The skittish crew member jolted as he looked up and began to pale several unhealthy shades of white as he noticed the Commissars uniform. Barely able to keep it together, the crew member quickly blurted. "The signatures are hard to read but estimates are possibly four Retribution Class Battleships and most likely twelve Infidel Class Raiders. The larger energy signature here -pointing at the largest red cluster- was an Imperial Star Fort, Hydralast Class. Some of the other signatures are too jarred up to read but my guess would be nearing fifty vessels in total spread out through the debris field....if you excuse me, I am needed elsewhere!" The crew member quickly retreated to the opposite side of the room and began to appear to be busy working on something else hopping to avoid the Commissar. Turning to face the sergeant, she looked the man up and down before speaking. "The situation is grim if the latest reports are anywhere near accurate. The entire planet is in a civil war and these damn chaos lunatics decided to jump in as if it were Emperors Day like a bunch of drunk juveniles. Follow me over here and we can get a better view of where you'll be landing...excuse me Lord Jeremiah -Maribel replied as she bowed briefly to her colleague and then gestured that the man follow her to the other side of the table.- The capital is still in Imperial hands but aerial reinforcements will take heavy casualties attempting to land as the starport and majority of the defensive hab blocks have been taken over by secessionists or traitors. You'll have to find an alternative landing zone if you want to hook up with the loyalists on the ground and even then...resistance will be heavy the entire way. Better off waiting till the fleet arrives and we can get more accurate reports from our forces on the ground." "You're better off asking the Inquisitors aide. She knows more than I would, I'm just a communications officer but if you want my opinion. Even the Emperor would grimace at the heresy going on down there. Those poor bastards have been at it for three weeks and already killed off half their population....takes a special type of character to pull that off if I dare say. Now if you excuse me, I need to finish delivering these reports." the crew member said as he saluted and turned back to his station shuffling data from the fleet and compiling it onto a nearby dataslate. "Hold on for a moment private....Kilroy is it? You're assigned to the first wave with the Inquisitor. Should be the second drop ship piloted by Service Air member John Walkers. You can find him on the bridge main near the captains throne if you want to speak to him about it." Maribel replied, already moving on to the next person. _________________________________________________________________ Lord Jeremiah returned her bow and took that as his signal to leave before he was required to suffer the indignity of bowing to the Inquisitors lackeys. Turning around sharply and marching for the bridges exit, he passed a trio of hooded figures who appeared to be Enginseers moving into the room moving a massive covered trolley. Walking by them, he tripped over something that fell off the laden carriage and picked up before dropping it in shock. Looking up, eyes wide in terror he had only a moments notice before the nearest Enginseer stabbed him through the throat with an electro-spanner sending flecks of blood across the bulkhead. As the now lifeless corpse fell to the ground, the closest guard in the room was already shouting a warning and had pulled out his sidearm but was knocked to the ground as the entire ship shook from an internal detonation. Klaxons and red alarms blared outwards from every direction as crew members attempted to identify what exactly was going on. With both the temporary loss of power and the massive detonation knocking people over, the closest crew members and guards got up only to find the figures gone and the tarp that had covered the trolley slightly lifted to reveal a makeshift bomb. The counter on the visible screen counting down, its timer decreasing rapidly from a 40 second to doom reminder.
Commissar Rackham - Smiled inwardly as he puffed his cigar and continued to examine the signatures that were just pointed out to him and explained. Being a Commissar has its perks, he has always enjoyed making people squirm and give him the information he is looking for. SGT Kroll - "My apologies Lord Jeremiah for the interruption, but before I go, Maribel can you point me to the planetary maps and the pilot that will be flying us into this hornets nest. So that I can try to find the best course to link up with the nearest Loyalist. Come on PFC Kilroy, don't need you getting into trouble on the bridge."
Commissar Rackham - Grabs the trolley and pushes it to the nearest air-lock in an attempt to remove the bomb from the ship. OOC: assuming there is a nearby air-lock the Commissar will push it in close the interior doors and open the exterior doors so that it will be pulled from the ship SGT Kroll - Shouts "Head for the Hangar's we need to get planet side!! Let's go Kilroy move your ass!!"
As Rackham grabs the cart to move it away from the room, a hail of gunfire comes out from the entrance announcing where the insurgents had disappeared to winging several staff officers and ensigns. Having little to no regard on whether or not they hit the bomb(s), the autogun fire continues to rake the interior forcing everyone down temporarily. A volley of gunfire smacks against the carts wheel carriage causing it to slump down at a sharp angle. The bomb carriage slowly begins to slide down until it crashes across the floor revealing the intricate wiring beneath. The angry red digits continue to wind down...30...29...28...the vessel shudders again as another detonation wracks the vessel, this time much closer to the bridge. If one were to look outside the porthole, they would see large sections of the battleship floating outwards into the void even as the fleet warps away leaving them stranded minus the closest escorts which stayed behind to follow the Inquisitor. The Hand of Fate lies stricken in the void of space as it lists randomly venting atmosphere and hemorrhaging debris and crew members.
SGT Kroll - Begins to fire his lasgun at the opening in the doorway where the insurgents were spraying wildly. Commissar Rackham - Attempts to shove the Bomb carriage through the doorway while SGT Kroll keeps the insurgents heads down.
OOC: The bomb is unmovable but while it overturned, it conveniently revealed the delicate wiring underneath. We are now playing Counter Strike: Defuse the Bomb or We All Die Mode!
"... Already getting attacked? Who was the idiot that didn't check who came into the ship?" Daniel said out into the air. OOC: Do I have my Heavy Bolter anywhere close?
Commissar Rackham - Cuts the BLUE wire SGT Kroll - Shoots one of the insurgents before ducking behind a navigation station to reload
Seeing their colleague shot to pieces in front of them, the Insurgents beat a hasty retreat deeper into the vessel followed by the sounds of small arms fire and a much heavier piece of ordnance firing, most likely an autocannon. As Commissar Rackham knelt over the bomb watching the ticker go from 7 to 6, he quickly made a hasty decision yanking out a faintly colored wire next to the detonator. Watching in dismay as the timer continued to tick down, a nearby officer said, "Well....this crusade ended before it ever began." and then the timer hit zero....several moments passed by and nothing seemed to happen. A couple of nervous laughs and adrenaline pumped seconds later and it became apparent that the timer, the bombs main way of detonating had been detached without activating the fail safe. Seeing the opportunity to remove the bomb, a squad of stormtroopers escorting a tech priest quickly took the bomb out into the hallway into another room, most likely bomb proof in case it decided to go off. Looking around the room, several crew members lay dead or bleeding out. Smashed control lecterns and sparking holo maps littered the platform as small electrical fires burned in the background, their smoldering embers being put out by crew members even as medics rushed in through another side hatch attempting to stabilize the more critically wounded. Coughing out thick streams of blood, Maribel lay broken across the central lectern, a pair of ugly bullet wounds across her torso. Looking up at the nearest soldier she spoke out in gasping breaths. "What the fuck are you still doing here...'et after those fuckers or help me up Emperor damn you!" -There is a weapon locker near the main hatch the insurgents went out of that is now open containing lasguns and shotguns that will be temporarily given to anyone who takes one.- {Objective 1: Secure the Engine Room} {Objective 2: Follow the armsmen deeper into the ship and annihilate the heretic cell that has infiltrated the vessel} [Rewards: 1000 exp upon completion] [Bonus Rewards: 1000 exp bounty on the Insurgents who were responsible for the bombing, they are most likely headed to Engineering to sabotage the vessel] OOC: You only have side arms or melee weapons at this point, majority of you have just transferred over by shuttle before the briefing and weren't dressed for combat. That means body armour is temporarily disabled until the situation is resolved.
