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 Preparing for Sa'cea - Belsarius & Tbloxham +++Thought for the day+++ |
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Tratchenberg stood in the firing range shootig her stubber. Thraxus walked in and watched for a moment, he had gotten used to navigating the halls and lift tubes of the Phantom during the warp jump. As Jade reloaded he tapped her on the shoulder, "It's time". Tratchenberg nodded, as she turned to continue firing she noticed the surprise on his face. "I always do this before a mission, I fire a hundred shots. It helps steady the nerves" she explained " a bit like your cleansing of your soul through pain". Thraxus nodded in understanding, "Just one last question and I'll let you get back to your little ritual, do you know where James is? He's disappeared again". Jade laughed, "I thought you would of been used to it after the last couple of days", when Kaia and James weren't practicing in the shooting gallery or eating they were nigh impossible to find, "I can't halp you there, Kaia knows the ship to well. I suggest you get Dana or Morianna to track them down, probably best it you got both on the job". Thraxus shook his head, probably in despair thought Tratchenberg, and walked out the door to find the missing colonel". Thraxus found James working in an engineering bay a few decks below after a half hour hour of searching. He had been with Kaia making a few last minute tweaks to the weaponry the team would be using. Without Vox and Lor present he trusted noone but himself with the teams weaponry, and Thraxus' double sword had been playing up in practice a few times. you install that new capacitor bank," queried Thraxus glad to have found the waywayd colonel, "I dont want the edge on that giving out on me at a bad time!" worry Thraxus, its good as ancient!" James demonstrated and drew the left blade from the right and thumbed the power switches, the two blades burned on and the air hummed with ionisation, although not as brightly burning as when Thraxus used them the blades looked to be functioning smoothly. He slid one blade back into the other and handed them over to Thraxus who clamped the blades onto his back. All three of them were ready to drop and fully equiped, it was only a matter of waiting. long till we board the insertion craft?" said James, eager to get the mission started, he probobly wanted to show off to Kaia, thought Thraxus with a smile. "Right now in fact colonel, Im glad to see you are so enthused!" Thraxus tightened a strap which held the carapace armor that he wore over his real arm in battle, "That heretic nexus should feel the bite of my blade within a few hours!" Thraxus thought back to the rituals he had undergone, Dana had gone through the meditation with him and two hours of the purification. He did not begrudge her leaving though, only his machine implant had kept him alive throughout the last stages. "Excellent!" said the two together, "Lets head over to the other ship!" With that the team walked out of the engineering bay and swftly walked to join Dana, Jade and Morianna on the other ship. We'd better hurry, thought thraxus, before Dana manages to insult our hosts to such a degree that we become the target! three walked together down the corridoors approcaching the airlock, boots clanking on the steel deck. 3 people standing outside the airlock turned at the sound of footsteps. Thraxus appeared with Kaia and James behind him, Morianna noticed the flash of anger through Dana's eyes as they entered. Tratchenberg spoke "Darian and Vinian are onboard and getting our gear stowed, this is the last chance to get anything extra for the mission". Everybody signaled their readiness so Jade hit the airlock button. As the airlock had hissed open Jade smiled as she thought about the mission. Everyone was confident and knew what they had to do, her ritual had gone well, a good omen for the mission. sent a message to the bridge "Once the Spectre has detached from the Phantom take the Phantom to Espandor and await word from me there". As the others went through the airlock she turned to Thraxus, "It is only a matter of time now, his days are numbered", she shook his hand and together they stepped through the airlock. inertial compensators on the ship were unfortunately of a new design and thus were not very effecient, the team had had to strap itself down in a sealed room deep in the core of the doomed spectre. This room was seperated from the rest of the ship by an 8 foot thick plasteel wall desighned to maintain integrity during the crash, it was more drop pod than spaceship were it to be removed. one was to look at the outside of the ancient cargo transport you would see carefully placed explosives with their detonators linked into the central pod, they intended to make their crash as realistic as possible so as to make the Tau authorities believe noone could possibly survive it. Thraxus had even insisted that the central pod itself be rigged with an enormously high yield plasma bomb so that after they were well clear of the crash site they could simulate a warp reactor meltdown. Although this would be unlikely in a Tau vessel of a similar class they would be masquerading as the Jacobian Triumph, a delapidated human cargo vessel carrying pulse rifles from T'au prime. teams were sat around a central column in the central pod and securely strapped down. Morianna would be piloting the ship in from her station, and Dana would speak to the T'au authorities to bluff their way through the outer defensive perimeter of Sa'Cea. The Spectre would be no match for a T'au cruiser! turned to Thraxus who was sitting next to her, the rest of the team were voicing plans and ideas about the mission, making sure it was thoroughly prepared and that everyone knew their plans, she was glad to see Thraxus again, "Ive missed you the last few days Thraxus," she looked worried, "Twenty hours is more than youve ever called yourself to do before, I was almost dead after two!" Thraxus' eyes narrowed as he remembered the pain of the torture chamber, he had purified himself through scalding heat this time as the Fabricator Marshal had advised, it had taken him three days of bed rest to recover after the ordeal but he still felt its purity coursing through him, "Do not worry Dana," he said, trying to be reassuring, "I am as you have noticed slightly different from the rest of us!" he gestured with his mechanical hand at the sleek mechanical lines of his torso, its lines were pulsing green as usual but someohow they seemed brighter, "And Im sure you will be pleased to hear I havent needed to take the serum since I underwent it!" smiled, "At least thats good news, it is never wise to put your faith in something you dont understand," she looked over briefly at james sitting next to her, he was talking eagerly with Kaia, she lowered her voice," she's not good enough for him you know, what if he decides to leave us and stay with them after this mission?" Thraxus thought for a second, "We should not begrudge him his happiness Dana, emperors tears we could all stand to have a little more!" he looked at Dana coolly, remembering how he had first found her, "You as well Dana." fine Thraxus, providing I get to fight the emperor damned Tau Im fine," Thraxus could see in her eyes she was lying but he didnt have the time to respond. Morianna pressed a green rune on her control console and the ships thrusters fired, the G forces pressed everyone into their seats as the dampeners struggled to keep up. Thraxus wondered what Vox and Lor would say about treating a machine so badly as they intended to treat this one, they would not be at all pleased he thought. worry Spectre," Thraxus whispered, "We all do the emperors final duty sometime." ship seemed to shudder and soon they were on their way to Sa'Cea. "Morianna did the tech priests get that final modification done?" asked Jade, Morianna nodded but didn't take her eyes off the insruments for a second. Noticing the glances from the rest of the crew Tratchenberg explained "I asked for a couple of concealed gun emplacements to be installed on the ship. Not much good to fake a crash if they have a ship with warriors waiting right on top of us when we leave the wreck. Hopefully we'll be able to shoot down any ships or at least damage them". Everyone nodded, they were trying to infiltrate the planet and fighting through a bunch of warriors as soon as they landed on planet wouldn't help. Morianna turned "The ship is ready to make the jump into the warp, we await your command". Tratchenberg considered for a second "We'll wait 5 more minutes to see if Amnon will get in contact with us, assuming you have no objections Inquisitor" motioned to Morianna. Morianna hit the button and the Spectre entered the warp. Sitting at the back of the craft Darian and Vinain exchanged glances, they were thinking the same thing. This mission is suicide, taking on a whole planet of Tau with 8 people. They had lived through some of the most brutal conflicts imaginable but they were worried. turned to the group. "Anyone up for a game of cards to pass the time?". Kaia nodded, it was a chance to win some of her money back, Darian and Vinian accepted as well to keep their minds off the mission. The four of them turned expectantly to Thraxus and companions... in," James responded gratefully, happy to be able to do something a little more mundane than all the training and preparations he ahd been helping with of late, he unbolted the power locks on his re-entry chair and walked over to join them. He looked over at his friends, Thraxus and Dana, Dana looked up and nodded and soon joined the others round the table. Thraxus however looked to be asleep, or perhaps meditating. He was sat strangely upright in his re-entry chair, although that was the only way to sit in the thing so it didnt attract too much attention. The others sat down and Jade began to deal, there were tens of millions of card games in the imperium, and a hundred variations on each so soon banter erupted over dealing styles, and how the games should be played. But it was all in good fun, the team had started to be able to work together smoothly over the last few weeks on the Phantom, despite Dana's mistrust of other women around her friends. Unobserved on the other side of the central column Thraxus' eyes snapped open, his left eye seemed to be glowing with the same vague green colour as the lines on his implants, but it could have just been imagined or a trick of the light. His eyes, flicked around the cabin briefly and then closed again and his eyelids seemed to flicker slightly as if he were dreaming. Laughter echoed from the other side of the cabin as James asked if Vinian would like to make up his losses by staking his mechanical hands on the next round. Kaia shook her head slowly at James' foolishness and the game continued. ------------------------------------------ Partially intercepted transmission Mechanicus codes - encryption not fully possible unit is on its way, broadcast feed is good Excellent, and we hear that integration has risen to onoYUW>>>>>> 270--=- which is good progress Indeed, and the qioo0002 battle should be a good chance to test further combat readiness the unit knows nothing? Nothing! that remains is 1298136bidiouh(&(!*&"^(!) 192762............. Transmission lost, further decryption impossible ------------------------------------------------------ "We'll be re-entering real space on approximately 10 ten minutes Inquisitors" said Morianna. As soon as she had finished the sentence the cards were dropped and everybody did a quick weapons check and then the ship became quiet as evrybody did final prayers to the emperor. alien world hung there in front of them like a flawed jewel, beuatiful yet horribly corupted in Thraxus' opinion by the presence of the xenos. The whole team had been carefully preparing for nine hours now, checking ammo and weapons. Slowly sharpening blades and tightening armour. It had taken 12 hours for the slow and half dead already Spectre to make her way through the Tau system and finally planetfall was immenent. had set as a target a point 10 kilometres to the north of Nexus' secret base. Far enough away so that Nexus would not be too suspiscious and flee, close enough so that the Tau could not undertake an excessive response without blowing the cover of the secret base to the civilian population. Morianna had set their flight path exceptionally carefully, other than the final instant of their landing they would look exactly like a ship crashing from a low orbit. noble officer sir, we shall be sure to report all goods to customs upon our arrival" Dana was still talking to T'au control, they had been questioning them for the last four hours. After the shame placed on them by the disaster on T'au prime which Thraxus had caused security had been stepped up massively, and the pair of huge T'au battleships hanging in orbit over the poles of the world were a clear sign that the T'au were moving to a war footing. "As I said earlier our security log number is 8191..." Dana's voice continued to echo round the tiny cabin, everyone else was remaining as silent as possible. Thraxus continued to look into the tiny veiw screens attached to the arms of each crash seat, as did most of the other crew members, except Vinian who was still bemoaning the loss to James of a master crafted plasma power cell in the last game of Pokrat. They were coming up on the planet fast, he could see the lights of the installations and fortresses on the planets surface, their pattern was alien and far too ordered, there was none of the natural growth and sprawl of a human settlement. The beaurocracy of the T'au empire guarunteed that every world as far as Thraxus could tell, was as much like the design of T'au prime as possible. It is true they have no soul, he thought, even the humans who work with them cant stand to live in their cities! The frustration he felt was amplified in his biomechanical implants, his arm strained at the restraints holding it. Suddenly Jade's voice came over their ear piece vox units, "Morianna says we are at position, James blow the charges in five, four, three ...." She mimed the last two with her fingers so that there would be absolute silence on the so called bridge of the ship for the benefit of T'au flight control. pressed first one button on his arm rest, then another, then two more, he smiled as he heard the first explosion wrack the ship. Outside on the surface of the ship the charges blew in sequence for the benefit of T'au flight control. First one next to the now empty promethium tanks, then one ten feet rearward next to the atmospheric flight control fins and the two at the same time next to each of the now inactive engines. The display of pyrotechnics was quite impressive and left the port side of the ship a melted and burning wreck. The trail of plasma and illuminated wreckeage trailing behind them, a perfectly mimicked accident. Dana's voice was urgent now, filled with mock terror, ".. Oh no! The primary fuel injectors, we've lost control! Help us! Please! Somebody do something," she was screaming into the transmitter unit now, the virtual bridge behind her slowly being replaced with an image of it exploding. T'au flight controllers response was equally desperate, "Do you still have flight control? I repeat, do you still have flight control?", projected flight paths flew up through the data link to the dying ship, " You are headed off your primary course, I repeat Glorious Cooperation you are not on your proscribed course!" tears stremed down Dana's face, the virtual flames in the cabin she appeared to be in were burning all around her now, she always had been a near perfect actress, "For the love of the Emperor!" she wept as the flames seemed to burn closer around her, "Why did I forsake him... this is my punishment, it hurts so much......" she leant down slightly and severed the link to static. "Those emperor damned T'au wont be getting another tear out of me today!" she swore loudly, disgusted to have had to talk to a xenos for so long. work Dana, my sensors show no movement from the T'au fleet at the poles," Thraxus keyed a few more runes to change the scanners, "and our projected landing zone seems totally clear of eneamy activity." Dana looked over at Thraxus and smiled, in fact the whole team seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, although the worst was far from over. spoke up a few seconds later, "Now its up to you Morianna, get us down safely so we can blow up the garbage scow and get on our way to capture Nexus!" "Indeed..." came the response from the highly focused Morianna, she was clearly tense, it had been hard enough flying this heap with all engines, now she had to land it while it was on fire with only one air stabiliser. This would push her skills to the limit.... KRUMP came the sounds from throughout the ship as enormous pieces of hull fell away and tumbled towards the earth below. Hopefully on top of some unfotunate T'au, thought Thraxus, looking over at James and Dana he could see that without mechanical implants the ride was being tough on them. EMPEROR PROTECTS!" Shouted Thraxus to the team as the noise in the cabin became deafening, a single void shield generator intended to help soften the impace activated in the last few minutes before impact, filling the air with the distinctive stench of ionization. THE IMPERIUM!" shouted back the rest of the crew, except Morianna who was far too focused on the console and her flying to be shouting. The roar in the cabin reached a crescendo, the walls started to glow red as friction with the air burned away much of the remaining fake outer hull of the spectre. Really only the pod inside its protective armour and void shields remained. Thraxus hoped the T'au didnt think to scan for polarised gamma radiation, a ship like theirs shouldnt still have had a void shield in this kind of condition. their heads red indicator runes lit up and flashed that they should brace for impact. A claxon sounded as well but it was swamped by the sound of the inferno burning outside. observer on the ground, if they had been unfortunate enough to be there would have seen an enormous ball of fire falling from the sky. Like a meteor but with a blue tinge from the void shields. It fell towards the open plain at about mach 8 and then impacted. The blast wave was immense, stretching for 4 or 5 hundred metres in every direction. The grass around the crash site melted from the heat and the sand itself was charred to glass. Flames licked all over the once lush area of ground. a second there was nothing but smoke and flames and heat, but then came the distinctive OOmph of air flooding into a deactivated void shield space. The smoke was sucked in, then blew out and the strong winds in the plain soon blew the cloud away. Inside the octagonal column shape of the drop pod was soon visible. few minutes later the two doors droppped slowly open and assault cannons swung down from the roof hatches. Inquisitor Jade scanned the area through one video channel, Kaia through another. Slowly the assault cannons trained back and forth, looking for signs of movement. Seeing none the secondary doors opened and all the team members moved out carefully. First Darian and Virian, covering each other carefully, then Kaia and James doing the same. The two inquisitors came next both sprinting for cover, Thraxus' implants switching to a cold blue glow as he pulled out his power swords and the fields activated. clear!" came back the call over the in ear vox units and the rest of the team moved out more carefully as well. go, " whispered Thraxus to Jade and the team began to slowly move accross the ground between them and the fortresses suspected location. When they were at the edge of the original crater Thraxus pulled a detonator from his pocket, and pressed the activation rune. Behind them a second blinding explosion occurred as the enormous plasma detonator Thraxus had planted went off. Looking back through a pair of binoculars at the site, Darian could see no evidence of the crafts non trade ship nature, the whole drop pod was gone. "The landing site is clean, " came his voice over the comms unit, "Lets keep moving" |
