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The Mahlau Affair - Cypher

Started by mcjomar, March 13, 2017, 02:06:39 PM

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mcjomar

Game 1 - Objective to secure a landing area for Imperial allied forces.
Solution:- kill any forces holding the objective or in an area surrounding the objective.
Cypher Personal Secondary Objective - Acquire intel from specific target hostile
*** Target selected:- Infantry squad leader - require military HumInt. Acquire by any means necessary.

Cypher advanced into the target area, grimacing as particulate matter attempted to scour the skin from his face.
He pulled his hood a little lower, and sprinted into the lee of a nearby lookout tower.
It was unmanned, so the sound of him hitting the side was otherwise lost within the scream of the winds buffeting the area.

Behind and to his right, Banus and Paulianus advanced, moving past his position towards the target location.
Lykus, Inquisitor Cortez, and Sister Rhian were further off to his right, advancing up an alternative route.
Cypher was sure this storm was likely warp summoned, to keep them all off balance.
Given his objectives, it was more than a little irritating, but he felt he could turn it to his advantage, in some small way.
Lykus, however, decided that the element of surprise was unnecessary, and opened fire, attracting the attention of the unit guarding their target.

Clearly they were veteran heretics, as they opened fire in short order, and even over the scream of the storm Cypher could hear the tell-tale sound of a melta weapon being fired. This was confirmed in short order by Lykus cursing over their hastily organised vox-net.


Deciding that trying to sneak around to flank the target was no longer an option, he made short work of climbing the tower, punching hand-holds into the sides.


Off to his right, Banus and Paulianus advanced further towards the now attacking hostiles, making comments about their apparently improved las-weapons. Likely some manner of heretical sorcery applied to the machine spirit, as used by countless other cult cells he had encountered over the centuries.

Unlike conventional Imperial Las or Auto weaponry, these warp-charged guns could be more of a threat, even to one armoured such as he.


Making the top, Cypher took in the situation as best he could, peering through the winds.
Confident he could make the jump, Cypher ran and leaped across the gap, his sheer weight nearly crushing one of the hostile guardsmen as he scrambled to get out of the way at the last second.
Recognising the target he knew he needed to kill, Cypher got to work, using his pistols to fire around him.

Dodging one attack, he temporarily holstered his guns so as to grapple one man and throw him into another, clearing his immediate area. The target of his attentions, however, elected to avoid his grasp, and instead stumbled over the side of the building, plummeting to a neck-breaking death.

Below, he heard Lykus continue his weight of fire against some of the other soldiers on this roof, as Banus charged around the building into what sounded like a fresh wave of hostiles. He felt the building shake as Paulianus found an 'alternative' entry point, swiftly followed by screams of pain as the marine found fresh targets for his wrath.

The minor distraction left him open for a minor blow to the head from a particularly enthusiastic heretic, who he promptly slew, alongside his target. Cypher reached down to the corpse, and rifled through the soldiers effects, procuring a dataslate. He knew he would be able to acquire some much needed information on the situation, when he had time.

Once again, he heard Lykus raging across the vox-net as he charged a nest of cultists that had thought it wise to assault Inquisitor Cortez - instead they found themselves set alight by one of their own, and crushed by Lykus' chainsword in combat. Rhian was apparently providing covering fire, but Cypher could now see more cultists arriving on her flank.


Behind he heard Banus clamber up and clear out the last of the heretic soldiers infesting the building - the sound of the melta weapon was now gone, so he knew that Banus had been responsible for clearing out the rest of the building. Paulianus had just announced that a fresh wave of cultists was assaulting the building.


They hadn't been fast enough, and now the allied drop force was being forced to wave off the approach.
They would not be resupplied any time soon.
For now, at least, they were on their own.




Game 2 :- Objective: Assault and liberate Munitorum Armoury for much needed supplies. Secure if possible, for allied reinforcement.
Probable solution: Acquire and extract needed supplies. Kill any hostiles who attempt to counter-attack.
Cypher Personal Secondary Objective - Plant charges on nearby building to prevent hostile discovery of resources stolen, and distract enemies from resulting situation, allowing allied forces to better gain a beachhead.
*** Target selected:- Central building, currently held by hostile forces. Place charges on suitable structural support to encourage sequential collapse above and below - suspect access tunnels beneath.

Their ammo supplies were not truly badly hit, as they had not been too excessive with their assault. In hindsight, perhaps additional aggression would have been wise.

The winds had died down a little, but the lack of time to pray to the Emperor had affected his allies. For himself, it was the after-effects of the warp storm, and that head blow that was playing havoc with Cypher's senses. He suspected a mild concussion, but he knew his enhanced constitution would likely shake it off.

In the meantime, they needed resupply, and this was the location given.
Spotting the building that he knew he needed to bring down, Cypher charged, using his movement as a distraction to attract enemy fire away from his advancing allies.
Banus and followed up, as did Lykus, while Paulianus instead elected to move up the left flank. Inquisitor Cortez and Sister Rhian chose the more cautious path of taking cover in a nearby ruined building, so as to have cover while firing upon the cultists in the opposite building.

The winds appeared to have cleared up somewhat - perhaps they were a little closer to the eye of the storm.
The cultists, for their part, opened fire, but their aim was poor. However, they were now alerted to the presence of the marines and their allies.


Cypher continued his charge, and reached the side of his target building.
He dumped the first of two charges into a suitable location as cultists began swarming out of the ruin.
Behind him he heard death screams as Rhian, Cortez and Banus began to clear out the first building.

Lykus followed Cypher up the avenue, and began to make bloody work of the cultists.
One in particular attempted to set Cypher alight, missing due to his speed, but instead caught Lykus, setting his chainsword alight.


Over the vox-net, Paulianus could be heard cheerfully clobbering heretical troopers and cultists with his power fist, leaving naught but bloody ruin in his wake.

Cypher hurriedly set his second charge, and threw a frag grenade into a small mass of cultists attempting to reinforce the group assaulting Lykus, but it instead bounced off the head of one wretch and into the building that Cypher was currently trying to destroy, covering the area in shrapnel, but injuring nobody.

Banus announced over the vox-net that the building was clear, and was their target.
Cypher turned to begin supporting him, but found himself attacked by a particularly aggressive cultist.
Cutting him down with a few short shots from his pistols, he was suddenly blasted from behind by a meltagun, wielded by a well-led group of traitor guard.

As Lykus began to clear more of the cultists, Banus threw a frag grenade of his own, as did Cortez and Rhian. The resulting frag burst heavily injured and killed many of the cultists that had tied down Lykus until now.
The marine advanced further, out of sight of the traitor guard who had attacked Cypher.
For his part, Cypher decided that discretion would be wise at this juncture, and clambered up the side of the armoury, ducking out of view before the soldier could bring his gun further to bear.

Banus had begun to extract crates from their target, and Cortez and Rhian were apparently doing the same. Rhian grabbed a crate nearby, and turned to go.
Cypher climbed further into the building, finding some of the last crates located inside.

Paulianus, for his part, was clearly succeeding in distracting a number of heretics.

Overhead, Cypher could hear incoming reinforcements, even though below he could hear the meltagun team entering the armoury.
He knew that he would be able to help extract these last crates, and new they had done enough to succeed this time.




Game 3 - Objective: Kill leader of hostile forces. Destroy the source of hostile heretical warp witchery currently afflicting soldiers in the warzone.
Solution:- Assassinate target, and make assault upon cult congregation, targeting any suspicious devices.
Cypher Personal Secondary Objective - Acquire intel from many multiple hostile targets - close contact required for retrieval of intel.
Solution:- engage and slaughter as many targets as possible in close quarters to prevent suspicion.

Happily resupplied, and given time to look to his wounds, Cypher advanced towards the sound of chanting and screaming. This particular cult had not hidden themselves nearly as well as they had thought.
Even the guard outside was not particularly observant, completely missing the sight of Cypher sprinting in his direction.
Banus had already split off along the right flank, while Lykus and Paulianus began to break off down the left flank.
Rhian appeared to have decided to shadow Cypher down the central avenue, while Inquisitor Cortez elected to support Banus, infiltrating a nearby building.

Lykus was kept busy momentarily within the building Cypher was using for cover, but Cypher spotted an individual, wielding books and screaming loudly, zealously, with words that hurt the ears.
Making the assumption that he might be the leader, Cypher opened fire, dropping the cultist out of sight with a number of shots from his pistols, and following it up by injuring the maniac next to his first target.

The alarm went up rapidly, and orders were given. Cypher had been mistaken!
Banus managed to attract attention, however, firing down into the hordes from his flank position, Cortez backing him up.


On their side, Lykus and Paulianus had apparently successfully engaged a number of cultists themselves.
Leaving Sister Rhian to manage her own issues with a nearby data terminal, Cypher advanced rapidly.
Not rapidly enough, as another marine strode into view, this one clearly a servant of the powers of Chaos!
The marine bellowed threats and curses, and charged Banus.


For his part, Cypher followed the target, gunning down the cultists to his left still contained within the cult building.

Temporarily cleared of cultists, Cypher checked around the corner, to find Banus caught up in a melee with the Chaos Marine, apparently having annihilated the traitor's primary weapons, forcing the foul fiend to draw secondary swords as a backup.

Taking advantage of Cypher's temporary distraction, one particularly stupid maniac charged Cypher from behind, flailing madly, but missing with every strike. For his part, Cypher simply pointed his pistols behind him, and executed the idiot out of hand. That dealt with, he charged the traitor Marine - obviously the real assassination target - and proceeded to blast chunks out of his armour, reducing the heretical warrior to a mewling wretch on the ground.
One mighty blow from Banus' power maul finished the traitor's fate.
"So end all heretics, Arnulf." Banus stated, with finality.

Cypher merely nodded his agreement, and turned to find Paulianus had cleared the last of the heretics from the ruined building.
Lykus, for his part, holstered his weapons, and primed a frag grenade in each hand, obliterating the heretics who had had the temerity to surround him, but doing little to himself save a small piece of shrapnel bouncing through his gorget, apparently not slowing the warrior at all.

Cortez dropped to the floor nearby, and proceeded into the building.
It took naught but seconds for her to discern the source of the heretical winds and interference, which she rapidly destroyed with a few blows of her decidedly questionable weapon.
Cypher, for his part, had already recognised it for what it was, but decided that it was unnecessary to provoke an Inquisitor's wrath, or attention. Certainly it would do his legion no favours, even reduced as they were across several chapters.

With the threat cleared, reports began to roll in across the vox-net from allied Imperial forces, showing marked improvement across the battlefront.
While he had succeeded in ensuring Imperial victory on this world, or at least failure on the part of the forces of Chaos, he had missed his chance to scour these enemies for clues, especially as to where this traitor had come from, and why.
Still, the warrior was dead, which for Cypher's immediate purposes was enough.
The rest could be dealt with in time.
"Heretics are like cockroaches - annoying to find, and even more annoying to kill." - unattrib.