Post by mourne on Nov 27, 2013 16:02:12 GMT 10
So guys, I wanted to help try to get some content on the forum, so I said, "Why not?"
A friend and I have been doing an RP for about a month, give or take, and I was really curious as to what everyone else thought. With this, I was hoping to get some criticisms in the ways of writing. As well, I wanted to share our work on here and see what other people thought. So here it is!
Plot: It's basically three inquisitors of the Ordo Hereticus, and they're investigating a planet. The brother and sister are mine, whereas the third is my friend's. Please note that each post will be denoted by a space between, to differentiate between mine and hers, and mine is first.
WARNING: It is a rather long, and unfinished, RP. This post rated M for Mature.
A friend and I have been doing an RP for about a month, give or take, and I was really curious as to what everyone else thought. With this, I was hoping to get some criticisms in the ways of writing. As well, I wanted to share our work on here and see what other people thought. So here it is!
Plot: It's basically three inquisitors of the Ordo Hereticus, and they're investigating a planet. The brother and sister are mine, whereas the third is my friend's. Please note that each post will be denoted by a space between, to differentiate between mine and hers, and mine is first.
WARNING: It is a rather long, and unfinished, RP. This post rated M for Mature.
The hall was long, twenty meters, and richly furnished. Various gold pieces decorated the hall, with an even finer wood-carved long-table in the center. Food and lavish delicacies were placed over the length of the table, surrounded by twenty men, richly dressed. It was rather merry around the table, until one of the women smashed a man's head into the edge of the table. The heads turned toward the fracas, their chatters dying, their minds active, psychic activity ready to explode. Every one of them was a psyker, and "sanctioned," as it were. At least, according to their master.
"I am TIRED of your shit, Bale!" Her hand was curled up in his brown hair and smashed his head down on the edge again, blood smearing the edge of the table and dripping, "You just HAVE to ridicule me EVERY time, don't you?!" She brought his head down a third time before he had a chance to say anything. Her long, black hair hung over her shoulder and her ice-blue eyes shining bright with malice, making her fair features seem a sort of dark evil.
"Uunnghh.." His eyes rolled back into his head. She was about to do it again and finish him before a woman to her left spoke, "You should probably stop that." The woman that spoke had even longer white hair, her grey eyes looking into the other woman's, practically piercing the other's soul. The other woman sneered, hand still balled in Bale's brown hair.
+Enough.+ The soft voice pierced itself into the woman's brain. She staggered and dropped Bale. The man at the end of the table stood up, "I think it's time you took a walk for a little while." He chuckled, "We can sacrifice him later, no worries. He wasn't.. Much to us anyway."
That was a very large lie. He was actually the second wealthiest in the cult and had a lot of pull. The government was still struggling heavily, and he was experienced with exploiting it.
With a huff, the black-haired woman walked out the door.
======
Outside sat a man with stark-white hair, and he sat across from the building he knew they were at. Waiting, reading a novel on a data-slate. He chose to change things up a little, a little bit of erotica, "... and the woman gasped aloud as his member breached her cervix..."
'Bah, this is so cheesy,' he thought to himself. 'Little bit of amasec or caffeine might help. He decided to walk down the block and bought himself some caffeine to help him bide the time. 'Soon, the rituals will begin.'
======
Rubble crunched under her feet as she walked down the street, making way for other pedestrians. They paid her no mind, and she felt little need to imprint herself on their memory. To them, she was just another vagrant, another victim of the war that had briefly ravaged their world; another smashed beneath the unflinching evil of Chaos. They had places to go, things to do. She had nothing. At least, it seemed that way. A duffel was sling over one shoulder, and draped about her shoulders, worn like a cloak, was a Guard greatcoat. The fighting had gone into the winter, and there were plenty of dead to scavenge from, so it was unlikely the previous owner of the garment was missing it. Three ones stenciled on the back indicated that the previous owner had belonged to the 111th Cadian Mechanized Infantry, or the Triple One.
The citizenry didn't care about the coat, though. They didn't care about yet another soldier walking their streets. Of course, she avoided any soldiers. They'd either assume she was a deserter, or had stolen the coat. The duffel clattered softly as she stepped down off the curb, crossing the street to a shop. She ordered a cup of hot chocolate and stepped outside, watching the building down the street as she sipped at her drink. Her hair was a simple auburn, eyes hazel; she had a pretty face, but it was the kind that one appreciated for just a moment then forgot about entirely. And that suited her just fine.
======
"He could feel her wriggling underneath as he pushed in deeper and deeper..." The man chuckled, only partially controlling himself, 'Oh Throne, this was a terrible idea.' He stopped reading for a few minutes, gazing around at the various people. Most looked worn, acting like a war happened or something.
There was a woman he spied, and his eyes rested on her face and mumbled to himself, "Extraordinary..." He blinked a few times before his eyes rested on her bosom, just the barest hint of cleavage. 'If only I could ask you out.' He shrugged to himself as he continued looking through the crowd and spotted another one, pretty, even under the grime and dust. He continued searching the crowd, and then his eyes shot back to the pretty one. Her gaze occasionally looked over to the ritual house. He looked closer at what he was noticing, and found she was completely ordinary. 'But why is she looking at the house? Pah, just psyching yourself out--'
+Where are you?+ He blinked.
Quietly, he mumbled to himself, "Enjoying myself some fine caffeine. Want me to get you one?"
+No. Come on. We need to meet.+
"Where at?"
+A block east of the house, near the market.+
"Will do." Casually, he stood up and dusted off his jacket. He eyed the pretty one a last time before walking down the sidewalk, and then taking a right. He walked for a while and was eventually joined by a woman.
"We're green." Her shoes clacked on the sidewalk. "Tonight's the night."
======
The homeless woman brushed a lock of hair from her face and set her cup down on a windowsill. She crouches, bouncing on the balls of her feet as she drops the duffel to the ground, opening it up and rooting through it. She pushes past the gun sitting on top, then past the sheathed sword. Her hand rests on a small box and she pulls it out, glancing around before opening it up. There are two pieces of jewelry, a ring and a bracelet, and she dons them both; ring on the right middle finger, bracelet on her left wrist. She drew the pistol and tucked it into the belt at the small of her back, her greatcoat hiding it as she stands, closing the duffel and giving the fancy building across from her a final look. "Tonight's the night," she murmured quietly to herself, a small, shy smile appearing on her youthful face. Heretic witches in position to seize control of the planet? She would have fun cutting them all limb from limb.
======
The woman brushed her black hair from her hopeful eyes as she looked to the man, "We've been waiting a long time for this. And I mean a long time." The man chuckled, fingers scratching at his short, white hair.
"That we most certainly have. Who's the lucky man?"
The woman smirked, "Bale, that old bastard. 'Bout time too. He was really starting to piss me off. Cracked his head open on the edge of the table."
The man grimaced slightly, "Good thing they like that crap."
She shrugged, "As long as we can speed this up efficiently, I'll be ok with it."
The man raised an eyebrow, "You certainly sped it up."
"Oh yes. And the rest of the cult leader will be there too. This will be glorious." The two walked around the market a little, acting like they were admiring the various items spread throughout the square.
The hall was barren as night had fallen, the moans of Bale echoed throughout and bounced from the walls. Doors to a cellar were opened on the far side of the hall, candles flickering in the black. Underneath the hall lay a large chamber, also barren, except for Bale, naked, lying on the ice-cold stone floor, amidst a star with eight points around it. He shivered while the chains chaffed his wrists and ankles while a small, pitiful whimper escaped his lips. His head badly mended, just enough to keep him alive.
The cultists gathered around the pentagram, a slow chant escaping their mouths. The black-haired woman was not one of them. She walked calmly outside and looked to the man, "Be ready. It will happen any minute now. And when it does, I'll need you." She dare not use her mind. That would give her away too soon.
"Don't worry, I'm ready." He kept his weapons concealed, ready at a moment's notice. He wear a sleek, black, armored bodyglove and looked ready to take on anything. He stood at the door, casually, as she went back inside and made her way upstairs to get a few pieces of gear she had stashed away a year or so ago.
======
A crash breaks the peaceful, heretical silence of the night, and the woman rolls to her feet as glass rains around her, the long, thin blade of her sword crackling with ancient power. She sheathed the weapon at her hip and straightened her Guard coat, checking her stub pistol to make sure it was loaded. It wasn't a bolter, which many inquisitors liked to use, but rather a poison needle gun that could find chinks in most armors and put a human down in a second. She moves to the stairs, then proceeds down into the basement, following her instincts. She'd always had good instincts when it came to hunting psykers. Someone had once speculated that was because she had a touch of psy talent herself. She'd cut his head off with her prized sword.
======
The woman's head shot up as she heard a crash in the house. Before finishing readying herself, she sprinted down the stairs. She was now half-wearing a black body-glove, similar to the other man's, but still wearing the top half of her cultist two-piece robe. She readied herself to face whatever it was. As she ran, she reached out carefully with her mind. Reality was starting to thin, here. She could feel the raw energy of the Empyrean emanating from the basement, but... There. A hole of nothing. No energies, no psy-presence. A moving hole. She pulled back and sprinted faster before reaching the top of the stairs and noticed someone moving down them with a powersword. She half-yelled and half-whispered, "You fool! What are you doing?!" She tried to reach out to the person with her mind as well, but it fell short, quickly. 'Bastard's wearing a fucking blocker.' She spoke again, "You'll ruin everything!"
"... finally she reached her climax and her body slink weakly on my ..." He pressed a few buttons and deleted the book. 'Throne, why did I keep trying?" He sighed when he heard a crash. He almost smashed down the friend door, ready to kill, but she didn't give him the signal yet... He began fidgeting, waiting impatiently. 'C'mon...'
She cursed as she dodged to the side. She heard a needle fly right past her ear, her heart pounded. 'Fucking ninker! Dammitdammitdammitdammitdammit. She could hear the woman wailing a Litany. 'What..? Is she an Agent?' She shook her head of the thoughts. She had to find the leader. Now. She sprinted down the steps to see the woman wreaking havoc amongst the cultists. She darted to a room on the left, before a cultist stepped in front of her. Without a second thought, she punched him in the throat, middle finger-knuckle jutting out slightly. The man quit breathing almost instantly. One of the other cultist noticed her, his eyes wide. Before he had a chance to think, she speared his mind, relatively easy thanks to the chaos. She stopped hiding her potential, and it felt like a relief. She'd been supressing herself for years, and now there was no longer a need for cover. Because the bitch ruined it.
She started sifting through minds as she ran to the door on the left side. Some staggered and others resisted. Some she had to really push into, the seniors, but it didn't take her long. They were all relatively... Weak, she felt. Before she pulled the door open, +I NEED YOU IN HERE. NOW. I THINK THERE'S ANOTHER AGENT.+ Quickly, she kicked the door in and found the white-haired woman in there, on the ground, praying. The cultist stared at her and the ensuing chaos. Within seconds, the two were locked in combat. The room was large, with various cult artefacts. It was the secondary shrine. The woman was going to sacrifice another for the ritual. And then in the far back, was an escape route. The door was wide open. The dozens of artefacts crashed to the floor as ice began to cover various surfaces. A massive crack opened in the ceiling. The agent winced as the cultist took the form of a swarm of bees, stinging her own gryphon form. The agent fell to one knee and a single drop of blood began to drip from her nose. The cultist was on the floor, on both of her knees as if praying, with bloodshot eyes and blood leaking from the corner of her mouth. A vein bulged in the woman's forehead.
+I NEED YOU IN HERE NOW. I THINK THERE'S ANOTHER AGENT.+ He winced at the urgency and kicked down the door. He pulled out a hotshot las-carbine, but a cultist charged him from the side and they fell to the floor. And then another began attacking him too.
======
The female Inquisitor was not going easy on the cultists. To do so, of course, would have been heresy in itself. To spare them even a moment was tantamount to betrayal; to hold back even an ounce of her strength or speed or power was a betrayal to the God-Emperor Himself. So she did none of these things. Blade bit into flesh and bone, and carved through it as if it were not there, the energy field parting everything that came before it with impossible power. The pistol had been holstered some time ago, having run dry, but her furious assault had not slowed. Indeed, without having to split her attention, she was carving her way through the recovering witches with renewed vigor, seperating a head from its shoulders even as her shield once again flared. She turned on the one who had caused it and cleaved him in two, her attention lingering only long enough to insure that the Chaos-worshipper was dead. She looked around the room, the passage from the Litany of Faith she had been screaming fading mid-sentence when she realized that she'd finished her job. No, it wasn't over yet. She felt her toes curl and a chill shot down her spine as a psyker used the Warp nearby, and she turned her attention to an open door, a side chamber, running at it with renewed ferver. The sensation coming from the room indicated that this was not going to be as easy as the rest of the battle, and she took a moment to harden her mind and soul from attack before entiring the secondary alter-room. She raised the blade above her head as she charged, screaming out, "Emporer destroy you!"
======
Those ninkers were actually -biting- him. What the hell?! He elbowed one in the face and headbut another before kneeing the same cultist in the crotch. He used his legs to flip himself upright and almost lost balance, having forgotten about the extra equipment hanging from him. Another cultist charged at him. He flattened his entire hand and jabbed the cultist is his solar plexus. The cultist's eyes widened as he began to fall. The man twisted his neck without breaking stride nor interfering with the fall. He sent a clawed fist into another man's throat, before grabbing it and almost lifting the man off the floor and throwing him into another. He picked up his las-carbine and killed those sprawled on the floor quickly and efficiently, heads exploding and abdomens rupturing. He sprinted down the stairs and saw a woman charging into the room, where he could practically feel reality being manipulated. He shouted loudly, trying to get the agent's attention, "IN THE NAME OF HIS MOST HOLY INQUISITION, I DEMAND YOU DISENGAGE!"
She needed a hand on the floor to keep herself from falling to the floor. She was hunched over now, blood starting to drip from her mouth. The other woman was much worse. She remained seated, but blood traced a line from the corners of her mouth, from her tear ducts. Her eyes were almost completely red. Blood dripped from her ears. She could tell she was winning, but the woman was putting up a spectacular fight. And completely unexpected. Her mind was straining. She began to feel cold. And then suddenly, she could feel a hole in the Empyrean moving towards her. The agent. She couldn't move though. She knew that if she tried to stop the agent, the witch would win. If she stayed though, she would get butchered. She made one last, massive push. In an instant, the white-haired woman's head flew back, her neck cracking loudly. Her arms follwed suit and then her body flew into the wall. And then she blacked out, her body going limp before the rushing agent as her body leaned forward, head drooping, and small amounts of blood dripping.
======
She stalked forward, running her eyes over both of the fallen psykers, completely ignoring the yells coming from the room behind her. If he was a member of the Inquisition, she could deal with him in a moment. After all, nothing came before doing the Emperor's will, and He was quite clear that every psyker had to be killed, lest the Warp find a permanent home in real space. The one was obviously dead; not even a heretic could bend their neck like that and survive. As for the other, she could see the woman breathing, her chest raising and falling shallowly. She stood over the fallen psyker, using her boot to roll the woman onto her back. She raised the sword high above her, point down, aimed at the woman's heart. "If you defeated the heretic, the Emperor is with you in death." Her muscles tense as she prepares to bring the blade down.
The shot from the hotshot las was possibly the luckiest shot that could have been made, for both parties. It punched into the energy shield, which collapsed almost instantly. The shot had been slowed but not stopped, and it continued onward, burning into the Guard coat. The flack armor in the coat absorbed a lot of the shot, but it continued on, burning a neat hole in the olive coat. It was only the armor she wore under that, a light mesh of xeno origin, that saved her life. Still, the overcharged shot threw her forward, her sword clattering away as she slammed onto her chest and face, stunning her and knocking the breath from her. The brother lowered his lasgun, sighing softly as he looked over the two downed Inquisitors.
======
The agent kept pushing forward. 'Dammit.' He sprinted for the doorway while side-swiping a cultist on the floor with the las barrel and letting off a quick shot, greymatter and blood spattering everything in a small radius. Within moments, he was at the door and brought up his las-carbine. With only a second of thought, he let a shot rip out. A second, the agent was standing their, poised to kill his sister. The next she fell to the floor, the sword flying from her hand and she was down. He let out a breath, just realizing that he had been holding it in. He jogged over to his sister, now starting to stir, her breathing starting to become more regular. He stepped over to the agent and crouched down next to her, one knee to the floor. "Please mamzel, when I say to disengage... I mean to stop whatever the fuck you are doing. Please."
She blinked a few times and a slight cough escaped her lips. 'I'm alive?' She scanned around her with her mind. She found her brother, and the hole in the Empyean, and no one else around. "Emperor dammit!"
The brother looked back down to the agent, "Uh oh, now she's pissed."
======
"Yugh..." The Inquisitor stirred and rolled over onto her back, blinking a few times and looking up at the man. She looked to the lasgun, then to the man again before something registered in her head. "You shot me," she muttered, her eyes widening. She sounded hurt; not physically, but emotionally, as if she couldn't imagine anyone wanting to shoot her. She raised her hand weakly, forming a fist and pointing it the man. After a moment, the ring on her finger flashed and a burst of kinetic energy lashed out, knocking him across the room. "Jerk," she grumbled, looking around for her sword.
======
Her eyes opened wide, trying to strain them and to get them to focus quicker. A small fury was rising in her chest. They were -that- fucking close to finishing off the entire cult. Her gaze sweeped over the woman on the floor. She smashed her fist into the ground, causing it to ache. She pushed herself from the ground and and strode angrily out into the chamber.
He blinked, and then he was in the air and crashed into a wall, "Oompf!" His head swam, "Ugh, now I'm pissed.." Groggily, he got back up to his feet, carbine having fallen a little ways away from him. He stumbled over to where his sister was, already standing up and looking around her, trying to focus. He shook his head and rubbed his eyes. For a moment he looked at the other woman on the ground vehemently, before calming himself down a little, "You would've done the same if someone was about to kill your sister."
======
The woman picked up her sword and sheathed it, giving the two agents a guarded look; it was almost adorable on her face, which wasn't designed to be so guarded. It was an open and expressive face. "Not likely. I killed my sister. Would do it again." She rubbed her hands together and looked around, prodding the white-haired woman's body with a boot. "Hrm. Well, shouldn't have any problems with these people any more. The Guard can get back to reorganizing itself without the planetary government sabatoging their efforts."
======
The man was listening to the woman talk, and once she finished, he heard a crash from the other room. "Yeah, she's real pissed." His gaze turned to the woman, "Pissed enough to where I'll be doing the talking. Name's Amory. Amory Bulexis. This enraged female is my interrogator and sister, Challice. We are agents of the His Most Holy Inquisition, specifically of the Ordo Hereticus. We have infiltrated this cult six-hundred-and-seventy-three days ago in order to bring down this cult root and stem. And we waited all those days for this specific ritual. And now it was ruined. Your reckless charge into the area scared the top-dog, as it were, and he is now long gone. So please tell me, what in the name of the Emperor are you doing here?" He flashed his Inquisitorial rosette, hoping she realized that he demand he see hers before he chose to kill her on the spot.
Dammit, that bitch. She had to ruin everything! She was sifting furiously through papers while scouring the passageways beneath. She cursed as her mind couldn't breach the walls. They were specially designed to ward off any psykers from being able to see into it, and by now, he was long gone. That bastard she was getting close to for what felt like decades was now gone. Because of HER. She stopped what she was doing at the podium and rested her head between her wrists, furious while calming herself down, fingers entangling themselves in her jaw-length hair.
======
"Challice, huh?" She tilted her head, seeming to consider for a moment before shrugging. "Ironic, I think, considering how badly it sounds like she needs a drink, right?" She giggled femininely, politely reaching up to cover her mouth as she did so. "Oh, I'm called Lady Mae. Imperial Inqusition, Ordo Hereticus. I found out about this cult a week ago. A cult entirely made of psykers? Can you imagine? I knew I had to break it up right away. So I did." She shook her head as she showed off her rosette before tucking it away again. "Especially with them in position to take control of an Imperial planet! The situation here is stupidly out of control." Her head bobbed a few times as she nodded to her own words.
======
Amory sighed and rubbed his forehead. "A pleasure, Mae. You're still missing the point, though. Yes, you took them out. But in doing so, you crushed our own plan. We had them in our fingers and we were about to crush the entirety of the cult. But your... Entrance stopped the plan short and their leader, a fairly powerful psyker, escaped in the process. We were about to destroy its existance. And now... It's just delayed. He didn't know the Inquisition was onto him. Until now." He let out another sigh. Inwardly, he was frustrated beyond belief, they had been so close, after all. But now... They were practically starting from scratch.
======
Mae shook her head. "The fact that you -let- a bunch of... cursed daemon-shells stay in control of the government that long proves that your plan was flawed." She pushed past him, back into the main chamber, poking among the various remains of her slaughter. "Putting a witch in with witches. Lucky she didn't get possessed." She shook her head again, a little more energetically. "I know she's your sister, but she's a time-bomb. If I were you, I would do her a favor and put a hole in the back of her head, before a daemon takes up residence."
======
Amory's eyebrow twitched slightly. "We had to. The objective was to get EVERY SINGLE LEADER here into this room so we can exterminate them all quickly and efficiently. We would have pulled them out root and stem. They would have been completely destroyed. THIS was the night for them to get their best into a single room for us to destroy. But, as I said, your interruption ruined the entire plan. The plan had no flaws, except for you. It's only your acting that the entire plan was null. There was no other way for us to get these leaders together. Any other attempt would've left with each and every one of them having seconds and thirds to take command. But no, this was the night. The last night. ALL of them was here. But your... Interference allowed their best to escape, and now he knows we're onto him! He can start rebuilding now! We can track him, which is what we'll have to do now, but now this could lead to much larger amount of bloodshed." His voice started to raise, but he forced himself to calm down. "And if you want someone to put a bullet in her head, you better talk to the Inquisition. She is a sanctioned psyker by the Inquisition itself. If you want her dead, get the approval from them. Until then, if you try to harm her in any way, I will break you myself." He spoke with cool demeanour, and meant every word of it. If the Inquisition ordered her death, he would prefer to pull the trigger himself and wouldn't think a second of it. "And--"
She had finally calmed down and was standing in the doorway to the room, listening to the conversation. She had wiped away the blood and had regained most of her strength. She felt sad, listening to Mae. Finally, she spoke up and cut her brother off, "I am sanctioned. I wouldn't be here otherwise, witch-hunter." She leaned against the door frame and crossed her arms, "As for you. You shouldn't be here, my brother is right. But..." Dare she? Oh yes, "But I can't help but point out how afraid of psykers you are. Like a little girl still afraid of, what was that legend? The boogyman?"
Amory sighed.
======
"Your plan was flawed from the beginning! Sitting back as some of the most powerful people on this planet continued to spread their heresy. Hinging the entire operation on a single moment. What were you planning on doing, anyway? I noticed how late you arrived to the party, ser." She kicked a severed head, and it rolled across the ground, leaving a trail of blood. Her lips pursed unhappily, almost a pout, as she crossed her arms, turning her gaze on Amory. Despite how serious she was, hers was not a face designed to look serious, and it was almost comical. "And I don't know why you're getting your panties in a knot. It's one man. We'll hunt him down and show him the Emperor's justice." She listened quietly to the threat. "You'll break me? Please, the only thing you're good at is shooting people in the back..." Her voice trailed off as she looked to Challice. "Sanctioned just means you're not going to rape my mind for fun. Doesn't make you any safer to be around." Her eye twitches at the taunts from the other woman, and she bends down, picking up the head she'd been kicking for fun. "Tell me mister psyker, did I look afraid when I was cutting you to pieces? No? Interesting." She tossed the head to the side and her eyes narrowed. "Don't confuse fear for acumen. You're going to get your brother killed some day."
======
Amory almost laughed, "Please, I'm a master in unarmed combat and my sister is better than me without her abilities. Late, though, maybe, but the entire plan was hinged on timing. And that timing was going to lead to a series of events. He pulled grenade after grenade from various pouches, "This one is a timed psy-block. This one would have followed the blocker, a flash grenade. And then two with explosives, in case things started to go bad. And ONE MAN? Mae, he's connected. Well connected. Connections can get you far."
Challice listened for a few moments and sighed, tiring quickly with this zealot's ignorance, "How would I know? I was unconscious. And you're ignorant, to be so close-minded." She caught the head with her abilities and ice began to cover its various surfaces before she placed it on the ground neatly. "Anyway, Lady Mae," her anger -almost- seeped into the words, "We have to leave. Now. He is most surely calling in extra bodies as we speak and your uneducated malcontent is feeding him time. Come with us or go on your own, we have a mission to clean up." She was still furious, and she barely kept it hidden. This woman, Mae, was so quick to disregard anything she would say. She's -too- zealous, she felt. She-- She cast the thoughts from her mind, clearing out her mind.
Amory nodded, already letting his anger run dry, "Let's get moving. Challice, I need you to keep your mind out and warn me of anyone on their way to us. Mae," he looked to the, he had to admit, cute woman, "If you're going to help unbotch this, I need you go through the artefacts and see if you can find anything mentioning a location, rare ritual, or wherever the hell that maze leads. We need to find where he's going, now."
======
Mae blinked a few times, raising an eyebrow and giving Amory a shy smile. "Oh? I might have to try and kill your sister some time just to see if you can back up your claim of 'mastery'." She brushed her hands together, eyes narrowed in thought. "Ignorant? I know you're a conduit for the Warp. You're the closet thing a human can come to a daemon without actually being a host. I know that you'd be better off dead." She takes a few steps, then stops and turns to Challice, sensing the anger even if she couldn't hear it. "Let them come. Just means more dead cultists." She gives the pair a cute smile, even as she draws her needle pistol, dropping the spent mag and reloading it with a fresh one. "But if you're in such a rush to get out of here, I won't slow you down." That, of course, was her way of saying she'd help the search for anything that might help. She wandered over to the power cultist that had given Challice a fight, rooting through her robes for anything that might help.
======
Challice searched out with her mind and saw that a crowd was starting to gather, "Ya know, with the amount of boasting you're keeping up, one would think you're new to the Ordo. I might be better off dead, but there's one fact you're overlooking, Mae." She placed a little emphasis on her name, "Our mighty Imperium is based off of psykers, just like me. There's the Astra Telepathica, the Navis Nobilite, and even our God-Emperor himself. Our Imperium is hinged on these... 'Conduits.' Try to direct your hate to the heretical ones. Those are the ones to worry about." Her voice dropped a little as she spoke the final sentence, the anger disappearing in her eyes, before slowly walking out the door to walk back over to the podium, her mind also searching for crevices.
Amory looked up as she left and sighed. "She has a point, you know. Your zeal is what helps keep our Imperium running when it comes to heretics, but it's also that kind of zeal that can ruin a lot of other things." He was walking around the room, planting explosives in the various corners. He smiled slightly, "Like plans, for instance."
======
Mae moved to dig through the pockets of the rest of the slain heretics, making a small noise of victory as she pulled a piece of parchment from a pocket. It was clearly a map, and she was about to say so when she unfolded it to reveal that it was too soaked in blood to make out the markings. She huffed and tossed it to the side, and for a moment she thought that she might have been a little too liberal in her application of the Emperor's Justice. Of course, she then remembered that and Inquisitor couldn't be too liberal in applying His justice, and so she felt better as she resumed her search. She hisses under her breath picking up a book with her fingertips, holding it away from her. She instinctively searched for a lighter, the urge to burn it brought on simply be the feel of it, before remembering her task. She tossed it in Challice's direction, and it landed short, sliding across the floor to thump into the podium. "There."
======
The psyker looked down at the book. She could feel a vile presence emanating from the book. She kneeled before it and spoke absently to Mae, "Ya know, you can turn off the blocker." She began to reach for the book, before stopping. She could start to hear whispers in the deep back of her mind and her eyebrow twitched. "Damn." Without a second of hesitation, she began mumbling a Litany of Faith. She could feel the whispers fade away and she grabbed the book carefully and opened it to its first pages. Within seconds, it burst into flames. She dropped it on the floor. "Well damn. Time to leave. Now."
Amory looked up from planting his final explosive. "Copy that, get your gear from upstairs and we'll get outta here." He watched his sister sprint up the stairs without a second thought.
======
"I never turn it off," Mae explained calmly, watching the other female as she attempted to read the heretical book. Whatever hellish magic made it burst into flames just pissed her off, but there was nothing for her to take her rage out on, so she simply closed her eyes and took a deep breath before making her way back upstairs to the main floor. As she walked, she looked... well, not like an Inquisitor. She had a youthful face, with bright, confident eyes. There was none of the wear that seemed to afflict Inquisitors, none of the darkness that caused drooped shoulders and a bent back, that broke the spirit as well as the body. She was the incarnation of confidence and self-assurance as she stepped over a corpse before ascending the stairs.
======
In moments, she was upstairs. When her brother said it was time to go, it was time to go. As she ran through, she was stopped by a man who appeared to be as old as her, just a little younger. He spoke softly, despair in his eyes, "What... Have you done?" She had forgotten about him. Half way through her time since the infiltration into the cult, he had taken a liking to her, and even courted her. Challice could tell that he was heavily conflicted. He was... Gentle, compared to the other cultists and he didn't even know if he wanted to be a part of the cult in the first place. His dissent to Chaos was slow, but she could see it in him, slowly taking him day after day. That was because of her though. She had to look the part, and that's what she did, but her own belief in the Emperor never faltered for an instant, and she had managed to pray every day. It had been easy to hide it from him. Compared to her, he was a relatively weak psyker.
She spoke up, not harshly, "You deserve the truth. I'm an agent of the Inquisition." Instantly, she saw the betrayal in his eyes. In their time 'together,' he was a remarkably... Normal person. It almost hurt to see the betrayal in those eyes. Almost. She spoke quietly, "I'm sorry. Emperor be with you." He looked defeated as she pulled him to her and kissed him on the forehead. Immediately, his body crashed to the floor, his mind snuffed instantly. "If only it were under different circumstances." She stepped over his corpse. She felt a little sad again, for killing him, but it passed as she moved into a side room and gathered her gear, already packed. She tore off the top half of her cultist robe, revealing the rest of her black, armored bodyglove underneath, and let the robe fall to the floor. She spoke to Amory, +There's an office up here, I'm gonna check it for any information before we blow the place.+
He spoke to himself, "Sounds good." He finished planting the last of the explosives and took one last look around. Out of a queer feeling, he started looking to the walls. 'Was there any secret entrances, maybe?' He began looking in odd places, near and under wall decor, under books, in the podium. He didn't find much when he noticed a small part of the floor underneath the open area in the podium. Amory blinked, before placing a foot down on it. He heard a loud crack as a wall popped out to his left and slid to th
e side. Suddenly, he heard a girl crying and her cracked voice echoing from within, "Nononononon leavemealoneleavemealone nomorenomor--" Her speech cut off, wracking sobs echoing from the walls. "Oh Throne..."
Challice walked carefully into a partially-lit room. She’d never been in here before. It was an office of the Head, and no one stepped in without an invite. A few steps in, she stopped cold. She could feel the echoes, so quiet. She couldn’t tell what it was. She started walking again, cautious. For a reason she couldn’t decipher, she knew that she shouldn’t reach out with her mind. The psyker began to look around the room, carefully checking cubbies and finally the desk. There were few papers on top of the desk, a taper on the corner, running low. Carefully, Challice checked the desk for any traps, etchings, and the like. She found none and opened the desk. Nothing. It was scoured clean. She checked for some sort of false bottoms, and found one. To her dismay, it was empty too. She cursed silently before she walked over to the closet. The last place she hadn’t checked. She moved to open the door, her heart almost pounding. The Interrogator pulled the door open, and found nothing, but the origin of the echoes. ‘Something was stored here.’ Cautiously, she chose to reach out with her mind, and immediately, she heard it. The echoes of something that was once here. She stood there for a few moments, before bolting for the door and slammed it shut behind her, now back out in the hallway. Her back leaned against the door as tears streamed down her cheeks and a silent sob wracking her shoulders.
Amory peered into the hole-in-the-wall. It was dark, very dark. He waited for his eyes to adjust, when he saw the ball of tattered clothing in the corner. The girl was crying, that was plain. He looked around the room before entering it, he spoke softly, “Hey.” The girl looked up and saw him and his weaponry hanging loosely around him, in his well-made bodyglove. Fear sprang to her eyes so quickly, “No! Please…” She dragged her final word out so long. He could practically see what she was thinking, how scared she was. She tried pushing her body into the corner as far as it could go. Her cheek up against the hard stone, her body a tight ball as she tried to make herself disappear in the corner, one hand in her hair. Amory’s eyes widened a little at the missing thumb and index finger on her left hand. He walked forward softly and got down on one knee and placed a hand gently on her shoulder. He felt her recoil at his touch. Her sleeve slid down her arm and Amory could see the swathes of skin peeled away, layer by painful layer. His mouth thinned into a grim line. He’s seen a lot in his time as an Inquisitor. He’s seen monstrosities of the Ruinous Powers, he witnessed rituals that haunt him some times, he felt the cold bite of death and corruption as a blade had pierced his skin. His heart ached though, seeing this young child tortured so. “Hey, you’re gonna be alright, now.”
======
Mae swept the first floor of the building, but there was nothing interesting around that she could find with her more mundane senses. With that simple task complete, she made her way back to the entrance, lingering quietly with a quick glance out the window. No one had come, yet, though she couldn't expect to be so lucky for long. Especially if she didn't want the completely useless government to get involved in this situation, which was already bad enough. How had it come to this? Why did the Emperor test her in this way, to put her not just on the same side as a witch, but with the same goal. She would never let her guard down as long as that woman and her brother were around. She simply couldn't afford to; she didn't trust the woman to use her powers for the Emperor, and she didn't trust the woman to prevent herself from being consumed and used like a puppet by some unholy daemon.
This was taking too long.
Mae made her way up the stairs, stepping over a dead cultist and moving forward until she found the inquisitor leaning against a closed door, crying. Every instinct in her body shouted at her to kill the witch, and her hand twitched toward her weapon. She might even be able to get away with it, if the witch was distracted enough. But that damnable brother of hers would cause hell for Mae, and it wasn't -quite- worth it.
"Are you about done? Your brother is about to blow the fack out of the place. I'd rather not be here when he does." She crossed her arms, trying to display as much annoyance and impatience as physically possible.
======
Her eyes were tightly shut. So tight, and yet those damnable tears kept falling. She could hear those echoes in her head, a furious siege against her mind; so much emotion... And then Mae was there, speaking. How long was she there crying? She blinked the tears away and sniffed. She looked down to the pack she had let slip to the floor and picked it up. Her fingers twitched slightly as her hand gripped the pack. Her breath held for a second as she closed her eyes and immediately began praying. her breathing slowed as she gripped the pack, her fingers strong. Quickly, Challice put her arms through the straps and adjusted them quickly, professionally. She cleared her throat before meeting Mae's eyes for the first time since she came up here, "I-.. Let's go." As she walked past, her eyes still staring into Mae's and seeing... Malice? Challice only hoped that the horror she felt didn't appear in her own eyes.
The little girl's eyes glistened as she searched Amory's face, fear slowly, oh so slowly, leaving her features. Her features twitched occasionally, and to Amory, it didn't seem she noticed. He put a hand on her shoulder before she jumped into his embrace, sobbing. For a moment he did nothing, before hugging her, "Hey, c'mon, we need to get going." She kept hugging him.
======
Mae watched the psyker walk past, unable to identify the look in those eyes. It wasn't a look she recognized; she didn't like it one bit. But she'd already decided that she wouldn't kill her fellow Inquisitor, so there was little she could do. She followed Challice, glancing over her shoulder at the room she had left. Curiosity overwhelmed her, but a glance at the retreating woman's back kept her from investigating. She followed her comrade down the stairs. "What was in that room?" She asked quietly.
======
She was going to be glad once this building collapsed. Remove heretical traces. Destroy relics. Invalidate past rituals. Kill memories. Challice stopped and turned partially to Mae, "There... Was an echo." How could she explain what she felt? She had never felt so much emotion in a few seconds, and it surprised her how much it almost overwhelmed her whole being. The woman wouldn't turn off her limiter, so she had to make do, "An echo of... Pain, sorrow, fear, all... Clumped... Together." She was at a loss for words. She turned and continued down the stairs to go to her brother.
======
Mae simply watched Challice for a moment, staring at her back as she watched the woman descend. Fucking witches. Fucking heretics. She adjusted the sheath where it hung on her belt and descended quickly, catching up. She enters the basement and looks around for the brother.
======
Challice quickly reached the bottom of the stairs. Her eyebrow twitched as she felt a tickle in the back of her mind. She turned around the corner at the bottom of the stairs before entering a room on the right. And there she saw her brother, hugging a small boy, and from what she could see, the boy's nightmares had come true, fingers missing, skin patches absent, tears rolling down his face. The boy looked at her, his eyes widening, "No! No please th-th-they've com--" Amory hushed him, "Hey, it's my sister, we're gonna get you outta here, alright?"
======
Mae followed Challice into the room, adjusting her coat as she went. Her eyes scanned over the room again, making sure everything was as they'd left it. You could never tell with heretics, could never afford to let your guard down. Her attention turns to Amory. "Can we get out of here now?"
======
Amory nodded his head. He looked down to the girl before standing up. He guided her gently by the shoulder.
Challice stared hard at the boy before speaking, "Amory, let go of him."
The Inquisitor looked puzzled, "Him? She--" Within moments, Challice's mind shot out and began to probe the boy. As soon as she touched his mind, he screamed. It ripped through the air, Amory and Challice could feel their ears bleeding, just a little bit, as they were thrown back by an invisible force as everyone was thrown back. Challice hit the wall and fell to the ground, she stayed there as her mind lashed out at the boy, who was no longer a boy. Through the eyes of her soul, she could see it. Its hands were split, and in a psyker's eyes, teeming with foul energies. She engaged as Amory lie on the floor, unconscious.
"I am TIRED of your shit, Bale!" Her hand was curled up in his brown hair and smashed his head down on the edge again, blood smearing the edge of the table and dripping, "You just HAVE to ridicule me EVERY time, don't you?!" She brought his head down a third time before he had a chance to say anything. Her long, black hair hung over her shoulder and her ice-blue eyes shining bright with malice, making her fair features seem a sort of dark evil.
"Uunnghh.." His eyes rolled back into his head. She was about to do it again and finish him before a woman to her left spoke, "You should probably stop that." The woman that spoke had even longer white hair, her grey eyes looking into the other woman's, practically piercing the other's soul. The other woman sneered, hand still balled in Bale's brown hair.
+Enough.+ The soft voice pierced itself into the woman's brain. She staggered and dropped Bale. The man at the end of the table stood up, "I think it's time you took a walk for a little while." He chuckled, "We can sacrifice him later, no worries. He wasn't.. Much to us anyway."
That was a very large lie. He was actually the second wealthiest in the cult and had a lot of pull. The government was still struggling heavily, and he was experienced with exploiting it.
With a huff, the black-haired woman walked out the door.
======
Outside sat a man with stark-white hair, and he sat across from the building he knew they were at. Waiting, reading a novel on a data-slate. He chose to change things up a little, a little bit of erotica, "... and the woman gasped aloud as his member breached her cervix..."
'Bah, this is so cheesy,' he thought to himself. 'Little bit of amasec or caffeine might help. He decided to walk down the block and bought himself some caffeine to help him bide the time. 'Soon, the rituals will begin.'
======
Rubble crunched under her feet as she walked down the street, making way for other pedestrians. They paid her no mind, and she felt little need to imprint herself on their memory. To them, she was just another vagrant, another victim of the war that had briefly ravaged their world; another smashed beneath the unflinching evil of Chaos. They had places to go, things to do. She had nothing. At least, it seemed that way. A duffel was sling over one shoulder, and draped about her shoulders, worn like a cloak, was a Guard greatcoat. The fighting had gone into the winter, and there were plenty of dead to scavenge from, so it was unlikely the previous owner of the garment was missing it. Three ones stenciled on the back indicated that the previous owner had belonged to the 111th Cadian Mechanized Infantry, or the Triple One.
The citizenry didn't care about the coat, though. They didn't care about yet another soldier walking their streets. Of course, she avoided any soldiers. They'd either assume she was a deserter, or had stolen the coat. The duffel clattered softly as she stepped down off the curb, crossing the street to a shop. She ordered a cup of hot chocolate and stepped outside, watching the building down the street as she sipped at her drink. Her hair was a simple auburn, eyes hazel; she had a pretty face, but it was the kind that one appreciated for just a moment then forgot about entirely. And that suited her just fine.
======
"He could feel her wriggling underneath as he pushed in deeper and deeper..." The man chuckled, only partially controlling himself, 'Oh Throne, this was a terrible idea.' He stopped reading for a few minutes, gazing around at the various people. Most looked worn, acting like a war happened or something.
There was a woman he spied, and his eyes rested on her face and mumbled to himself, "Extraordinary..." He blinked a few times before his eyes rested on her bosom, just the barest hint of cleavage. 'If only I could ask you out.' He shrugged to himself as he continued looking through the crowd and spotted another one, pretty, even under the grime and dust. He continued searching the crowd, and then his eyes shot back to the pretty one. Her gaze occasionally looked over to the ritual house. He looked closer at what he was noticing, and found she was completely ordinary. 'But why is she looking at the house? Pah, just psyching yourself out--'
+Where are you?+ He blinked.
Quietly, he mumbled to himself, "Enjoying myself some fine caffeine. Want me to get you one?"
+No. Come on. We need to meet.+
"Where at?"
+A block east of the house, near the market.+
"Will do." Casually, he stood up and dusted off his jacket. He eyed the pretty one a last time before walking down the sidewalk, and then taking a right. He walked for a while and was eventually joined by a woman.
"We're green." Her shoes clacked on the sidewalk. "Tonight's the night."
======
The homeless woman brushed a lock of hair from her face and set her cup down on a windowsill. She crouches, bouncing on the balls of her feet as she drops the duffel to the ground, opening it up and rooting through it. She pushes past the gun sitting on top, then past the sheathed sword. Her hand rests on a small box and she pulls it out, glancing around before opening it up. There are two pieces of jewelry, a ring and a bracelet, and she dons them both; ring on the right middle finger, bracelet on her left wrist. She drew the pistol and tucked it into the belt at the small of her back, her greatcoat hiding it as she stands, closing the duffel and giving the fancy building across from her a final look. "Tonight's the night," she murmured quietly to herself, a small, shy smile appearing on her youthful face. Heretic witches in position to seize control of the planet? She would have fun cutting them all limb from limb.
======
The woman brushed her black hair from her hopeful eyes as she looked to the man, "We've been waiting a long time for this. And I mean a long time." The man chuckled, fingers scratching at his short, white hair.
"That we most certainly have. Who's the lucky man?"
The woman smirked, "Bale, that old bastard. 'Bout time too. He was really starting to piss me off. Cracked his head open on the edge of the table."
The man grimaced slightly, "Good thing they like that crap."
She shrugged, "As long as we can speed this up efficiently, I'll be ok with it."
The man raised an eyebrow, "You certainly sped it up."
"Oh yes. And the rest of the cult leader will be there too. This will be glorious." The two walked around the market a little, acting like they were admiring the various items spread throughout the square.
The hall was barren as night had fallen, the moans of Bale echoed throughout and bounced from the walls. Doors to a cellar were opened on the far side of the hall, candles flickering in the black. Underneath the hall lay a large chamber, also barren, except for Bale, naked, lying on the ice-cold stone floor, amidst a star with eight points around it. He shivered while the chains chaffed his wrists and ankles while a small, pitiful whimper escaped his lips. His head badly mended, just enough to keep him alive.
The cultists gathered around the pentagram, a slow chant escaping their mouths. The black-haired woman was not one of them. She walked calmly outside and looked to the man, "Be ready. It will happen any minute now. And when it does, I'll need you." She dare not use her mind. That would give her away too soon.
"Don't worry, I'm ready." He kept his weapons concealed, ready at a moment's notice. He wear a sleek, black, armored bodyglove and looked ready to take on anything. He stood at the door, casually, as she went back inside and made her way upstairs to get a few pieces of gear she had stashed away a year or so ago.
======
A crash breaks the peaceful, heretical silence of the night, and the woman rolls to her feet as glass rains around her, the long, thin blade of her sword crackling with ancient power. She sheathed the weapon at her hip and straightened her Guard coat, checking her stub pistol to make sure it was loaded. It wasn't a bolter, which many inquisitors liked to use, but rather a poison needle gun that could find chinks in most armors and put a human down in a second. She moves to the stairs, then proceeds down into the basement, following her instincts. She'd always had good instincts when it came to hunting psykers. Someone had once speculated that was because she had a touch of psy talent herself. She'd cut his head off with her prized sword.
======
The woman's head shot up as she heard a crash in the house. Before finishing readying herself, she sprinted down the stairs. She was now half-wearing a black body-glove, similar to the other man's, but still wearing the top half of her cultist two-piece robe. She readied herself to face whatever it was. As she ran, she reached out carefully with her mind. Reality was starting to thin, here. She could feel the raw energy of the Empyrean emanating from the basement, but... There. A hole of nothing. No energies, no psy-presence. A moving hole. She pulled back and sprinted faster before reaching the top of the stairs and noticed someone moving down them with a powersword. She half-yelled and half-whispered, "You fool! What are you doing?!" She tried to reach out to the person with her mind as well, but it fell short, quickly. 'Bastard's wearing a fucking blocker.' She spoke again, "You'll ruin everything!"
"... finally she reached her climax and her body slink weakly on my ..." He pressed a few buttons and deleted the book. 'Throne, why did I keep trying?" He sighed when he heard a crash. He almost smashed down the friend door, ready to kill, but she didn't give him the signal yet... He began fidgeting, waiting impatiently. 'C'mon...'
She cursed as she dodged to the side. She heard a needle fly right past her ear, her heart pounded. 'Fucking ninker! Dammitdammitdammitdammitdammit. She could hear the woman wailing a Litany. 'What..? Is she an Agent?' She shook her head of the thoughts. She had to find the leader. Now. She sprinted down the steps to see the woman wreaking havoc amongst the cultists. She darted to a room on the left, before a cultist stepped in front of her. Without a second thought, she punched him in the throat, middle finger-knuckle jutting out slightly. The man quit breathing almost instantly. One of the other cultist noticed her, his eyes wide. Before he had a chance to think, she speared his mind, relatively easy thanks to the chaos. She stopped hiding her potential, and it felt like a relief. She'd been supressing herself for years, and now there was no longer a need for cover. Because the bitch ruined it.
She started sifting through minds as she ran to the door on the left side. Some staggered and others resisted. Some she had to really push into, the seniors, but it didn't take her long. They were all relatively... Weak, she felt. Before she pulled the door open, +I NEED YOU IN HERE. NOW. I THINK THERE'S ANOTHER AGENT.+ Quickly, she kicked the door in and found the white-haired woman in there, on the ground, praying. The cultist stared at her and the ensuing chaos. Within seconds, the two were locked in combat. The room was large, with various cult artefacts. It was the secondary shrine. The woman was going to sacrifice another for the ritual. And then in the far back, was an escape route. The door was wide open. The dozens of artefacts crashed to the floor as ice began to cover various surfaces. A massive crack opened in the ceiling. The agent winced as the cultist took the form of a swarm of bees, stinging her own gryphon form. The agent fell to one knee and a single drop of blood began to drip from her nose. The cultist was on the floor, on both of her knees as if praying, with bloodshot eyes and blood leaking from the corner of her mouth. A vein bulged in the woman's forehead.
+I NEED YOU IN HERE NOW. I THINK THERE'S ANOTHER AGENT.+ He winced at the urgency and kicked down the door. He pulled out a hotshot las-carbine, but a cultist charged him from the side and they fell to the floor. And then another began attacking him too.
======
The female Inquisitor was not going easy on the cultists. To do so, of course, would have been heresy in itself. To spare them even a moment was tantamount to betrayal; to hold back even an ounce of her strength or speed or power was a betrayal to the God-Emperor Himself. So she did none of these things. Blade bit into flesh and bone, and carved through it as if it were not there, the energy field parting everything that came before it with impossible power. The pistol had been holstered some time ago, having run dry, but her furious assault had not slowed. Indeed, without having to split her attention, she was carving her way through the recovering witches with renewed vigor, seperating a head from its shoulders even as her shield once again flared. She turned on the one who had caused it and cleaved him in two, her attention lingering only long enough to insure that the Chaos-worshipper was dead. She looked around the room, the passage from the Litany of Faith she had been screaming fading mid-sentence when she realized that she'd finished her job. No, it wasn't over yet. She felt her toes curl and a chill shot down her spine as a psyker used the Warp nearby, and she turned her attention to an open door, a side chamber, running at it with renewed ferver. The sensation coming from the room indicated that this was not going to be as easy as the rest of the battle, and she took a moment to harden her mind and soul from attack before entiring the secondary alter-room. She raised the blade above her head as she charged, screaming out, "Emporer destroy you!"
======
Those ninkers were actually -biting- him. What the hell?! He elbowed one in the face and headbut another before kneeing the same cultist in the crotch. He used his legs to flip himself upright and almost lost balance, having forgotten about the extra equipment hanging from him. Another cultist charged at him. He flattened his entire hand and jabbed the cultist is his solar plexus. The cultist's eyes widened as he began to fall. The man twisted his neck without breaking stride nor interfering with the fall. He sent a clawed fist into another man's throat, before grabbing it and almost lifting the man off the floor and throwing him into another. He picked up his las-carbine and killed those sprawled on the floor quickly and efficiently, heads exploding and abdomens rupturing. He sprinted down the stairs and saw a woman charging into the room, where he could practically feel reality being manipulated. He shouted loudly, trying to get the agent's attention, "IN THE NAME OF HIS MOST HOLY INQUISITION, I DEMAND YOU DISENGAGE!"
She needed a hand on the floor to keep herself from falling to the floor. She was hunched over now, blood starting to drip from her mouth. The other woman was much worse. She remained seated, but blood traced a line from the corners of her mouth, from her tear ducts. Her eyes were almost completely red. Blood dripped from her ears. She could tell she was winning, but the woman was putting up a spectacular fight. And completely unexpected. Her mind was straining. She began to feel cold. And then suddenly, she could feel a hole in the Empyrean moving towards her. The agent. She couldn't move though. She knew that if she tried to stop the agent, the witch would win. If she stayed though, she would get butchered. She made one last, massive push. In an instant, the white-haired woman's head flew back, her neck cracking loudly. Her arms follwed suit and then her body flew into the wall. And then she blacked out, her body going limp before the rushing agent as her body leaned forward, head drooping, and small amounts of blood dripping.
======
She stalked forward, running her eyes over both of the fallen psykers, completely ignoring the yells coming from the room behind her. If he was a member of the Inquisition, she could deal with him in a moment. After all, nothing came before doing the Emperor's will, and He was quite clear that every psyker had to be killed, lest the Warp find a permanent home in real space. The one was obviously dead; not even a heretic could bend their neck like that and survive. As for the other, she could see the woman breathing, her chest raising and falling shallowly. She stood over the fallen psyker, using her boot to roll the woman onto her back. She raised the sword high above her, point down, aimed at the woman's heart. "If you defeated the heretic, the Emperor is with you in death." Her muscles tense as she prepares to bring the blade down.
The shot from the hotshot las was possibly the luckiest shot that could have been made, for both parties. It punched into the energy shield, which collapsed almost instantly. The shot had been slowed but not stopped, and it continued onward, burning into the Guard coat. The flack armor in the coat absorbed a lot of the shot, but it continued on, burning a neat hole in the olive coat. It was only the armor she wore under that, a light mesh of xeno origin, that saved her life. Still, the overcharged shot threw her forward, her sword clattering away as she slammed onto her chest and face, stunning her and knocking the breath from her. The brother lowered his lasgun, sighing softly as he looked over the two downed Inquisitors.
======
The agent kept pushing forward. 'Dammit.' He sprinted for the doorway while side-swiping a cultist on the floor with the las barrel and letting off a quick shot, greymatter and blood spattering everything in a small radius. Within moments, he was at the door and brought up his las-carbine. With only a second of thought, he let a shot rip out. A second, the agent was standing their, poised to kill his sister. The next she fell to the floor, the sword flying from her hand and she was down. He let out a breath, just realizing that he had been holding it in. He jogged over to his sister, now starting to stir, her breathing starting to become more regular. He stepped over to the agent and crouched down next to her, one knee to the floor. "Please mamzel, when I say to disengage... I mean to stop whatever the fuck you are doing. Please."
She blinked a few times and a slight cough escaped her lips. 'I'm alive?' She scanned around her with her mind. She found her brother, and the hole in the Empyean, and no one else around. "Emperor dammit!"
The brother looked back down to the agent, "Uh oh, now she's pissed."
======
"Yugh..." The Inquisitor stirred and rolled over onto her back, blinking a few times and looking up at the man. She looked to the lasgun, then to the man again before something registered in her head. "You shot me," she muttered, her eyes widening. She sounded hurt; not physically, but emotionally, as if she couldn't imagine anyone wanting to shoot her. She raised her hand weakly, forming a fist and pointing it the man. After a moment, the ring on her finger flashed and a burst of kinetic energy lashed out, knocking him across the room. "Jerk," she grumbled, looking around for her sword.
======
Her eyes opened wide, trying to strain them and to get them to focus quicker. A small fury was rising in her chest. They were -that- fucking close to finishing off the entire cult. Her gaze sweeped over the woman on the floor. She smashed her fist into the ground, causing it to ache. She pushed herself from the ground and and strode angrily out into the chamber.
He blinked, and then he was in the air and crashed into a wall, "Oompf!" His head swam, "Ugh, now I'm pissed.." Groggily, he got back up to his feet, carbine having fallen a little ways away from him. He stumbled over to where his sister was, already standing up and looking around her, trying to focus. He shook his head and rubbed his eyes. For a moment he looked at the other woman on the ground vehemently, before calming himself down a little, "You would've done the same if someone was about to kill your sister."
======
The woman picked up her sword and sheathed it, giving the two agents a guarded look; it was almost adorable on her face, which wasn't designed to be so guarded. It was an open and expressive face. "Not likely. I killed my sister. Would do it again." She rubbed her hands together and looked around, prodding the white-haired woman's body with a boot. "Hrm. Well, shouldn't have any problems with these people any more. The Guard can get back to reorganizing itself without the planetary government sabatoging their efforts."
======
The man was listening to the woman talk, and once she finished, he heard a crash from the other room. "Yeah, she's real pissed." His gaze turned to the woman, "Pissed enough to where I'll be doing the talking. Name's Amory. Amory Bulexis. This enraged female is my interrogator and sister, Challice. We are agents of the His Most Holy Inquisition, specifically of the Ordo Hereticus. We have infiltrated this cult six-hundred-and-seventy-three days ago in order to bring down this cult root and stem. And we waited all those days for this specific ritual. And now it was ruined. Your reckless charge into the area scared the top-dog, as it were, and he is now long gone. So please tell me, what in the name of the Emperor are you doing here?" He flashed his Inquisitorial rosette, hoping she realized that he demand he see hers before he chose to kill her on the spot.
Dammit, that bitch. She had to ruin everything! She was sifting furiously through papers while scouring the passageways beneath. She cursed as her mind couldn't breach the walls. They were specially designed to ward off any psykers from being able to see into it, and by now, he was long gone. That bastard she was getting close to for what felt like decades was now gone. Because of HER. She stopped what she was doing at the podium and rested her head between her wrists, furious while calming herself down, fingers entangling themselves in her jaw-length hair.
======
"Challice, huh?" She tilted her head, seeming to consider for a moment before shrugging. "Ironic, I think, considering how badly it sounds like she needs a drink, right?" She giggled femininely, politely reaching up to cover her mouth as she did so. "Oh, I'm called Lady Mae. Imperial Inqusition, Ordo Hereticus. I found out about this cult a week ago. A cult entirely made of psykers? Can you imagine? I knew I had to break it up right away. So I did." She shook her head as she showed off her rosette before tucking it away again. "Especially with them in position to take control of an Imperial planet! The situation here is stupidly out of control." Her head bobbed a few times as she nodded to her own words.
======
Amory sighed and rubbed his forehead. "A pleasure, Mae. You're still missing the point, though. Yes, you took them out. But in doing so, you crushed our own plan. We had them in our fingers and we were about to crush the entirety of the cult. But your... Entrance stopped the plan short and their leader, a fairly powerful psyker, escaped in the process. We were about to destroy its existance. And now... It's just delayed. He didn't know the Inquisition was onto him. Until now." He let out another sigh. Inwardly, he was frustrated beyond belief, they had been so close, after all. But now... They were practically starting from scratch.
======
Mae shook her head. "The fact that you -let- a bunch of... cursed daemon-shells stay in control of the government that long proves that your plan was flawed." She pushed past him, back into the main chamber, poking among the various remains of her slaughter. "Putting a witch in with witches. Lucky she didn't get possessed." She shook her head again, a little more energetically. "I know she's your sister, but she's a time-bomb. If I were you, I would do her a favor and put a hole in the back of her head, before a daemon takes up residence."
======
Amory's eyebrow twitched slightly. "We had to. The objective was to get EVERY SINGLE LEADER here into this room so we can exterminate them all quickly and efficiently. We would have pulled them out root and stem. They would have been completely destroyed. THIS was the night for them to get their best into a single room for us to destroy. But, as I said, your interruption ruined the entire plan. The plan had no flaws, except for you. It's only your acting that the entire plan was null. There was no other way for us to get these leaders together. Any other attempt would've left with each and every one of them having seconds and thirds to take command. But no, this was the night. The last night. ALL of them was here. But your... Interference allowed their best to escape, and now he knows we're onto him! He can start rebuilding now! We can track him, which is what we'll have to do now, but now this could lead to much larger amount of bloodshed." His voice started to raise, but he forced himself to calm down. "And if you want someone to put a bullet in her head, you better talk to the Inquisition. She is a sanctioned psyker by the Inquisition itself. If you want her dead, get the approval from them. Until then, if you try to harm her in any way, I will break you myself." He spoke with cool demeanour, and meant every word of it. If the Inquisition ordered her death, he would prefer to pull the trigger himself and wouldn't think a second of it. "And--"
She had finally calmed down and was standing in the doorway to the room, listening to the conversation. She had wiped away the blood and had regained most of her strength. She felt sad, listening to Mae. Finally, she spoke up and cut her brother off, "I am sanctioned. I wouldn't be here otherwise, witch-hunter." She leaned against the door frame and crossed her arms, "As for you. You shouldn't be here, my brother is right. But..." Dare she? Oh yes, "But I can't help but point out how afraid of psykers you are. Like a little girl still afraid of, what was that legend? The boogyman?"
Amory sighed.
======
"Your plan was flawed from the beginning! Sitting back as some of the most powerful people on this planet continued to spread their heresy. Hinging the entire operation on a single moment. What were you planning on doing, anyway? I noticed how late you arrived to the party, ser." She kicked a severed head, and it rolled across the ground, leaving a trail of blood. Her lips pursed unhappily, almost a pout, as she crossed her arms, turning her gaze on Amory. Despite how serious she was, hers was not a face designed to look serious, and it was almost comical. "And I don't know why you're getting your panties in a knot. It's one man. We'll hunt him down and show him the Emperor's justice." She listened quietly to the threat. "You'll break me? Please, the only thing you're good at is shooting people in the back..." Her voice trailed off as she looked to Challice. "Sanctioned just means you're not going to rape my mind for fun. Doesn't make you any safer to be around." Her eye twitches at the taunts from the other woman, and she bends down, picking up the head she'd been kicking for fun. "Tell me mister psyker, did I look afraid when I was cutting you to pieces? No? Interesting." She tossed the head to the side and her eyes narrowed. "Don't confuse fear for acumen. You're going to get your brother killed some day."
======
Amory almost laughed, "Please, I'm a master in unarmed combat and my sister is better than me without her abilities. Late, though, maybe, but the entire plan was hinged on timing. And that timing was going to lead to a series of events. He pulled grenade after grenade from various pouches, "This one is a timed psy-block. This one would have followed the blocker, a flash grenade. And then two with explosives, in case things started to go bad. And ONE MAN? Mae, he's connected. Well connected. Connections can get you far."
Challice listened for a few moments and sighed, tiring quickly with this zealot's ignorance, "How would I know? I was unconscious. And you're ignorant, to be so close-minded." She caught the head with her abilities and ice began to cover its various surfaces before she placed it on the ground neatly. "Anyway, Lady Mae," her anger -almost- seeped into the words, "We have to leave. Now. He is most surely calling in extra bodies as we speak and your uneducated malcontent is feeding him time. Come with us or go on your own, we have a mission to clean up." She was still furious, and she barely kept it hidden. This woman, Mae, was so quick to disregard anything she would say. She's -too- zealous, she felt. She-- She cast the thoughts from her mind, clearing out her mind.
Amory nodded, already letting his anger run dry, "Let's get moving. Challice, I need you to keep your mind out and warn me of anyone on their way to us. Mae," he looked to the, he had to admit, cute woman, "If you're going to help unbotch this, I need you go through the artefacts and see if you can find anything mentioning a location, rare ritual, or wherever the hell that maze leads. We need to find where he's going, now."
======
Mae blinked a few times, raising an eyebrow and giving Amory a shy smile. "Oh? I might have to try and kill your sister some time just to see if you can back up your claim of 'mastery'." She brushed her hands together, eyes narrowed in thought. "Ignorant? I know you're a conduit for the Warp. You're the closet thing a human can come to a daemon without actually being a host. I know that you'd be better off dead." She takes a few steps, then stops and turns to Challice, sensing the anger even if she couldn't hear it. "Let them come. Just means more dead cultists." She gives the pair a cute smile, even as she draws her needle pistol, dropping the spent mag and reloading it with a fresh one. "But if you're in such a rush to get out of here, I won't slow you down." That, of course, was her way of saying she'd help the search for anything that might help. She wandered over to the power cultist that had given Challice a fight, rooting through her robes for anything that might help.
======
Challice searched out with her mind and saw that a crowd was starting to gather, "Ya know, with the amount of boasting you're keeping up, one would think you're new to the Ordo. I might be better off dead, but there's one fact you're overlooking, Mae." She placed a little emphasis on her name, "Our mighty Imperium is based off of psykers, just like me. There's the Astra Telepathica, the Navis Nobilite, and even our God-Emperor himself. Our Imperium is hinged on these... 'Conduits.' Try to direct your hate to the heretical ones. Those are the ones to worry about." Her voice dropped a little as she spoke the final sentence, the anger disappearing in her eyes, before slowly walking out the door to walk back over to the podium, her mind also searching for crevices.
Amory looked up as she left and sighed. "She has a point, you know. Your zeal is what helps keep our Imperium running when it comes to heretics, but it's also that kind of zeal that can ruin a lot of other things." He was walking around the room, planting explosives in the various corners. He smiled slightly, "Like plans, for instance."
======
Mae moved to dig through the pockets of the rest of the slain heretics, making a small noise of victory as she pulled a piece of parchment from a pocket. It was clearly a map, and she was about to say so when she unfolded it to reveal that it was too soaked in blood to make out the markings. She huffed and tossed it to the side, and for a moment she thought that she might have been a little too liberal in her application of the Emperor's Justice. Of course, she then remembered that and Inquisitor couldn't be too liberal in applying His justice, and so she felt better as she resumed her search. She hisses under her breath picking up a book with her fingertips, holding it away from her. She instinctively searched for a lighter, the urge to burn it brought on simply be the feel of it, before remembering her task. She tossed it in Challice's direction, and it landed short, sliding across the floor to thump into the podium. "There."
======
The psyker looked down at the book. She could feel a vile presence emanating from the book. She kneeled before it and spoke absently to Mae, "Ya know, you can turn off the blocker." She began to reach for the book, before stopping. She could start to hear whispers in the deep back of her mind and her eyebrow twitched. "Damn." Without a second of hesitation, she began mumbling a Litany of Faith. She could feel the whispers fade away and she grabbed the book carefully and opened it to its first pages. Within seconds, it burst into flames. She dropped it on the floor. "Well damn. Time to leave. Now."
Amory looked up from planting his final explosive. "Copy that, get your gear from upstairs and we'll get outta here." He watched his sister sprint up the stairs without a second thought.
======
"I never turn it off," Mae explained calmly, watching the other female as she attempted to read the heretical book. Whatever hellish magic made it burst into flames just pissed her off, but there was nothing for her to take her rage out on, so she simply closed her eyes and took a deep breath before making her way back upstairs to the main floor. As she walked, she looked... well, not like an Inquisitor. She had a youthful face, with bright, confident eyes. There was none of the wear that seemed to afflict Inquisitors, none of the darkness that caused drooped shoulders and a bent back, that broke the spirit as well as the body. She was the incarnation of confidence and self-assurance as she stepped over a corpse before ascending the stairs.
======
In moments, she was upstairs. When her brother said it was time to go, it was time to go. As she ran through, she was stopped by a man who appeared to be as old as her, just a little younger. He spoke softly, despair in his eyes, "What... Have you done?" She had forgotten about him. Half way through her time since the infiltration into the cult, he had taken a liking to her, and even courted her. Challice could tell that he was heavily conflicted. He was... Gentle, compared to the other cultists and he didn't even know if he wanted to be a part of the cult in the first place. His dissent to Chaos was slow, but she could see it in him, slowly taking him day after day. That was because of her though. She had to look the part, and that's what she did, but her own belief in the Emperor never faltered for an instant, and she had managed to pray every day. It had been easy to hide it from him. Compared to her, he was a relatively weak psyker.
She spoke up, not harshly, "You deserve the truth. I'm an agent of the Inquisition." Instantly, she saw the betrayal in his eyes. In their time 'together,' he was a remarkably... Normal person. It almost hurt to see the betrayal in those eyes. Almost. She spoke quietly, "I'm sorry. Emperor be with you." He looked defeated as she pulled him to her and kissed him on the forehead. Immediately, his body crashed to the floor, his mind snuffed instantly. "If only it were under different circumstances." She stepped over his corpse. She felt a little sad again, for killing him, but it passed as she moved into a side room and gathered her gear, already packed. She tore off the top half of her cultist robe, revealing the rest of her black, armored bodyglove underneath, and let the robe fall to the floor. She spoke to Amory, +There's an office up here, I'm gonna check it for any information before we blow the place.+
He spoke to himself, "Sounds good." He finished planting the last of the explosives and took one last look around. Out of a queer feeling, he started looking to the walls. 'Was there any secret entrances, maybe?' He began looking in odd places, near and under wall decor, under books, in the podium. He didn't find much when he noticed a small part of the floor underneath the open area in the podium. Amory blinked, before placing a foot down on it. He heard a loud crack as a wall popped out to his left and slid to th
e side. Suddenly, he heard a girl crying and her cracked voice echoing from within, "Nononononon leavemealoneleavemealone nomorenomor--" Her speech cut off, wracking sobs echoing from the walls. "Oh Throne..."
Challice walked carefully into a partially-lit room. She’d never been in here before. It was an office of the Head, and no one stepped in without an invite. A few steps in, she stopped cold. She could feel the echoes, so quiet. She couldn’t tell what it was. She started walking again, cautious. For a reason she couldn’t decipher, she knew that she shouldn’t reach out with her mind. The psyker began to look around the room, carefully checking cubbies and finally the desk. There were few papers on top of the desk, a taper on the corner, running low. Carefully, Challice checked the desk for any traps, etchings, and the like. She found none and opened the desk. Nothing. It was scoured clean. She checked for some sort of false bottoms, and found one. To her dismay, it was empty too. She cursed silently before she walked over to the closet. The last place she hadn’t checked. She moved to open the door, her heart almost pounding. The Interrogator pulled the door open, and found nothing, but the origin of the echoes. ‘Something was stored here.’ Cautiously, she chose to reach out with her mind, and immediately, she heard it. The echoes of something that was once here. She stood there for a few moments, before bolting for the door and slammed it shut behind her, now back out in the hallway. Her back leaned against the door as tears streamed down her cheeks and a silent sob wracking her shoulders.
Amory peered into the hole-in-the-wall. It was dark, very dark. He waited for his eyes to adjust, when he saw the ball of tattered clothing in the corner. The girl was crying, that was plain. He looked around the room before entering it, he spoke softly, “Hey.” The girl looked up and saw him and his weaponry hanging loosely around him, in his well-made bodyglove. Fear sprang to her eyes so quickly, “No! Please…” She dragged her final word out so long. He could practically see what she was thinking, how scared she was. She tried pushing her body into the corner as far as it could go. Her cheek up against the hard stone, her body a tight ball as she tried to make herself disappear in the corner, one hand in her hair. Amory’s eyes widened a little at the missing thumb and index finger on her left hand. He walked forward softly and got down on one knee and placed a hand gently on her shoulder. He felt her recoil at his touch. Her sleeve slid down her arm and Amory could see the swathes of skin peeled away, layer by painful layer. His mouth thinned into a grim line. He’s seen a lot in his time as an Inquisitor. He’s seen monstrosities of the Ruinous Powers, he witnessed rituals that haunt him some times, he felt the cold bite of death and corruption as a blade had pierced his skin. His heart ached though, seeing this young child tortured so. “Hey, you’re gonna be alright, now.”
======
Mae swept the first floor of the building, but there was nothing interesting around that she could find with her more mundane senses. With that simple task complete, she made her way back to the entrance, lingering quietly with a quick glance out the window. No one had come, yet, though she couldn't expect to be so lucky for long. Especially if she didn't want the completely useless government to get involved in this situation, which was already bad enough. How had it come to this? Why did the Emperor test her in this way, to put her not just on the same side as a witch, but with the same goal. She would never let her guard down as long as that woman and her brother were around. She simply couldn't afford to; she didn't trust the woman to use her powers for the Emperor, and she didn't trust the woman to prevent herself from being consumed and used like a puppet by some unholy daemon.
This was taking too long.
Mae made her way up the stairs, stepping over a dead cultist and moving forward until she found the inquisitor leaning against a closed door, crying. Every instinct in her body shouted at her to kill the witch, and her hand twitched toward her weapon. She might even be able to get away with it, if the witch was distracted enough. But that damnable brother of hers would cause hell for Mae, and it wasn't -quite- worth it.
"Are you about done? Your brother is about to blow the fack out of the place. I'd rather not be here when he does." She crossed her arms, trying to display as much annoyance and impatience as physically possible.
======
Her eyes were tightly shut. So tight, and yet those damnable tears kept falling. She could hear those echoes in her head, a furious siege against her mind; so much emotion... And then Mae was there, speaking. How long was she there crying? She blinked the tears away and sniffed. She looked down to the pack she had let slip to the floor and picked it up. Her fingers twitched slightly as her hand gripped the pack. Her breath held for a second as she closed her eyes and immediately began praying. her breathing slowed as she gripped the pack, her fingers strong. Quickly, Challice put her arms through the straps and adjusted them quickly, professionally. She cleared her throat before meeting Mae's eyes for the first time since she came up here, "I-.. Let's go." As she walked past, her eyes still staring into Mae's and seeing... Malice? Challice only hoped that the horror she felt didn't appear in her own eyes.
The little girl's eyes glistened as she searched Amory's face, fear slowly, oh so slowly, leaving her features. Her features twitched occasionally, and to Amory, it didn't seem she noticed. He put a hand on her shoulder before she jumped into his embrace, sobbing. For a moment he did nothing, before hugging her, "Hey, c'mon, we need to get going." She kept hugging him.
======
Mae watched the psyker walk past, unable to identify the look in those eyes. It wasn't a look she recognized; she didn't like it one bit. But she'd already decided that she wouldn't kill her fellow Inquisitor, so there was little she could do. She followed Challice, glancing over her shoulder at the room she had left. Curiosity overwhelmed her, but a glance at the retreating woman's back kept her from investigating. She followed her comrade down the stairs. "What was in that room?" She asked quietly.
======
She was going to be glad once this building collapsed. Remove heretical traces. Destroy relics. Invalidate past rituals. Kill memories. Challice stopped and turned partially to Mae, "There... Was an echo." How could she explain what she felt? She had never felt so much emotion in a few seconds, and it surprised her how much it almost overwhelmed her whole being. The woman wouldn't turn off her limiter, so she had to make do, "An echo of... Pain, sorrow, fear, all... Clumped... Together." She was at a loss for words. She turned and continued down the stairs to go to her brother.
======
Mae simply watched Challice for a moment, staring at her back as she watched the woman descend. Fucking witches. Fucking heretics. She adjusted the sheath where it hung on her belt and descended quickly, catching up. She enters the basement and looks around for the brother.
======
Challice quickly reached the bottom of the stairs. Her eyebrow twitched as she felt a tickle in the back of her mind. She turned around the corner at the bottom of the stairs before entering a room on the right. And there she saw her brother, hugging a small boy, and from what she could see, the boy's nightmares had come true, fingers missing, skin patches absent, tears rolling down his face. The boy looked at her, his eyes widening, "No! No please th-th-they've com--" Amory hushed him, "Hey, it's my sister, we're gonna get you outta here, alright?"
======
Mae followed Challice into the room, adjusting her coat as she went. Her eyes scanned over the room again, making sure everything was as they'd left it. You could never tell with heretics, could never afford to let your guard down. Her attention turns to Amory. "Can we get out of here now?"
======
Amory nodded his head. He looked down to the girl before standing up. He guided her gently by the shoulder.
Challice stared hard at the boy before speaking, "Amory, let go of him."
The Inquisitor looked puzzled, "Him? She--" Within moments, Challice's mind shot out and began to probe the boy. As soon as she touched his mind, he screamed. It ripped through the air, Amory and Challice could feel their ears bleeding, just a little bit, as they were thrown back by an invisible force as everyone was thrown back. Challice hit the wall and fell to the ground, she stayed there as her mind lashed out at the boy, who was no longer a boy. Through the eyes of her soul, she could see it. Its hands were split, and in a psyker's eyes, teeming with foul energies. She engaged as Amory lie on the floor, unconscious.
