Chapter 5: Rook takes Knight.

The time for the meeting with your new captain approaches. Many questions remain unanswered.

Turning back to Rondez, Val says, "If I may suggest, I've seen Nas here in action and I believe he'd serve well as your Master of Ordnance or, alternatively, your Master-At-Arms. Kuros here, although having had a run of bad luck, would serve you well as Master Helmsman. And I submit myself for the position of Enginseer Prime."

Kuros leads you into the cockpit of your newly aquired ship. Instantly you see or rather don't see any controls or gages of what you have come to expect of ships. In fact the cockpit is entirely empty save for an imposing throne. Kuros gestures for you to sit.

Needles attached to thin black cables leap out at you from both the throne and ceiling. You scream in terror as the plunge into your body. The pain is immense but over quickly. When the pain is over and you are pinned to the throne by the needles. Two much thicker needoes decent to level with your eyes. The hover mockingly in front of your eyes before sliding in. You scream as you feel them slowly penetrate your pupils. You open your eyes and instead of seeing the cockpit you feel like your looking down on top of the bomber while at the same time seeing the tip foward.

Kuros sits at the side consul as Cpt. Rendezvues screams he smiles a knowing smile. The eldar are strangely masochistic, aren't they captain!?

He looks over to Nas and gives him a salute. Sorry to introduce myself so late, was busy sleeping off the needles in the eyes. I'm Kuros the pilot and pistol whipper extraordinaire.

At the thought of taking off the bomber's engines roar and you jet away uncontrollably. Through Kuros' yelled instructions and sheer force of will you manage to avoid hitting the many dock hands and servitors while also staying well clear machinery that your sure was placed there will the sole purpose of killing you. After 23.23869 terrifying seconds you clear the edge of the platform and rocket into low orbit, only having 3 or 4 near crashes.

On the deck at your thought the needles retract causing more excruciating pain.

Kuros, as Ronda gets out of the throne a voice whispers. "Why her. You alone."

Kuros and I certainly know where the Whispering Cairns is located. But be ready to encounter more Eldar. Unless they've withdrawn after the hive city assault, the Eldar had a whole compound set up within those caves. As Kuros explained to me, they were essentially a faction of Eldar slavers and torturers. They had an army of human scavengers working for them... It was those scavs that shot down Kuros' guncutter, The Poet."

Let's pull up some scematics and plan our strategy.

So we head in, clear the area, repair the unit then pull off our extraction. Kuros says with what he hopes looks like confidence.

The interesting items on the inventory list are:
9x Psyk-out Grenades.
26x Splinter Rifles
1x Ad Mech Galvanic Blast Rifle
1x Ork Power Klaw
2x Ork Captive
1x Myrmidon Captive
Various ordnance for the bomber

What are you taking down to the surface with you?

I say we also go and talk to the captives. They might be willing to help us in exchange for their freedom.

"So should we head out Captain?"

As you are discussing your plan of action a hand to one of your Astropaths nervously pokes his head through the door. "Ah excuse me lords but my mistress wanted to inform you that the hives defense force has mobilized and appears to be heading towards the dark elder compound."

With Kuros flying the Belladonna you set off. A small fleet of ships follows behind you. The journey into orbit is uneventful if not a little boring. The first thing that you see is a vast sea of imperial vehicles packed with solemn soldiers of the Imperial Army. A sleek plane of a design you have never seen before hovers slowly above.

Jetting away you see the Whispering Carins just over the horizon. As agreed you set down leaving just you to carry on.
as you reach about 10km the ships comms lights up and a voice comes through. "Bomber approach state your serial number and entry code now."

"Ha ha that's probably the best response we've got all night. Most people panic as they have no idea what to say. You're all good to land at bay 43." Laughing continues to come over the comms for almost a minute.

You touch down, stepping out the bay is chaotic as the eldar have finally seemed to notice that a horde of imperials are coming for them. Looking at the map drawn by Cyrek and comparing it to the information on the data slate you see you have two options. Go through the Eldar camp or take the longer route around the outside side of the camp.

Well, it seems if we can take out the fortress gun wall, the rest will be easier. Or can we juat sneak in?

A pure white armoured humanoid, brandishing a huge sword with ease, steps out into the gateway. "You think we didn't come to wage war?" He says opening his arms and gesturing to inside the caverns. "We see your army coming and are looking forward to crushing it under the heel of our boots. The screams will be music to my ears and food for my soul. Then we will take your women and your children back to our home and subject them to unspeakable horrors."

The hololith flickered slightly, the poor quality of the pict-capture device proving more than a little distracting - a fact that contributed precisely nothing to the already-limited reserves of sympathy the viewer felt for the sickly individual it portrayed. The man's face was gaunt almost to the point of starvation, hair lank and greasy, eyes staring with badly-dilated pupils that darted between the picter and an unseen point beyond. "You see, Master Aubray, I cannot make this month's payment. Trade has been bad for the hive this quarter, expected mineral gains have not been located, the flow of resources is stifled and every throne must be stretched to meet costs. I am aware of Madame Ragnar's expectations, but if I were to make the payments in full then critical services about the hive would be left unfunded. Health centres, scholae, arbitrators, we must fund these," the man paused, swallowing, the fear palpable in his eyes. The viewer rolled his in turn, but watched on. "I'm sure you must understand, Sir, and your Mistress by extension, if this quarter's payments are not made. The balance will be restored soon of course, for Madame Ragnar is a most valued contributor to our humble hive, and we are as ever thankful for your custom," the man looked definitively relieved as he gave the most cursory "Ave Imperator," and ended the pict-recording, and his viewer could well understand why. He cracked his knuckles with a satisfying pop, before activating the pict-capter on his own desk.

"Hive-Master Plennik, I have asked you before not to speak through your intermediaries. They irk me. I understand that you cannot make your payments for this quarter, of course - I see that amasec prices have tripled recently in your sub-sector, and the plantation riots on Havanar V are wreaking havoc on tabac supplies, which must be so hard for you and your fellow nobles. I'm sure you'll understand in turn if your supply shipments don't arrive this quarter. Madame Ragnar does not appreciate it when her time is wasted and respect is lacking in her customers. You will no doubt need those arbitrators when the population start asking after their grain shipments. I look forward to receiving the next set of payments, at double the previous figure. After that, we can discuss the return of your hive's food shipments. A pleasure as always," he clicked off the pict-capter, allowing his disdainful sneer to break into a broad, satisfied grin. He leaned back in his chair, reached across his desk to take up a tumbler of genuine millenial joiliq, from which he took a self-satisfied sip, and reached for his intercom control.

"Monck," he hailed his secretary outside, an earnest young man with two augmetic legs, a testament to the right sort of Guard service. "Pass on this message to Hive-Master Plennik on Castrio. See if we can't get some of our friends in the hive gangs to deliver it. Then have our supply ships sit in orbit for a week or so, really let them stew."

"Yes, sir."

Alessander Cornelius di Benzies-Aubray clicked off the intercom, took another moment to savour the happy position in which he found himself, and then leaned back into the screen of the cogitator built into his broad, neo-oak desk. The list of memos and documents for his attention was still enough to make him almost balk, and even as he watched a large set more arrived in his inbox, but he was in a good mood, one fuelled by alcohol from another millenium and the command of the sort of power lost of his old colleagues would have given one eye for, and he set to it happily.

"Let's see...bill...bill...bill...invitation to...I think not!...bill...a Kni-what?" This last document brought him up sharp. He'd been quite firm in instituting the requirement that every financial effort made involving any of Lady Ragnar's assets be filed and reported to him immediately, usually so he had plenty of warning of when he'd have to pay a visit to someone and channel his old drill abbot, Father Skott, in making his disapproval of wasteful spending quite clear. So what he hadn't expected was for Lady Ragnar herself to have quietly requisitioned the assets necessary to secure and recover a crashed Knight-Titan on the planet they orbited even now. The fuel costs for the recovery shuttle alone stretched into the hundreds of thousands of thrones, not to mention the cost of deploying the combat servitors. More money and more resources were going into this single endeavour than were being spent in whole subsectors of profitable activity. Simply put, this was an extravagance they - almost - could not afford.

Fortunately, it was merely almost unaffordable. Lady Ragnar may not have been the wealthiest Rogue Trader in the Imperium, but she still had access to resources greater than some feral worlds, and this was just another expression of their use. But one he ought to supervise personally.

He rolled his neck joints. It had been too long since he'd gone out in the field, and he really ought to 'supervise' the asset retrieval. Besides, it might be fun. Retrieving the battered old hellgun from his quarters filled him with a sense of warm nostalgia, but unlike so many deployments into hot dropzones in the back of a shaking Valkyrie, he was very pleased to make his ride down to the surface in the comfort of a grav-couch aboard one of the Solanasae's landers. He barely even noticed as the craft's steep descent shifted into a stationary hover above the rapidly-growing Imperial military camp, before settling down on a temporary landing pad etched into the dust of the plains. Emerging from the craft, he flagged down a passing serf in the robes of House Ragnar, and demanded directions towards her ladyship. Receiving them, he was able to flag down a passing Salamander reconnaissance vehicle, and one short assertion of authority he was making his heavily-armed way towards what he was becoming increasingly sure was more than just a simple recovery of a very profitable machine, a notion reaffirmed when the Salamander skewed to a halt atop a ridge overlooking a xenos compound.

His expression curdled to a sneer. Dark Eldar. So that was how it was going to be. He checked the charge on his hellgun, loosened his pistol in its holster, and set off towards Lady Ragnar as she stood several hundred metres off, accompanied by three others he did not recognise - likely the new crew he had received reports on. What was a lot less reassuring was the sight ahead of one of the xenos emerging from the compound, and he opened up to a jog as he moved to meet them.

"Lady Ragnar," he greeted her as he approached. "A fine day for an excursion planetside, but I'm sure I could have recommended a more pleasant resort. Or at least one with more amenable hosts," he sized up the xeno, already considering his opening move.

"Oh yeah, totally hitting on her." Kuros answers earnestly. He leaves his gun in his holster. He seems to have forgotten he has it. Still whispering "I must admit, this is very exciting, we have a full crew and we are negotiating instead of shooting. Let's see if our talkie talkie commander is up to snuff!"

"Well then let's cut the chatter." He laughs swinging his massive blade and charging.

"Cry me a warp fueled river."

He jumps and hits Ronda in her shoulder. (15 damage pen 6)

Several female figures flip over the walls landing effortlessly they fan out a wild chorus of screams washes over you and they charge. (They end 15 feet from the closest of you)

As you worry about the charging Elder a hail of splinter fire spitters around you. (Nas and Kuros take 6 damage pen 5 no toughness)

Nas fires at a wytch she takes the bullet which blows her off path and sends her tumbling into the dirt. She lies there, unconscious or dead your unsure.

As the battle rages on you hear two ominous sounds. First the sound of shelling as Basilisks and Madusa start their bombardment of the base. The second is much closer, the terrifying screams of tortured beasts.

The incubi tries to dodge the stream of melta but it catches him full in the chest burning away at his white armour. With a rose of pain he leaps on top of the nearest servitor. He carves its head off and lands next to the wounded Ronda.

Wytchs and servitors engage in a brutal melee. Machine screams mingle with more human screams. You cannot tell which side is winning until blasts of dark energy cut through the remaining servitors.

Then the ground below you cracks and shakes. Explosions rock all along the defence structures. Anyone with knowledge of imperial guard equipment recognizes Medusea shells striking the defences.

Weaving your way through various rock outcrops using the remaining murder servitors to strategically hold up anyone who might be chasing you. You stumble back to the ship in time to see a full scale battle breakout between the hive forces and the dark eldar. What shocks any of you with even basic imperial knowledge is the fact that the living saint Valentina is soaring above the battlefield dueling with a much less impressive, lightning-fast figure. She radiates holiness and anyone of the imperial creed feels compelled to join the fight.

As you stand discussing your next course of action you receive a comms message from your ship. "Captain, two things first the good news is we have found you a path through to the knight, it looks fairly simple to get to. The bad news is you better hurry as it appears a large mass of something moving very fast is headed your way. I'll send directions through to your auspex."

The directions seem to follow the side of the eldar base then take a turn into a separate caves seem. As you receive this you hear a rabid barking sound.

Sprinting through the twisting trails you following the rough directions on the auspex. With every step the barking seems to get louder, as you turn the last corner before entering the cave system you see a mass of four legged creatures scrambling over each other to get to you. The caves are surprisingly large but seem to absorb any light from the sun as well as your weapon lights providing only 10ft of vision. The cave smells terrible and when you get close to the walls a puss like liquid oozing down the walls, rotting corpses litter the ground all facing away from where you are headed. The darkness seems to have no affect on what's following you as the baying grows ever closer. Then you come around the final corner a rusted iron door greets you. The same puss oozes down it. The door stands slightly ajar and the barking gets closer.

The door is far to heavy to move far but you manage to make leaver it open, just enough to squeeze through, with your combined efforts. After you have gone through the door Kuros notices his sword blade is rusting away while Val's boot starts to rot.

Kuros throws the sword away. "Fraggety frag!!!"

"Nas!!!"

You think you could bring down the side you just came through but it would trap you inside as when looking around you see no exits besides this door. In fact the only thing you can see is a metal floor covering the right side of the cave. You assume the knight you were looking for is buried somewhere under here.

You spread out to search the cavern, avoiding the streams of acid carving a path in the floor, looking around the cavern seems man made but man made by a warp corrupted crazy person. Ronda takes a step forward looking at the strange pattern of spikes on the ceiling and almost falls down a crevasse. Looking down her eyes light up with an unimaginable glee as she sees her prize, an imperial knight lying on it side 50 meters below her, surrounded but untouched by the same acid.

Kuros looks over the edge and scratches his head.

Nas looks at his whip and the strange pattern of spikes on the ceiling and down.

"Anyone know if those ceiling spikes are good for taking down? Also who of you is light enough to help me impale them down the incline?"

Kuros watches Nas with respect to his daring do.