AuthorTurbidious Unknown Treasure Captain Tselios was not having a good day; the filthy creatures that had invaded his ship had managed to kill most of his crew had driven him and the remnant of the Inquisitors party into the depths of the ‘Fury’. Only he and four others from the command deck had made it down into the engineering decks, he was the only one not injured, or in his eyes, useless. There was Karina, his helmswomen, but her arm had been broken in the first exchanges of the fight and she looked pale. The Inquisitors band were the others, but he couldn’t remember their names. At least they had managed to save him and Karina as they were chased from the bridge by feral looking sub humans but how long they would be able to keep up the hide and seek he didn’t know. The only hope they had was to make it to one of the engineering decks escape pods on the undamaged port side, so far it appeared that no pods had been launched from that side of the ship. But this meant descending into the bowls of the ship and so far they had not come across any enemy or for that matter any surviving crew. ‘Curious’ Tselios murmured under his breath, but he pushed the thought to the back of his mind. The filth had managed to cripple the frigate with a lucky shot and now they were swarming about the ‘Fury’ at random, picking it a part. Tselios couldn’t fathom why they hadn’t blown them to pieces, but presumed it was something to do with the package they had acquired in the Inquisitors name. All he knew was that the Inquisitor needed it and it seemed like the filth did too, for what purpose Tselios could only guess, but he felt like he was being herded deeper into the ship.
He shook himself out of his thoughts ‘this won’t get us out of here’ he contemplated. He looked over at the remaining crew and the package, he shivered, he didn’t want to die for such a thing, he swallowed the lump in his throat down, it was like swallowing a cranes egg. He scanned the screen on his wrist bracket ‘Ok, according to my schematic, we have three levels to descend before we get to any potential intact pods, we all good to move?’ All of them nodded. ’Ok let’s go’. They descended down two levels, the lights on the ships were failing and they still hadn’t met with anyone else, ‘how long before the gravity goes or for that matter life support’’ thought Tselios. They passed through an access corridor which led them out onto a raised 10 m wide platform which, according to the schematic, would lead them to an elevator; he hadn’t been down in this part of the ship for decades. The platform was shrouded in darkness, with only some illumination for the lights along the floor in the central portion of the platform. It appeared that the main lighting in this area was down and the air felt thick and the light looked like it hung heavy in the darkness. The elevator was just ahead and it could then take them further down to the engineering decks and hopefully to an intact pod. The group was moving cautiously onto the platform, wary of the darkness, it felt cold and heavy but Tselios tried to ignore it. As the group moved forward their boots came away slick and wet. Only when Tselios looked at the liquid that was illuminated did he realise it was blood. Fear crept into his gut, but before he could shout a warning, a blood chilling scream came from behind them. It felt to Tselios like someone had frozen him solid, the scream terrified him more than anything ever should have, it was base, raw, powerful and yet sharp and cold, a noise that could cut durasteel. He had never felt more afraid and he hadn’t even seen what caused the scream. One of the Inquisitors band ushered the group forward towards the elevator, they all looked focused. They sped towards the elevator doors, careful not to slip on the slick floor. From behind him he heard a dull thud and not a moment later he watched to his left as Karina fell to the deck with a hole the size of a man’s fist in her back and blood pooling out from under her. Tselios knew she was not getting up and there was no way he could help her, he kept running. They were some 60 or so metres away from the elevator entrance; he could see the yellow lit buttons on the control console for the elevator. He was just behind the rest of the group and just as he was nearing the door entrance, Tselios saw one of the Inquisitors band turn and engage whatever had mowed down Karina. The Throne agent managed two or three shots with his las pistol before another deep thud and his head exploded. His body fell to the deck just in front of Tselios, he stumbled to avoid the body and fell short of the elevator. He looked up and gazed at one of the members of the Inquisitors party, tightly holding the package. ‘Get going’ Tselios managed to blurt out through gritted teeth, a fire was burning in his chest making it hard to breathe, and he had broken ribs in the fall. But Tselios did not get a response; there was fear in the eyes of the man in front of him, looking not at him but something beyond him, behind him. It made Tselios roll and stare back at the direction they had come. Standing over him was what he was sure was the source of the scream, a purple coloured monstrosity; it was lean, athletic, with an extended female body but not quite in portions. It had three large black eyes and two large horns extruded from the top of its head, a tail whipped around behind it and one of its arms had a cannon attached to it. Its skin was leathery and coarse and it stunk of a rich perfume, it was the most beautiful yet singularly the most terrifying thing he had ever seen. Tselios eyes widened and he wanted to scream but nothing came out, he tried to crawl backward, scuttle fish style into the elevator, but the tail whipped out too fast for him to see and caught him square in the chest. Pain shot through him again and he was pinned in place, struggling to breathe. He looked up into the monsters face, into its black pits for eyes; it wore a smile of satisfaction and contempt. ‘Kill me filth’ Tselios managed, spitting blood, he wanted to go out fighting as any true son of the Emperor would but he was frightened, he was a ship’s Captain, not meant for one on one combat. A little of the fear gave way to anger, anger at the pain, anger at the loss of his ship, anger at his death to come but to Tselios surprise the creature stepped aside and new horror stepped up in its place. Its armour was a shade of dried blood and covered in parchments made of skin with scribed writings on that hurt Tselios eyes to look at. Skulls hung about the colossal beasts shoulders, and bolter that Tselios wouldn’t be able to even lift hung at its hip. The creatures face was pockmarked with scars and its eyes were pupil less and set a little too far back in their sockets. The creature gave a low rumble that Tselios took for a laugh. It bent down and gripped his jaw with one of its massive clawed hands; he was surprised at the precision of its grip due to the abominations size. It reached down and took hold of his throat and bought him to his feet, and he let out a cry of pain as it did so, which seemed to amuse the creature. It stood to its full height and lifted Tselios up so that he could look into his eyes. ‘I am Abel Vargas and you have something I want’ Vargas pointed to the package, as Tselios tried to gulp air into his broken chest. Vargas glanced at Captains uniform ‘unluckily for you Captain I always get what I want. I hope you will enjoy your stay aboard my ship’. The grip around Tselios throat slackened and it allowed him to get air into burning lungs, the creature was laughing again, a base gravel laugh. Tselios head swam and he felt he was losing his fight with conscious, but he could hear buzzing in his head, his hair stood on the back of his neck and he had goose flesh on his bare arms. Vargas lurched forward suddenly, as did the purple monster next to him, which seemed to fade into a whisper of its former self. Vargas tossed Tselios aside like he was a rag doll; he hit the ground hard and felt something else snap but it allowed him to gain a view of what had happened. The remaining Inquisitor agent was now standing strong, the fear that was in his eyes moments before was now a burning fire of determination, ‘Fallon, that was his name’, Tselios thought, and he watched in awe as Fallon strode towards the two abominations, one hand outstretched and the other on a medallion depicting the glorious Emperor, he was chanting and forcing the creatures to their knees. ‘Hes a psyker!’ Tselios realised, hope erupting in his heart. The purple monster was screaming again, but it was the cries of a pain not pleasure that were emanating from the creature. Fallon focused on the daemon as it scratched and crawled on the decking. The demon began to melt away, bubbling as the sacred vows voiced by Fallon were directed at it. The creature let out one final cry before turning to mist and evaporating away, Fallon then turned to the beast. But as quickly as the hope came it was quickly quashed, Fallon had focused on the wrong enemy, the marine steadied himself and stood. An invisible war taking place as Vargas started slowly walking towards Fallon. The Throne agent was dwarfed by the traitorous thing but he was standing his ground, it appeared as if Vargas was wading through treacle, such was his slowed movements. Tselios was stunned at the sheer power of Fallon to hold the fallen space marine at bay, and he didn’t waste the chance Fallon had given him, he crawled towards the elevator and propped himself up on the command console as the psykers duelled. The chanting became rapture as Fallon released all his power on the space marine, his robes setting alight and blue flame licked around his upper body and head as he directed that power at Vargas. Tselios couldn’t believe what he was seeing, but it wasn’t enough. Vargas had begun to laugh again and was finally walking with purpose. The blue flame appeared to wash over the marine and blister his desecrated armour. But the marine’s movements became faster than before and in a movement quicker than Tselios could blink, the mighty steel claw of the monster shot out and ripped a hole through Fallons throat. The Inquisitor agent fell to the floor, spilling his life at the feet of the fallen space marine. To insult further, Vargas crushed the medallion of the Emperor and the hand of Fallon still holding it under his heel. Vargas coughed ever so slightly and turned his gaze back towards Tselios ‘Not bad for one of the corpse Emperors minions, he could have been useful, maybe even powerful one day, but alas he chose his side. Now Captain, where was I’’ the Marine was now pacing towards Tselios ‘…ah yes, I think you will enjoy your stay on my ship, good slaves are hard to come by, and the item in your possession, I’m sorry, my possession, will give me the power to crush the Imperial armies in this Sector. Now let’s get going, Davros awaits.’’ However, Tselios had not been idle at the console and it was the first time the corrupted marine’s mask of superiority had slipped. Tselios had sent the elevator along with the package and final throne agent down towards the escape pods and on his little wrist console a small green light blinked continuously signifying the safe discharge or a single pod. Tselios then allowed the blackness at the edge of his vision take hold but not before smiling at the marine now raging towards him. ---------------------------------- Raglon slammed his fists down onto the control sphere, it made the illuminated globe fizzle and splutter slightly ‘Gone, Throne damn it, it’s gone!’ His anger resulted in a servitor wired to the control console burning out, such was his psyker energy released. He had just watched the ‘Fury’ become a ball of slag as the Chaos ships had opened up on the little frigate and utterly destroyed her. Raglon was so engulfed in his anger that he nearly missed the pinprick of pyskic energy that had been released from the ‘Fury’ just before it was destroyed. He composed himself and focused on the energy; it was small life force and purely focused for him and him alone. He smiled, he had trained Fallon well. It was a simple message, he knew Fallon was now dead but his sacrifice was not in vain. The pyskic message he sent out just before his death simply said ‘Davros’.
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AboutTales from within the sector written by me (Turbidious) or other contributors. These are based on games we have had of BFG and 40k Archives
March 2021
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