Deathwatch - Forge Master Mortis : Mission Reports - Part 3

As both our GM's are away for the next three Deathwatch sessions I'm going to get my 'Fix' by doing the write-up for the next part of our mission to the Daemon World of the 'Daemon Prince who's name was so long and scary that I've forgotten it', lol.

Part 1 of this particular mission can be found here.

Forge Master Mortis - Personal Log - 45g6g7t6rgtg5

Somewhere in the distance a large figure had arrived presumably to reinforce the rapidly dwindling force of Rubric Marines we had engaged. The unmistakable energy signature of a recent teleportation surrounded the figure and he seemed to be larger even than a Terminator, blasts of energy came from weapons on both it's arms and tore through several of the un-engaged Forces at our disposal. 

The Sisters Repentia and their Mistress immediately moved to engage... 

Though normally considered a formidable assault force due to their zeal and formidable armament (though not armour) they failed to destroy the newcomer, who then proceeded to tear many of them to pieces with a variety of close combat weapons that it seemingly hadn't possessed a moment before. While my Servitor continued to engage the Rubric Marines alongside my Brothers of Kill-Team Epsilon I myself turned to engage this new (and far more interesting) foe.....

According to my data-banks, Sisters Repentia seek death in battle for some perceived failure in their service to the Imperium and as they were directly in my optimum firing path I prepared to help them along in this regard....after all if the Emperor wished to save them he needed only to tell them to disengage from my target.

I prepared to fire my Conversion Beamer at the enemy who was rather fortunately for me and unfortunately for him (and the surrounding sisters) within the optimum range for maximum damage output from the weapon. The beam increased in power as it travelled and finally detonated in a blast of energy fully four metres across....astonishingly the monstrosity was somehow still functional though all but one of the Sisters had been incinerated. Finding itself now disengaged from combat and able to act it raised an arm that had a moment ago been a Power Fist of some description but had now inexplicably become a weapon with remarkable similarity to a Lascannon and I evidently was (somewhat understandably from a logical point of view) now it's primary target. Judging the angle of the weapon in conjunction with my own position I was able to calculate it's most probable firing solution and remove myself from the beams path in the nick of time.....it was however less fortunate in this regard and my own counter-attack tore it to pieces or more correctly it tore itself to pieces in an explosion of Plasma a moment after my weapon hit it. One of my Battle Brothers evidently shared my suspicion about the true nature of this foe and promptly executed the remaining sister who had survived the engagement with it. The Sorcerer also chose this distraction as the ideal time to withdraw and teleported away with the shattered remnants of his own Rubric strike force.

Before moving on, I took several samples of this most interesting of opponents with my utility Mechadendrite for later examination.....this action was to create some issues for me later however.....

There being little else of interest we continued to our primary objective with the few surviving members of the militia accompanying us.

Editors Note - My character has an obsession with obtaining both ancient and xenos technologies which he scans and examines thoroughly before (for the most part) returning it to the Deathwatch armouries for further study. My GM knew full well that I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to examine an Obliterator and had also correctly assumed that I'd take samples of some kind. I had of course completely failed to take into account that the Obliterator Virus which apparently creates Obliterators required organic, machine and daemonic energy to infect a host and there I was a cyborg on a world full of daemonic energy.....Therefore the inevitable 'some-things happened to you and you'll probably want  to keep quiet about it' note was handed to me by the GM. It had written on it the following,

0110001001000 - Auspex = Fucked, Bionic Locomotion Upgrades = Fucked, Master of Arms ;-)

So on the bright side I had the distinction I wanted (Master of Arms) but also was apparently going to be spending a lot of time trying to stop the virus from rebuilding me into a form it found more suitable......

Forge Master Mortis - Personal Log - 45g6g7t6rgtg5

We 101010101 continued 0101 towards the 010101010101010101 primary structure with 01010101010101010 the 101 remaining 0101010101010101010 members 101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101 of

Pause Log

Run Diagnostic....
System?
Autosanguine.
Testing......
....
...
..
.
Autosanguine - 23% offline - Repair?

Log Off

Mortis deactivated the console and ran a full check of all his systems for the 3rd time within the last 24 hours. He had incorrectly presumed that the minor loss of function that occurred after his sampling of the destroyed Obliterator had been eliminated by his own self repair system and now that self same repair system seemed to be attempting to reconfigure his armoured form a sub-system at a time. Surprisingly this reconfiguring appeared to be targeting linkages to his organics rather than his mechanical systems.....There was no way around the issue he would have to requisition some medicae equipment in order to analyse the data for himself. He briefly considered asking his team Apothecary for assistance but immediately abandoned the idea as creating too many questions for which he had no desire to give answers.....

The area of the Watch Fortress dedicated to the servicing and storage of the vast stockpiles of equipment that an average kill-team needed to fulfil their duties was relatively quiet, though several dozen Servitors were operating under basic task subroutines. The increase in chaos activity in the sector meant that most teams were only in the station for long enough to replenish their ammunition and acquire mission specific ordnance before departing again. This situation was an undoubted blessing as it meant that Mortis could work relatively un-monitored and had the further advantage that he didn't need to mouth the pointless additional oaths and procedures that his own chapter knew were in no way a necessary requirement in order to complete most basic tasks. Unfortunately he still had to mouthe these pointless litanies when away from his own more enlightened chapter brothers......

Several hours (plus the time required to mind-wipe the Servitors who had assisted him) later and Forge Master Mortis had installed a Medicae Mechadendrite into his Cyber Mantle and had altered the bionic components of his hands with the edition of several retractable blades, probes and nerve induction tines that he would need to monitor his organic systems.....

Run Diagnostic....
System?
All.
Testing......
....
...
..
.
Bionics - 79% of overall mass - function? efficiency 95%......attempting repair.......
Organics - 16% of overall mass - function? efficiency 127%.....calculation error......recalculating......
Unknown - 5% - ErrorErrorErrorErrorErrorErrorError

Pause Diagnostic.

As he had suspected the unique configuration of his own biological and technological attributes combined with the high concentrations of warp energy on the planet had made him a fertile ground for the Virus to take hold.....He knew he now had two options a) purge the virus or b) see if he could bring it under control..........and that Obliterator had had some......interesting.....abilities.....perhaps he'd best conduct a few more tests......purely for the purposes of research of course.....perhaps he should complete the mission reports as well......

Editors Note - I had some new bionics fitted once we were off the Daemon world and this was how I justified them to our GM ;-)

Brother Mortis - Personal Log - 345g67gtbdr7gv

What was presumably once an Imperial palace of some sort was now a bizarre construction of translucent blue pyramidal structures stretching out in shapes which seemed to shift in form the moment you looked away...The effect was having an obvious debilitating effect on both the teams Librarians and the handful of allies left remaining with them seemed constantly to be teetering on the edge of insanity.

The interior of the 'palace' changed from a gigantic entrance hall into a seemingly endless staircase almost seamlessly and the feeling of movement just outside of visual and sensor range returned but was this time joined by voices that seemed to be heard by only the individual. We encountered various daemonic enemies on the way as well as a number of traps that we either destroyed or avoided as applicable. The daemonic voices continued to attempt to guide us in different directions and tempt us with offers of power which I (of course) refused......

Editors Note - Well actually that's not strictly true ;-) I actually excepted everything that was offered to me which Is why I got a +1 attribute increase, +5 to Perception and now have Forbidden Lore : Tzeentch +20 on my character sheet, lol. It's REALLY important that I don't let out that little secret.....especially in a log that could potentially be read by somebody less 'flexible in their attitudes' as a member of the Night Reapers chapter......It was also at this point that I realised that even though the note I had been handed earlier said that my Auspex and Bionic Legs weren't working properly, it didn't say that I couldn't repair them. Some secretive passing of notes later and I had repaired all my malfunctioning systems and the idea about my systems and the Obliterator Virus being in competition for control of my body was now firmly implanted in my GM's mind.....

Encoded Section - Alpha Level A1+ - 345g67gtbdr7gv

It appears that our recently returned Chapter 'Brother' was speaking the truth about the potential for power in dealing with these entities of the warp. When I have access to a more secure method of communication I will send more of the knowledge I have obtained from one of these so called chaos 'gods'.

Editors Note - One of my 40K Chaos armies contains a Daemon Prince of Tzeentch known as 'Shibboleth' who's armour is suspiciously close in colour scheme to that of a member of my Night Reapers 2nd Company.....a coincidence perhaps......

Brother Mortis - Personal Log - h9hm57fn7rnf87ruuu

We finally reached what was undoubtedly the throne room of the daemonic ruler of this planet. Brother Panthro attempted kill the first of the enemies we encountered but I was required to cleanse the boot of his Power Armour with cleansing flame immediately afterwards in order to remove it's remains from his appendage.....

Editors Note - It's vitally important to consider the consequences before making statements like 'I kick the Deamon thingy out of the way' to a GM with a peculiar sense of humour...

Having separated himself from the remains of the strange Daemonic entity Brother Librarian Panthro utilised his highly effective psychic powers to clear all the lesser daemons from the Princes throne room. Apparently feeling the need for allies the Daemon Prince called upon what I can only guess are pacts with other creatures of his ilk to summon two Greater Daemons of Tzeentch to his aid.

Myself and Brother Marcus took up firing positions while the rest of the team advanced towards these most powerful of foes. Even taking into account our own not inconsiderable abilities the thought of fighting three Tzeentch Daemons of this level of power was daunting indeed.

Though I can do considerable damage in close combat my bulk makes manoeuvrability in combat situations difficult to achieve, I primarily rely upon my armour to resist damage for long enough to crush my opponents. As many more powerful daemons seem to have the ability to slice through armour as if it wasn't there I instead supported my team with fire from my Conversion Beamer rather than engage directly in combat with the enemy, a role that I leave to those with the speed and agility to avoid damage while simultaneously inflicting it on the enemy.

Brother Claton seems to have his own agenda during this battle, all his efforts seemed to be focussed towards inflicting the final blow in this combat rather than act in concert with the rest of Epsilon.....this behaviour may require further investigation.....

Editors Note - There's a running joke in our group about Brother Claton continually attempting to summon a Daemon Prince. The fact is that on THREE separate occasions Alex (Brother Clatons real life alter ego) has had to alter rolls with Fate points in order to prevent the 'You summon a Daemon Prince' result on the Perils of the Warp table from occurring. Apparently our GM had decided that the Daemon Prince of this world was the one that Alex kept 'almost' summoning and presumably that it's entry to this plane of existence was a direct result of Alex's actions. The upshot of all this was that Alex had a personal mission to be the one who killed the aforementioned Daemon and was going to get some pretty hefty Insanity and Corruption penalties if he failed. I'm not talking about a few points either.....were talking gibbering lunatic/corrupt beyond salvation levels here, lol. He was therefore very keen to deal the killing blow and the rest of us were in now way attempting to beat him to it just to be gits......okay.....maybe a little bit......

The speed and power of our daemonic foes was almost beyond compare. They absorbed hit after hit of ranged fire-power and blow after blow from our most potent assault weapons before they finally fell. I had no choice but to fire my Beamer at enemies already in combat with our own forces in order to speed their destruction though fortunately my own team had the foresight and luck to get out of the way having become used to my particular methods of warfare.....

Editors Note - When one of our most damaging weapons is my Conversion Beamer it's very important to save your 'Dodge' reaction for my shooting phase if you don't want to disappear in the same explosion as the enemy does ;-)

Finally with only the badly wounded Prince remaining, Brother Librarian Claton managed to deal the final blow that tore it from this plane of existence with his Blood Lance power. He seemed more pleased with the fact that he had been the one to deal that last blow than with the actually defeat of the enemy as a whole. With the Daemonic force at the spearhead of the invasion defeated the planet began to return to some semblance of normality though we had undoubtedly made several new enemies of inconceivable power...

Editors Note - So my character may have excepted some forbidden knowledge from a chaos god and contracted the Obliterator Virus all during the same mission. Amusingly enough I found out afterwards (a lot of the 'temptation' part of the mission was done on an individual basis) that all our Kill-team except one had accepted some part of the Daemons offers (though one had done so by accident because he didn't read his bit of paper properly, lol) though mine was the only character who excepted.....well.....everything.....

I'll probably cover the subsequent mission vs. some Dark Eldar next Saturday as I have some standard 40K stuff to fit in over the next week or so as well as my commitments to a certain Blog network which has a bit of a twist to it this week ;-)