The War of Shadows

[MarcoSkoll]

Lyra took the bolt pistol, weighing it up. She'd had a good go at breaking her wrist last time she'd used one of these, but she really did need something better than her stubber.

   "You said you were injured. Can you make it to the surface? We need help."

Silv looked slightly confused, then gestured at her ear.
   "They used a grenade."

Wincing slightly, partly through empathy, partly because Silv had practically shouted the statment, Lyra nodded in response.
   "Right. You can't hear me.", she muttered under her breath.

She held up a finger, gesturing for the acolyte to remain quiet. They might have an element of surprise, provided Silv's shouting didn't give away their position.

There was no time to try and explain the obvious to the deafened and half dazed woman. Lyra beckoned for the acolyte to follow her.

~~~~~

Maya watched as Inquisitor Czernarvok's shoulder mounted multilaser gunned down the last of the cultists. As the guardsmen moved forwards to secure the gates, her huge wings snuffed out, leaving only curls of rapidly dispersing smoke to reflect the starlight.

The sudden darkness in the absence of her intense pyrokinetics dropped the night firmly back on the courtyard. Several lamp-packs flared into life, but Maya barely had to think before a curl of yellow flame emerged from her palm. Looking around, the flickering light threw deep shadows across faces, but it was hard to miss the heart shaped tattoo she was looking for.

   "I think you owe me an explanation of what exactly what you have in that locket, Fabio."

~~~~~

Moving along the corridor in a low crouch, Lyra firmly grasped the bolt pistol in both hands. She could hear the sounds of gunfire, but the echoes through the bunker made it nearly impossible to pinpoint where from.

Coming to a cross junction, she stopped to think. They had probably come in through the passage Maya had found. But if they had left guards, going there was madness. Even if she could take the guards, she would find herself horribly outnumbered when the others returned.
Still, if she could collapse the passage, then they'd either be delayed, or forced to exit via the main entrance. But she had no way of doing that. She'd need several krak grenades for that.

But she could still hear shooting, so they hadn't left. That meant they wanted something as well as Gerhan. And, she groaned inwardly, it was probably the beacon. Why hadn't they moved Sergeant Manning after they had captured Gerhan? The traitor would have lead them straight to him.

The armoury and the beacon were both to the right. She could either hope she could get the beacon first, or if that wasn't possible, she could try and find a way of collapsing the tunnel.

~~~~~

Fabio produced the locket, cracking it open to glance at the glowing fragment.

   "Unless I'm completely mistaken, it's a shard of a Golem."
   "And what - exactly - is a Golem?", it was Ottakar's voice that came out of the darkness.
   "A rare crystalline creature. Well, I use 'creature' loosely - I'm not strictly sure you can really describe one as alive."
   "That doesn't tell me why you have it.", Maya's voice took on a tone of irritation. Fabio's suddenly talkative manner seemed to have as many problems as his downbeat one.
   "The interesting thing about the crystals is that they can absorb psychic energies, which means..."

At this statement, the psyker recoiled violently from the tiny shard. Tripping over loose debris, she fell backwards, landing hard.

~~~~~

   "No, it was the other way." a deep, almost rural accent drifted around the corner.
   "Think about it, we took the... no, wait. I'm sure I recognise that sign.", the second voice was far more cleanly spoken. It almost had the tone of someone of someone who had officer training, but it didn't have the certainty behind it. Perhaps it was a hopeful looking to make his way up the ranks by imitating his superior's accent.

Hearing the arguing voices, Lyra held up a hand to stop Silv, bringing up the bolt pistol to face the junction ahead.

Rural made a noise that she could only assume was some form of local profanity, although she was sure she didn't know the letters to transcribe it. Hopeful spoke again, his voice getting closer.
   "Watch it. Look, if we head back that way, we'll see if we can get our bearings. It can't be too hard to make it back to the main room, and we can find our way from there."

He appeared at the corner, looking back over his shoulder. His rank insignia proved part of her theory at least - he was certainly no officer.
But, he was so hopelessly engrossed in trying to be in charge that it wasn't until Rural had followed him around the corner that someone had noticed that she was standing in the corridor.

   "Wrong way."

Hopeful's head snapped round, and had about a quarter second to register shock before it exploded in a blaze of gore.
An instant later, Rural's shouldered lasgun burst into a cloud of splinters as a bolt round detonated within it. With colossal crack, the power cell shorted, blasting half the side of the Guardman's body off.

Lyra looked at the destruction in front of her.
   "Well, f*** me."

~~~~~

Mortorn stopped for a moment, listening.
   "That's bolter fire.", he stated with what was almost amusement, "There's someone still fighting back."
   "What does this mean my lord?"
   "It means absolutely nothing. They are too late."

~~~~~

Appearing almost out of thin air, Gideon had been surprisingly quick to offer Maya help standing up again. He had his arm around her, but the psyker was too preoccupied with Fabio's crystal to really care.

The Malleus Inquisitor prodded at the shard with his thumbnail.
   "You don't need to worry. This crystal is entirely saturated - it has been for a long time. As it is, it's essentially harmless.".

As he looked up again, Maya's fire-lit expression relaxed slightly at this revelation.
   "Inquisitor Glosche - you're clearly a good man...", she paused for a moment, glancing down as if she had only just noticed Gideon's hand, although she ultimately ignored it.
   "... but Emperor help you if you ever scare me like that again."

[Necris]

His eyes snapped open there had been an explosion, but that was secondary as pain raked his mind he cried out gripping his temples as he rolled from the stretcher laid across the archive table he landed on the floor gathering his thoughts unaware that the archive door had been opened.

"What the hell was that?"

"Sounded like someone's in here."

"Well lets find them and kill them and be done with it."

They moved through the room one of them came round the edge of the table looking down upon him.

"Found him, pathetic wretch is cowering in here while the others fight for their lives."

"Just put him down."

The man shouldered his las gun taking aim. He looked up into the barrel his face stern as he stared down the length of the gun, the guardsman faltered giving him his moment of grace he moved gripping the barrel he pushed the weapon aside as it fired standing up to his full heigh he spoke.

"You should have just shot me."

He slammed his open hand into the man throat crushing it as he tore the weapon from his hand spinning it in his grip he fired into the mans companion cutting him down, he dragged the other man to his feet slamming him against a wall he shot him in the chest. He looked round spotting the military tunic that had been folded up beside him pulling it on he looked over the bodies of the men, these men were not PDF their uniforms were wrong, he moved to them checking them over he relieved them of their weapons laying them on the table a pair of las guns and a few reloads and a pair autopistols a bayonet and a combat dagger.

He left the blades but took the guns as the sound of gunfire came back to him, had the defences fallen? were they in the command centre, where was everyone else?

He stepped from the room checking the corridor the most obvious thing to do first would be to check the command chamber make sure it hadn't been compromised so he headed off in that direction it would take him past the armoury he'd be able to pick up reloads for the weapons.

[Swarbie]

Fabio grinned inwardly. That Gideon was a quick bastard to be sure. He returned his attention to Maya.

"My apologies for scaring you, Maya," he said. He took her nod as an acceptance and a gesture to explain further.

"I'm assuming none of you have read my file," he started. Gideon and Ottakar both confirmed this. "Well, I was born a twin. That's why I have this tattoo," he said, gesturing up at the decidedly feminine design on his cheek.

"My grandfather never could tell the difference between me and Marcas, so he had us inked. I had my tattoo on the right, and he had his on the left. When I was first hired by my master, it was as a bodyguard more than anything else. I originally thought he didn't care about us, but very soon I noticed he could tell us apart without even looking at us. It was because of a distinct separation in our psychic 'flavour'.

"There was always one major difference between Marcas and myself: he was always incredibly afraid of dying, while I almost didn't seem to care.

"After we'd been working for Jorken for around six years, we encountered a creature called a Golem. Like I said, it was made of psi-absorbent crystal. When we went up against it, Jorken couldn't put it down; it just kept absorbing his mind-powers. So we sent for help. A squad of guardsmen arrived, and the Golem just smashed one into paste. We thought that was the end of him, but then we heard him screaming . . . from inside the Golem.

"Eventually we managed to blow it to hell with a demo-charge, but Marcas must have seen his opportunity to cheat death. He must have taken a piece of the destroyed Golem and kept it on him all the time. I never wore this locket before Schindelgheist, you see," said Fabio. He looked up and saw everyone present staring at him in amazement.

"You mean . . ." began Gideon, his arm dropping from around Maya's waist as he realized what had just been said.

"Yes," answered Fabio, his voice clogged with emotion.

"This crystal is the container for my twin brother's soul. He's still alive."   

[MarcoSkoll]

Jumping through the door, Lyra shoved firmly on Silv's back, forcing the acolyte to the floor. Evidently her deafness was complete enough to have missed the fact she was being shot at.

Blasting one handed with the bolt pistol, Lyra unhooked her shock maul almost instinctively, jabbing it into the guts of the guardsman who had been chasing after them he had been sneaking up quietly.

Shooting twice into the attacker in the far corner, there was the distinctive sound of the action locking back on an empty magazine. Silv having the only reloads, she dropped the weapon next to the acolyte. Jumping forwards over some machinery she hadn't the time or knowledge to identify, some part of her mind noted that Kai would give her a major scolding for this. Her energy field flickered  twice, two autogun rounds stopped in mid-air.

Her power knife cut through the attacker's rifle in one swing, taking his left hand with it. Dazing him with a blow from her shock maul, although it was moot with the pain he would be suffering, she slashed for his throat.

Hearing movement behind her, she turned. A pistol was held, pointing straight for her face.
  "I'd drop those if I were you.", the soldier nodded at her weapons.

He was too close for her energy field to protect her, but too far away to charge.
  "Too slow."

He pulled the trigger, the hammer slamming forwards onto the firing pin.

~~~~~

The expression on Maya's face was not one of shock, but of thoughtfulness.
  "You've felt... off since I first met you. Somehow split. I assumed it was mental scarring, repressed memories, maybe even borderline psychosis - but if you've been carrying... well, him... then it starts to make a lot more sense."
  "It does, yes. There's a lot of things over the years that this little shard explains."
  "So what can you do? I mean, is he stuck in there? Can he get out?"
  "I don't know. I've got an idea to try and find out... but I don't think you're going to like it."

~~~~~

The guardsman's head exploded in a spray of bone, muscle and assorted tissues.

Lyra flinched violently. It took her a second to realise she wasn't dead. Looking left, Silv held a smoking bolt pistol.

But something still didn't add up in Lyra's mind. The guardsman had fired, and there was no way he could have missed from there. Holstering her weapons, she crouched down, picking up his autopistol. Carefully working the slide, she took the cartridge from the chamber. Turning it over, she smiled as she looked at the base of it.
  "What are the odds?"

The pistol's firing pin had left its mark on the primer, but by pure luck...
  "It's a dud."

[Necris]

Silv stood offering the pistol back to Lyra as she looked round the room before joining her at the door, she readied the stubber in her hand and covered the opposite way before stepping out after her following as she moved along the corridor towards the armoury she ghosted behind her keeping her eyes on their behind, she spotted one of the attackers and fired her aim off slightly at a distance her first two shots went wide but her third caught the man in the throat.

Checking the load of the gun she sighed she only had a few shots left and a single reload for the bolt pistol, she looked over her shoulder as Lyra moved round a corner and followed.

+

He fired in a close burst gunning down another of these interlopers moving over to the body he crouched down and checked the man before moving off the gun fire was dying down now but every now and again he could hear the distinct sound of a bolt pistol, he strode round the last corner for the armoury, seeing the door was still secure he moved to it keying in a release code he opened it and stepped inside looking around, the room looked untouched which meant the attackers had come equipped, looking round he collected himself some reloads for the las guns and a few spare magazines for one of the autopistols the other was an uncompatible design so he'd have to use it as a throw away.

He left the lasguns on the central work bench and knelt to collect some grenades when someone else came to the door, drawing the throw away pistol he stood taking aim squarely at Lyra, she too aimed back with a bolt pistol Silv behind her with a stubber, for a long moment they held their aim before he relaxed lowering the pistol.

"What's going on here? Have the defences fallen?"

[Swarbie]

"Well," said Fabio. "The thing is, for the past ten years I've suffered from sudden dizzy spells, and on occasion comas. I went into one for three days in the middle of . . . of the funeral service for Marcas, Jorken and all the others we lost on Schindelgheist."

He looked Maya dead in the eye. "I'm not an untouchable, but neither am I particularly active psychically. Maybe those comas and moments of confusion were times when Marcas was trying to reach out to me.

"Perhaps someone more psychically receptive could actually hear him."

[Zephon]

"The defences are intact." Bernard Wyebold spoke from the doorway. His merchant garb looked somewhat scorched. Two larger, thickset men followed him through and set about sweeping the remaining ammunition into black backpacks. A group of ten people, some evidently wounded, remained outside, weapons ready.

"This bunker however has been penetrated by enemy infiltrators: they had agents inside, and hooked up an intrusion device to the machine spirits of the bunker. The generator is slag, the vox-unit is down and Sergeant Manning is dead."

"They were after the beacon," Jeremiah snarled "We..."

"And Gerhan," Lyra interrupted "He's gone too"

"I'm going to lock down the entrance and the device," Bernard said "Hopefully, we can trap them inside."

[Necris]

"Silv I need your skills."

She stood looking at him.

"What happened to her?"

"She's deaf, grenade blast."

He looked at Lyra nodding his thanks he stepped up to Silv touching the side of her head she yelled out in pain and recoiled.

"What the hell!"

"Can you hear me?"

"Yes....How the hell."

"Not now, can you find Inquisitor Rhodes' psyker?"

She gave Lyra a sideways glance and nodded.

"I think so."

"Good focus on her, just keep focusing on locating her."

Silv's eyes glowed as she used her gift to find Maya.

"I have her, she's still outside in the courtyard."

"Good keep focussing."

He touched Silv's head.

"I hope your psyker is good, this will not be subtle."

He closed his eyes focussing on forming the words he pushed the thoughts through Silv seeing what she could see and into Maya, though not a telepath he could implant his thoughts into another though he'd never tried doing it to a psyker, he pushed the thoughts into Maya's mind.

'We're under attack from within, they have Gerhan and the beacon, be prepared.'

He stepped back as Silv recoiled.

"You were right, jeez where did you learn that?"

"I'll tell you later."

"What have you just done to Maya?"

He turned at Lyra's harsh tone.

"I used Silv as a conduit to implant a thought into Maya's mind, something I can only usually do in person but Silv's gifts allow her to psyically touch items, people and so on. If the implant worked correctly Maya will now be aware of what is going on in here."

"And if not?"

"She will just have a jumble of random thoughts for a few seconds, but she'll be aware of something not being right. We should see to preventing their escape."

He turned his attention from her to Bernard stepping past her he picked up one of the lasguns powering the energy cell.

[MarcoSkoll]

Maya looked at the glowing shard Fabio held in his hands.
   "You want me to..."

The words stalled in her mouth, leaving an eerie silence in their absence. After several moments, Kai stepped in.
   "Inquisitor Glosche, with the utmost respect, you yourself admitted that this crystal may have been the cause of comas. Is this really the time for Miss Avens to be taking such a risk? It's waited ten years - can it not wait for..."
   
The end of his sentence was cut off, an impossibly loud scream drowning out the words. Her face twisted in intense pain, Maya collapsed, falling to one knee.
The courtyard degenerated into shouting, accusations and orders, although few of the words were heard through ringing ears. Even for Maya, protected from the psychically enhanced intensity of her own scream, they were lost amongst the lancing pain in her mind. Something was forcing its way into her thoughts.

Fighting it, she turned the full force of her power on the intrusion. This was no daemon - this mind was human, and that made it vulnerable. She was a second from lashing out, forcing raw energies back along the link and shredding the mind of the perpetrator, when a very particular psychic tang stopped her. She knew this mind... no, these minds. There was more than one of them.

Carefully letting the psychic link open, she allowed it to filter through into the top levels of her mind, forming into coherent concepts. Her eyes snapped open.
   "Oh crap."

[Necris]

As they move down the corridor following Bernard's direction he felt a pang of guilt over the implant he'd forced upon Maya, he'd make it his business to apologise to her if they made it through this.

"You said you'd managed to intercept them before they got to the secret chamber?"

"That's correct I left a few of mine and some of the guardsmen there to defend it."

"Can't Silv find the intruders?"

"I can only do people if I've met them, finding an object is different I can focus in on the psychic impressions left behind, people I focus on their presence."

"What about Gerhan?"

She paused her eyes glowing Jeremiah stopped beside her.

"Nothing, they've either shielded him or..."

"He'd already dead."

Jeremiah said frowning. He tightened his grip on the lasgun as he turned bringing it to his shoulder he took a breath and fired winging the man that had been coming up behind him, he moved off in the man direction coming round the corner his weapon sweeping the corridor he knelt down beside the man as he struggled for his own gun.

"Where are they heading?"

"Frak you."

Lightning sparked from his fingers.

"You really do want to tell me."

He panicked.

"They're heading for the motor pool."

"Who?"

"Mortorn, and the others."

"Mortorn?"

Silv stepped round the corner stepping past Bernard who's been stood watching.

"Gerhan said that name, he's one of the conspirators."

"So we have someone else to answer our questions."

He stood looking down at the man, his eyes were pleading.

"You are a traitor."

The man's face dropped as he brought the lasgun up.

"No!"

Was all he managed as he put a las bolt through his skull.

"The Motor Pool."

He turned looking at Bernard.

"Lead on."

[Zephon]

A second volley of lasbolts hurled themselves through the doorway and against the opposite wall with a series of sharp cracks. Bernard's team shredded furniture, and some flesh in a noisy reply.

"We're not going to catch up at this rate" said Lyra, leaning close to make her voice heard over the din. Bernard nodded hastily, and then raised a hand as he went back to his vox conversation.

"Set up a cordon around the motor pool. Yes, anyone. Get a couple of tanks to blockade the main entrance. Well, hurry. And I want prisoners, got that? What?"

Suddenly, eyes were turned away and shadows danced crazily as a cascade of electric bolts flared from Jeremiah's hands. He stepped forward ahead of Bernard's men as they poured into the room, over the five still smoking bodies and towards the next doorway.

"Well, that sped things up" said Lyra, as she rose to follow.
 
Bernard did not reply, though his face was quite expressive. He passed the microbead to his savant as he headed through the doorway after Rhodes.

"Make sure the rest of the Inquisition know where we're headed."

[Necris]

Mortorn strode with all the fury of a man denied victory his mood was black and those around him feared for their lives being taken as much from him as from any of the defenders within the complex. They' been prevented from leaving through the secret access way after that fool Bernard had placed guards there they couldn't afford a fire fight with the beacon and his fury had been building as they'd headed for the motor pool, now there he unleashed it storming across the motor bay his power maul smashed into an unsuspecting enginseer the blow pulped his torso where it hit leaving him doubled over and bleeding to death from internal wounds, the other seers in the bay leapt in surprised and went for weapons, his shoulder mounted bolter barked twist and two fell holes blown in their backs the last of them came at him a power axe hissing through the air. The weapon shattered as Mortorn's weapon struck it before coming down and crushing the hapless seer.

"Get what we need now!"

Someone fired a heavy calibre gun the shots ricocheting from Mortorn's armour but sending him sprawling, standing his eyes scanned the bay locating a youngster behind one of the leman russ turrets manning a heavy stubber, with a though he commanded the MIU links Bolt pistol and recoiled as the weapon failed sending a feed back shock into his head he snarled tearing the weapon from his shoulder and tossing it to one side he drew his side arm and fired putting a round into the boy, he turned on one of his men and snarled

"Find him and make sure he's dead. The rest of you move the others outside will have heard that."

[Kallidor]

Adepta Reiss acknowledged Molovich's canted orders and set about ordering the combat servitors to patrol the main entrance in case of further cultist attacks. The Inquisitor himself was flanked by his two praetorians and the other of his two surviving skitarii, one of them still insde the complex with his Interogator as far as he knew. Data was severely lacking. Molovich made a note of his dissatisifaction and stored it for later retrieval.


Before he could say anything more the distant sound of bolter fire could be heard followed by the brak-brak-brak of sustained heavy stubber fire. The gunfire came from the direction of the motor pool and Molovich canted to his warriors and they began a steady jog back the way they had come with the now deceased chimera.

The motor pool was half encloed by a thick reinforced roof supported by pillars that denoted repair bays under cover. Oily pits, one for each of the five bays, ran between enormous hydraulic ramps. One ramp was hoisted up with a stripped down chimera on top, the tanks massive engine hanging by chains several metres away. The enginseers who had been attending to the vehicles needs were sprawled over the floor dead.

Off to his right Molovich barely had time to register movement before the reaper autocannon of his praetorian opened up. The solid rounds chewed up the skirt of a Leman Russ, chasing a figure between the massive tank and one of its brethren. Return fire came from the otehr side of the yard, more figures moving into cover desperately trying to put as much enfilading fire between themselves and the destructive firce if the autocannon.

The servants of the Omnisiah were not so easily cowed and even as las beams slashed steaming welts across the armoured bulk of Molovich's axe carrying praetorian the other returend fire. An oil barrel was hit and went up with a boom, cork screwing into the air on a pillar of fire. One of the enemy went down, screaming in agony, desperately trying to beat himself out as the burning fuel ate him away.

Against the cultists and even the daemons Molovich had approached each encounter with abstracted strategic thought patterns but seeing the dead enginseers provoked and indeed, demanded, an emotional response. Snatching his power axe he strode into the open ground of the motor pool issuing a bellow of rage, the electronic howl terrifying. He knew such heathen scum would not undestand him but he issued a promise in binaric; that the enemy would feel the full wrath of the Omnisiah for such unconscionable and wanton slaughter.

[Zephon]

As his group entered the motor pool, Bernard hung back and tried to take stock of the situation. Ahead, he could see the enormous armoured form of Inquisitor Czernarvok cleaving apart a crowd of the traitors, while his bodyguards wreck near-equal havoc. To his left, Crowe was sprinting towards the fight, lightning already crackling about his hands. Bernard waved to his agents to stay back and in cover. With their light equipment, fighting in the open would be suicidal.

Looking towards the exit, he could see the PDF had yet to arrive. Mentally cursing their laxity, he reached to take the microbead from Daath, but halted. Another noise was discernable over the din of battle: the sound of an overstretched engine. As he watched, a Trojan accelerated clumsily up the exit ramp and out of sight.

[Necris]

Mortorn cared little for his people they were merely tools to be used and discarded as was necessary much like the Trojan he rode in now, turning he looked back as the slaughter of those left behind was carried out by a mechanical figure and his servitors and as a group rushed in to assist in the killings.

"Take us to the palace, don't stop for anything."

The driver gave a curt nod as he steered the tank towards the main gate, the gunner sat beside him pulled the trigger of the heavy bolter cutting down a dozen defenders as they swept on by, a few stray shots pinged off the hull of the support tank as Mortorn dropped back into the hold.

++

Jerimiah cooked one of the traitors the force of his will shrouding the man in lightning his eyes steaming as the power roasted him from within, he dropped to his knees as Jerimiah released the energy and lowered his hand, he turned looking at Bernard.

"Get something started we need to give chase!"

The fact that he's hung back infuriated him, he was wearing the same if not less armour and the man was armed the fact he'd hung back while the others had charged into combat galled him, even Lyra had joined in the fight killing three.

Czernarvok was still killing his axe cleaving as the last of them tried to flee, he went to the dead enginseers examining their bodies , his eyes scanned over the wounds of the two in the centre of the motor pool, some form of power weapon a thunder hammer maybe....his eyes looked up knowing full well what the other two had died from, bolt wounds his eyes moved again and his hand stretched out picking up a bullet shell turning it in his fingers he examined the flattened tip before dropping it as his eyes fell upon something tucked under a service desk. Pulling it out he turned the MIU bolter over in his hands as he strode back to the dead enginseers he knelt down again and picked up an intact power axe.

"Step away from him!"

His eyes snapped up as Czernarvok strode towards him his tall frame hunched in threat as he crossed the motor pool his servitors fanning out behind him, one bore the scars of the batter but otherwise it looked functional despite the black ooze pumping from the lower half of it's torso.

He stepped back allowing Czernarvok to stand over the body he noticed the turn in Czernarvok's head as he regarded the power axe in his hand though he imagined that that confrontation would come after Czernarvok  had dealt with the dead, his attention turned as an engine came to lift, at least Bernard was good at something.