Warhammer 40K RPG - Game Turns

Sarky

You press on through the underbelly of the ship. Once or twice the roof opens into a floor grating, and you have to hold still as T'au pass overhead, accompanied by whining, bleeping, floating drones. They're surprisingly humanoid creatures- after some of the aliens you've fought against, it's something of a relief. Their feet, however, are odd, tri-toed things, betraying the enemy underneath the armour. They're all over the ship, it seems, but numbers are relatively few. The diversion by the other hundred troops must have drawn out most of them. Good thing, too. From the stories you've heard, their basic firearm packs a punch of a heavy weapon three times bigger.

The winding tunnel is a good three or four hundred feet long- There must be a LOT of ship buried beneath the ground it hit. You get to a wide corner, around which should lie the junction leading to engineering and the power generators, and stop- There's noise around the corner, very similar to the noise the drones you saw earlier made. anyone risking a quick glance around the corner will see that there are 3 drones by the junction. one is apparently jacked into an interface much like the one you got your map details from earlier. The other two are flanking it, and where the first has sensors and interface plugs, these have short, business-like looking gunbarrels. The junction itself is a decent sized room, with control panels all over the walls. At a guess, you'd say the ship required people down her quite often.

The drones are facing away from the group, hovering at the junction about 20 feet away.

[Sarky] GASP! ACTION! Who'd have thought?
[/Sarky]

Raphael

Raphael slowly lowered himself to one knee and slid a grenade from it's bandolier. He rotated it so his thumb was under a slight lump in the grenade, then clicked it in 5 times. He lowered it to the floor then pushed a 2nd button and flicked it forward with his wrist, sending the grenade rolling slowly towards the drones

Lemming

Arkerius silently curses Raphael's eager fondness for playing with munitions. Had he had time he could have sent a couple of bursts forward with his flame-thrower, and perhaps confused the drones sensory input with the possibility that perhaps a power conduit had just ruptured. It would have given them a couple more seconds to try take them out.

"oh well, best get ready in case the grenade doesn't work .... "

He unslings the flame-thrower and turns it on, ready to lean around the corner and cook the corridor. He can feel the sweat running down his back already.

thegogz

Seeing what Raphael has doen Dominicus checks his weapon and prepares himself in case they attack. Looking down that so familliar barrell. Looking over at Arkerius with his flamer prepared as well, he thinks silently to himself looks like this could be fun.

Looking at the grenade rolling towards the drones he says silently to himself.

"I hate sneak attacks, There's no fun, you don't even get to see their faces as they die. Not that you do much anymore all these chicken-s**ts wear their helmets like good little grunts."

qwertz

"Why do the young ones have so little patience?" Vollbart asked himself. "I hope this goes well, otherwise I will use you as a buffer between us and the drones," Vollbart carefully whispered towards Raphael without really caring whether or not he heard the threat.
Vollbart subconsciously tightened his grip around his rifle because action might be close.

Zounds

Raiden fires up his chainsword and braces himself for action, poisitioning himself behind the others. "Needn't get to cocky, plenty of meatsheild..." He thought, getting used to the weapon he was holding.

Sarky

The frag grenade rolls silently across the floor towards the distracted drones. 2 or 3 long seconds pass. The activation of Argeus' (or whoever he is right now) chainsword give out a loud whining buzz, and the two gundrones spin round immediately, trying to determine the origin. Before they do, the grenade goes off with a crack, peppering the surroundings with shrapnel. Though the shrapnel doesn't do an awful lot of damage to the armoured drones (it pulverises the one hooked up to the terminal, and it's left hanging by the connection leads), the shockwave of the explosion overwhelms their anti-grav mini-engines and sends the little skimmers smashing into the walls, and they drop to the ground. They aren't out for the count yet, though, and you plainly see them trying to get airborne almost as soon as they hit the ground. Simultaneously you can hear the chick-chick of their twin-linked pulse carbines arming...

[Sarky] You effectively have a free turn or two to shoot or slice up the drones of your choice. Which is good, because you do NOT want to get shot if you can help it, believe me! Remember what I said in the chatroom thread about combat. Combat order is "whoever posts first goes first". Have at ye![/Sarky]

Raphael

Raphael cursed under his breath. "Dammit, that wasn't fething good enough." Without getting up, he drew his laspistol and aimed at the nearest droid, emptying the clip into the prone machine

Lemming

Arkerius whinces at the concussion blast of the grenade then peers around the corner quickly. The sound of the drones weapons activating draws his attention and he quickly leans around the corner with his flamer and sends a prolonged blast towards the two drones before ducking back around the corner, sweating profously and breathing hard as the adrenaline kicks in

qwertz

"No point in getting between the boys and their drones." Vollbart quickly took a prone position at the side of the service tunnel, right next to the left wall, the sniper rifle scope acting like a natural extension of his eye. "Boys, move aside and give me a clear line of sight, just in case you didn't manage to finish all of the toy-drones." He deactivated the safety on his rifle while he spoke.

thegogz

Seeing all this comotion Dominicus realises that there might be a chance at some action he steps out from the tunnel and Lays a spread of fire accross the area with the drones. "Take that and be aware I will dismember you and all your friends" he says knowing they wont hear him over the Heavy Bolter fire but smiling to himself at the same time.

Sarky

+++Combat results+++

Raphael took aim at Drone A and fired on automatic. All four shots hit solidly, burning a hole straight through the drone. Its flight path begins wobbling even more, but it's not out yet.

Arkerius then stepped out and bathed both the drones in flame. Possibly due to Raphael's shot earlier, Drone A manages to dip and dodge the worst of the blast, but Drone B takes the full of it, and its electronics get totally fried. It drops like a stone.

The gundrones now get to act. The surviving drone attempts to fire at Arkerius, as he's the biggest target right now. The twin pulse carbines let rip, and a hell of a lot of shots spit out of the guns, but Raph's shot must have damaged the drones stability circuits or something, because the aim is way off, and the recoil of the weapons sends the drone flying backwards into the wall. Nevertheless, the sheer amount of fire results in a single shot hitting Arkerius for 4 points in the leg. It blasts a fist-sized chunk of flesh from his thigh, but cauterises the wound so there's no bloodloss. A few stimms should negate the effects, but for now the pain is excruciating, and the injury topples you.

Finally, Dominicus brings his heavy bolter to bear on the last drone. Large armour-piercing shells spit out towards it, and most of them strike home, amazingly enough. They blast the machine apart from the inside, reducing it to completely unrecogniseable shards of fizzing circuitry and cracked lenses.

Raiden steps out, chainsword raised, and looks slightly disappointed when he sees nothing left to fight. He rallies well, though, and declares with a smile "That was easy, eh?"

Arkerius can walk, but he's in quite a bit of pain. A little first aid might help. Of course, if nobody WANTS to help him...

+++End of combat+++

Taking a moment to take in the results of your handiwork, your attention is drawn to a crackling noise from the non-combat drone that Raph's grenade took out. It takes a while to realise that the sound is some kind of radio static. It's very choppy, but you can make out a voice repeating the same sounds several times before it stops completely. It's completely alien to you all (Except Arkerius, who downloaded enough xenos data to know it's the T'au language and sounds inquisitive. You can try jacking in to the databanks of the ship to find a translator, if you so wish...)

No alarms have gone off so far, it looks like your exchange with the drones went unnoticed. Before you stands the junction, one way heading to Engineering, the other heading to the power generators. What to do?

Raphael

Raphael walked towards the junction, kicking one of the drones which let out a quiet whine. "That didn't go so badly, did it" he said, grinning back at the others. "I guess we should split here. Argeus, or whoever the hell you are, follow me to the generators. You three should go and secure engineering." Without waiting for a response, Raphael turned and began to move quickly down the tunnel towards the generators

Lemming

Arkerius falls backwards clutching his leg wound in one hand whislt the other has the presence of mind not to drop the flamer whilst ignited. What follows is a very impressive display of swearing as he grits his teeth through the pain. After a minute or two of this rather painful display he slowly gets to his feet, clawing at the corridor wall to help himself up, favouring his uninjured leg heavily and staying close to the wall to limp along using one arm to prop himself up.

He extinguishes his flamer, slinging it onto his back slowly and swapping it with his las-rifle which ie clutches in one hand, pistol-style in a most miserable manner whilst continually bitching about his wound

Every so often it would appear he's having a conversation with nobody in particular

Zounds

Raiden began to follow Raphael but his face suddenly was blank and his body froze.
"see ya around boyos"
He voice was a little strained, then his face filled with rage and determination
"BY THE GLORY OF THE EMPORER I SHALL BE FREE OF THESE BLASPHEMOUS APPARITIONS!!" Argeus' voice rang out in the corridor.
"That blasted under-hivling!" he spat the words before looking up as though trying to get his bearings...

thegogz

Dominicus turns to Arkerius and says "Hey man that looks pretty nasty I have some medical knowlege when we get to engineering I could have a look at that for you, I ya need a had you can lean on me I can easily take your weight."

Then looking down the corridor after Raph Dominicus says low enough just for the people in the immediate area to hear "If he tells me what to do one more time this Bolter won't only be aimed at the enemies, he might get to see first hand what its like to be on the end of a barrage of heavy fire, either that or I'll punch his face in untill he goes limp like that last guy. I don't see why I was put into the chancers for that, b*stards"

Lemming

Arkerius thanks Dominicus for the offer of a hand & a look at his wound. He leans against Dominicus and limps along coughing and hacking intermittently and grinning through the pain at Dominicus' musing about what he'd like to do to Raphael. Not to mention grateful for the slight easing of pain by being able to have Dominicus support some of his weight.

As his mind begins to clear from the pain, he also gives thanks to the emporer that he's not alone in heaing to engineering. Cyrel never likes being around other people and only ever tries to goad him when alone.

Where the hell did Cyrel just disappear to? How in the name of Terra does he manage to just disappear like a ghost? Now if only that little sh*t would stay a ghost .....

His mind then drifts towards that unarmed drone and the Tau radio sounds that were emitting from it, and then collects enough presence of mind in between whincing with pain to attempt to jack into the drone using his tech adept interface ...


[note: post edited at sarky's request via pm]

qwertz

"That's what you get when you stand in the way, dummy." Vollbart thought about Arkerius' little dance in front of the drones. "Pull yourself together and keep quiet. We don't need any more of these drones snooping around us just because you can't take a little shot in the leg, boyo!" Vollbart whispered to Arkerius who was complaining out loud about the "little scratch" on his leg.

Vollbart quickly crawled over to the drone which was still hanging from the wall to see if he could access the interface there. After a moment he turned around and said "Arkerius, are you sure you can't understand any of this gibberish?"

Sarky

Raph and Zounds

I'm assuming you jotted down a quick map yourselves and know where to go.

You'll travel another two or three hundred yards through various ducts and tunnels fairly uneventfully. There's nobody else down there, and only occasionally do you pass a floor grating above where someone passes. It's fairly quiet, and it seems nobody's looking for you. Feel free to take the time to chat, remember you can keep in contact with everyone else with the comm-links in your helmets.

Qwertz

Arkerius', in response to Vollbart's request, raises his left wrist (Which, you may have noticed, is mechanic and rather nasty looking) a couple of inches from the sniper's face. To your alarm (although you manage to hide it), it suddenly sprouts a foot-long metal spike, which he then plugs into the interface the drone was using to scan the ship. His eyes close, you can see them moving rapidly beneath the eyelids, and his body suddenly goes tense. You can hear snatches of hymn to the Omnissiah under his breath as he communicates with the very machine spirit of the drone. A smile spreads across his face. "Interface successful. Praise the Machine God. Scanning... Standby..."

Lemming

You're a little rusty, and the machine spirit of the alien drone is a bland, miserable thing, far from the embellished grandeur of the cogitators of the Adeptus Mechanicus. But you've done enough hacking in your time to get used to alien technology. As soon as contact is established, a blur of images fill your mind. Streams of binary numbers fly past, security clearance protocols which surround you and attempt to cage you until you appease them with your skill at security hacking. They disappear leaving you in the virtual world full of the drone's AI. Files and images drift through the unreal space, opening at your touch when you can fake the athourisation, not even attending you if you can't. It would surely drive insane anyone not trained in the blessed skills.

[PM sent detailing what you find, because you can't tell tyhe others until you jack out of the system.]

Thegogz

Bit of a quiet one for you, I'm afraid. Apart from filing away Raphael's face for leisurely vengeance at a later date, and thinking how best to deal with Arkerius' legwound, there's not much to do but wait until the drone hacking is done with...

Lemming

Arkerius feels almost at peace conversing with the Tau drone's machine spirit. Almost, except for the glaringly obvious xenos content which nags at his consciousness - an instinctive heretical sensation bred through years of indoctrination in the ways of the Mighty Machine God - praise His name - and his former Imperial Guard unit. With an effort of will he attempts to disconnect from the Drone and is met with the split second disorientation of reality and machine spirit colliding.

Arkerius groans quietly, regaining his senses. He thinks to himself: Ughhhhhh, it's been a while since I've done that ... and then begins to collect his thoughts as he finds the rest of the team eyeballing him. Vollbart in particular.

Guess that little show with the tech-interface didn't go down too well. hehe. Screw 'im.. Arkerius grins and swears that he can hear that maniac little weasel Cyrel cackling from somewhere down the corridor! Christ he'd better shut up!! He'll have half the Xenos filth down on top of us!. His mind then rushes back to the present and allows his face to drop as he presents the rest of this motley crew with the "good news"

qwertz

"Freaky," Vollbart thought about Arkerius' arm implant. After listening to and processing the information Arkerius had managed to receive from the ship's computer Vollbart activated his comm-link to the team making its way to the generators. "Guys, place some mines along the tunnel, we might have visitors. We will do the same, just in case you decide to turn around and come running to us for cover." He deactivated his comm-link and faced Arkerius. "Arkerius, can you move well enough without being a liability?" "If not then he can choose between putting a bullet in his head himself or letting me do it." Assuming that Arkerius' leg was fine he turned around to face Dominicus. "I will scout a few paces ahead. Can you make sure nobody follows us and place some mines along the tunnel? Wait, just blow up this junction. That way we only have to defend on one side. Once we reach engineering Arkerius can take over and use his tech skills".

Vollbart checked his rifle and swiftly made his way down the narrow tunnel without waiting for a response from his two comrades.

thegogz

watching with amazment at the wonders in front of him Domincus takes the opertunity to clean his bolter and make sure all his gear is in perfect working order

Raphael

As Raphael walked down the passage, he felt his eyelids begin to droop. "Padre, move ahead and I'll catch up with you." Without waiting for a response, The demo man slipped past Argeus and pulled a charge out of it's pouch. He set it in the middle of the path, then set up 2 thin tripwires criss crossing the path. That should catch anyone trying to sneak up on them. Now for the mine. Raphael shifted a few bits of sheet metal and arranged them to block the explosive. The trap set, Raphael slipped a stim from his pocket and downed it, then turned and followed Argeus, humming to himself

Zounds

Argeus made a gesture of vague disdain as Raphael passed him, then he paused for a moment before sitting crossed-leged in the coridor and spreading out his tarot cards,
"Oh, Glorious Emperor, what lies ahead?"

Sarky

Argeus and Raphael:

Raphael deftly sets up his traps, and when he turns from his work even he has trouble picking them out. Raph finds Argeus waiting a little further on, sitting in front of an arrangement of cards. On closer inspection it's the Emperor's Tarot. If he depends on what most consider such a shaky form of divination there's really no telling just how nuts he is...

You both head on towards the generators, and it seems rather quiet. You finally get to the end of the tunnel (now narrowed to allow only single file), and peer out the grating covering it. The generator rooms seem emp- Wait, there's a couple of aliens on the floors way below you. The generators themselves are massive things the size of a building, towering up through five or six decks of the ship. From your hiding place you can see nearly a dozen of them. Some crackle with power while some are silent. If you can keep quiet, you should be able to move about without being spotted. The Aliens are Tau, but unarmoured and they look very squat and well-built. From your old army dogma you recall that the Tau have a sort of caste society and each caste is optimised to do a certain job. These squat ones must be the Earth caste, the builders and techno-sages of their race.


Dominicus, Vollbart, and Arkius:

The three of you head down the tunnel to engineering, jury-rigging a couple of traps by severing a couple of live power cables and placing grenades by valves in the pipes of engine supercoolants. Anyone coming after you will either be electrocuted or frozen solid, and indeed they are, because after no more than fifty yards you hear the zap of superhigh voltage followed by the hiss of breached coolant pipes. Your pursuers don't even get time to scream. More importantly, they were killed by the set of traps that were made from the ship, there's a good chance they'll just think the team got killed in a freak accident.

Vollbart takes point several yards ahead. He's one quiet, sneaky soldier, you can barely hear him. Just before a corner beyond which should open up to engineering, Vollbart gives the signal to halt. He's spotted movement in engineering. Not Tau soldiers, but a team of human technicians! You begin to relax a little, thinking maybe they're hiding from the Tau, but Arkius is the first to spot a Tau insignia on the shoulder of one, replacing his Imperial double eagle motif. Traitors, human auxiliaries in the Tau army. They aren't outfitted for combat, but they have a weapon or two by their sides. They must be here to help the Tau decipher Imperial technology.

There are five humans in the large room. You can see much more of engineering through a window on the wall, currently these five are the only people you can see. The entrance is closed, so a shot from, say, a lasrifle or bolter would be at worst muffled and at best completely contained. Of course, one could always try reasoning with them. They are human, after all. Yes, they're traitors, but then, so are you...

[Sarky] Aaaaaaand we're back! Both teams have an interesting time ahead of them, I wonder how you'll go about this... ) [/Sarky]

Zounds

"Abominations before the Emperor!"
Argeus rasped, swinging his flamer from his back and into his hands,
"They will feel His cleansing wrath!" his voice raised now. Argeus kicked down the grate and began to charge into the generator room, his flame-thrower pointed down through the grilled floor.

Raphael

"FETH!" Raphael dived at Argeus and grabbed his ankles. "Hold it you fanatic maniac! There's no need to stick our necks out!"

thegogz

Dominicus Takes careful aim at three of the Scum ahead of him in the room. Pausing for a second to get the most accurate shot he can with his bolter he lets off a spray of bullets in their direction.

"Die Scum Die" he giggles to himself

Lemming

Arkerius curses as Dominicus decides to be a little too eager on the trigger-finger. He moves into a firing position and draws a bead on of the more isolated traitors and starts spraying his target - aiming for the gut

qwertz

"Pretty crammed but let's get this over with. No point in getting into a fight with the boys." Without any noise Vollbart took position very close to the metal bars. He quickly decided that a shot in the shoulder of his target should sufficiently stun the engineer without a chance of a counterattack. This would also allow for questioning regarding enemy presence and the overall situation of the ship. "Let's hope this guy can give us something useful before we dispose of him," Vollbart thought with a smirk on his lips.