Hmm… Starting to
Wonder Why I Came Here…
((OOC Note: A few of
the NPC statements are written in the jump, not by me.))
The few
soldiers that I brought along and me pulled ourselves out of the airlock after
it had opened, the atmosphere having already vented and the artificial gravity
having been turned off. As we came out, I fired off a two-round burst of plasma
at one of the flying men that were coming toward us. “All this from an auspex,
heh. Wonderful!” I stated over the radio, which someone commented ‘Sir, that
was a vox, not an auspex.’, just as one of the Hollow Men, as one of the men
called them as they seemed to be hollow suits, came close enough that I had to
grab him by the hydraulic claw and, after hooking my foot into one of the maintenance
handles on the ship, spin him around into the ship.
“Now is not
the time for the correction, Virginia!” I brought up my boot and slammed my
heel into the face plate to keep him pinned down, my plasma gun coming up to
blast my opponent straight in the chest. As eruptions of plasma came out from
around us, one of the other soldiers took out one of the other Hollow Men that
had come up behind me.
It was so
odd… Fighting in an environment where there physically was no up or down in the
end, simply just a void where you had no landmarks that could truly tell you
where you are. I found that out rather quickly as someone came from above and
below me. I pushed away from the body in front of me, having just barely seen
the reflection of someone above me in the man’s faceplate. They collided with
what I would think was a thud, the sound that would normally greet my ears nowhere
to be found. That was one other issue… I couldn’t rely on my sense of hearing.
With a pull
of the trigger, I fired one shot at each, taking just a second to try and aim
properly as to not hit my own ship with the heat and power of a sun. “How is
everyone doing?” I asked over the vox… Not an auspex, a vox… aka a radio, only
to be greeted with the garbled cries of one of my men. I turned my head off to
the side, catching sight of one of the Hollow Men driving their claw into the
man’s gut and tearing out his intestines in a growing, floating mass of blood.
As I was
about to fire my shots off toward them, being unable to truly turn all I could
do was bring the plasma gun around and try to fire. Before I could, however, I
felt something grab my ankle and pull me closer toward the source. A Hollow Men
brought up what looked like a tiny, industrial wielder. To avoid the fate of
being filled and cut with plasma, I brought my elbow around to slam it into
their faceplate before simply grabbing the wielder, using them to turn myself
around, and, after prying the tool out of their grasp, put it too their jet
pack and pulled the trigger.
That was a
STUPID idea on my part. Apparently their packs were chemical-based, which
resulted in the pack exploding in a hail of fire and metal shards as I pulled
the trigger. Everything went black in that moment, the only feeling being a mix
of burning, the sensation of tiny objects entering my body, and my back
slamming up against the ship before I completely blacked out.
A voice
slowly faded in as I awoke, it was feminine and one that I had heard many times
before on the aus- vox as I traveled her. ‘Well aware as I am that I shall not
like the answer, I will still ask. Why are they so… sticky?’ I thought over
that statement for a moment, but before I could open my mouth to ask a
question, any question I had was answered for me. ‘I wanted to make sure our savior
wasn’t hurt, so I rubbed ointment all over their body while they slept while I
removed the shrapnel.’
Well, at
least I recognized the voices- All over?! Before I could stop myself, I quickly
burst up off of the bed, my muscles burning like righteous fire as I came
face-to-face with a copper haired woman who had a rather discomforting grin on
her face. I was going to blurt out in a mix of curses and other obscenities at
my personal space being ignored, but instead I simply went quiet… For one,
there was a woman barely an inch away from my face and because my muscles
slowly gave out, forcing me to fall back down onto the bed.
The
copper-haired, pixie-like woman said ‘Hiiiiiiiiii.’ As she slowly leaned in a
bit too close for my comfort, one of my hands shakingly raising up to set
itself on her face to try and keep her at a distance. She didn’t seem to mind
as she continued to speak. ‘Are you alright? Do you need more ointment? For your
body.’ She dragged out the word “body” for a wee bit too long, but was silenced
as my hand moved down and simply covered her lips.
The
towering, dark-haired woman who apparently could pull off wearing a monocle and
possessing a scar over one of her eyes, which seemed to be closed meaning that
she might not be able to see through it. Wasn’t a gruesome scar, but still, it
honestly wasn’t that bad. Her body was clad in black power armor, which told me
exactly what I was about to hear. ‘Please, excuse the behavior of initiate
Lina. While she will one day make an exceptional Sister of one of the Orders
Hospitaler, her zeal and drive to heal the faithful does sometimes get the
better of her.’
As I
started to sit back up by force, one of my hands reaching up to gently rub my
ribs where I had felt a few bits of shrapnel hit, the woman took a moment to
clean her monocle. “Tis’ fine. Nothing against her… I just enjoy my personal
space, but I thank you for helping me.” I gave a small nod to Lina, who never
really seemed to drop that smile. ‘Good. Oh, how very rude of me. I am of
course, Celestian Arlissa Val’Rayan of the Order of the Obsidian Rose, and
these are my initiates, Initiate Lina, our medic and a prospective member of
one of the Orders Hospitaler, Initiate Fia.’
She
gestured over to another young woman in the room, one who had green hair who
sat quietly in the far corner. From what I could tell, she seemed to be reading
a collection of sermons by Archdeacon Malovich. Though, at the bottom I could
just barely see the question of ‘Can love bloom on the battlefield?’ from a
second book that was apparently hidden away by the first.
I turned my
attention back over to Celestian Arlissa, who apparently noticed the second
book by the very small hint of annoyance on her expression. ‘Our expeditions
record keeper, who one day hopes to be accepted into one of the Orders
Dialogous. Making up the last of our merry, little quartet is Initiate Cierra,
who should she ever deign to spend more time studying and less time cooking
will doubtless prove to be an exceptionally capable member of the Orders
Famulous, the diplomatic corps of the Orders Sororitas.’ The woman paused in
her rather long-winded descriptions, glanced me over, before continuing as if
she had made a decision. ‘It occurs to me, my Rogue Trader friend, we may be of
use to each other here.’
“Rogue
Trader? Eh, closest thing to what I am, I suppose. Now if only I had the
documents.” That was a rather idiotic thing to say to a Sister of Battle, quite
obvious by her raised eyebrow. ‘Then what are you?’ She asked as I slowly
climbed out of the bed with a groan, thankfully finding out that I still had
pants… though, the blanket stuck to every part of my body that it could. “One of
the leaders of an independent planet. Granted, I am the one in charge of
leaving said planet to get things done, so… Close enough.”
With a
grin, I took a moment to stretch and pry the blanket off of my body. Initiate
Lina took it upon herself to help, even wiping me off, which I quickly took a
few steps away from the woman when the towel she was using seemed to vanish. “But,
I am still inclined to help you all out. You seem nice enough and I do at least
owe you an escort out of here.”
Celestian
Arlissa studied me for another moment as I walked over to where my armor was
laid out and began to slip into the suit. ‘Very well. We don’t truly have any
other options. By the way… Where did you pick up that xenos technology? That is
strictly prohibited.’ I raised my shoulders up and glanced over toward her. “It
was a gift from a friend. Kept me alive this whole time, heh.” I slipped into
the armor, quietly chatting with the three that were present while honestly
wondering where Cierra was.
My
curiosity was sated as this 6’ 3”, very curvy, yet obviously in the athletic sense, woman came walking in with what
appeared to be a pot of some form of stew. From the look of the meat, it was
from our stores, but… No complaints considering how good it smelt. It was set
on a tray along with a small cup of tea, which the tea was quickly passed over
to Arlissa. The painfully cheerful woman passed out the stew in little bowls
just as I slipped on the rest of my armor… Of course, no helmet. “Ah, thank
you. You must be Cierra.”
As I took
the bowl of stew and moved to sit back down on the bed, she placed the tray
down and spoke. ‘Mhm! Celestian Arlissa already introduced me? Awwww… Was
hoping to introduce myself properly. With something to eat and something sweet
for our savior!’ She stated just as I started to take a spoonful of the stew
into my mouth. “Well, it’s nice to have you all on board.” The stew was
absolutely perfect. Tender meat, the vegetables practically melted on contact… just
the way I like it… and spiced to perfection. Though, I sadly wasn’t able to
enjoy it for long before I was assaulted by a psychic flash.
All I could
see was a place between reality and the immaterium, a place that was close, yet
as far as the other side of the universe at the same exact moment. A haggard,
unkempt, four-armed man with green glowing lines across his pitch-black skin
sitting near a heap of skulls.
Every last
skull stared at the exact same spot, the supernatural terror weighing heavily
upon what made up reality and blocked all else. They were perfect in
appearance, almost as if a decrepit artist had created his very dreams, but it
still appeared that he was searching for something. Sometimes the man would
adjust them ever so slightly, pick them up and sniff them like a flower that was
bred for just that purpose and other times he would even lick them.
It was as
if he was taking care of a temple, making sure that nothing was out of place,
not even by a millimeter. I could sense it, though… That one spot that they all
stared at was nothing except for a point of focused horror, of the psychic
terror that assaulted whoever may be trapped inside of those skulls. There
seemed to be one empty space, though… Just one within the pile of thousands.
The figure
seemed to come to a decision and stepped into a shadow, no… through a shadow…
dragging a large, cleaver-like blade with a sharp point extending out from the
uppermost portion of the blade. He was there and then he was elsewhere…
Standing on top of a ship that appeared to be floating just above the
Pre-emptive retaliation. The haggard figure grinned and began to giggle, his
pointed teeth showing just enough. I knew what he wanted… He wanted my skull to
add to the pile… And only mine.
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