[Dark Heresy] The Unthrinn Legacy

Sunrise, Sunset
Extinguish

The star in which Joqur orbits sets over Hiennien's Gate, bright orange rays piercing through the crumbling hive stacks and spires, broken glass reflecting back the bright light, like a thousand eyes lit with fire. The Sea of Saints sparkles around the grim object erected in the water, rotting corpses still floating in the clear waters, turning it into a disgusting soup.

The fires have been mostly put out, and a thick black cloud hangs in the air, mixing with the smog from the manafactorums and Ignatus's great forge. Acid rain falls down into the streets. A thick air of despair, squalor, and sadness hangs in the air, becoming an almost tangible, breathable scent. It's been days but the fight still continues, Joqur's enforcers aided by Ignatus's elite Skitarii forces. The Enlightened gains new members daily – the nobles shut out the masses for their own protection, leading to riots, assaults, new uprisings. It's hard to tell who's who, where the fighting began, and what the fighting is for. The airwaves are alive with mixed propaganda, prayers, and emergency broadcasts.

It's been days, though time has become a bit harder to tell, thanks to the constant darkness cast over the city by the smokes over head. You sit, now, on a cargo-8 rumbling slowly towards the gate, flanked on either side by skitarii forces. Thrall and the Tech-Priest sit up front in the cab – Hack and the psyker rest in the flatbed with the equipment. The Void Born smokes her foul-smelling weed as the ride along.

A quick blurt of sound from the Tech-Priest and an exchange of data-slates, and a man is yelling up. The sound of massive servos and metal pulleys turning, screeching, and pulling can be heard. The gate shutters open, and the entire road shakes as the massive ceramite and ferrocrete doors swing open. The truck rumbles on, into the jungles beyond.

=][=

The truck rumbles on for about four hours – you sweat in the brutal, oppressive heat, and the humidity of the jungle makes your skin crawl. The sounds of strange, xenos animals can be heard through out the trip, colorful and exotic creatures streaking in and out of view above and beyond. Some of you share stories, talk, or play games to pass the time. It's an uneventful trip – until about a kilometer out from the dig site.

You slip out of the truck, armed, slinking out in small groups into the heavy woods. Even the Tech-Priests robes have been muddled slightly, in an attempt to blend in with the surroundings. The sound of equipment and people can be heard far up ahead, as you creep forward.

You find the clearing, and the people hard at work there. Workers, stripped to the waist, carrying away rock and sediment. Armed workers stand nearby. You're afforded the first look at the 'ruins' – stone of the purest, smoothest white you've ever seen, almost to the same consistency of bone. A slight hum seems to ring in the air, and a sense of tranquility fills the air. Until, of course, you slink forward and out of the woods, slipping blades into exposed throats, staining the earth with red blood. The assault begins.

=][=

You travel through the ruins, to the points where workers can not be scene, and your only proof that someone has come through at all are the glow-globes hung from the ceiling at ten meter intervals. The walls are the same white bone throughout, intricately carved, and that light hum fills the air. Skive sprouts a terrible nosebleed, and he wipes it up diligently, but it seems unlikely to stop. Venton stomps on, perturbed, stopping only occasionally to make a note here or there on a data slate. You all begin to feel antsy, until...

You reach a small enclave. The circular splits into four pathways, but that's not what catches your interest – instead, it's the six armed humans, garbed in all black. A pause, and then a violent gun battle ensues. The walls seem to have a dampening effect.

=][=

Skive is badly damaged in the following fight, but alive. With the support of Hack, he manages to walk upright, bleeding badly. But he manages. Thrall receives a data slate from one of the men and tucks it away, mumbling something, but makes no more note of it. Some sort of team hired by the nobility to search for the same thing they were after. Venton looks at his data slate and assesses the correct path to take. You almost wish he hadn't.

A long walk ensues, down the passage way, where you hear the hum grow louder, and the voice of a human male, and a stranger, raspier sound.

The next chamber is one that no one there could ever forget. At the center was a massive machine of the same material, power arcing between two upright obelisks. A man stands with his back to you and speaks to an even taller 'man' – though you're not sure, at all, what it may actually be. It seems misshapen, and awkward, filling the room with a cold dread. Beside it stands an even more confusing sight – a giant pillar of flesh, black-purple, with multiple limbs and arms that seems to just stand near by. Skive is the first to crack – his psychic mind not being able to withstand the sudden disappearance of his connection to the warp.

He draws his pistol and begins to fire. What happens next is a very confusing blur – the man-thing screams with anger and flees, leaving the flesh-pillar and the man to guard his escape. The rest of you falter in fear – Hack turns and vomits – before drawing your weapons and attacking.

The man pulls his hand cannon and fires, pulling a machine screech from Venton as he wheels backwards, spraying blood and holy oils. He's torn to shreds in a flurry of buckshot from Hack next, as Venton fires with one hand and grapples the man with his mechandrites, while Thrall throws himself at the flesh creature. It bats him away, harmlessly, as Skive plants his staff into the earth and begins to recite words of power, blood rushing from his nose in torrent.

The creature sends out a bolt of otherworldly energy that flings Thrall across the room and smashes him to a wall, which cracks with the sound of breaking bone. Hack pumps her shotgun and fires into the creature, which does not seem bothered by the assault – until Skive releases the power of the Warp and his mind. Lightning arcs from the tip of the staff and into the creature, which shudders and screams without a math, before bursting and showering the bleached bone walls with gore and alien stink. The electricity moves back and courses through the man's frame. He screams, in the most bloodcurdling of ways, as his mind overloads and blows out, leaving him to collapse to the floor with only a lower jawbone left in tact.

An odd silence falls over as the survivors get up, stunned by what had just happened, what they'd found, and what they'd saw. And the loss of a comrade.
The Tech-Priest drags himself over the Xenos machine, drawing his fingers over it's body, marvelling and the design. It is of marvelous design, it's only flaw being that it was not crafted by those who worship the Omnissiah.

With little else left, Venton informs Ignatus of his find as they head back into the city. The Guild Astropathica, under siege and heavy guard, is used to send immediate word to the Inquisition.

A shadow follows along the tree line.

=][=

Ignatus leans back after reading the report, watching Venton carefully.

“I have someone you should meet.”

=][=

Glass shatters. Atella Lucillius slips out of bed, bare, and quickly tosses a robe about herself. She was tired, and gravely so – just receiving word that the men she had paid heavily to explore the ruins outside the city had not yet returned from their mission. They were due hours ago. She pulls open the draw on her nightstand and pulls out the compact auto-pistol, pulling the slide for a moment and riding it forward slowly, silently. She slides open the bedroom door and creeps out, peering over the railing.

A chill night breeze blows in, carrying the scent of smoke and decay. Broken glass litters the carpet, and a figure in black charges up the stairs. The struggle is short, but brutal – he smashes into Atella, having no time to draw his blade, breaking two ribs as he smashes her up against the frame of her door – she pulls the trigger and holds it, pumping four holes into the wall and two into the assailant. The smell of blood is added to the gamut. And then the sound of screaming.

Atella fumbles backwards and hits the lights, momentarily blinding her – before she looks down at the body of Thrall. The man is huddled up into himself, holding his head and screaming. Screaming about something. Screaming as his broken mind puts pieces back together – pieces better left strewn about.

=][=

It takes three months for the Inquisition to break through onto the planet. Joqur-Ni is cleansed with purging fire – not for any love of the world or for the Imperial citizens, but to make sure they can reach the ruins with ease.

Hack, Thrall, and Atella lead the Inquisition back to the ruins. Thrall has gained two wounds and a tic, but says little more, and Atella claims to have only arrived recently. An Interrogator of the Ordo Xenos accompanies you, jabbering on and on about potential findings and events, but does little more than yammer continuously. He claims to have been sent by a close friend of Unthrinn's. You don't have the authority to argue.

You find the ruins intact, but cleaned of any gore you may have left behind. A fresh slate – if not for what seems to be a Mechanicus device plugged into the machine, and part of the xenos structure missing. The Interrogator curses and takes all that remains – what is largely still functioning.

No shadows follow you home.

=][=

“We are no longer safe here.” He says to his brother in arms. “They will come for us, surely. They do not see what we see. They do not understand. They will never understand. We must absolve ourselves from this, before they choose to absolve us.”

He pauses, voice wavering slightly as he pulls switch. Klaxons begin to sound, loud, but hardly noticeable over the sound of rumbling machinery. Ignatus turns to Venton, and leads up away.

“We can not turn back now.”

=][=

The ground rumbles as you emerge from the ruins – over the line of the trees, a cloud of smoke and fire rises. The blinding heat and the sound wave hits next, knocking you off your feet.

=][=

You travel aboard the Black Ships for three months, before finding your way back to Scintilla, to speak with the Inquisitor Unthrinn about what, exactly, had happened.