Gizmoticus Gearmus - Tech-Priest of Mars and Leader of Mechanicum Forces
Cmdr. Magnus Valerius - Leader of Ground Forces and Former Arbitrator
Lt. Solidius Anguis - Undercover Vindicaire Temple Assassin
On Hold
While they waited to hear back about the audience with the High Maestro, brother Al-Rayyed Ad-Hib voxed the bridge; the music they'd heard when contacting planet Lyrecia could still be heard faintly in the background of the call. The space marine announced that he would take a shuttle to the space station, and from there gain passage to Prospero (eventually). Magnus wished him luck, and told him that he could expect assistance from the 231st while they were still in-system, if he needed it, and heavily implied that they might want assistance from him.
The planetary representative hadn't contacted them after another 30 minutes, and Magnus asked the bridge crew to make sure the Lyrecians weren't aiming anti-ship cannons at them; for now, at least, his Paranoia seemed unfounded, as no such emplacements were visible through the Rogue Sniper's scanners. Hours passed, and reports filtered in of soldiers getting headaches after using the vox network. Magnus announced that vox usage was to be stopped, and, suspecting a "music virus", got Gizmoticus to check the ship's systems for some kind of infection.
The tech-priest's investigation turned up nothing, so, now suspecting a "mind-virus", the party went to Astropath Wong, who informed them that the barrier between their reality and the empyrean was thinner than usual around the planet. Apparently, it was fine, unless there were untrained psykers in their ranks. What about the headaches? It was fine, don't worry about it. What about prolonged exposure? Nah, it was fine. Should they get earplugs or something for their troops? It was fine. Solidius asked how big the hole was, and Wong replied "Okay, let me just look into hell and check how big it is... Pretty big.".
While the rest of the crew waited some more, Gizmoticus whipped up 5 hand-held vox units that could filter out the music signal; he kept one, and the rest were given to Magnus, Captain Lundgren, and the two sub-commanders on the other ships in the fleet. Magnus voxed the planet again, and a different representative answered. He asked which city was their capital, and was promptly put on hold. A crewman used the ship scanners to "zoom and enhance", and determined that the central city looked to be the largest, and was likely the capital. As far as he could tell, it didn't have void shields, so orbital bombardment would be possible.
Goin' In Hot
After making a perfunctory attempt to inform the Lyrecians that they would be landing, Magnus gave into his Bad Temper and ordered 80% of his men to be ready to drop down to the planet on shuttles, though it was slow going due to the lack of most vox communications. He wanted to land the army directly on top of the capital city, "to teach them a lesson", but eventually relented to the "cowards" and agreed to land on the outskirts. They made sure to load their one functioning Leman Russ tank (without tech-priests, none of the others would work) and the regimental band into their shuttle.
On the way down to the planet's surface, some local aircraft approached and tried to guide them to a landing site, but Magnus ordered to ignore them ("If they wanted to tell us where to land, they should have answered the phone!"). By the time the troops had all disembarked and marched to the edge of the city, though, the natives had mustered the planetary defense force and erected crude barricades (Magnus: "I told you we should have landed in the city"). The same music as had "contaminated" their vox system before could be heard now, coming from nowhere in particular.
The leader of the PDF stepped forward and called out (in an unnaturally loud voice), asking why they had come. Magnus explained that they were representatives from the Imperium of Man, and that the Lyrecians had failed to communicate remotely. As a result, they'd decided to come in person; it would be best for everyone if the PDF would lay down their arms and surrendered. The PDF leader said that they could parley, but the army would have to stand down first. Magnus agreed, and their forces retreated beyond the city's outskirts and began constructing camp.
A Momentary Ceasefire
An hour later, four hovercars approached the camp, carrying the PDF leader from before and 30 soldiers. The party (except for Solidius, who was on overwatch several hundred meters away) took 60 men and went to meet with them; they found that the same music was emanating from the hovercar speakers. The leader wanted to know why they were here, and Magnus responded that they were investigating why the planet had ceased communications with the Imperium one year ago.
The leader claimed that their most recent received message had been from Prospero 12 years ago, and the last message from Terra had been 23 years ago. Again, Magnus asked to speak to the man in charge, and again, was told that he was far too busy to meet with anyone. Magnus deflected, and asked to talk to whomever was in charge of the astropathic choir; surely, if they received messages so rarely, the astropaths would be free?
The PDF leader stumbled over his words as he tried to claim that he didn't know what an astropathic choir was, which Magnus' Detect Lies and Gizmoticus' mind reading device revealed to be a lie. The conversation shifted as Magnus became more hostile, and, through mind control and interrogation, they learned the PDF leader's name and rank (City Commander Greg), the location of the High Maestro, and that the astropathic choir and Imperial Governor were likely all dead.
Magnus arrested Greg and his men, who claimed that the Imperials were in violation of the treaty the Lyrecians had signed with the primarch Fulgrim. Allegedly, the primarch had sworn to give the planet more autonomy than usual in exchange for the starport's resources. Ahzek (having just spent a discretionary point on Hidden Lore: Space Marine Legions) informed the others that Fulgrim had made similar odd arrangements with planets of "art and beauty", and mind reading showed that Greg believed this. However, given the local's poor responses thus far, Magnus was unswayed.
Greg declared that his arrest would be seen as an act of war. Magnus replied that, legally speaking, this would be a "limited military engagement", and ordered the fleet in orbit to bombard the outskirts of the city, to destroy the barricades and take out a large chunk of the defenders. One of the guardsmen started to ask if they should retreat further, but was cut-off mid sentence as the bombardment began, far enough away that they were unharmed.
An Act of War
After an hour of bombardment, they began the assault. The invasion force was split into three groups, with one under Magnus' command and the other two under his subcommanders from the other ships in the fleet. Between the five safe voxes, light-based signals and the hovercars, communication lines were somewhat intact, if a bit slow. Gizmoticus also hacked into the PDF's vox network, so they were able to listen in on the enemy plans, though their heavy dialect made it tricky to parse.
Despite their lack of vehicles, the assault went smoothly, with the exception of their lone tank being useless as Gizmoticus, in a fit of Cowardice, ordered that it be turned around (he was shortly joined by Ahzek, but the administrator was useless in a battle anyway). The enemy were equipped with non-Imperial sonic weaponry, and, though they had hover-tanks, they were clearly not particularly effective. As the defenders were driven closer to the city centre, however, the music changed to be more intense, and strange things began to happen. Solidius noticed that several of his shots began to miss, as though they were deflected by something.
Magnus declared this to be more "psychic bullshit", and ordered a fighting retreat; the enemy held their position instead of pursuing. During the assault, Magnus had tested the enemy's anti-air capabilities by flying shuttles nearby, and their only defense seemed to be the hovertanks, which managed to get a grazing hit on a single shuttle. This would suggest that the enemy might be vulnerable to an aerial assault by paratroopers, and a 50-man detachment ("the C Team") aboard the Rogue Sniper equipped grav-chutes and waited for the order to drop.
A strike force, consisting of the party and "the A Team", would attempt to penetrate enemy lines through the sewers and find and kidnap/eliminate the High Maestro. Additionally, the ships would try to scan for Imperial-pattern structures; a long-shot, but there best bet at finding the imperial governor's mansion, and the astropathic choir. Unfortunately, due to a bout of Paranoia, Magnus insisted on turning their voxes off while behind enemy lines, meaning that they never heard if they found it.
Behind Enemy Lines
Ahzek was able to navigate through the sewers with ease, and the party soon emerged into a service station across the street from what must have been the Great Hall. It was heavily-guarded by 48 men and a pair of their hovertanks. Solidius grabbed a melta-bomb from one of the A-Team, and snuck off to plant it several blocks away. He returned, informed the party that the charge was set, and then climbed to a vantage point.
One minute later, the bomb detonated, and the majority of the enemy, including both of the tanks, went to investigate. Once they were gone, the party opened fire and took out the remaining gurads; one of the A-Team was hit in the neck and knocked out, but Ahzek managed to stabilize him ("His ghost was leaving his body, but you shoved it back in there"). Now that they were going loud, Magnus turned his vox back on and ordered "the B Team" (AKA: everybody else) to restart the main assault. The party crossed the street and headed into the Great Hall, which seemed to be empty.
The atrium was lavishly appointed, and they followed the music, which steadily grew louder as they advanced, into an enormous concert hall. Far away, on the main stage, a man, definitely the High Maestro, sat on a bizarre brass throne made out of dozens and dozens of trumpets, playing the music they'd been hearing since initial contact with the planet. 8 soldiers in power armour were guarding him with heavy weapons, but nobody had noticed the party yet.
The music was mind-shreddingly loud, but only Solidius developed a headache (GM: "My best rolls this whole campaign have been your troopers rolling Will). Figuring that there was psychic activity afoot Solidius loaded his Shield-Breaker Round (AKA "the magic bullet") into his silenced rifle, and aimed it at the High Maestro's head. The moment before he was torn in half, the High Maestro took his lips off of the throne's mouthpiece and dejectedly uttered "Oh, no". The guards were shocked and confused, but didn't spot the party, who retreated back into the atrium, across the street, and into the sewers.
Mission Accomplished!
Once in the sewers, the air got "wavy", as though distorted by heat, and the party sprinted back to base. Reports came through the vox network: the air was wavy everywhere, and other "weird shit" was happening. Astropath Wong came into the channel and yelled "GET OFF THE PLANET NOW!", advice the party didn't need. The sun grew dark, leaves withered, and grass died as Magnus ordered rapid evacuation followed by saturation bombing of the cities. Ultimately, the vast majority of the troops made it back up to the fleet, though the tank had to be left behind.
From the bridge, the party watched the once verdant green world wither away to a brown wasteland before shrinking down to nothing and disappearing entirely; Gizmoticus failed a "sanity check" and gained the Nightmares disadvantage. The spacedock, now free of any gravity, flew off into space, and the three partially-completed ships tore themselves apart. Magnus voxed brother Al-Rayyed Ad-Hib, and the space marine responded that the spacedock had been empty for decades, and expressed thanks when a shuttle was sent to pick him up.
Just as that was resolved, a mass of warp signatures popped onto their sensors as dozens of battle barges, which Ahzek identified as belonging to the Space Wolves Legion, and imperial ships came out of the warp. Their ship received a hail, and the party found themselves face-to-face with Leman Russ, Primarch of the Space Wolves. Russ gruffly asked for a report, and Magnus, uncowed by the Primarch's fearsome presence, explained what had happened, making sure to highlight the betrayal of the Word Bearers Legion and Ursus Maximus faction of the Mechanicum.
Kva, Chief Rune Priest of the Space Wolves, spoke at length with astropath Wong about the psychic goings on, and seemed to approve. With this concluded, Russ ordered the 231st back to Terra. The Primarch then informed them that he was en-route to Prospero, to eliminate the traitorous Thousand Sons Legion, and asked if they'd had any contact with them. Magnus said that they'd had no contact with the main body of the Legion, though they were transporting a lone member of the Thousand Suns. Russ announced that they would be boarding, and cut the feed.
Brother Al-Rayyed Ad-Hib soon arrived on the bridge, removed his helmet, and forlornly announced that he was going to die, as Russ was not one to take prisoners. Seeing as he would have no use for them, he gave the party his chainaxes and bolt pistol, a sign of great respect. Sure enough, Russ and his honour guard showed up on the bridge, and without so much as a word, the Primarch shot the other space marine in the head, instantly killing him. As he turned to leave, Russ curtly grumbled that they had done a good job.
Notes:
There was some objection by the players to the concept of tanks being able to shoot down shuttles, and "going dark" by turning off your radio accomplishing anything.
Initially, Ahzek and Gizmoticus were going to be left behind for the sewer assault, but the GM pointed out that they would be doing nothing if they did, so they came along.
Apparently, we avoided the majority of combats. Probably for the best, given our party composition.
There was a good point raised: we really should have just bombarded the whole city anyway if we were just going to kill the High Maestro.
The party destroyed brother Al-Rayyed Ad-Hib's power armour in the ship's reactor.
Now that the 231st's bad reputation is cleared, apparently we can choose a new number and nickname. The three suggestions were:
- The Two-Thirty-Best
- The 6969th
- And, of course, the "69,420th Blaze-Its".
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