The War of Shadows

[Necris]

Silv stopped firing, frozen she turned her attention from the gun controls.

"Something is coming."

She spoke as though conversing before sliding from the seat she headed for the rear hatch.

"Hey where you going?"

The driver was frantic, she paused collecting up a lasgun before opening the hatch

"To save all our lives."

She stepped from the tank taking the the chaos around her the guardsmen under the command of a commissar were carving up the poorly armoured cultists the heavy guns of their tanks butchering them in droves the well drilled and disciplined ranks of las fire cutting down just as many.

She turned her attention to the gate the few perceptive cultists that still lingered close to it had thrown themselves to their knees in supplication of what was coming, she shot each of them through the head before moving towards the gates and dropping to her knees she drew a short blade no use in combat she used it to slit her arm open dripping the blood in a seemingly random pattern she the drew the knife through the blood and drew a single rune before stepping back a gasp of panic escaping her lips as the Daemon came into view, it was massive towering over a man its multi armed features ending in claws and hands that would tear and render a mortal to ribbons, the face was so alluring it almost made her want to kick the rune to ruin but she gathered her thoughts and turned from the beautiful yet terrible visage of the daemon and it's minions following it. She ran back to the guardsmen shouting out to the commissar.

"Get the men in a firing line aiming at the gate."

He looked at her his face hard but he faltered when he saw the fevered look in her own face.

"Do as she says, firing line close drill aim and be ready for what ever come through that door."

She joined the ranks calling out

"Steel yourselves with hate, an armour of contempt is out best defence now!"

She watched as the minions came flooding towards the gate while their better ambled casually behind them, she watched as a guardsman beside her lost control of his bladder the wet stain marring his uniform while his legs refused to let him run away.

The first daemons passed through the gate as they did the rune blazed crimson and they staggered screeching in pain and ecstasy, they stumbled the power of the rune effecting them in some way.

"They are corporal now, FIRE!"

She pulled the trigger, jumping the men beside her into action their las shots scything through the daemonetts cutting them down, the first of them fell disappearing into purple vapour, more slowed looking at them through the gate the daemon prince roared and they flooded through almost enjoying the pain the passage brought, the guardsmen opened fire again cutting the daemons down. When the daemon prince reached the barrier it stopped it's hand reaching out touching an invisible barrier it pushed against it a sound of rushing wind and screaming cries issuing from it as it pushed it might against the barrier, more daemons came through the guardsmen being forced to divide their attentions as more came in. Silv threw her weapon aside and lifted her hands towards the barrier uttering a chant as she added her strength to the barrier.

++

Jeremiah looked over the gathered judges and nodded leading them from the courthouse, his flinched as the noise from outside flooded over him, and waved them on.

"Outside, head for the tanks, is there another way out of here?"

"A side gate but it's only just wide enough for one tank at a time."

"Direct the guard."

He followed gathering what strength he had left, he was exhausted and pushing himself to the limit in this situation the power of the warp was washing over him, it was fuelling him but each passing minute threatened to overwhelm him and now after his battle with the daemonhost he was feeling the strain.

"I am his servant, his weapon, I will stand against any foe."

He drew his sword and strode from the courthouse.

"Get to the tanks, get out of here now!"

He grabbed a guardsman and pulled his vox link from him.

"Leman Russ, target me."

"Inquisitor?"

"Do it!"

He strode towards the line of guardsmen.

"Fall back! In good order give cover to those escaping then follow."

"You heard him boys, withdraw in good order."

The soldiers stepped back giving fire as they withdrew Jeremiah strode forward uttering a chant similar to Silv's before driving the glowing blade into the ground the shockwave knocked daemonetts to the ground and where they fell their bodies started to break up, the daemon prince stepped through the barrier shaking itself as the barrier shattered before it.

"I will stand against you Daemon!"

His breaths were ragged as he drew the sword from the ground.

"Foolish mortal, I have feasted upon whole worlds and you think you can stop me alone."

He smiled as he opened his arms

"Not just me, open fire."

He dropped to his knees as the leman russ fired it's weapons the shells strafing over his head and cutting into the Daemon Prince it staggered back wounded bright colours pumping from its wounds, pushing himself to his feet he looked over his shoulder.

"Again."

A second volley impacted on the daemon prince as Jeremiah was helped to his feet by Silv.

"We have to go."

She dragged him towards the reman russ hull pushing him up onto the tanks hull before climbing up behind him she banged on the hull shouting out.

"Get us the hell out of here."

The tank rumbled forward the sponson weapons continuing to fire upon the daemons as they fled, sparks flying from the armour as it skirted through the secondary gateway.

"The command centre head for it now full speed."

Jeremiah lay on his back his breaths hard his eyes closed against the world, he was all but spent.

"Are you ok Jere?"

"I'm at my limit I can't constantly keep this level of power use."

She nodded looking back at the courthouse as the daemon roared after them.

[MarcoSkoll]

Raising her hand, Maya once again forced herself to concentrate. Doing her best to ignore the foul taste the corrupted immaterium left in her mouth, she pushed her will out from her palm, reaching into the mind of the young acolyte huddled in front of her.

The emotions she could feel were a catastrophic mess, so jumbled that few minds could cope with them. But Maya's psyche was far from normal, and with her will forced upon it, the incoherent muddle immediately began to reshape into recognisable thoughts and feelings. As each emotion resolved itself, Maya began to peel away the layers of stress and fear that pervaded every corner of their mind.

Implanting the seeds of optimism and hope, she finished with subtle changes, carefully shifting their perception of the warp - it would last only a few days, but in that time, they would gain some resistance to the fear that naturally followed daemons, and perhaps save the psyker the effort of reorganising the acolyte's mind quite so soon.

She stepped back, watching. It would take a few moments to fully take hold, but when it did, they could once again become an asset in this war. Moving off, she looked around at the others.
For the last quarter hour or so, the psyker had been put to work using her powerful control over emotion, doing what she could to soothe some the minds that had begun to crack under the stress and fear.

But in spite of many refusing her aid, dealing with even the remainder looked to be too much for her. While she was doing something to stave off the contagious wave of unease in the bunker, she was finding it increasingly hard to concentrate with each passing minute.  The strain of using her powers was growing, and she was having to work to prevent the dread her empathic abilities were constantly absorbing from overwhelming her.

She could hear Lyra discussing something about the weaknesses of the daemonic with Inquisitor Glosche, with Kai occasionally correcting her tactical misconceptions. Presumably it was all part of another backup plan for countering whatever monstrosity it was bearing down on them.

She blinked, rubbing her temples with her free hand. Two seconds later, she paused in mid-motion, struck by the sudden impression that she had missed something - some fact that she hadn't quite noticed. Stretching out with her mind, she carefully investigated the emotions of each person in the room in turn. While the deeper layers of thought were hidden from her, few people could hide their upper layers of emotion, even less so from a psyker of her talents. But it took her only a moment or two to realise that this wasn't what she was looking for - it was something about the room.

Looking closely at what appeared to be a blank patch of the opposite wall, she stepped forwards and carefully passed her fingers over it. It had escaped her notice, but it was fractionally out of place - very well concealed, however a subtly different tone and colour.

   "What the hell?", she whispered.

[Necris]

He rolled from the tank as it entered to command centre Silv slid off behind him looking around he'd laid out his orders and she passed them on to those around them while he strode over to the chimera they'd commandeered entering the hold after the soldiers had exited he nodded as they left then climbed in speaking to the driver as the checked over the engine.

"If you wouldn't mind."

He nodded and left quickly closing the hatch behind him.

Sitting on one of the fold away seats he started to look through the papers and the dataslate they'd collected from the suite, reading over the details quickly he went from page to page, clues were forth coming but still the mystery was hidden, a series of codenames repeated "The General" "The Priest" "The Cog" they were clear enough a military man a holy and a mechanicus, but there were others "The Eyes" "The Ears" and "The Voice" "The Lord" and "The Master" they were less clear though he suspected the lord was the man in charge of the whole thing the master might be an inquisitor.

He read a communique to "The General" and paused

+Take control of the PDF and misdirect their attentions, you know what to do and how to do it, is the beacon secure?+

there was no reply and he growled pushing himself to his feet and exiting the tank he strode across the courtyard like a man with a murderous purpose

`

[Koval]

"I take it something's wrong, my dear?" Gideon inquired, and I despaired inwardly at how easily the man could go from utter panic and terror to the sort of easy familiarity that only comes when you've spent a night in someone else's bed. I didn't imagine for a second that Gideon had actually slept with anyone in this gathering, but he does have an annoying tendency to get around a bit.

So saying, I don't imagine that he'd have quite as many contacts and acquaintances as he does if he did keep it in his breeches.

"It's the wall," Maya stated, almost irritated by Gideon's question. "I'll admit that with my talents, not to mention a superior understanding of spatio-temporal metageometry, it stood out quite a while before I noticed it. But it's plainly evident to anyone who can see it."

I rolled my eyes. She sounded so much like Clarence did when he was her age, even though their talents lie in entirely different fields. I still can't help but wonder how well the two of them would get on together, even though he's probably about three or four times her age by now. In fairness, though, once you got past the latrine-sweeper hair and her occasional habit of making her eyes light up, she wasn't an unattractive woman, so I could see why Gideon was making his usual advances.

"See this section of wall here? Go ahead, feel it," Maya proposed. Gideon did so (though I couldn't help but notice that he was constantly trying to sneak a few looks at our psyker's non-combative assets), eventually staring at it intently, with both hands feeling their way around the wall.

"This wall's a fake," Gideon concluded, feeling his way along a jagged line I couldn't quite make out too clearly. "Has to be. You can actually feel the join with the rest of it. Ottakar, take a look at this."

"I think that between your appraisal and Miss Avens', any observations I make will be somewhat redundant," I countered. "Speaking of which, Maya, can you feel anything past it?"

"That's the problem. I don't actually know," Maya grumbled. "Obviously, yes, there has to be something behind it, but I can't tell what it is."

"Is there... I don't know, a secret button or anything to make the wall move?" Gideon ventured, spinning one-eighty to face Maya, who'd moved behind him and almost caught a face full of flying frock coat as Gideon turned.

"It's not the right shape to move anywhere without taking a chunk of real wall away with it," Maya noted. Evidently she didn't need to see or feel it to know its exact dimensions. "My guess is that it was meant to be knocked down in a hurry. Or at least, a lot faster than the rest of the building."

"In that case might I suggest you two get out the way?" I proposed.

Maya turned to face me and I watched her eyes glow faintly, boring into my own. I tried to shut her out but she'd already retreated again.

"You can't be serious," she sighed, glaring at me with what I assumed was trying to be disapproval.

"That wasn't so much a request, Miss Avens, as a warning. I don't want to cause you a serious injury by accident."

"He's out of his mind," Maya sniped at Gideon as I tensed.

"I think the correct term, my dear, is dangerously pragmatic," Gideon remarked, almost dragging her off to one side as I leapt at the wall and rammed my entire body into what I hoped was a weak spot.

[Swarbie]

Fabio jumped as a resounding crash filled the room. Instantaneously forgetting his conversation with Lyra, he spun around and sprinted over to where Ottakar had ran straight at the wall. The burly inquisitor was lying on his power-armored backside, eyes slightly unfocused.

He had evidently bounced off the wall, but in doing so had left a large number of cracks in it. Fabio struck the flat of his palm against a loosened section of stone and was rewarded when it fell inwards, leaving a gap slightly larger than his head.

Fabio peered inside and then straightened up. Tapping the wall he muttered to himself: "Well, that's interesting. That's very interesting."

[Necris]

He ignored the little dwarfs antics as he crashed into the wall, striding on he passed Lyra his eyes snapping up to looking in to hers as she watched him walk past, he went for the inner command core where the PDF were busy working over the central holo-projector, striding up behind Lord Gerhan he spun him by the shoulder an upper cut lifting him clearly from the ground, the pudgy man crashed back over the city projection and landed on the floor.

The guardsmen cried out at the sudden interruption as Gerhan tried to pick himself from the floor, some of the soldiers moved to block Jeremiah's advance as he strode round the projection unit.

"Move aside."

They stood their ground some holding weapons they' drawn.

"I said move aside."

He cared little of the eyes watching him as electrical discharge sparked from his fingers his eyes glowing with menace and fury.

Still the men did not move.

"One last warning, move aside or else."

"Or else what?"

Lyra had drawn we pistol and aimed it at his head.

[MarcoSkoll]

   "Inquisitor Crowe. At this range, if I pull this trigger, you'll be dead before you hit the floor, and no questions will be asked. Do not mistake my next order for a request."

She paused for a couple of seconds to let what she had said sink in. But no longer - giving him the time to figure out a plan could easily be fatal... to someone, at least.

   "Cease. Immediately."

He had either taken her seriously or realised quite how many other guns were pointing at him, because the psychic lightning around his fingers died out. Lyra shifted slightly, making sure she still had a certain shot for the back of his head before glancing sideways for an instant. She could see Kai to one side, hellpistol raised and aimed for Silvina, which would hopefully dissuade her from trying to get involved.

   "Good. Now, explain the meaning of this", ordered Lyra.

Jeremiah began to turn to face her, but she interrupted him.
   "Nuh-uh. Keep looking that way. I know the importance of eye contact to a psyker."
   "He's one of the conspirators. "
   "And you know this how?"

Irritated at having to explain himself, Jeremiah snarled.
   "Every second you delay me endangers us further."
   "You'd better answer quickly then."

He muttered something under his breath which Lyra was sure enough was rude that she didn't bother asking for it to be repeated, before he spoke more clearly.
   "Silv - the dataslate."

Carefully watching the hulking Kasrkin and his considerably sized pistol as she did so, Silvina slowly pulled out the dataslate and moved towards Lyra.

   "If someone else wouldn't mind, I'm a bit busy to read at the moment" , the Inquisitor spoke without breaking her gaze, keeping her eyes fixed on the back of Jeremiah's head.

[Necris]

"The communication records the final one from three days ago."

"That is enough."

He flexed his fingers as a PDF trooper took the slate and read it out.

"Good, now who took command of the PDF three days ago?"

"Lord Gerhan."

He waited for a moment.

"Do you still want to shoot me Inquisitor, so far I have been nothing but proactive in finding those behind this attack, and so far you have treated me with paranoid suspicion that is typical of the Ordo Perditus."

His gaze had been off to one side his head half turned in Lyra's direction but it snapped round looking at the guardsmen before him his voice was a low growl.

"Move."

He stepped forward bearing towards Gerhan.

[MarcoSkoll]

Lyra lowered her revolver, but she wasn't going to leave it at that.

  "Wait."

Jeremiah stopped, the irritation showing on his face again as Lyra stepped forwards. Getting in close enough that only he could hear her, she spoke in a harsh whisper.
  "Pull a stunt like that again and you won't get a chance to explain yourself. I do not tolerate 'silent antihero' acts."

She didn't leave him the time to answer before she pushed her pistol back into its holster, and turned to walk away, speaking as she left, this time clearly enough that others could hear.
  "Whatever you do, he's not much use to us dead. I'd start by confiscating any poisons he might have."

[Necris]

Jeremiah stepped past the guardsmen none daring to challenge him after hearing the damming evidence to stand with Gerhan was to be tarnished with his actions, he stooped and picked the chubby man from the floor lifting him clear from the ground.

"I should kill you for betraying this world, maybe I'll feed you to the daemons, but not before you have told me all I want to know."

He took one of Gerhan's hands and with a quick twist snapped the wrist his cries of pain bringing the chamber to silence, before he broke the other one in the same manner, dropping the whimpering man to the ground he looked to several guards, standing beside Silv,

"Silv take him to a secure room with these guards, make him ready for interrogation."

He cracked his neck and removed his weapons laying them on an empty desk before walking after Lyra. Kai  stepped into his path and he locked eyes with the Karskin, his voice was calm yet threat dripped from it.

"Are you going to strike an Inquisitor trooper?"

He stood silently blocking his path, before stepping allowing Jeremiah to step round him, he noted the storm trooper tense as he did so but ignored it as he spoke.

"Inquisitor!"

She turned looking at him venom in her eyes, he paused looking back at Kai for a second.

"I have done nothing to gain your suspicion, all I have done is act in accordance with my former master's teachings, a former master whom I' remind you is dead on this world along with one of his acolytes, with another one likely to follow him if we do not solve the mystery behind this attack. I have so far found evidence and a suspect yet you treat me with paranoid suspicion, and threats, not to mention with each round of snide remarks and undermining comments you threaten the stability of this garrison, possibly the last garrison in this city maybe the world, we are in charge here all the Inquisitors and you driving a wedge of distrust between us is threatening that leadership and the what moral and courage we have left, if we tear each other apart it will be down to your scaremongering."

He turned looking Kai in the face and paused as he passed him.

"One more thing, the next time you draw a weapon on me you best use it."

He strode back into the command chamber.

"Gideon would you care to be my witness during the interrogation? Lest I plant words in his mouth."

[Zephon]

Bernard emerged from behind the vox-unit. He had placed himself there once it looked like the command chamber was going to host a short-range firefight. He didn't even have a weapon.

"Inquisitor Crowe, my aide can provide an Excruciator if you require one."

Oliver would be here very shortly, and would have brought it with him. Bernard took the dataslate from the guardsman who held it, glanced at the displayed communiqué. Lord Gerhan had argued against reinforcing Inquisitor Crowe and suggested many times a greater effort to save the civilian population. It could be true.

"Daath, copy this dataslate for every Inquisitor here. And signal Captain Henroth to have his Griffons open fire."

Hopefully, the bombardment would delay the daemonic host until Czernarvok was ready. Wyebold turned his thoughts back to the bunker, and remembered something.

"Inquisitor Grant, what have you found?"

[Koval]

"Actually, Jerry, I'm with Inquisitor Rhodes on this one," Gideon admitted after a brief pause. "You see, I don't exactly think it's very conducive to our morale if you're just swanning off without either letting us know why, or if you did find anything, not even telling us what you found out there. You accuse us of not doing our jobs as Inquisitors before you head off into the middle of a daemon-infested city, and then when you come back you don't even give us any indication of why Lord Gerhan is no longer to be trusted. In all honesty, I don't know what's going on, but I don't like it."

"You heard everything, then?" Jeremiah asked after a brief pause.

"It's pretty hard not to," Gideon noted, and I have to admit, he did have a point; Jeremiah wasn't exactly being quiet in there, and with some idiot having nudged the intercom to active, whatever we couldn't hear up the tunnel was being repeated over the vox anyway.

"Gideon, are you an idiot?" I sighed, resisting the urge to clock Gideon round the back of the head. I disliked and distrusted Jeremiah for much the same reasons as Gideon had already suggested, but I wasn't exactly going to be explicit about it with him in the room.

"I make no excuses for my actions; I did what I felt was right for the good of this planet and everybody on it," Jeremiah answered, locking eyes with Gideon. "However, I'll extend you the same offer again; I want you to observe the interrogation, precisely because you don't think you can trust me. A neutral third party may be exactly what we need."

Gideon seemed to ponder this for far too long, and I was actually on the verge of giving him a shove to "help" him make up his mind when he nodded, and silently moved behind Jeremiah in the direction of Lord Gerhan's office.

"Inquisitor Grant?"

I turned and saw Bernard Wyebold waving me over.

"What have you found?" he asked me, and I moved over to him slowly.

"...Sorry?"

"Over by the wall. Or past it. What is it?"

I turned back to the fake wall I'd rammed, and saw Fabio Glosche and Maya Avens standing by it, apparently only just getting back to work clearing away chunks of masonry.

"I don't know," I answered slowly, injecting a sense of purpose into my words. "But I'd rather like to find out."

[Necris]

He strode off with Gideon following.

"Everything I found is in the chimera I requisitioned, when I discovered Gerhan's treachery I thought it best to act before he could interfere more than he already has done."

He staggered slightly his hand reaching out to steadying himself, he was exhausted the strain showing on his face for that briefest moment before he straightened.

"Are you ok?"

"Fine, lets get this over with."

He strode into the office where Gerhan was sat in a chair whimpering at his broken wrists Silv stood beside him waiting, they all turned as Oliver entered.

"Over there,"

He stepped forward hands on either side of Gerhan.

"Do you want to tell me what I want to know, or am I going to have to force it from your lips?"

Gerhan whimpered

"As Inquisitors we are masters of torture, we can drag this out for days, weeks even months but seeing as time if of the essence lets jump to the chase shall we."

He pushed his finger down into Gerhan's leg sparks playing off it he drove it in bringing a fresh scream from Gerhan, pulling the finger free he looking into Gerhan's face.

"Now we have an understanding time is short and I want answers, tell me what the plan was."

[MarcoSkoll]

Lyra moved over to see whatever it was Maya and Fabio were working on. As both Fabio and Ottakar were smoking, the area stank of lho fumes, but Lyra preferred that to having to be anywhere near Jeremiah.

   "I don't need to be psychic to know you're agitated."

Maya didn't actually make eye contact as she said this. It was odd for someone with such social understanding to disregard such an important aspect of communication, but at the same time, her empathic powers meant she had little need to interpret body language. When otherwise occupied, as she was now, she often forgot to make allusions to normal conversation.
It was an irony that she could say such a sentence while simultaneously using her talents.

   "He's a hateful man."
   "I don't much like him either. But his initiative may be what we need."
   "Initiative? I think 'unexplained brutality' suits what he's doing better."
   "Then why let him interrogate Lord Gerhan?"
   "If he truly is a conspirator, Gerhan is fully aware that he doesn't have to hold his silence long, and he's probably hardened to far worse tortures than Inquisitor Crowe can offer. He'll either give them nothing, or give them a pack of lies. It does, however, keep Gerhan away from causing any damage, and makes sure Jeremiah is out of the way, which saves me a bullet."

The psyker broke her concentration on the wall, turning to face the Inquisitor in mild disbelief. This bitterness was totally unexpected from the normally upbeat Lyra. Disregarding Maya's surprise, the Inquisitor changed the topic.

   "What are you doing?".
   "Trying to get through this false wall. Not sure where it leads, but we rather need to know.", Fabio answered, not recognising Lyra's unusual behaviour.
   "Right.", she nodded.

She looked up and down the wall, poking at it, then apparently reached a conclusion. Thinking briefly, she then turned and disappeared off.

   "Where's she off to?", Fabio asked as she left via one of the other doors.
   "I have no idea. She's just normally... this is way out of what's usual for her."
   "You think she's unwell?"
   "I think it's that other Inquisitor. That argument must been more heated than I thought."

They looked back as she re-emerged through the door, a smallish red object grasped in her hand. Striding over, she forced it into one of the many cracks in the wall, then looked sideways at the other two.

    "You might want to move."

She pulled the pin.

[Caralinus]

Arisha put her hands over her ears and opened her mouth as she had been taught to do as the krak grenade went off. The exchange between the Inquisitors had opened her eyes to the huge devisions within the Inquisition. She had never truly believed that the Inquisition was anything other than a unified front but what she had seen here shattered that illusion completely.

Fabio waved a hand trying to clear the dust the filled the room and squinted into the opening. With a slight cough he straitened and sighed. "Well that wasn't nearly as useful as it should have been." There was a definite clear opening now but beyond several feet there was only a black tunnel. Deciding that she had had enough of hiding in the corner, Arisha stepped forward, clicking on a luminator and shining down the passageway.

For roughly five yards there was a smooth machine cut wall and beyond that, descending quickly into a sharp corner was rough stone.

   "Whose going in first then?" Lyra arched one eyebrow, glancing around at the rest of them.