that some of these systems appear to have been crudely fused directly into the mortal's nervous system.

 

According to Achard, he is a data-scalper. For pirates and thieves, information can be just as valuable as physical items - sometimes vastly more so. Therefore, men like Holger commonly operate alongside raiding parties, hacking into data terminals to uncover the secrets held within. The Captain had noted the lack of a tech-adept among your unit and suggested that Holger might prove of use to you. Whether he will be remains to be seen.

 

The little man edges forward twitchily, trying to ignore the death all around you, and speaks in a diffident, fearful whine.

 

"Y'orders, Lordships?"

 

***

[Black Cohort]

"For now focus on staying alive, technician.  We probably just kicked a spire hornet nest, who knows what the command response will be.  Regardless it probably won't be friendly."

 

He turns to the rest of the astartes, "shall we getting moving before the crew has time to set further defenses?"

[Beren]

Svelk nods.

 

+++I'd agree. Fast and hard is better than hard on its own.+++

 

Svelk turns towards Kai.

 

+++We've got two types of key to get through that bulkhead. Mine are faster, but they don't work twice and I'd rather save them for the station, if resistance is to be as stiff as Ghoran said.+++

 

Then he turns towards Brynjarr, gently taping the pick-head of his axe-rake against his own helm.

 

+++Svelk, by the way.+++

[A.T.]

The others now suitably aware of his power Odysseus replies to Kai, "there are ways to move though vessels such as this quickly and yet with caution. I can pull upon the strings of time and space to undo brief moments, if those of this endevour do not fight it."

 

 

Odysseus will offer to enter squad mode with Kai to activate and sustain his squad ability (basic cost 2), which allows any marine in range to spend a reaction at the end of their action to undo any movement they might have made - for example running out into a corridor and firing off a shot, and then reappearing instantly back where they started before any other players or NPCs act.

[Lysimachus]

Kai nods at Decimus' and Svelk's words.

 

"Aye." He looks at the closed aft portal and the control panel beside it. Striding over, Kai presses several buttons, with no effect. "Locked down. First, Holger, see if you can open that door, and quickly. We need to move. If not, Vesalius, we may need those shears."

 

Holger nods eagerly and hurries over. As the tech goes to work, Odysseus speaks. Kai pauses for a moment. Then he replies over a private channel.

 

++I am learning to respect your powers, Librarian. But... I will confess I do not like the idea of them being used on me. More than this, I suspect there may be a greater need later. I will hold your suggestion under advisement.++

[Necronaut]

+I have directions to the bridge, plus assurances of no further defenses, assuming this mortal can be believed,+ Vesalius voxed to the others. +Perhaps we can put our hostage to use opening bulkheads? Failing that we have these trusty bulkhead shears.+

 

He held the terrified crewman in front of his helm again and asked, +You will open these bulkheads for us, yes? And when we reach a vox terminal, do be so good as to tell your captain to stand down if he wants to avoid further bloodshed.+

 

 

Intimidate test

TN: 57 (strength, intimidate +0)

Intimidate: 1d100 3

Success! (5 DoS)

 

Edited May 25, 2021 by Necronaut

[Lysimachus]

The man's face screws up in fear, not wanting to refuse you anything but unable to comply. "But… but… I'm just a Rating! The ship is in lockdown, only officers have the ciphers for access or comms! ...I can't do any of that!"

 

It seems the mortal may no longer be useful.

[Lysimachus]

The Kill-Team gathers at the aft end of the hold. Holger works on the door for several minutes, plugging in an electro-graft that runs from his palm along his forearm and then disappears under his overalls, all the while muttering to himself under his breath.

 

"System lock-out… cunning, cunning… try this on… Emperor be damned… hah!" Suddenly, he slams his free hand against the panel frame with seeming delight, then looks around at you all with a smile. "Can't break the security protocols down all the way, but I can put in a temporary emergency override? That should raise it for 'bout half a minute, enough time to get through 'fore the system brings it down again? Gimme... another... few seconds…"

 

As the tech-adept speaks, a set of bright orange hazard lumens start to flash and the sound of heavy gears turning begins… at the cargo door at the forward end of the hold. The wrong end of the hold. Slowly, with a faint  hiss of pressure equalisation, the heavy gate starts to rise inch by inch. A few of you look irritably at Holger, ready to punish his ineptitude, but he lets out a confused, worried breath.

 

"That wasn't me…"

 

***

[Necronaut]

+Then you have served your purpose, ratling. Now for something to commemorate our meeting.+ As casually as one might peel the rind from a piece of fruit, Vesalius in a quick motion whipped his knife up to the mortal's head and sliced off one of his ears, quickly snatching it away and securing it in a pouch at his belt. The poor crewman howled in agony and Vesalius discarded him without a further thought.

 

+On my way with the bulkhead shears.+

Edited May 26, 2021 by Necronaut

[Beren]

Svelk's head darts towards the other bulkhead as it begins to rise. With Holder's remark, he moves to place the northern storage containers between himself and the opening door, ready to use them to cover a flanking manoeuvre if necessary.