Somewhat surprisingly, I was kept on with the two newest of our band, the pilot and the coward, and in the intervening weeks and months, we trained extensively. The Inquisitor wished that I brush up on the Tactica, and was seemingly grooming me for the officer corp. My foremost duty, I feel, is as a guardsman on the ground, and so I took every spare moment I had practicing martial skills. I had very little contact with my companions during the trip, except when the matter was forced, and I was shocked to find that our numbers had grown. I suppose these were also agents of our Inquisitor, but also could have been on loan from Inquisitor Marr, who we were to learn was a driving force behind our next mission.
And so we were briefed, all seven of us - me, the pilot, the pacifist assassin, a member of the Adeptus Arbites, a member of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and two others I couldn't quite pin down as to their previous careers or specialties. Inquisitor Marr had given our own Inquisitor a head's up on the last known location of Erasmus Haarlock, whose vile legacy I had been chasing since my first missions with the Holy Ordos.
We were to be dispatched to the planet Mara, a forbidden ice world, and the last known whereabouts of Haarlock. The planet is also known to be the location of something called the Blind Tesseract. The planet used to be a penal mining colony, but was abandoned and the planet and lanes into it sealed. We were granted a full writ, allowing us to act as if an Inquisitor was with us, and given two squads of Maccabian Janissaries, as well as two more Acolytes of some mental prowess. I'm not sure I like this last bit. Memories of Xantippa still vex me, even months later, Emperor rest her soul. The Janissaries, however, are a welcome addition to the force, and these dour troops are known for their effective execution of His will wherever they are deployed.
We are made to prepare before we translate to real space, but are shocked to find we have materialized in the middle of a battle between Imperial forces and seditionists! Our ship is rocked hard as we swoop through crossfire and the noble captain takes it upon himself to sacrifice his ship that we might make planetfall and complete our work. Then, the Spear of Destiny is spotted - the ship of Erasmus Haarlock, himself! Things were dire, indeed, and we made quick to the hangar bay, boarding our guncutter and flinging ourselves like a comet to the suface of Mara.
Our guncutter makes it into atmosphere, but is suddenly rocked with a violent explosion and we crash land, making a quick exit from the ship with only minor injuries and, I believe, no losses...though I honestly didn't take the time to count noses, so I will likely never know.
We made fast for the mining complex, but were engaged by a small group, which we took out fairly rapidly, our new additions to the band showing great skill in combat and conducting themselves valiantly in the charge. These marks held no badges or other indicators of allegiance, so I can only assume they were of those who would secede from the Empire, and thus deserved their deaths for turning from their God.
Entry to the complex was fairly easy, thanks to the odd rites of the tech-priest, but no sooner than we had made it into the compound were we attacked by some warp-spawned beast. One of the new members that I hadn't a good grasp of, nor know the name of presently, was quick with the Angelus that I had taken from those agents I faced with Fihad on Sinophia, and blew the damned thing back to whatever warphell it was from. This left us, then, wondering where we should go in the sprawling complex.
Cast of Characters
??, ?? (??) ?? (??) - Angela
??, ?? (Hive World) ?? (??) - Paul
??, ?? (??) Magistrate (Arbiter 7) - Taylor
Mohrdecai, Cadian (Fortress World) Lieutenant (Guardsman 6) - Me
??, ?? (Forge World) Mech-Deacon (Tech-Priest 7) - George
??, ?? (Feral World) Nihilator (Assassin 7) - Sam
Nope, I didn't take note of what everyone made, where they were from, or their character names. There was a lot of character creation the session before this and I was busy increasing the rank of my own character and helping out where I could. I do recall Paul's quirk was a gunshot wound, so that makes his character a Hive Worlder, but I have no idea, otherwise. George's character was the exception, because I thought a missle launcher expert tech-priest was funny.
I also probably got a lot of this session mixed up. I had a pretty wicked headache that night and just wasn't as focused as I would like.
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