Rebel Planetary Police Forces

Daemonhost Ghaustos, armed with psychic powers invulnerable, possessed, vampirism, deflection, gnawing, magic absorption, mind stealer, blood boil, regenerate, warp strength, psychic shriek and telepathy. Slick' Devlan, armed with a stubber and revolver
Enforcer Barbaretta armed with a shock maul, supression shield, automatic shotgun and a cyber mastiff.

It was dark; gloomy, as if a fog had settled down in the crevices and hallways of the hive city. The magos was deep within the sprawls of the city, beyond the sunlight and warmth of the surface. It mattered little to him; the scarce amount of flesh that was left of him was augmented by several combat stimulants and neurobiotics, and he felt nothing. Through the murky darkness the rangefinder built into his cybernetic eyes tracked back and forth, searching for a target or anomaly in the blackness.

Across the hallway, taking shelter in a ruined building, he could see Solinus, his red and black robes hanging limply from his form, the soft glint of his sword piercing through the darkness. The sword glowed red through the daemonhosts viewfinder as he switched over to thermal vision, the heat exuded by the sword surpassing the human inquisitors own. It radiated with energy, and for a moment the magos surveyed it, the curiosity of the strange weapon surfacing again.

He put it out of his mind for the moment; he had more pressing matters at hand. The inquisitor was braced against a wall of bricks, and he took short glances beyond the wall off into the darkness, obviouslly also searching for a target. The inquisitor had told him that the planetary law enforcement had turned heretic, and there were even rumors of chaotic influences that had manifested themselves to aide the rebellion against the imperial government.

They were called in to deal with the possible daemonic presence, and possibly investigate once the proper measures had been taken to secure that the rebellion had been put to an end. The inquisitor retreated back behind the wall, and he removed his autopistol from within the folds of his cloak, checking his clip and making some sort of adjustments.

The magos turned away, and crept silently along the dirt floor, staying close to the decaying wall that offered him the only cover against any incoming fire. He glanced through a window, and with a mental imperative he activated the zoom on his internal viewfinder. The cloudy darkness soon focused as his cybernetic eyes zoomed in, and although it was gloomy, he could make out the blurred form of a humanoid, suspended a few feet above the ground.

He switched over to thermal vision and he nearly yelled. The man was surrounded with a corona of white light, but instead of being centered around the heart, the white glow exuded from the mans head. A daemonhost, most likely. He had heard rumors about daemonhosts that were put into service of chaos cults to allow their daemonic masters physical manifestation. He wondered silently what the creature was capable of, and took a step outside the building to get a better look.

He saw Inquisitor Solinus cautiously emerge from the safety of his building and walk forward, slowly, his sword raised in a defensive manner, his pistol hanging limply at his side, yet the magos could tell that the Inquisitor was ready to fire if the situation demanded. Following closely behind the inquisitor was his arco-flagellant. The creature walked sluggishly, as if being pulled by an invisible chain connected to the inquisitor. His pacifier helm hummed softly, and the wicked, curved blades implanted in his arms hung passively at his sides as he meandered along.

The magos took another step forward, to follow the inquisitor, when out of the darkness he saw a glint of metal, and a gunflash. He traced the bullets back to an enforcer, female, holding a large smoking shotgun in both hands. The inquisitor dropped to the ground behind a low wall of ceramite, and returned fire, missing widely. The enforcer moved behind the corner of a burned building, and the inquisitor raised his head as the firing stopped, getting to his feet quickly; it always intrigued the magos how nimble the inquisitor was; he looked ancient in the reckoning of humans, obviouslly augmented by implants.

The magos stepped out, and as he did so he looked past the inquisitor, snarling as he saw the daemonhost and another grizzly faced man with two pistols, lining up Solinus in his sights. He quickly raised his right arm, the injectors delivering a boost of strength enhancers to aide his weak, brittle flesh in raising the implanted stubber attached to his arm. With a psychic signal he fired off four shots in the direction of the man with the pistols, grinning behind his rebreather as one of the bullets tore through his leg, the other punching a bloody hole in the padded armor on his shoulder. The gunslinger dove behind a pile of rubble, and the daemonhost snarled, his eyes radiating with an inhuman light.

Having taken out one of the cultists, for the moment, the magos turned his sights on the daemonhost; but with a burst of inhuman speed he fled behind a wall, and the magos growled as he lowered his sights. He watched as the arco-flagellant wandered forward still, as the battle began around him. The enforcer stepped cautiously away from the building, and slung her shotgun onto her back as she drew a maul from her belt. The magos raised his gun, and sent a psychic signal, the stubber flashing as a round was squeezed off.

It missed the enforcer, however, and she spun around, spotting the magos and sprinting in his direction. The magos growled, and he lowered his implanted stubber, reaching behind him to draw his enormous chain-axe from the sheath on his back. With a flick of the ignition button the chain blade began to whirr, and the hundreds of biting teeth began their deadly cycle around the blade of the axe. The enforcer raised her suppression shield as she jumped over a skeleton, laying under a pile of rubble, and she crashed into him with an enormous amount of force for such a fragile creature. Her maul buzzed with electricity, and the magos quickly raised his chain-axe in a parry to the blow, knocking the enforcer to the side with his superior augmented strength.

As the enforcer tumbled to the ground, the magos looked beyond to watch as the inquisitor engaged the enforcer's cyber mastiff, the mechanical dog slamming into the inquisitors legs and ripping into his flesh with steel jaws. The inquisitor groaned painfully, and raised his daemon blade, a corona of fire surrounding the blade as the entity within drew upon the anger of it's weilder.

Just as the inquisitor was bringing down his death stroke, he saw a flash of light and the inquisitor fell to the ground, dropping his blade and clutching his skull; it seemed to the magos that his skin was sweating blood, and the crimson lifeblood ran from the inquisitors eye sockets and nose. The daemonhost cackled, and floated away to the safety of another ruined building.

The inquisitor rolled to and fro in agonizing pain, and for a moment it seemed that he was recovering, when the cyber-mastiff ripped into his neck with his steel trap, tearing the jugular. The inquisitor gasped and fell limp, and the mastiff turned around, retreating away in victory. The magos grieved for the loss of the inquisitor; the tide of the battle had seriously turned now. He turned around, bringing his attention back to the inquisitor, and was met by a spiked shock maul slamming forcefully into his cybernetic mask.

The magos stumbled backwards, his internal damage sensors indicating minor malfunctions in his life support and vision systems. Indeed his network of implants was damaged, as the image of the enforcer raising her shock maul flickered and popped in front of his vision.

He swung his chain-axe in a wide arc, smashing aside the feeble blow of the enforcer, and as he turned in a full circle, he brought about the axe, using the momentum of his previous blow to rake the chain-axe across the enforcers chest, ripping through the metallic armor plates like a ration can, the mangling teeth of the axe tearing into her weak flesh, crashing through bone and sending her reeling to the ground, twitching in shock. The magos kicked her lifeless form out of the way, into a pile of masonry bricks, and he grinned underneath his mask as he strode forward, his bloodstained robes fluttering in the thick air of the hive city.

The arco-flagellant had disposed of the cyber-mastiff, the mechanical animal laying severed in two, wires and circuit boards sparking and smoking on the ground. He looked around, and found the arco-flagellant now engaging both the daemonhost and the gunslinger; apparently his pacifier helm had been de-activated, and now the arco-flagellant appeared to have grown in size, and ability as well.

Spurred by the cocktail of drugs and technological augmentations, he whirred around with amazing speed, scything blades flickering in a storm of slices and blows. The gunslinger reeled away from the devastating attacks, one of his arms nearly severed at the bone, his gun dropping to the floor with a metallic pang. He stumbled to the ground, and with another final blow the arco-flagellant plunged one of his curved blades into the spine of the man, splitting it at the base of his neck with a sickening crunch. Not nearly a moment after the daemonhost pounced upon the flagellant, his long curved fingernails digging into the flesh of the creatures shoulders.

The magos sprinted in the direction of the struggle just as he saw the daemonhosts arm begin to glow, and the arco-flagellant tensed up, bending his chest forward away from the pain in his back as the daemonhost began draining the essence away from him, feeding his own daemonic hunger for psyche with the soul of the once-human. The arco-flagellant fell to the ground, limp and pale, his muscles visibly waxing as the enhancements and drugs drained away.

The daemonhost looked larger now, and through the crackling display of the magos he now flamed with white light and heat. The daemonhost snapped around with blazing speed, and he pointed a gnarled hand at the magos, firing off a bolt of unnatural energy. The magos was struck, but he felt no effects of the enchantment, and a look of confusion spread across the daemonhosts face. The magos seemed to have no life essence, no blood. The magos took advantage of the momentary lapse of concentration, raising his chain-axe in a wicked swing aimed for the daemonhosts head.

As he brought the weapon down the daemonhost seemed to disappear, and the magos stumbled forward with the unexpected momentum. The chain-axe clattered to the ground, dirt and crumbled bricks scattering underneath the frenzied teeth. He rose again and turned around, the daemonhost flying into him, shoulder lowered, in a crude ramming blow. The magos fell back, stumbling over the arco-flagellants lifeless form, and he groaned as he felt a bone deep within his spine crack. He managed to get to his feet, and as the daemonhost came in for another blow he swung the axe in an arc parallel to the ground.

The daemonhost would have been torn in two, but his form thinned, and became ethereal, and the blade moved through him as if it were air. The daemonhost retreated, circling around the magos as his form once again returned to its physical, tangible state, and he raised his hand to release another blast of psychic energy. The magos pushed off the ground, and he dove out of the way as the place he had just occupied was burned, the bricks melting and smouldering. The magos snarled as he felt the soothing balm of pain suppressors flow through his bloodstream, and with a shudder he got to his feet and faced his enemy.

The daemonhost snarled and opened his mouth, his daemonic tongue lashing about as he growled at the magos. The magos stood stern as stone, and raised his stubber arm, firing a single round into the abdomen of the daemonhost. The creature gasped as his green blood flowed from the wound, and as he began to waver in his psychic suspension above the ground, the magos stepped forward, bringing the chain axe around in a wide arc.

The biting blade chewed through the creatures thin, skeletal neck with ease, severing his head from his tattooed neck. The stump spouted thick green blood, and as the corpse fell to the ground the magos witnessed a shimmer in the air, and through his thermal vision he witnessed the form of a gnarled daemonic visage escaping through the neck of its former host, vanishing into the air as he escaped back to the warp once again.

The magos sighed, and lowered his axe, resting against a pile of broken bricks and ceramite as the green blood pooled around his feet. Now that the immediate danger was over he took stock of the situation; apparently they had been the only ones in the crowded interior of the hive city, and everyone had been eliminated except him. Inquisitor Solinus lay near the low ceramite wall where he had fallen, a victim of the daemonhosts psychic attacks. He was laying in a pool of blood, and it looked as if all the veins and arteries in his body had swollen, the blood boiling within him and exploding from within his body.

The severed form of the cyber-mastiff lay nearby, smoking and sparking. The magos looked nearer, to the battle that had just ensued, studying the form of the arco-flagellant. Where his skin tone had once been a sickly, pallid flesh, it was now nearly white, and his veins flowed black. The daemonhosts body lay at his feet, and was now shriveled to nearly the figure of a skeleton, the many tattoos and runes that decorated his body fading with the retreat of the daemonic entity within. The magos reached within his robes and turned a nozzle, letting the flow of painkillers increase. His blood was on fire but his muscles were soothed, and he got to his feet, walking slowly along the ground, littered with rubble and broken weaponry.

The magos stooped next to the fallen inquisitor, and as he reached for the daemonsword it glowed dimly, the raised metal runes on its surface alight with an eerie fire. The sword began moving along the ground on its own to the fallen man's hand. Solinus groaned, and his eyes opened, red with blood.

He looked up at the metallic face of the magos, and he closed his eyes again with a painful wince. "You seem to have survived, Cyrax..." the man muttered weakly. The magos only nodded. "The daemon used his power on me, breaking through what psychic defenses I had. He was a powerful creature. I assume you have disposed of him?" The magos nodded again, running the edge of his thumb along the now dormant chain teeth along his axes blade The inquisitor smiled grimly, and he spoke aloud, but not to the magos.