The Agents decide to use the various access tunnels and shafts that they've been using previously to get around the vessel in order to get to the main bridge. A team consisting of much of Lucien's remaining 'staff' have been sent to the previously discovered gun-cutter to both secure it for study and to potentially use it as an escape vessel should it be possible. Lucien took his remaining 'projects' with him as protection while he attempted to prevent the ship from exploding around them and the acolyte team headed to the bridge in an attempt to re-take the vessel and activate the Murder Servitors that should have been protecting the Corvus.
While almost at the bridge the vox crackles to life. They recognise the voice as the Tech-priest who was sent to the gun-cutter "We've tried to get through to Lucien but he's not answering his Vox...we were ambushed by some of those lizard things you described...they took us completely by surprise, not even that creation of Luciens detected their approach which was a shock...We lost most of the engineers and that thing of the Magos's got torn to pieces almost immediately...If it hadn't been for Bruul we'd have been slaughtered...." There's a brief pause "Anyway were here now and Xanthis was correct, this device is an extremely convoluted gene encoded security device and it's booby trapped. With the right sample we can deactivate it simply but without it we've a very low chance of success" "Luciens last order was to secure the vessel to use as potential escape craft should we be able to disable the security measures, I'm not sure what he'd want us to do now, what are your orders?"
The agents decide to leave the remains of the gun-cutter team where they are and continue to the bridge. After some consultation with Xanthis about the optimum route, Interrogator Kallos and the Death Cultist Varn decided to sneak along several ventilation shafts parallel to the bridges entrance chamber and having made it to a good vantage point undetected Kallos uses his Vox to transmit what he hears to the rest of his team...
The access area to the main bridge is surprisingly empty of enemies, though the ones that Kallos can see are extremely formidable looking and there are several who seem to be obviously in charge of this aspect of the operation. Stationed centrally in the chamber is a large six legged robot some twenty feet tall, both it's arms are giant claws that crackle with dark energies, it's one shoulder mounts a pair of heavy calibre cannons and the other has some sort of large nozzeled weapon (presumably a Flame weapon of some description) but these seem relatively harmless when compared to the gigantic cannon protruding from it's chest. It occasionally pans across the approach to the chamber before turning to a figure in ornately decorated Power Armour at the centre of what you can only presume is an honour guard of some form. They have similar armour to their leader though it's less heavily ornamented. Each is armed and armoured in a way that is far superior to anything you've encountered so far. A mechanical voice, completely void of expression emanates from a grill in what you presume is the gigantic monstrosities head "Your sure their on the way?"
Xanthis identifies this monstrosity as a Chaos Defiler though he notes that one that displays any kind of intelligence should be considered unusual.
The figure in the ornate armour turns to answer "Our informant's information has been faultless up to now...I have no reason to doubt his commitment to our cause at this late juncture...It must look like we are attempting to kill them as well for the ruse to work however which is why our most formidable forces have been allocated where they are"
Several of the Throne Agents begin to have suspicions about the role of Lucien in this attack as he seems suspiciously absent at moments of danger and the amount of circumstantial evidence against him is growing with each encounter...
The armoured figure turns to another individual "Malaki, how are our forces fairing?"
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| 'Malaki' disciple of Magos Vathek |
"These acolytes are far more resilient than we expected. Even the specifically selected assassins only managed to terminate the lesser members of Crowes teams though several of them were apparently wounded" There's a brief pause as more controls are manipulated on the strange Servitor "Engineering has apparently been cleared of our forces...but that was to be expected now wasn't it. I told you we'd need something more than cannon fodder and the look-alike of some dead whore to guarantee success...the secondary plan is a far more viable course of action given his loyalties...or lack thereof..."
This particular statement does little to clear Luciens name, unfortunately...
"Though we are nearing full control of the ships systems now that no-ones countering our efforts the damage to the vessel is severe...They'll be on our way here as we predicted and despite their reputation they will fall before Crassus...and your own might of course" he adds somewhat as an afterthought. The Power armoured figure then speaks again "Considerable resources have been allocated to this operation and the consequences to ourselves should we fail...her...don't bear considering..."
Xanthis suddenly screamed in pain as the device he took from the first Tech-Priest they encountered has returned to life, tendrils and spikes slice through his armour and embed themselves into his flesh. Xanthis hurls the device away and attempts to use his Web Pistol to pin it in place but unfortunately it explodes before he can render it safe
Kallos then hears the Tech-priest say "We have company..." and the enemies on the bridge turn towards the sound of the explosion...
Xanthis identifies the iconography on the armour of the Chaos Marines as that of Khorne and given the attitude of Khorne followers to combat and Psykers a plan is agreed upon. It is decided that several of the acolytes (with Atellus, the teams Psyker amongst them) will lure the Khorne worshippers away from the bridge access in order to destroy them by ambush without the support of the Defiler or the Tech-priest and his Servitors. Varn and Atellus stand in the doorway in order to lure the warriors towards them and after a miraculous avoidance of a Battle Cannon shell fired at them Atellus cries of "Hi, I'm a Psyker" have the desired effect...
Atellus seems to have the Emperor watching over him as seven Bolt Pistol shots miss him completely and the eighth hits but does no damage...Then from their various ambush sites the agents manage to defeat their enemies with a combination of precision fire-power, lethal close combat attacks and a bit more luck, though several of them are wounded and three of the Guardsmen are slaughtered. Just as the team is catching their breaths the Defiler enters the corridor...
Varn slides under the Possessed creation slicing through any cables or bits of machinery that look vital while the rest of the team with any kind of suitable weapon attempt to pierce it's armour. A perfectly placed shot from Lyra's Plasma Pistol finishes of the vile Chaos creation and the resulting explosion fortunately fails to kill any of the team that were standing nearby. Having eliminated the bridges most potent defenders the acolytes of Crow then destroyed the Tech-Priest guarding the bridge entrance using a combination of high explosives and overwhelming fire-power.
Once the battle ends Lucien appears with what is increasingly looking like convenient timing. He immediately walks over to the strange looking Servitor and starts to examine it carefully... "I think I can open the bridge using this interface..." The Bridge then opens with a mechanical grinding of gears...Inside the bridge are a selection of bridge crew members that are armed with a variety of las and other low penetration weapons. the most senior looking person seems to recognise you and runs over...
"Thank goodness your here...Is that bastard dead?"
After a brief conversation it's evident that she's not talking about the Chaos Marines, Tech-priests or the Defiler. "Not them...Lucien..." The bridge officer continues "As soon as Crow was out of the way he had all the control protocols for the Murder Servitors channelled through to engineering together with bypasses for all the other systems... Every-time we tried to get a system on-line he just shut it down again. As soon as we saw you we knew he must be dead..."
Lucien then enters the bridge to a somewhat frostier reception than even he's used to.....A debate then ensues during which Lucien points out the inconsistencies with the hypothesis that he is the traitor that unfortunately for him appear to be falling on deaf ears...It looks like a violent confrontation is imminent. When all the attention is on Lucien, the Throne Agents are suddenly ambushed by a selection of Las and Autogun fire to the back...Apparently the bridge crew are not what they appeared to be.....
Unfortunately the aliens have grossly underestimated the level of alertness that becomes innate in a team that has survived the dangers that this group has and the ambush is a failure though for some reason the sight of their transformation causes Mann's nerve to break and he runs from the battle and only returns when the enemies have been defeated. The bridge is a mess, several important consoles have been smashed by weapons fire and there are bits of alien splattered all over the floor and walls...
"So you really thought I had betrayed you all then...?" says Lucien though he doesn't seem as surprised as you might expect. He then walks back outside to the weird looking Servitor and plugs himself back into it...
"This ship isn't going to last much longer without repairs that we have neither the resources, the opportunity nor the time to implement I'm afraid" "We're in a race to repair our ship before they repair theirs and that's a race we're certain to lose..." "and worryingly most of the remaining enemy forces now seem to be heading this way"
The acolytes take a tissue sample from the dead Tech-priest to check if it's the code they need to disable the lock on the gun-cutter and they discover that when combined with a device discovered on the body of the aliens leader it becomes so. The actual bridge crew are found dead in various storage cupboards and rooms adjacent to the deck. Some have been dead for weeks, others just days.
Lucien returns to the bridge with dire news. "I can only think of one viable solution to our problem...I'll move the Corvus closer to the enemy ship, use the teleporter to transport myself and whatever servitors I can get together to the enemy ship and do as much damage as I can while you escape in the gun-cutter..If there was somebody else to do the job I'd get them to do it but unfortunately I'm the only person with enough knowledge of spaceship design to know where to hit to cause the maximum disruption" "As for the gun-cutter It's not really designed for deep space travel but there's a cold trade smuggler who uses a certain asteroid field nearby as a base. He supplies to one of Lyras gun runner friends so she might be able to call in a favour and get transport to Magnolia which is apparently both the source of this operation against us and coincidentaly was where our next mission was to be"
"How do I know?"
"I had heard there's trouble on the planet from some of my contacts there and Inquisitor Meridina was given the job of sorting it out...she was planning on having you all replaced and use this ship as her base of operations to sort out the problem using her own operatives" He then hands Kallos a dataslate. "The mission details are on here"
He also hands a dataslate to Lyra "Here's a list of all my contacts on Magnolia. The ones who will help you if you drop my name are listed as well...I wouldn't tell them what's happened to me though...most of them only do what I ask because they're afraid of what might happen to people they care about should they refuse..." It's obvious that such a list would have considerable value for any-one wishing to involve themselves in Magnolia's underworld.
He throws Xanthis a portable cogitator "Some light reading for the trip...none of the others would understand most of it anyway" Even a brief look at the information on the unit shows a library of lore that probably shouldn't be in one place though it does appear from the file numbering system that several files have been removed.
"Now go on before I change my mind" Lucien turns and starts to interface with one of the bridge consoles "Well...what are you waiting for?"
The rest of the Throne Agents reach what's left of the luxury crew quarters deck to find it in the same state of destruction as they left it and then the vox crackles to life, it's Lucien. "The course is set, and I'm nearly back at the teleporter...give me 15 more minutes and then get the hell out of there..." The team grabs what gear they can before joining the members of Luciens crew that were sent to the gun-cutter. Between Xanthis and Borgia the encryption device is disabled and the cutter is free to go. The last thing detected by the ships scanners as it leaves is a massive explosion that can only have come from an exploding starship power core...
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