A Night Lord didn't often get to choose his servants from anything like a pool like this. Not these nights.

Satharn surveyed the group. They looked relaxed. Some were apprehensive, certainly; they were facing a future they didn't know. But they had been freed from the shackles of their Corpse God. It was a bit of a revelation. Normally, the VIIIth legion stole its serfs away like thieves in the night, taking and reaving, and the resulting wretches were sorry indeed to behold. Huddled, staring, crying, some blank with shock. And he realised, remembered, that it had not always been that way.

As a child on Nostramo, and as a youth in the process of being reforged into a son of the Night Haunter, he had seen Chapter serfs brought in, proud in their uniforms, glad to serve. They had recognised the honour in the position and, in turn, had been valued for what they could provide. Only with the degeneration of the Legion had it become a series of increasingly desperate enslavements and eventual descent into mere fodder for the Legion's ever-hungry maw. It started, he thought, with the casual decision to destroy the Imperial Navu frigates before the attack on Istvaan; the moral rot set in with the needless waste of lives that had served loyally and well, for no other reason than they could. Whichever degenerate bastard made that choice, may his bones rot. Satharn was surprised at the strength of his feelings on the subject. But the Legion had fallen sick from within, fueled by such souls, and that had all increased the suffering and madness of his Lord. They could not be forgiven. Only slaughtered. Thus Nostramo had burned to excise their cancer and even that had failed.

He would not fail the Night Haunter. Satharn gathered himself and made his choice. He knew what he must do and he would strive to uphold the true ways of the Legion. That would, of course, include terror; but righteous prosecution of Lord Curze's creed was part of it. For now, he wanted serfs and good ones, the right tools for the right job.

All the candidates were good ones, but he wasn't choosing an entourage. He picked out three as he had asked for. First, the old man; an armourer would be a foolish prize to pass up for surely the Night Haunter's gear would need maintenance. as well as Satharn's own. He was aged, but he had knowledge and perhaps he could be of use in training younger men. Or women; whomever had the technological bent.

"Your name?" he said, gesturing for the older man to leave the lines and stand with him.

"Cardan Tsell, my Lord."

"And you," he said to the older man who said he had made clothes for many decades. It was a niche job, to be sure, but the crew of the Nightfall would all need uniforms one night and it wasn't as if he would just be required to make the one set of lordly robes.

"Arminus Selvaaran, Sir." The man clicked his heels together in the echo of a military salute. Perhaps some time in the militia?

Finally, he turned to the woman who had served in the Guard. She was a sole survivor, and as of now - with the loss of his Claw (and his ascension to Sergeant, Throne be damned) - so was he. In any case, he could see the loss in her eyes and the steel it had put in her spine. No stranger to hard work and discipline; someone hungry for vengeance. A Night Lord understood such things.

"And you?"

"Ksenja Suwayu," she said, with a small nod, adding respectfully, "Lord." She straightened as if she still held her las-rifle.

Satharn nodded.

"Good. My name is Satharn Tem. I serve the VIIIth Legion, as now do you." He paused. The boy had such an idealistic streak in him still, and such a keen desire to follow his own particular dream. Satharn hadn't seen such a desire since the days of his own recruitment. It was so unexpected that he almost shook his head in disbelief. But there he was, young, sincere, and clearly keen to learn. He could be an excellent apprentice and the armour master, while he knew a lot, wasn't getting any younger in a risky world. Plus the selection he'd made was light on muscle.

"You too," he said, gesturing the boy forward. "Name?"

"Neth Harvan, Lord," the boy responded, his fallen expression lifting up again in hope. "I will serve you, Lord, with loyalty and honour!"

"That's good." Satharn limited himself to that. The boy already sounded like a damn' Ultramarine. He'd better not regret this.

The Night Lord led his new serfs to his quarters and paused. He would need to commandeer a room or two for them, which likely wouldn't be a problem due to the sheer amount of space on the depleted Nightfall. Better make them nearby, next door or opposite if possible. He let them into his chambers.

"This ship, as you can see, is in need of repair and everywhere inside likewise." He stated it simply. The four lined themselves up in a reasonable facsimile of a parade ground. "I am your Master, which is how you will address me. I don't work with fancy titles. I will adopt my Legion's old tradition of addressing you by numeral names." He paused, then pointed to each in turn with a single gauntleted finger.

"Una," he said to Ksenja, "Secundus," to Cardan, "Tertius," he pointed to Arminius.

"Quartus," he said to the boy, then stepped back.

"The first thing we need to do is to make this place and your own quarters clean and livable. I will source materials. For now, you, Tertius, will be working with me and literal materials. I need to make my Lord a robe fitting to his station."

Gathering what supplies he could he set to work, and the new serfs did likewise. Satharn would need one more thing. For which he'd likely need to seek out the Forgemaster or whoever could work metal in this place. He didn't have a Legion coin to spare for everyone, but he had a plan: a bat-winged skull pendant, engraved with the Nostraman runes for 5 and 4 for Fifth Company, 4th Claw. His own designation.

"....You sure are a wordy guy." Kombuse said as he picked up a nearby lasgun and opened up its housing to take a look at its innards, there was complaints it wasn't firing the way it should be when it was turned in. "Well, thanks for getting us out of that prison then. Even if it meant coming across that Word Bearer guy." The boy said as thanks as he cleaned the focus lenses of the barrel, although sounding not so much when he mentioned the Dark Apostle. Sure the guy talked a daemon out of existence, but he still remembered Delilah getting slammed into a wall for her troubles by him. "....I should go see how's she's doing. Doubt leaving the Imperium is easy for her and its my pact to make sure she's ok. Then again I would have done it anyways since she was nice with my, even with the whole loyalist and traitor thing going on." he said, mostly thinking out loud now as he started looking at the contact buds for where the power pack would be to check for imperfections.

The Prosperan gave a content chuckle in response to that now, nodding his helm now. "The ship has seen better days, but it will certainly be a wonder to behold," he said, ignoring the officer as he spoke, "though I wish I could have shown you the ships of the Thousand Sons, millennia past. Such things could take anyone's breath away in their beauty and sturdiness."

"Admittedly, I could show you such memories; a thing us Prosperan Astartes did well enough to give... Explanations, I suppose you could say. Where words would take too long and not get the point across, and where images could only give half of the story."

A relaxed sigh came through the vox grills, before he spoke again. "Still; I do hope you tend to your crew well. If anything's needed, do feel free to message me in some manner to come by." His hand reached over to grab his spear and use it to get off of the wall, now holding it as any medieval wizard might hold their staff.



@Colapse ​

-Bridge cleaning duties,

Fera laughed trimphuthantly as her chainsword bit into another tentacle clearing the way before grabbed her hand back onto her trident and began stabbing fourth to impale another tentacle to the hull. As blood and ichor would cover her armor that day she would be have her mood raised from the combat.

Then she was given clean up duties, Deciding to use her trident she began piling tentacles together into burn piles working with Kombuse to clean up the mess of the last admiral who got stuck with the ship. Fair trade she saw it as a good fight for a cleanup duty for a area they weren't suppose to be in.

Gifted Requisition - Valu the Winged Beast [ @BuriasDempsey ]
"I'm a medic and a soldier of the Nightfall who simply tries to bond with a fellow brother-in-arms." Valu explained with a slight shrug and smiled behind his mask.

"Also Delilah is doing fantastically from what I've heard. She is still settling in, but her admiral and the rest of their troupe are well respected - probably due to Viator's influence. So you truly needn't worry about beastmen snatching her and sacrificing her in the arena or something like that. Either way. You have duties to fulfill and I shan't stay in the way." He tapped the counter a few times before turning away and gave a casual wave over his shoulder - leaving his old armor there for Kombuse and the workshop.

And so Valu, dressed in black and his new armor marched up and down the corridors of the Nightfall, playing patrol.

Kombuse watched him go with a raised brow, slamming home a power pack in the lasgun to finally test it out. "Uh huh..." he said to himself. He wasn't sure but something rubbed him the wrong way about the guy. He definetly wasn't no khornate warrior that's for sure, so what was with the old uniform? And that new one with the weird markings, a snake and...whatever that other one was. And who needed holes in the back of their flack vest? And what really got to him was the feathers on the mask, blue and purple. He may not be the most studious person, but even he knew those were usually the colors of bird and the spoiled brat. 'What if he's a con artist? Was he just acting like one of the warriors? Is he a liar?' He thought to himself, his grip on the lasgun tightening a bit at the last thought. Liars, they were the worst to him, relying on false promises and honeyed words before striking you in the back. 'Just like the tank.' he thought to himself, thinking to earlier. It was the actions of a liar that got him into that prison, he would be damn by Khorne himself if trusted another. With that, he took the power pack out and set the weapon aside, seeing that who ever had it last never bothered changing the setting on it from the lowest it was on and thought it was faulty.

<Admiral's quarters> @Vlayden

"You could do that? Show me the past? Even a story would be appreciated, yet alone the images of such vessels. If only I was alive back then, to bask in the might of our glorious Imperium at its peak, not like the stuff we have today. Masses held in ignorance and living in squalor, corrupted officials holding all the power for themselves, thousands dying every day and for what?" Admiral growled, slamming fist on the table and making all those papers Lopez gave her flying away. "To hell with the Imperium, at the moment we are no better than a bunch of angry Greenskins, having nothing else on our mind but how to kill each other."

"I'll take your offer Ausarius. Once we are done with the next deployment I want you to show me what you can but without you interfering with the view. I want to see the past for what it is and judge it with my own eyes. I'm tired of being fed by propaganda. I want to know the truth."


<Navigator's quarters> @Kalle

"Of course you can," the Navigator replied Xaviera's smile with her own. "After our next assignment ends I'm sure we can talk more. Maybe you could introduce me with another person like you on this ship, so far the only decent one I know besides you is that Kombuse guy...the rest are...not to my liking."


<Viator's answer> @Taec

"So you wish to walk the path to ecstasy and agony combined? To seek perfection in all of its shapes and forms and to become something more than just a simple spectator of your life? It is a commendable idea, however the Dark Prince doesn't take just about anyone."

"I can help you with this, I know the whims of my Stepfather more than anyone else on this ship, so I could put a good word for you and assist you with getting his attention, however first you must prove it to me that you are committed and aren't just wasting my time. Everything you do during our next deployment do in the glory of Slaanesh. Kill, murder, bring pain, experience pleasure, whatever you do, do it for him. Do not stray from this task and after enough men have died and the great appetite of my patron is at least somewhat sated for the moment, we can talk about what comes next."


<Satharn's stuff> @Jorimel

Satharn received the pendant he asked for by one of Bo'kar's slaved tech-adepts, the same one from that planet where all of them were gathered by Viator. It was easy enough for the former servant of the Machine God to make such an item and the Night Lord got it in less than an hour.

His serfs also started working on the task at hand, they understood that creating a robe for their master's Father was indeed an important job and they also didn't want to let Satharn down during their first assignment. Satharn could probably guess the exact measures needed for the clothing, however he was also able to find Curze in his throne room, the Primarch sounding a bit more distant than usual as he sat on the floor of his armory, surrounded by the smell of fresh blood, human blood if Satharn was right. "I have to go there...I have to ask...I have to ask him...why is this happening."

"You weren't with us to know...you were too young, but most of us weren't...this was the beginning...the place from which we started...and I must know...why am I here."


<Herdstone clash> @Grall_Stonefist @WanderingJester

Beastmen and humans fought, flesh was destroyed, limbs torn apart, and the Blood God laughed as his minions did his bidding. More and more beastmen fell to the focused fire of the prisoners-turned-soldiers but there was no stopping the tide now when the touch of Khorne was upon them. Likewise, Lupercal army was receiving same blessing and even those more composed ones let go and joined the frenzy. Maybe this wasn't what Corbulus imagined when he asked for Khorne's blessing but it was what he got, or was it?

Gorzkha on the other hand, was focused in his devotion and he also felt the touch upon him and his herd, which drove him to higher levels of rage. Using animalistic strength and the suffering the pain of his wounds his eviscerator slashed past Corbulus' guard and bit into his side, ruining armor and flesh. Blood flew from the Alpha Wolf as he was unable to protect himself from the crazed beastmen, but while his advantage has been somewhat nullified he was still a Space Marine and he could take much more beating than that. Death was all around them, blood flowed in rivers and at first, nobody noticed the fact that ground shook beneath their feet and alarms blared as the "Nightfall" dropped out of Warp. Despite it killing would continue until the spell was broken by an arrival of another champion of the Dark Gods.

"ENOUGH!" Viator's voice carried over the dim of battle with such an ease it almost sounded as if it was Curze talking. All eyes were upon the Traveler as he stepped into the giant lair, looking as if floating a bit in the air as his boots never touched the blood soaked ground below, never ruining his perfect armor. And instead of familiar silver color, his armor now had completely golden sheen.

However his face was different. It was difficult to explain it but it looked as if multiple faces danced on it, mixing with each other and never remaining the same. First he had his own face, the one everyone was familiar with, but then it twisted into an image of a snarling daemon, then into one of a horned child and then into something else, too terrible and beautiful to imagine. Where he looked the combat soothed and there was real tension in the air, you could almost touch the energy of two rival powers fighting for dominance. Viator was strained, sweat was running down his cheeks but where there was pain there was also pleasure, so they could also catch smiles of ecstasy all across his dancing features.

Conflict and battle, while being perhaps most important areas of Khorne's dominance, where also theatres where other powers lingered and drew their substance. It was up to discussion whether it happened due to the Blood God lacking a proper champion here or if he simply grew bored of it, but eventually the fighting ceased completely, around the time Scion of Slaanesh reached the middle of the room. His face stopped moving and he returned to his "normal self", his voice also going back to normal pleasant sound rather than that howling noise.

"We have reached our destination and Lord Curze calls us to act. Gorzkha, prepare the cloven ones for battle, we have a planet to kill. Corbulus, likewise, ready yourself and your soldiers for deployment. I want to see all of you prepared within the hour and attending the briefing on the Bridge." He finished talking but he lingered on, remaining to see if the combatants would listen to him or disobey his orders, clear murderous intent written all over his gaze now as if daring them to go against what he just said.

<Mission #2 Briefing - Darkness falls upon the world of men> @Grall_Stonefist @DeranVendar @Taec @Jorimel @Uriel1339 @BuriasDempsey @WanderingJester @Kalle @Vulpas @Vlayden

This time around, the briefing took place on the Bridge itself instead of in some makeshift strategium they had to use before. Everyone who was summoned (and that was pretty much everyone who had some kind of importance on the ship and in Curze's new army) would see that the place was thriving. Dozens Navy officers wearing ancient midnight blue uniforms of the Night Lords Legion were led by Admiral Augustine who sat on her command throne which was just couple of days ago occupied by the corrupted Shipmaster. The crew was looking ready and eager and they were in the middle of doing final diagnostics as "Nightfall" returned to realspace. Navigator Delilah was also present, her sphere from where she did her navigation was located on a floor above, directly across the Bridge's central consoles and made as if its builder wanted the Navigator to directly look into the open shutters on the far side of the chambers. At the moment of course she was outside of the bubble and with her elbows on the edge of the rails, she looked down there at the proceedings.

Viator, Bo'kar and Phocron were all present and accounted for alongside a new face, the tattooed warrior priest Quor Gallek who hefted his two-handed crozius. They stood around a giant table that had pretty much every possible function built in it, from manual scans of the surrounding system and both its planets and void objects, to additional commands that even included operating ''Nightfall's" weapons. Once everyone arrived at the scene, Viator brought up the display and a dark orange orb appeared on it.

"This is planet Ponas, an arid world filled with inactive volcanoes. It's the center of the system and most important Imperial World in this part of the subsector due to three things. Once, long time ago, it was the location of a major Imperial victory against the remnants of the Old Faith that covered the world in darkness so it is an important center of the Imperial dominance and worship even. Secondly, it's home to a Schola Progenium, one of its kind in this part of the galaxy, where both young and older officers come to receive specialization in their fields, but it's mostly focused on Imperial Guard. Thirdly, it's a location of fortress belonging to Knightly House Morgan."

It was then Phocron who continued, flashing through various images of the planet. "House suffered heavy losses during the Despoiler's crusade, their homeworld was utterly annihilated and what remained of them retreated to this fortress that used to serve as sort of a border fort if you will it. From what we know, there's no more than six Knights present and operational at the moment. Good news is that the location of their base is somewhat away from the main place we're hitting, so we can take them on separately. Also, we have a possible contact inside of it that is willing to switch sides. But more on it later."

"Lord Curze is not here at the moment but it was his wish for us to attack this world," Viator spoke once again, "From my understanding, this is the location of one of the first victories of the Night Lords once he took the command over from the Emperor. He wants of us to break this world and turn its inhabitants away from the Emperor's light, so we shall do just that."

"We'll go in fast and hard, even as we speak the ship is heading for the planet. We're going to attack the capital city directly as it holds most of its population and we'll do it the Night Lords way. Beastmen will lead the attack and we'll land the forces all around the place, from which point onward they'll move in bands and attack whatever opposes them. I will personally lead these attacks so you have nothing to worry about there. You however, will have a slightly different task."

"At the site of the victory the Imperials erected a huge monolith in the shape of the Imperial Eagle. They hold sermons there all the time and Quor Gallek here suggested that we take that first. One part of our team accompanied by the Dark Apostle will land in the middle of the city, fight their way to this location and then our Word Bearer will do his magic."

"Aye, I will bring the Word to the unbelievers and from their own place of worship shall I tear down the lies and bring the Universal Truth to their little lives," Quor Gallek added and clapped his shoulder guard.

"However in order to keep the Imperials from recovering, we'll need a second insertion team that will capture and secure the main generator that is located below the city in a heavily defended cave. It feeds the entire place with power and with it in our hands, the doom of the city is sealed," Phocron said and pointed his finger on the map, on a small canyon just outside the city's limits. "There used to be a river there before it dried out due to the temperature. There's a secret entrance to the cave system close to the city's walls and from there, I can navigate us all the way to the main generator room. With the defenders focused on the fighting above they will hardly see us coming. So I want our heavy hitters accompanying me for this task."

"Ausarius, Corbulus, Satharn, Valu and Kombuse, you will go with Phocron. Infiltrate the city and sow chaos from within."

"Gorzkha, Fera, Erelak, Xaviera and Orghast, you will go and escort Quor Gallek to the monument and sow chaos from above."

"I believe this is the best team composition for the task at hand. The rest of our forces will be led by me," Viator finished, "While Bo'kar will keep our armored assets in line as we assault the city. Any questions or comments or are you ready for deployment?"

Kombuse was sitting there at the briefing in his full attire and weapons, his flamer sitting on his lap with the sparker off for now. Before the briefing began, he looked up to Delilah and gave her a wave, taking off the fleshound grotesque mask to let her see his smile. He would then sit there and listen to what Viator and the Snake marine Phocron had to say on the mission they were going to undertake. While he didn't fully understand the importance of the dustball, he at least knew it had some importance to the lord of the warband so he just mostly nodded and agreed with the explanations before they went into the specifics of who is doing what at planetfall. From the sounds of it, he was going with magic marine, marine in black, skull marine, and mr.untrustworthy with Snake marine leading the way. 'Phocron...that sounds familiar.' he thought to himself till he realized that was the name Bo'kar used when he was shouting about someone pulling a trick on him. 'Great...I'm in a squad of tricksters, yeay me.' he thought to himself with furrow of his brow. But he wasn't going to question it, he was a Pact soldier, he was to receive orders not question them. Even if he was questioning to himself why a whole squad was being dedicated to go after a statue thing when there was surely better targets to go after. "Yes sir." was all the Pact trooper said as an answer to being ready for deployment.