WH40K (M&M): Agents of the Inquisition

“Hmm, well that’s certainly interesting.” The dark, somber form of Inquisitor Loren Duvaun gazes out at the gray-blue planetoid spinning slowly in space before you. A storm of asteroids slowly approaches the planet, pale blue sunlight glinting now and then where it strikes armor plating.

This world is Majeskus 16, one of a great many moons that survived the aftermath of the destruction of their world at the hands of a joint Adeptus Astartes and Inquisitional task force 43 years before. The star system is littered with junk and floating bits of Majeskus Primal. Miners and settlers came to the system almost 36 years ago to mine the rich veins of ore floating in space for those with both the will to take it and the courage to brave the unstable orbits of the remaining moons and the dense asteroid field.

The Arctic Dawn arrived in-system 16 hours before, her powerful void shields have spared her the impacts of the smaller asteroids and her gun batteries and lance arrays have cut away or pushed away the larger ones. “You will make your way to the moon below and see if you can find any trace of the Pride of December. Once you find it I leave it to your discretion whether your disable it or not, but in any case, vox the Arctic Dawn so that we can keep her on the sensor grid. After that see if you can find out just what Jaina Splinth and her retinue are up to here.” He pauses, regarding each of you in turn. “I’m afraid time is of the essence here, those asteroids,” he points to a long string of largish red-brown rocks that seem to be making their way steadily to the planetoid below. “…aren’t asteroids. This world will shortly be overrun by orks. For this reason I’m seconding Kai Tokaru to your group.” He indicates a tall slim man of oriental descent, something of a rarity in this age. “He is a specialist with orks, defer to his knowledge where the greenskins are concerned.”

“I will be staying with the Arctic Dawn; we’ll do what we can to stave off the invasion from here and buy you some more time.”

Jaina Splinth, kind of a dumb name, innocuous and frivolous-sounding… in reality anything could be further from the truth. You remember the initial briefing 8 months ago when this case came to your team. Grew up on Cadia, the very gateway to the Eye of Terror. She trained with Cadia’s best, quickly distinguishing herself as a peerless mind and an exceptional officer. Inducted into the Inquisition at age 34 and being awarded the title of Inquisitor by the ago of 46; record time due to her talents. She was a model inquisitor for nearly 80 years before going off the grid on special status, from which she never returned. 40 years ago she was linked in a random Chaos Cult take down; she’d apparently become quite the weapon supplier and cult facilitator in the years since she’d disappeared. A Rogue Inquisitor is a blight on the reputation of the entire Inquisition; you were dispatched to take her down immediately.

2 months ago you tracked her to the Typhus-9 Star Fortress and orchestrated a sting operation with the local Adeptus Arbites; permanently destroying her capacity to facilitate transportation and weapon runs in the sector. While several of her ranking officers were arrested, she and her closest companions escaped on the Pride of December, a heavily retrofitted space marine strike cruiser; who knows where she got a hold of one of those.

In any case, you eventually tracked her here though you know not why she’s here on this primitive ball of frozen ore and mud.

Boarding one of the Arctic Dawn’s bulk lifters, you make your way down to the only settlement on Majeskus-16, known as the Terrarium. The bulk lifter settles down in the thin atmosphere and you disembark via a walkway shrouded in void fields, holding back the weak atmosphere and occasional vacuum storms that plague this world. Vorryn Kim, Inquisitor Loren’s field medic and sometime pilot remains with the bulk lifter, organizing evacuation teams and coordinating with the planetoid authorities, the Majeskus-16 Mining Consortium and its security teams.

Various dirty, dusty smelter-menials, miners and clerks roam the streets. Standing near a garbage can nearby, smoking an Iho-stick, is a large, soot-stained bald man with obvious vat-grown muscles and the acid-tattoos of a hive ganger, regards you curiously. Alarm klaxons blare annoyingly in the background, those most of the locals seem to pay it no mind; either they don't know the nature of the emergency or this has happened all too many times in the past.

Available locations:

• Your bulk lifter, AX1-06
• Various other freighter/lifter berths.
• The medicae center (frontier hospital/clinic)
• The Commercia (massive marketplace/mall where local miners display their ore samples and barter their services, goods and/or supplies to each other and the Corsortium).
• The Port Authority (small squat building housing the shipping records for the system).
• The Primary and Secondary Smelters and Ore Processing Fabricoriams.
• Office Stack-01 and Office Stack-03 (stack-02 is an ancient wreck with a massive rock in the middle of it).
• The Central Temple, 4 stories tall and plated in silver.
• Hab Stack-A10, A11 and A12

Interrogator Vossler steps off the walkway into the dingy corridors of the settlement and pauses, looking one way...then another with long, considering stares. The air is thick and rank with the smells of rock, fire and human fluids. Sweat, mostly. Maybe some blood. The two never seemed far from each other.

Aridha wasn't carrying a large rifle, a bolter or plasma thrower or lasgun, as many of the Inquisition did. Only the force rod at her waist gave hint of the hell she could unleash without any such aids. She was a psyker; both master of and victim to powerful mental energies that could manifest in the physical plane. Vulnerable to the Warp's unhinging influence, yet also one of the few that could truly fight it on its own terms. She felt not just the stink of this place's smells, but the stink of its minds as well.

But not of the one she was looking for. Not yet.

Satisfied that agents of their target weren't lurking behind cover with weapons, she reaches up to take her helmet off, revealing a shock of somewhat scruffy red hair, a little longer than regulation length though not reaching past her shoulders, and a surprisingly pretty face that would be hard-pressed to inspire any kind of fear were it not for her eyes. Ice-blue and as piercing as a lasgun, her eyes carried all the gravitas and dignity that her pleasant looks could not...along with the unspoken assertion and threat of power held in check only by discipline and whim.

She turns her head a little to address her fellows and says, "I'm thinking we should check the Medicae, to see if anyone's been hurt or killed by the traitor or her servants...the Commericia to see if any miners saw her ship come down...the Central Temple could have information helpful in determining what she's after here...and...well, that's enough to start with. Thoughts?"

“When cities burn and armies turn, and flee in disarray,
Cowards will say ‘tis best to fly and fight another day,
But the faithful know it in the marrow when to die and fall,
It is better to have fought and lost, than not to have fought at all.”

Closing her prayer book, Battle Sister Isabella ponders the rightness of those words as she stands when the bulk lifter’s landing pad finally cycles open. Wearing her Battle Sister Power Armour (helmless for now so no life-support), she notes the ‘rift-raff’ hanging about the landing area and shakes her head in disgust. Thinking these dregs are wasting time that could better be spent in prayer and devotion to the Emperor. Mayhap, she thinking, I should dismember a few to set an example for the others? No, we are on a just mission of the Holy Inquisition and that must take precedence over saving these worthless lot from the warp they are heading for…

She scans the area, watching for any signs of ambush, that she fully expecting at any moment, her hands resting easily on her Storm Bolter. Ready at a moments notice to unleash purifying fire unto this whole place if need be. Seeing none, she relaxes her finger off the trigger stud… but does not remove it.

“‘Emperor, show mercy to the fool whom would stand against me, for I shall not’” she mutters under her breath. She then remains silent, listening to Interrogator Vossler’s decisions as where to proceed.

Thinking a moment she says “‘A good soldier obeys without question. A good officer commands without doubt.’ Where you wish to start, I stand ready to fellow Interrogator. For the sooner we discover this heratic, the sooner we shall leave this forsaken place.”


[All sound like good places to start to me. But want to establish that Isabella is a good soldier and tends to ‘follow’ orders, not give them]

Kai Tokaru followed the two women into the stench of the settlement, knowing that now was not the time to worry about secrecy. They were about as conspicuous as humanly possible. The meat on a stick watching them looked to be small time gangster, just the sort of guy Kai would have worked on in the past, needling his way up through the filters of scum until he finally found his way to the true holder of knowledge. Not this time, not with these guys around him. Subtlety was out.

He kept his mouth shut. He wasn't one of the team yet, thrust upon them, but not yet of them. This was going to be tough, and if they were not careful they would be over the news by nightfall.

"She knows we are here" he muttered, before taking a few steps over to the hive-gangster. "Got a light?" he muttered, pulling an iho-stick from his top pocket and placing it between his lips.

OOC: If the gangster is open to conversation, the Kai will be sensing motive (to see if he is perhaps on lookout for their arrival). Otherwise, he is going to jolly well smoke his Iho-stick and let the guys decide where to go.

Up close, the ganger is huge, with bushy black beard and blood-shot eyes. Kai asks for a light and he grunts and produces a match. He nods to the power armored battle-sister. "Who da wrench? You all a tool crew? New talent brought in ta keep the hard-heads," he nods towards the Arbites Fortress, "...outta the smelter-stacks?"

Kai notes that his initial assessment was correct. Low-level ganger skum; unsubtle and uneducated, no prospects and no future. Despite the local jargon, Kai understands that a 'wrench' is likely 'muscle' and a 'tool crew' would likely be a group of muscle.

The preacher, Marcus, views the landscape and people. Though he finds both lacking he keeps it to himself for now. Weapons and book by his side he turns to the others.

Marcus watches his comrades as they leave the walkway, and he follows. Pleased by their demenor, he listens to the interrogator, and replies. "Aye, That sounds smart Interrogator. Which first, or'in we be splitting up?"

"She knows we are here"

Click to expand...

Aye.

Dante stepped off the lift and glanced at the gangster for a moment, as he contemplated starting his footwork at this very spot. Once he noticed Kai heading towards the man, he decided against it since he felt that one person was enough to pump information from that gangster.

He took a lungful of the settlement's soot filled air, then began to walk towards the Battle Sister and the Inquisitor, staying a few steps behind the preacher. "From where I stand, Kai has the right idea. We gotta get friendly with the locals if we want to find our quarry. We could easily find out some information from legit sources, but if the Rogue Inquisitor is friendly with the locals, I doubt we would find her before the green skins arrive."

"The Commercia and the smelters would be good places to start making some friends..."

Blake walked down the lift's ramp, directly behind and to the right of Aridha, taking in the scene with one attentive glance. He absently runs his hand across his shaved head (his helmet safe in his backpack along with his disassembled rifle). He watches Kai and the ganger talk with apparent disinterest, at the same time leaning towards the Interrogator.
"The Battle Sister and Preacher are going to attract too much attention." he whispers in Aridha's ear. Then, louder, but in a quiet, bland voice. ""We should split up. They can investigate the Medicae, and Dante and Kai can talk to the locals at the Commercia."

Aridha considers, and nods.

"Marcus and Isabella, go to the Temple. Your task is twofold. If we know what the traitor is after, we'll be able to predict her actions. Since I doubt she's intending to open a mining operation, the answer more likely lies in the history of Majeskus Primal, why it was destroyed, and what might have escaped destruction. We can easily get the official information, but I'm more interested in the local version for now. See what the Temple knows. The second task is to be vigilant for signs of infiltration. The traitor has aided chaos cults before, there may be one here as well. For communication purposes you'll be Team One. Marcus is in charge."

She adds, "Subtlety is not part of your task. Use the full authority of the Inquisition."

"Blake, you and I will check the Medicae and see if there's been any unusual injuries or deaths recently. If there IS a cult here, they may go farther back then Jaina's arrival. We're Team Two."

"Dante and Kai, go to Commercia and see what the miners and underworld know. Mix and mingle however you need to. You two will keep a low official profile, and will be Team Three."

"If there's any trouble, for anyone, call for backup immediately. Where we're standing right now will be our rendezvous location unless I specify otherwise on a secure line of communication. Report in every two hours, or when significant progress has been made. If two hours goes by and no report, we'll assume you need help. Any questions?"

Blake nods. "Understood". He smiles "Lets all try not to get into trouble on the first day.". He pats the top of his pistol, resting in its quick draw holster on his right leg.
(OOC: Blake's wearing dirty civvies over his bodysuit, and all his obvious stuff - like his rifle, mask, etc, is in his backpack.)