Damnable Progress

[VanHelser]

Damnable Progress

Printed from: The Conclave
Topic URL: www.specialist-games.co.uk/forums/inquisitor/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2025
Printed on: 18/09/2004

Topic:



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Topic author: Van Helser
Subject: Damnable Progress
Posted on: 06/02/2004 17:13:12
Message:


Quirrick was yelling over the roaring water that was cascading down onto the turbines below. The hydroelectric plant was the chief industry in the mountainous region, employing thousands, and here was where the rebellion had began.

Van Helser looked up from the prone form of the woman he was leaning over. Quirrick was running at him, bawling. Van Helser struggled to make out the words. 'She's my sister for Emperor's sake!' Quirrick shouted, 'what are you doing?!' Van Helser looked down at the knife in his hands. Why was there a knife in his hands? Surely it hadn't been there a second ago?

'Don't fret, get on with it,' something hissed beside his ear. Van Helser turned to face it.

'Voor'acht?' he asked in disbelief, 'what are you doing here?'

'Making sssure you do it right,' the daemonhost answered. Quirrick had almost reached them, he couldn't have been more than thirty yards away. He was pulling out his laspistol. Voor'acht swiftly turned his head at the charging man. 'Kill him,' it instructed.

'Why?' Van Helser asked bemused.

'He iss trying to sstop you. He won't let you kill her. Get him out of the picture.'

'Kill her? Why do I want to kill her?'

'You mussst! To complete the prophecy!'

Van Helser looked up at Quirrick who was aiming the gun right at him, tears running down his face. Van Helser spotted a barrel and hefted it at him with his mind. The telekinetically propelled barrel caught Quirrick in the midriff and sent him tumbling over the barrier. Somehow Quirrick shot out an arm and grasped the bottom rung, halting his plummet into the thundering cascade beneath him. Van Helser walked over to Quirrick and knelt down. Quirrick was wild eyed. 'Help me,' he begged, 'help me, please!' Van Helser reached down and grabbed Quirrick's jacket. With his other hand, he slipped the knife slowly into his friend's neck. A look of shock, sadness and disbelief washed over Quirrick's face. Van Helser released his grip and the body dropped out of sight into the roaring white torrent.

He stood up and turned back to the woman, Voor'acht was hovering over her, giggling. Van Helser strode over to her, and looked down upon her face. He knew Quirrick's sister. He knew her very well. They'd spent time together fifteen years before. He liked her. Just as he had liked Quirrick. He paused. Voor'acht looked disappointed. 'Do it, Mikael,' it insisted, 'do it or I'll do it myself.' Van Helser dropped to his knees and plunged the knife into her chest. He cut down the way, and plunged his hand into the gash. He ripped her heart out and handed it to Voor'acht. The daemonhost cheered and raised the heart to the heavens. There was a flash of blinding light.

Van Helser awoke with a scream. His sheets were drenched with sweat and his body was dripping wet. The same dream. He had had that dream every night for two weeks. The exaxt same dream except for the method of Quirrick's death. The night before he had shot Quirrick with a stubber, before that he'd strangled him with a length of chain, and before that he'd beheaded him with Crian'laar. 14 nights, 14 different ways that his friend had perished in. By his hand.

Van Helser swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up. He put on his dressing gown and left the room.

Replies:





Reply author: Van Helser
Replied on: 07/02/2004 15:10:50
Message:

Van Helser needed to talk to someone. He couldn't go to Quirrick though; how could he tell his friend that he'd been having a recurring dream where he had killed him? He couldn't go and see Dufaux; she was gone, killed by the Slaaneshi cult on Denopsis, as her Patron had entered realspace. Ranchak. Who just happened to be one of Voor'acht's underlings from four thousand years before. The damn treacherous daemonhost. The prophecy was of its making, it was... Wait - in the dream Voor'acht talked about a prophecy again. It was improbable, but could Voor'acht be controlling his dreams? Had the bindings loosened that much?

Van Helser punched in a code on a keypad, and a great door, laced with silver, slid aside, revealing a spiral staircase. He entered the stairwell and the door slid closed behind him. He descended the
steps slowly until he reached another door, covered in hexagrammic and pentagrammic wards. He looked into a retinal scanner, and a few seconds later the door swung outwards. There was only stygial darkness and silence on the other side. Van Helser walked purposefully into the room, keeping to the left hand wall. In an explosion of noise, a hulking form leapt at him out of the darkness. There was a clanking of chains and the beast stopped ahort, a bare two yards from Van Helser's face. It roared something angrily.

'I hope you are enjoying your stay, Ranchak,' Van Helser said to his newest daemonhost. His muscled form was shackled to the wall with chains fully a hands-span across, such was his strength. Numerous silver pins were inserted in its chest, and a symbol of the aquila was branded into its flesh between its curled horns. It was still wearing the navy issue trousers of the unfortunate man whose body was possessed. 'Unfortunately, I have no time for your mood swings today.' The daemonhost cursed and sagged away from Van Helser. A chuckling began in the far corner of the dungeon. 'I can see that you are having the time of your life though, Voor'acht,' Van Helser said to his cackling creation.

'You don't know the half of it,' it answered slyly. 'What iss it you want, Mikael? I wass having fun torturing my jealouss minion.'

Van Helser didn't want to tell it. Why had he come to speak to his daemonhost? He realised it was a stupid idea now. The worst thing he could do would be to let Voor'acht know that it was having a desultory affect on his morale. Or his sanity.

'It isss the dreamsss, issn't it?' Voor'acht quietly. For a second Van Helser was shocked by the question, but he quickly realised that the daemonhost was playing with him.

'Yes,' Van Helser answered firmly, deliberately showing little emotion.

'And you want to know what they mean?'

'Yes.'

'Well, well,' it cackled. 'Hass my masster losst hiss marbless?'

'Stop playing daemon-thing, and answer the question!'

'No need to losse your temper ass well...' Voor'acht was enjoying this.

'I've already lost it,' Van Helser said, before he brought out a bottle, marked "Silver Nitrate." He unscrewed the cap and poured out a few drops onto his giggling daemonhost. The blue flesh on its arm began to smoulder, giving off a foul-smelling stench. It screamed.

'They are premonitionss!' it yelled, 'they are a future already set, you cannot avoid them! Stop it!'

Van Helser stopped pouring the liquid. 'If it is already set, why does Quirrick die so many different ways?' he asked scheptically, not believing his daemonhost one bit.

'There are many different circumsstancesss, it isss always down to what hand fate will play. You cannot prevent it!' Voor'acht answered through clenched teeth.

'No?' Van Helser asked before pouring the silver nitrate again.

[VanHelser]

Reply author: Van Helser
Replied on: 08/02/2004 21:08:27
Message:

'Pleassse ssstop it!' Voor'acht moaned for the umpteenth time, 'I am telling the truth, the truth!' The daemonhost mewled and writhed on the floor like a wounded cat.

Van Helser screwed the cap back onto the bottle. The daemonhost wasn't lying. It was true - he would kill Quirrick.

'But why I am involved in another prophecy - what does Alexei's sister represent?' he asked.

'I don't know,' Voor'acht answered, sobbing, 'I don't know...'

'Are you responsible for the dreams, Voor'acht?' Van Helser demanded, 'are you?'

'No, no... I am having them too, I don't want them, but I cannot rid mysself of them either,' the daemonhost said in distress. 'We are linked Mikael; whatever you do or feel, I feel and know alsso.'

This was raising more questions than Van Helser cared for. What had happened on Denopsis? Had the contact with the Slanneshi entity caused a change in him? Had binding Ranchak somehow affected his relationship with the warp and Voor'acht?

Van Helser paced out of the dungeon, leaving Voor'acht's weeping form behind.


Reply author: Van Helser
Replied on: 11/02/2004 21:25:55
Message:

Van Helser poured a large glass of amasec for himself, and sat at the table in the kitchen, his head swimming with thoughts and questions. He gulped down the alcohol and slammed the glass down on the table. The fine crystal shattered in his grasp, cutting his hand.

'Emperor damnit!' he bawled, standing up and flipping over the table with a crash, sending the amasec decanter and fruitbowl flying into the wall, both smashing noisely. He turned to the worktop and picked up the nearest thing to hand, a large dish. He broke that aswell.

Quirrick was jolted out of his sleep by the sound of trouble. He leapt out of bed, grabbing his holsters from the bed post and ran for the stairs. He pulled both pistols as he slid down the bannister, his momentum throwing him into the kitchen. His eyes took in the destruction, and he saw Van Helser bleeding from the hand.

'How many? Where are they?' Quirrick garbled, swinging round to point his guns in every direction he could think of.

'It's nothing, Alexei,' Van Helser said calmly, 'no intruders, just go back to bed. Please.' He didn't want to have to face Quirrick now.

'Well, what the hell happened?' Quirrick asked, scratching his head with the butt of his laspistol, bemused at the carnage infront of him.

'I was clumsy and cut my hand on some broken glass. I lost my temper.'

'That's plain enough to see,' Quirrick said as he holstered his guns, he reached for a towel and threw it to Van Helser. 'Aww, you broke the decanter; I wanted some of that booze,' he moaned as he saw the remains of the expensive beverage flooding the floor.

'Sorry,' Van Helser chuckled as he bound his hand. Together they hefted the table upright, and both pulled up a chair. Quirrick found a bottle of particularly noxious grog at the back of a cupboard and poured two shots. Van Helser held the glass in his hand for a while, running the brown liquid round the edges. Quirrick downed his, and noticed the look upon the Inquisitors face.

'What's on your mind?' he asked.

Van Helser hesitated, before he finally gained the courage to speak. 'It's Voor'acht - something odd has happened.'

'Something odd happening around a daemon - really odd occurence that,' Quirrick mocked.

'It's... well... I don't know what to make of it. I'm not myself, and neither is the daemonhost. It's... complicated.'

'Sounds like the trouble I used to have with my ex-wife.'

'Your not far wrong.'

Van Helser was expecting another goade from Quirrick, but none came. Infact the man was a lot quieter than usual. A lot quieter.

'Too much drink Alexei?' Van Helser asked. No response. Van Helser moved closer and saw that Quirrick's eyeballs were upturned. There was a red burn on his neck. A laser burn. From a needle weapon.

Van Helser reached for one of Alexei's guns, but before he got there, he felt cold steel against his throat.

'Voor'acht, where is it?' the would-be assassin demanded.


Reply author: Van Helser
Replied on: 12/02/2004 21:28:02
Message:

Van Helser's mind went into overdrive. How could he get out of this? Use telepathy to convince the assassin to back off? Use telekinesis to clout the assassin on the head with something? Drop to the ground away from the blade? Stomp on the assassin's toes?

He decided that the first carried least risk. He focused on the assassins's mind, trying to take control of the body.

He felt the blade cut into his neck. 'No psychics!' the assassin shouted. He must be one aswell, Van Helser thought. Damn.

'Take me to the daemonhost now! Or I cut your throat and find the place myself!' the intruder bawled.

'Alright, alright!' Van Helser answered, 'it's this way.' He started walking slowly and awkwardly, the knife still pressed against his neck. They pedantically made their way towards the door down to the dungeon. Van Helser reached out his arm.

'What are you doing?' the intruder demanded, pressing his knife deeper.

'I have to key in the code to open the door.'

'Well, get on with it!'

Van Helser pressed the keys and the metal door opened. They decended the stairs still in their unfriendly embrace. At the bottom, Van Helser stood in front of the retinal scanner, and the final door opened.

'Where is Voor'acht?' the assassin asked forcibly.

'On your right,' Van Helser answered. He felt a heavy blow on the back of his head and fell down, unconscious.



Reply author: Van Helser
Replied on: 13/02/2004 21:03:30
Message:

Van Helser awoke to the sound of a deep growling. He hauled himself upright using the frame of the door as a support, and clumsily stepped into the dungeon. He kept to the left. He switched on the lights. What was left of the assassin was hardly worth describing. Ranchak was down on his haunches, lapping up the blood, proud of his work.

'Well done Ranchak,' Van Helser slurred; it was now obvious to him that his lip was fattened somewhat. 'If you keep this up, I might even let you out some day.' The daemonhost bared its pointed teeth. 'Now back off,' Van Helser instructed. Ranchak gnashed its teeth and snarled like a dog standing over its prize bone. 'Voor'acht?'

'Yesss, Mikael?' the other host answered.

'Instruct your minion to get out of my way, or I will see that he comes to harm.' The last part was directed at Ranchak a lot more than at Voor'acht.

'Do as he sayss, Ranchak, you worthlesss beassst, or you will sssuffer my wrath too,' Voor'acht said, drifting off the floor as far as the chains would allow. Ranchak backed off slowly, keeping his eyes locked with Van Helser's.

Van Helser grabbed the stump of the assassins arm and dragged the ruined torso quickly across the floor out of Ranchak's reach. The daemonhost leapt for its catch, but was too late; its chains stopping its lunge mere inches short. Voor'acht tutted loudly.


'Ssshouldn't have done that, no, you sshould not have done that,' Voor'acht said menacingly. A bolt of lightning shot out of the daemonhost's fingertips and slammed into Ranchak, burning the skin. The Khornate daemonhost grimaced, before lowering its head in supplication to its master.

Van Helser couldn't make out any identifying features on the assassin's ragged corpse. The head was missing entirely, either in Ranchak's stomach or part of the pile of offal slumped at the bottom of the wall. One whole arm was missing, and the other lacked fingers; no identification that way either, though good assassins tended not to have fingertips anyway. The body was male, he could tell that much. He was wearing a black bodyglove, there was the remnant of a shoulder holster still on the body; no doubt where he kept his needle pistol. There was some sort of insignia on the torn shoulder that Van Helser couldn't quite make out. He wiped the blood and flesh away, and then spat on his sleeve and cleaned the badge as much as he could. There was only half of the design visible, but he recognised it straight away.

The badge of the Inquisition.

[VanHelser]

Reply author: Van Helser
Replied on: 14/02/2004 21:25:00
Message:

Van Helser trudged up the stairs out of the dungeon, closing both doors behind him, their sorrowful clangs mirroring his mood.

He walked into the kitchen, and found Quirrick throwing up into the sink. It was relieving to see that the toxin hadn't been a lethal one.

'Are you alright?' Van Helser asked, clasping Quirrick's shoulder.

'I'll live,' Quirrick answered, trying to inject some humour into the situation, 'I think the shot was only loaded with stun or kalma, but its playing hell with my stomach,' he said before he wretched again. He ran the tap, washing the vomit away, and splashed his face with some water. 'Any idea who it was?' he asked, collapsing into one of the chairs.

Van Helser sat also, and with a heavy heart, began talking. 'The assassin was an Inquisitorial agent, Alexei. One of us!' Quirrick cursed silently. 'I couldn't tell if he was an Inquisitor or just someone working for one, Ranchak saw to that, but he found us. I can't believe he found us.' Van Helser put his head in his hands. 'This is bad, Alexei, very, very bad. Someone dislikes us, enough to try and destroy Voor'acht, to take out my creation!'

'They weren't here to kill us?' Quirrick asked, confused, 'they were just after the daemonhost?'

'We're alive, aren't we? He had ample chance to kill me once I'd opened the door to the dungeon, but he didn't, he only wanted Voor'acht.'

'Maybe...' Quirrick started, 'no, that doesn't make sense either.'

'What doesn't?'

'I thought for a second that maybe it wasn't an assassin at all, but someone who wanted Voor'acht for their own, but then they would certainly have killed you.'

'It doesn't make sense, any of it,' Van Helser said as he stood again. Who was the assassin? Why was he here? How did he know they were here? Was he an assassin at all? More questions. At a time when he had more answerless queries than he could wish for.


'One thing is for certain though,' Van Helser said as headed for the door, 'someone within the Inquisition knows what I have done and am doing. They know of my works and they are not happy. This could be the begginning of my end, Alexei, my downfall. I may finally be declared Extremis Diabolus.' Van Helser left the kitchen and headed back to bed. Quirrick pondered over what the Inquisitor had just told him, before rushing to the sink. He threw up again.



Reply author: Van Helser
Replied on: 19/02/2004 13:06:23
Message:

The Stellar Web emerged from the warp bearing down on the planet Voke had left just a month ago. He had expected to be away for longer but that had not been the case. Good, Voke could continue with his studies. Van Helser was a good teacher and Voke was learning a lot about fighting the other threats to humanity to the same level of skill and expertise as fighting the xenos, Voke's Ordo and were most of his experiences lie. Even though Voke had banished many daemons and even carried a daemon sword at his side he never considered himself to be an expert of fighting the daemonic, or purging the heretic. The main reason Voke was learning so quickly was because it was if someone had already taught him all this except he wasn't paying attention at the time, hence why he could not totally remember all the facts. The only problem with this theory was that Voke always paid full attention, for knowledge is power! That was one of the very first things he had learned as an Inquisitor, he'd learned that before he'd even met Ela for the first time, nearly 600 years ago. And also Voke had never been taught in any detail over the basics about the daemonic. This fact disturbed Voke but he now believed he knew the reason why.

The transformation.

Well the first part of it anyway. He had felt it when fighting the Slaanesh greater daemon; a burning in his head and his chest; pain he had never known and Voke had known a lot of pain. It had increased his powers, well not really increased his powers much, more of widening them. Voke's main psychic powers had always lied in regeneration but even he had not been able to remove all scars and his body was not quite as it was; until now. Scars he had had for 500 years had gone in just a few minutes. His fighting skills had improved a lot as well as his muscles were stronger then ever. Also his powers seemed to have spread, now he was capable of lifting guns, people and even vehicles, where before he had only just been able to manage a pen. Voke had never been able to create fire with a thought and now when it was dark all the candles in his house would light and he wouldn't notice or think about it.

The other thing the transformation seemed to have done was to give was knowledge. He seemed to have gained a lot of knowledge, all about fighting the daemonic. It had taken time for all this to sort through, his powers and his knowledge. It was if it had taken his brain some time to be able to come to grips with everything that had just happened to it, it had overloaded; but now Voke understood everything the experience had brought to him; he even suspected the source of the transformation, what it was in aid of, who had done it and when it would complete itself; but even now Voke was still very unsure about these facts, almost as if he knew the answers but they lurked just beyond the edge of his consciousness. Close enough for him to know they were there but remaining out of sight. Voke also now saw how dangerous it was to use daemonhosts and daemonswords. Voke had increased the bonds on his weapon while increasing the amount of strength it could manifest with rituals Voke had never learned. Voke would have to talk with Van Helser about his daemonhosts. Voke trusted Van Helser and knew he would still be pure but he must caution his colleague, his friend.

It would take 10 hours for them to travel in system as they had exited the warp slightly off course and such a small journey inwards towards a system would be dangerous. Voke transmitted a short message to Van Helser telling him of his arrival and that he would be planet side in 11 hours. Also it informed Van Helser that Voke was ready and willing to learn again and that he now knew a lot more.

Voke headed towards his ship's training room. He had quite a bit of time and he wanted to put his new muscles and new training he had into practice. Ela and Eswt would be waiting for him.

(Penned by Voke)

[VanHelser]

Reply author: Van Helser
Replied on: 22/02/2004 20:10:44
Message:

Voke strode through the door to the training room, his black coat trailing behind him. Ela and Eswt were already training. Ela practicing reloading her bolt pistols and her shotgun, while hiding behind cover as automated guns tried to tag her with small light to show a hit. Eswt was facing off against a multitude of dummies; some armed with close combat weapons, others with more automated guns spitting out tags.

Ela finished reloading her bolt pistols and quickly glanced out from behind the wall she was hiding behind to find the location of the guns. She then quickly darted out and destroyed two of them before the others managed to duck behind their own cover. The two she hit burst apart as the high calibre bolt shells pieced and then exploded. Bits of shrapnel flew all across the training room. One lodged itself in the wall where Voke's head had been.

Great, a live round session and they were using the expensive dummies. Voke had gone to great pains to be able to get a source which provided him with those EXPENSIVE dummies. They were perfectly safe to train with and were reasonably intelligent shown by the fact that when Ela didn't fire any more shots they didn't rise instantly. They waited for 5 seconds then rose as one and opened fire on Ela's position. Ela destroyed another two dummies with her bolt pistols before she had to duck behind cover. Voke called to Ela.
"Only 4 in 10 seconds!!! Your getting rusty Ela!"
Ela shrugged,
"Well as if you could do any better"
Ela's hand was temporarily out of cover and one of the tags hit her hand. As soon as it hit the tag sent out a electrical shock which stunned Ela's hand and made it useless; to simulate the fact that it would have just been blown off by a large calibre round.
"Damn!"
"Well you won't be doing any better either!"
"Shut up!"
And with that Ela leapt behind cover and emptied her bolt clip into the dummies. She even managed to pick up her other bolt pistol, which she'd dropped, before the dummies managed to recover from this reckless act and hammered her with a barrage of tags. Ela dropped to the floor and lay still and waited for her to be able to move again after the barrage of electric shocks she'd just suffered. She'd made a good account of herself. All of the remaining 10 bolts left in her clip hand been fired true and had blown the heads off 10 dummies.

Voke walked up to Ela and stood over her.
"Not bad! Shame about the fact you've just been turned into a smear on the floor."
"Why don't you try and do better?"
"Watch and learn."

Another 12 dummies emerged from the floor to join the remaining 3 Ela had left. Before the dummies could fire off their first shot, Voke's needle pistol was in hand and six shots were away. All of them going straight through 6 sets of dummy heads. The remaining nine now opened fire but Voke was never where the shots were. They then switched to full auto and Voke quickly dived behind cover, but not before he'd emptied the new clip in his needle pistol; another six dummies went inactive - clean shots all, even though Voke fired them mid dive. In a flash Voke's last clip was loaded and he hadn't even moved his hands. Voke slowly raised his pistol above cover, making sure that his hands remained safe. Several shots hit his pistols but Voke held on. Voke fired 3 more shots. The last three dummies went offline even though Voke couldn't see where they were.

Ela pulled herself off the floor, finally able to move again.
"You cheated"
Voke turned, surprise on his face.
"What do you mean 'cheated'?"
"You did something, you reprogrammed the dummies!"
"How could I do that? And I did not do that! All I did was use a small amount of telekinesis, foresight and clairvoyance."
"See you did cheat! You used your powers! You moved stuff without touching it, you looked into the future and you saw using eyes which weren't yours!"
"I only used a small amount of psychic power."
"That's only because you've only got small amounts of those new ones!"
Voke had explained to Ela and Eswt the best he could what he had gone through in his transformation and what it had done to him.
"How can you cheat in a fight? Do you not use everything you can to win?"
Ela opened her mouth and closed it again.
"At least you know when to cut your loses."

Voke turned a saw Eswt was still fighting dummies. Clearly not the one's she had been fighting when Voke had first walked in. Those lay in several pieces around her. Eswt long black her flowed behind her. Eswt had a power sword in one hand, a normal sword in the other. Eswt fought using techniques that had been tried and tested on her home planet.

Her planet was often attacked by orks and had been so for thousands of years. Humans could never be stronger than orks so her people had evolved slightly over time. Their reactions times were a lot quicker than normal humans. Nearly all her race could deflect bullets with a sword, the only question would the bullet go through the sword? Eswt's planet was a feral world and as such shock and power weapons did not exist on her planet. Their entire people were faster in every way to a normal human. Their reactions were quicker, their bodies could move quicker (Voke believed that Eswt could probably out run a hormagaunt, possibly even a biker), their stamina lasted a lot longer than normal humans and their hand-to-eye co-ordination was equal to space marines. And yet Voke could beat Eswt at a contest of shear strength. For all their abilities they were exactly the same as humans except for more efficient nervous system.

Eswt's power sword was always moving, an attack flowed into a parry, which flowed into a thrust. That was how her planet fought. All her action merged. Her body flowed and moved as much as her sword. The dance of death she wove was entrancing to watch. Her movements graceful and beautiful, while being so deadly.

Eswt was tall, with a beautiful and lean body. Her black hair flowed behind her. She had piercing ice blue eyes which were a contradiction to Voke's own eye's-a hot red of lava. Her light coloured skin was perfectly smooth without scratches our scars. Most people never knew she was a killer before she brought their death.

Voke had never come close to beating Eswt in a duel, even with all his powers and Nul'Ra. He couldn't even give her a serious challenge. Perhaps that would change now his powers had increased.

A side panel on one of the nearest walls started to beep. Voke walked over to it and pressed the switch which would allow the person on the bridge to talk to him.
"Sorry to disturb you sir but we'll be in orbit in 5 minutes; your marauder bomber is ready for you to take down to the planet."
"Thank you"
That duel with Eswt would have to wait.
"Eswt if your quite done costing me large amounts of money; we'll be in orbit in a few minutes, get down to the Spider and get ready to land."

Ela and Eswt quickly left, Eswt destroying another dummy before leaving. In a couple of minutes Voke would continue his training with Van Helser. Voke looked forward to it. Voke walked upto the panel again.

"Can you send a message to Van Helser informing him we'll be down soon."
"Already done sir."
"Good"

Voke strode out and headed for the Spider. Voke realised he had a feeling of dread about landing; he didn't understand why, it would be good to see Van Helser again and learn more; but he'd have to talk to him about his daemonhosts.

(Penned by Voke)


Reply author: Van Helser
Replied on: 22/02/2004 21:09:15
Message:

Van Helser read the transcription of Voke's transmission. He was back, his mission had obviously failed. Van Helser returned to his breakfast in the kitchen and began wolfing down some eggs. He began running over everything that had happened again. Denopsis, Voor'acht, Ranchak, the assassin - there had to be some kind of link. Someone knew something. But what it was, Van Helser had no idea. It had to have something to do with Voor'acht. He had bound Voor'acht 43 years ago, nearly a half century of servitude. But hardly anyone knew of the daemonhost's existence, and most of them had only become aware of it in the last few months. His opponents of yester-year; Coronus, Kaline and Robbins were all in their graves. This couldn't have anything to do with them.

He drank some fruit juice and looked at the transcription again. A ball of thought started spinning in his head. Voke, knew about Voor'acht, he even wanted to learn more about the daemonhost. Voke knew that Van Helser was currently on this world. It had to be him! He had gone on a phoney mission in order to get himself an alibi for when the assassin struck. It had been a good plan, but it had failed. Van Helser saw everything much more clearly now.

He marched to the bottom of the stairs.

'Alexei!' he called to Quirrick, 'get the interrogation suite ready. Voke will be here within the hour.'

Dumbfounded, Quirrick followed the order.

[VanHelser]

Reply author: Van Helser
Replied on: 23/02/2004 20:26:21
Message:

The Spider glowed red as it burned through the atmosphere. The complex network of tiles, heat proof protection and large amount of insulation meant that although the surface of the modified Marauder bomber was thousands of degrees the compartment containing Voke was a pleasant 18 degrees C. Voke's personal craft was heavily modified. It had a set of compact warp engines, so Voke didn't need The Stellar Web to move from planet to planet. Also the normal engines had been heavily modified meaning the Marauder bomber had the same speed and manoeuvrability of a Lightning fighter but naturally because of its size it was a considerable amount tougher. The Marauder Bomber was covered in armour scavenged from an Eldar fighter. This provided very good protection. The craft was also heavily armed; with all its weapons being twin linked. Under the tail there was a twin linked long barrelled Eldar bright lance, which Voke had managed to acquire from an Eldar super tank. Under the nose there was a twin linked missile launcher. Under each wing was a twin linked gatling auto cannon. Each could be fired from the thingypit or by a gunner. This combination meant that the craft had pulled Voke out of many hard scraps and had survived for nearly 75 years - a considerable amount longer than any other craft Voke had had.

Ela piloted the craft with Eswt as her co-pilot. Both we're very good pilots and their quick hands and reactions had saved them all on many occasions. In a dog fight Eswt would help man some of the guns with Voke leaving Ela to pilot as she was slightly the better out of the two. Voke carried Nul'Ra and his needle pistol. Eswt had her laspistol and her swords. Ela had her bolt pistols and her shotgun. Naturally they weren't expecting trouble but they all liked to train as often as possible and they were gonna be planet side for quite a bit. Ela and Eswt had spent nearly all of their time here before training.

Voke felt nervous. There was a feeling of dread that wouldn't go away. Voke knew it was his foresight and him partly seeing the future but Voke couldn't think of anything that could give him this feeling! He'd just have to remain alert at all times. He'd warned Ela and Eswt to do so as well, explaining as best he could what he was feeling. It would be good to see Van Helser again. There was lot left for Voke to learn, especially about daemonhosts. Of which Voke would have to talk to Van Helser about sometime; not straight away of course but within a couple of weeks.

"Voke"
"Ela?"
"We'll about to land so just put your seatbelt on, in case Eswt tries to do the landing herself instead of letting me do it!"
"She'd do a better job of it than you!"
"Oh keep quite and let me fly"

Voke tried to calm himself but the feeling of dread wouldn't go away. Voke's hand lay on the hilt of Nul'Ra, his mind was working through exercises to maximise his psychic potential; all of this he did without realising it. His foresight had convinced him subconsciously that it was a good idea.

The Stellar Web landed perfectly and without a jolt. The ramp lowered and Voke strode out into the sunlight with Ela and Eswt next to him.

(Penned by Voke)


Reply author: Van Helser
Replied on: 23/02/2004 21:14:38
Message:

Voke and his bodyguards entered the country house, and found the front hall strangely deserted.

'Van Helser?' Voke called, 'It is Voke, we've returned from our mission. It was a complete and utter waste of time!' he chuckled.

'Aaah, nice to sssee you Voke...' Voor'acht hissed as it drifted out of the kitchen, causing Ela and Eswt to shift uneasily.

'Voor'acht,' Voke nodded, 'it's a little odd to see you out, where is Mikael?'

'He'ss in the sstudy, Alexei will take you to him. Alexei?' Voor'acht called for Quirrick, who after a second appeared behind the daemonhost.

'This way, Inquisitor Voke,' Quirrick said in an oddly polite manner. Voke, Ela and Eswt started after him. 'No, sorry ladies, Van Helser wants to see Voke alone,' Quirrick added, 'why don't you head to the lounge upstairs, read some books.' Ela and Eswt both agreed and headed up the stairs.

'So, nothing much happened on your wee excursion then?' Quirrick asked as the pair continued down the main hall.

'No, not much. There was little to see, we never even made it planetside,' Voke remarked. A vision flashed across Voke's mind of pain and torture. He noticed that they weren't travelling in the right direction for the study as he remembered it. 'Quirrick, are we heading the right way for the study?' he asked. From nowhere Quirrick produced a miniature shock baton and jabbed it into Voke's neck, knocking him out cold.

Ela and Eswt paced into the lounge, basking in the warmth of the midday sun that was coming in through the large bay windows. They hadn't noticed Voor'acht drifting silently up behind them. Suddenly both women dropped to the floor clutching their throats, unable to breathe. Voor'acht laughed as he used his powers to choke the pair unconscious.

Voke awoke in a darkened room, he found himself shackled to a cold metal chair. He saw someone out the corner of his eye. Someone he recognised. 'Mikael?' he asked confusedly, 'what's going on?'

'You tell me Voke,' Van Helser replied, walking around infront of his prisoner. 'You thought you could outsmart me, eh? Leave the planet and then have one of your cronies kill Voor'acht. Good plan, but it failed!'

'What, what are you babbling about?' Voke asked, perplexed.

'Someone, under the pay of the Inquisition came to kill Voor'acht. Only you knew that I and Voor'acht were here. You pretended to want to learn from me, but all the time you were plotting against me.'

'No, never, I wanted to learn. This... assassination attempt wasn't by me! How could you even think that? I am innocent, I am one of your friends'

'Well, I've got plenty of time right now, friend, so prove your innocence!'

[VanHelser]

Reply author: Van Helser
Replied on: 29/02/2004 00:38:02
Message:

Voke couldn't understand; what had happened here? What had happened to Van Helser? Obviously there had been an assassination attempt on Van Helser and the daemonhosts but something else; something elusive- Voke knew it was there but couldn't quite see it. Van Helser was not so arrogant as to give Voke the oppertunity to use his powers; all it would take is a small glitch in van Helsers watching of Voke and Voke would be able to choke him, or possibly make his blood boil. Voke could feel the psychic inhibiter on his head; it stopped him from choking Van Helser where he stood; thankfully Van Helser knew nothing of the slow unraveling of Voke's new powers after the start of his transormation. This was Voke's ace. The inhibter was only supposed to stop Voke from reaching out, not from reaching in- this meant Voke would be able to regenerate himself, heal wounds and stop the effects of any kind of poison or drug. Van Helser knew it would take time to break Voke.

Voke looked around, taking in every detail. Voke then started to use his new powers, the latent one's- he couldn't risk Van Helser or either of the daemonhosts knowing that he was stronger than what they thought. Voke set to work rebuilding his body, creating new cells and repairing damaged one's. In front of Van Helser's eyes Voke healed every last wound Van Helser had caused him. Voke used his clairvoiance to see all of the room; he used it to find and locate Ela and Eswt. They were alive and concious but as securly held as Voke; but they were in the same room, and their weapons had only been taken off them- not moved to a secure location. Voke felt hope.

Voke looked up at Van Helser. This is where it began. Voke stealed himself, preparing his will. Van Helser would not be able to crush his spirit and make him confess to doing something he had not.

"I had nothing to do with what ever has happened here. Why do you treat me in such an alien way? What happend here Mikael? What happened to you? Something has changed you, disturbed you; what is it? Let me help. How can you not trust me? Just look into my mind and see I did nothing to hurt you."

Voke seensed that Voor'acht was watching over Ela and Eswt himself, for the moment. He had knocked both of them out using his powers. For them to escape Voke would have to stop Voor'acht. He could do that, even here but that would give away his ace; he couldn't do that yet.
___________________________________________________________

Eswt opened her eye's. She could still feel a pressure at her throat. She focused and through sheer force of will dispelled the lasting effects of being choked. Full clarity of thought retured to her. She was bound, tightly, to a thick steel chair. Van Helser's daemonhost watched over her. Eswt saw Ela nearby. She was only just regaining consiousness, it was clear that it would take some time for her mind to come to full aleartness. Suddenly Eswt could feel as pressure on the edge of her mind.

Voke!

He was alive. He quickly sent Eswt everything he knew and had learned. He explained to her his 'ace' ; he filled her mind with the locatins of their weapons. Van Helser would learn his mistake and Voke suspected the root of the problem to be Voor'acht. Eswt would enjoy teaching Van Helser the error of his ways.

Voor'acht clearly sensed some of the thoughts passing through Eswt's mind.
"What are you thinking about.....sssslave?"
"I am planning your punishment!"
A smile appeared on the daemonhosts face. Clearly it couldn't read her mind, only sense emotions. Good; another advantage they could exploit. Eswt had already started to consider Van Helser an enemy even though Voke had not. Perhaps he could be saved but that wasn't important to Eswt; what was important to her was not ending up dead because of some false accusation!

(Penned by Voke)


Reply author: Van Helser
Replied on: 01/03/2004 20:49:23
Message:

Van Helser stalked towards Voke and raised his hand into the air, ready to strike his prisoner in the face. The blow did not fall though. Mikael looked deeply into Voke's eyes; there were no lies there, only pity. Van Helser broke down.

'I am so sorry,' he said as he sunk to his knees, crying, 'what have I done? What have I done?'

'Van Helser, what happened?' Voke asked again, 'what has come over you?'

'Dreams, horrible dreams; I will kill him, I will kill Quirrick,' Van Helser said, raising his head, showing his weeping eyes, 'throttle, stab, shoot, burn...' he drifted off, sagging back down again. Voke didn't know what to say. 'And Voor'acht, Voor'acht knows, he sees, he feels it also. We have almost become one, me and that daemonhost; his bindings have not slipped, the host body has not disintegrated - I can't explain it.'

'And what of the assassin?' Voke coaxed, trying to better understand the situation.

Van Helser picked himself off the ground, wiping the tears from his face. 'Someone, someone in the pay of the Inquisition, maybe even an Inquisitor, came to kill Voor'acht. He left both me and Quirrick, knocked us out when he had finished with us. He didn't know about Ranchak though...' The penny dropped. Van Helser realised his mistake. 'Oh, Voke, he didn't know about Ranchak, how could I have suspected you, forgive me,' Van Helser said, taking Voke's bound hands in his, 'please.'

'There is nothing to forgive,' Voke answered. 'How about untying me though?'

Voor'acht drifted lazily around Ela and Eswt, who were bound back to back on the floor of the lounge; Voor'acht's own chains wrapped around them tight. The daemonhost lifted it's head as if it had heard something, and sighed.

'Pity,' it said, 'no playthingss for I.'

The chains unravelled themselves from around the women, snaking back around Voor'acht's body. Ela and Eswt looked at each other slightly bemused.

'A missstake it would ssseem,' Voor'acht said disparingly, 'Van Helsser hass realissed that Voke iss not to blame. He hass sset him free, you are free alsso. Apologiesss,' it added as an afterthought.

Voke stood in the interrogation suite, carressing his wrists, welcoming the freedom from the psychic inhibitor. Van Helser leant against the doorframe, dejected.

'It will be alright,' Voke said, trying to reassure his friend, 'I will help you, protect you from this puritan upstart.'

'You don't get it do you Voke?' Van Helser answered, 'this is the end. I am sure to be declared Extremis Diabolus. You will fall with me.'

'Do not speak so sullenly,' Voke said.

Van Helser started to answer, but was stopped by a loud growling that seemed to shake the very walls.

'VAN HELSER!' Ranchak screamed.

Van Helser looked up at Voke, before sprinting from the room. Ranchak was finally ready to talk.

[VanHelser]

Reply author: Van Helser
Replied on: 02/03/2004 21:39:38
Message:

Van Helser quickly opened the doors that lead down to the dungeon where Ranchak sat, bawling and cursing as only a daemon could. Van Helser threw open the second door as soon as the lock cycle had finished.

'Ranchak?' Van Helser called, not daring to enter the cold and dark prison, 'are you ready to talk?'

'Come, Van Helser, I must speak with you,' the daemonhost growled, 'now!' he shouted.

Slowly, Van Helser entered the prison, keeping to the left hand wall; he wasn't taking any chances. He couldn't make out the daemonhost in the darkness. 'Show yourself!' he ordered. Despite his resentment of his master, Ranchak could not refuse Van Helser, and the daemonhost stalked forward out of the shadows, spit and blood dripping from his mouth, the heavy chains clanking along the ground behind him. 'What is it you wish to discuss, Ranchak, hmmm? What it is it that you must tell me? It must be of great import, no?' Van Helser toyed, knowing that he must always be in control of the situation, always giving the orders.

'Yes, it is important,' Ranchak seethed, 'I can tell you much - much about my realm.'

Perhaps Voor'acht had not been lying after all, Van Helser thought. The daemonhost had said that Dufaux's Khornate patron had a lot to tell about the warp, and here was Ranchak ready to tell all.

'And why the change of mind?' Van Helser asked, making sure he wasn't walking into a trap. 'Why start talking only now? - you have been down here for months, beast, months, why the sudden willingness to communicate, ay?'

'I do not need to explain myself to you, mortal,' Ranchak spat.

'Goodnight, Ranchak,' Van Helser said, turning on his heel sharply, before marching for the door. He was surprised to find Voke there, watching intently. Voke's body language suggested surprise at Van Helser's actions. Van Helser just winked. Ranchak shouted.

'You will not walk out on me again, Van Helser! You must listen to what I have to say!'

'Why?' Van Helser, said turning back towards his creation. The daemonhost looked dejected. He had finally broken the daemon's resolve. 'Have you succumbed to my rule, Ranchak, have you?'

'Yes... master,' it said reluctantly.

'Good. Now what is of such import you scream down my house? What can you tell me about the warp? What must I know?'

'You wish to control the warp, bend it to your will, don't you?'

'That is what I have told you, yes.'

'There was one like you before, an Inquisitor, Jaekomus, I encountered him many years ago... full of thirst, a great slayer.'

'I do not care how much he dealt with Khorne, Ranchak, what does he have to do with controlling the warp?'

The daemonhost snapped out of its remembrance of a satisftingly bloody past, and stared deep into Van Helser's eyes.

'Go to him, he will teach you all that you want to know. Everything.'

Van Helser was intrigued. Very intrigued. Could this be the final link in the chain? Could this Jaekomus know how to induct the warp into a suitable vessel? But could he trust anything that the daemonhost said? Probably not. This would require more probing.

'And what is in this for you?' Van Helser asked, trying to see just what the daemonhost was plotting, 'why should I go and see this Jaekomus?'

'I will serve you, master, shed blood in your name. I wish to serve at the right hand of the man who will save humanity.' Ranchak showed no signs of lying. Van Helser eyed him suspiciously. Those were some interesting compliments; the daemonhost had obviouldy learnt how to suck up during his incarceration. But having Ranchak as a weapon could prove very advantageous.

'Where Ranchak? Where will I meet Inquisitor Jaekomus?'

'Messalon IV,' Ranchak answered immediately, looking directly at Van Helser.

'Thankyou.' Van Helser turned and left the dungeon, closing the door hard behind him. Voke grabbed him by the shoulder, it seemed like he had something important to say.


Reply author: Inquistitor Voke
Replied on: 04/03/2004 16:48:40
Message:

"Van Helser what the hell are you doing? You've just been going through some form of hell with Voor'acht as your guide in those...dreams of yours; dreaming about how your going to kill your best friend is not normal! Those dream stink of daemons and warp, and your going to go off an a quest? I think you need time piece yourself together, get to the bottom of what happened here first before trusted this daemon" Voke shot a glance past Van Helser's shoulder toward his new daemonhost. "It is folly."

Voke still needed to talk long and hard with Van Helser; explain what he now knew, how his transformation had unreveled itself fully for the moment. He needed to talk to Van Helser about his daemonhosts and... there was so much to talk about, and no time. Voke could tell from Van Helser's eyes he couldn't even delay Van Helser in his quest.

"Fine, go. I'm comming with you though. I'm making sure you don't slip back into those dreams. I'm going to make sure that that daemonhost doesn't lead you into a trap.I'm watching your back all the way and you can't change that!" I'm also giong to be watching those daemonhosts.

Van Helser turned to leave. They'd have to make preperations before they could leave but they should be away in the hour. Van Helser had reached the door and was nearly away. Voke didn't know why he said what he did but he never regretted it.
"Have you told Quirric about the dreams?"
Van Helser paused, looked towards Voke; pain was in his eyes and his heart, Voke could see it easily.




No one is truley sane; we are all just different levels of insanity



Reply author: Van Helser
Replied on: 04/03/2004 20:58:58
Message:

'I have not told him,' Van Helser said sorrowfully, 'and don't think I can. Not now, not ever. It would crush him utterly. I can't do that to him.' Van Helser started up the stairs. Voke sighed. 'I heard and understood what you said, Voke, but understand that staying here and trying to figure out what has happened is folly. The next assassin is probably on his way here already, and I find that things tend to work themselves out better if left to their own devices.' Voke still didn't seem convinced. 'I have suffered such evils before, but I have always overcome them, plus I have come across a clue that can help me complete my life long goal - I will not waste this opportunity. Have you ever desired something so much that you would gladly ignore all else to see it done?' Voke nodded. 'Then you know how I feel. I am grateful for your help.'

'You are welcome to it,' Voke replied.

The pair exited the stairwell, closing the top door and sealing it. Ela and Eswt stood there, drumming their finger nails on the wall.

'What is going on?' Ela asked, 'we are knocked out and chained up by the daemonhost, and then released just as quickly, what is happening here?'

'Ela, it is alright,' Voke reassured her, 'Van Helser has not been himself, he made a mistake, for which he is sorry. Now get ready, we will be leaving soon.'

'Voke, can I have use of your ship's cogitator?' Van Helser asked, 'I need to do some research into Inquisitor Jaekomus, find out who exactly he is.'

'Certainly,' Voke answered, 'I am glad to see you are not taking everything the daemon told you at face-value.'

'And why would that be a bad thing?' Voor'acht questioned, drifting silently down the stairwell. 'I told you Van Helssser that Ranchak could aid you much, yesss he isss a mosst usseful sslave...'

'You will be happy to know that he is coming with us then,' Van Helser told the daemonhost, who smiled with delight. 'Quirrick?' Van Helser shouted.

'Yeah?' Quirrick answered, coming out of the study at the far end of the corridor, 'what's up?'

'We are soon to depart, gather your things,' Van Helser instructed. Quirrick, nodded and jogged to the bottom of the stairs.

'You're the boss,' he answered, disappointed that this pleasant little break wasn't to last any longer.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Van Helser stood over Voke as he tapped furiously away at the runes of the cogitator onboard the Spider.

'See what references the Inquisitorial personnel database has on Inquisitor Jaekomus,' Van Helser instructed. Voke hit some runes, and after a few seconds of whirring and whining, the cogitator answered their demands. A list appeared on the screen.

'A few thousand entries,' Voke answered, 'I'll narrow it down to references from the last five hundred years. Ah, now we're getting somewhere; only three hundred and six entries. I'll select the first one. Damn, it's encoded.'

'Use Inquisition overrides.'

The screen changed from flowing Imperial Gothic to a random assortment of symbols.

'No use, it's either been sanctioned, or the file is corrupt.' Voke looked up at Van Helser, 'I could try another, but I don't know if it will help.'

Van Helser paused, before saying 'try cross referencing Jaekomus with other Inquisitors. Perhaps we can go through their files to find something on him?'

'I'll give it a shot.' The cogitator whirred again. 'Not many... The first one involves an Inquisitor Blackbane. Here goes.' This time the screen changed to something fortunately legible. 'Excellent, it says that Blackbane and Jaekomus were involved together. Doesn't say in what way though. That's odd.'

'What?'

'It says here that Jaekomus is deceased, I think your daemonhost got it wrong.'

'No, he was adamant, Ranchak even knew his current location. It is useful for your enemies to think that you are dead, you know.'

Voke pondered. This seemed even more like a trap.

'Send a message to Blackbane, asking for any and all information he has on Inquisitor Jaekomus,' Van Helser said with relish.

[VanHelser]

Reply author: Van Helser
Replied on: 10/03/2004 21:08:44
Message:

Communique to Inquisitor Blackbane, Ordo Malleus
From Inquisitor Voke, Ordo Xenos

Brother Blackbane,

During routine investigations, I have come across the name of a former associate of yours - Inquisitor Jaekomus. I believe the two of you had contact many years ago, and it would be most helpful if you could inform me of Inquisitor Jaekomus's details. It would be most gratifying if you could inform me of what you know of Inquisitor Jaekomus's works, and how he came to die.

The Emperor Protects

Inquisitor Voke
______________________________________________________________________________________

Van Helser peered down at the screen.

'Good,' he said, satisfied. 'I could not risk my name on such a document, thankyou for allowing me the use of yours.' Voke looked up at him, not entirely happy with having to sign the communication himself. 'We haven't given Blackbane too much to go on, so hopefully we will not raise too much suspicion. Preferably none.'


Reply author: Inquistitor Voke
Replied on: 10/03/2004 21:26:29
Message:

"Double edged sword that Van Helser. We haven't given him much and he wonders why we need the information; he may become a problem just because we didn't tell him much." Voke was still restless; he hadn't been able to find time to talk to Van Helser. "It should be some time before we get a reply; I suddgest that you train, make sure that your perfectly able to perform you duties come the need; I'm impressed you've recovered so quickly from your.." Voke paused, trying to think of a way to phrase it withoug insulting Van Helser, "..your..dreams."

Voke rose and made for the door; he had quite alot to reflect on. As Voke reached the door he turned to van Helser, "Mikael....I need to talk to you at some point, alone, private, and soon; but not here,in my quaters." And with that Voke left, his black cloak billowing behind him; he'd commited himself now, he'd have to talk to Van Helser about the daemonhosts and what had happened to him.



No one is truley sane; we are all just different levels of insanity


Reply author: LoMaxxDurang
Replied on: 11/03/2004 07:28:20
Message:

+++Too Ordo Xenos Inquisitor Voke from Ordo Mallesu Inquisitor Lord Demetrius Blackbane+++
+++Thought for the day: Watch your back, you never know who else might be+++
To my most esteemed and venerable Brother Voke,
Your quesry in Jaekomus is intriguing, I will tell you what I knew of the man briefly. Jaekomus was a brilliant if not somewhat eccentric man, in his early years he was a Puritan of such string standing that he became rightly feared through out the majority of the sub sector he inhabited. In his many years of loyal Imperial service he hunted down many heretics. Sadly towards the end of his life he turned towards foul beleifs and it was the will of the Emperor he be pronounced Extremis Diabolus and hunted down dor his treason. He was found by a young Inquisitor Serort Abram of the Ordo Malleus, he was slain in a duel in his bunker facility on Messalon IV as he was attempting to order exterminautus upon the world. (Attached is a vid from Serort Abram's docu Skull as the two fought.)

Hopefully this answers your queries if you need anything else you may reach me at any time,

Lord Demetrisu Blackbane
Ordo Malleus

Inquisitor Lorenthius Maximus Durang
"History is Lies agreed upon by the victorious."
Napoleon Bonaparte


Reply author: Inquistitor Voke
Replied on: 11/03/2004 17:35:02
Message:

Voke stared at the screen, taking in very little. Navalis was nearly fully recovered and training with Ela and Eswt. Good, Navalis had been badly hurt and had be forced to stay imobile for along time; Voke needed him to become the leader he knew he could be, become the Colonel his IG forces so desperatly needed. But Navalis had to be tested first; there was a 9 man squad onboard, all very new to Voke's employ and that would be Navalis' first test.

Voke dreaded this, the time had come to explain all to Van Helser. Voke had prepared as best he could. He'd placed every rune and sign of warding around the room; all hiden of course. Voke wanted to make sure that Voor'acht didn't "accidently" overhear, but if Van Helser saw them he might become suspicious. There was no turning back now.

"Dauphan?"

Voke whirled, his black cape billowing behind him, masking his turn. Van Helser was at his door; the time had come. Voke looked Van Helser up and down with his eye's; those molten red eye's picked up every detail; Van Helser was nervous, he hadn't seen the signs or the wards and he had something of his own to tell.

"Yes Mikael"

It was very rare for Voke and Van Helser to talk to each other using their first names.

"I've got a reply from Blackbane."Voke scanned the document Van Helser showed him.

"Good, Blackbane's given us the information and nothing more."

"Dauphan, what was it you needed to talk about?"

"Sit down."Voke gestured to one of the chairs in his room and Voke took one opposite.

"Mikael you remeber the Slannesh greater daemon? Of course you do, how could you forget. Well I guess the concusion would have done a good job" A smile crept onto Voke's face but soon faded.

"You remeber that I told you about what happened to me then? About the pain, the transformation" Van Helser sat motionless, taking everything in, saying nothing.

"Well it took some time for my mind to cope and work through all that had happened to me. My powers have increased. I can manage all forms of psycic powers up to the level of alpha." Voke gave a small demostration; moving Van Helser and the chair 3 inches to the right, setting a small piece of paper (which had appeared in Voke's hand without moving from the table where it had laid, it hadn't even been telekinisis) alight in flames and by putting a image of the face of a long lost friend into Van Helser's mind.

"As you can see I'm not entirly the same man I used to be". Voke saw Van Helser taking this in, Voke had never shown any skill in prymonacy or telepathy; but Van Helser had seen the signs. He'd seen the missing scar on Voke's cheek which he'd gained from the greater daemon.

"Along with new powers I've gained knowlage, valuable knowlage. Nul'Ra's binding are stronger than ever and yet he is more powerful; I intend to manifest all of the powers of this daemon prince and then change it into something else; something not a daemon, then destroy it. I will lose my daemon sword but it will be blessed and have a mind of it's own. It will be the purest weapon ever made, having contained a daemon but banishing it from itself and destroying the daemon prince. It will almost have a mind of it's own, it will conatin some of the Emperor manifest. I will modify it into a power weapon. Who would have thought? A power and force weapon murged into one where once a daemon lay, and it will be truly deadly to all daemons." Voke could see that Van Helser could hadly believe what he was hearing, Voke was talking of things that were impossible.

"Not impossible Mikael, not totally. But you ask why I do this. Why? Because of what I have learnt, that's why! Daemons are deadly, dangerous and manipulative. You can use them, and they can make powerful weapons but it is risky; hence the destruction of my daemon sword. Use daemons as weapons, and information yes but we should be fucusing on destroying all daemons, not just banishing them. A differcult task and one way is to use daemons, I caution you. Use daemons yes, but do not allow them to get a grip on their surroundings. A daemon god, Slannesh, dectroyed us, the Eldar. Slanesh was created by decadent Eldar and slew most of the race with it's birth scream. Those which had forseen this had chosen another path and became the Eldar we know today; those left of the main race become the dispicable Dark Eldar. Not even the Eldar were imune to the powers of the daemon. And neither are humans. But this you already know. No mercy, Never trust them!"

Voke was about to continue; sharing his new views on the daemonic,a puritan view to the eye but that was not the case; when Van Helser interupted him.




No one is truley sane; we are all just different levels of insanity

[VanHelser]

Reply author: Van Helser
Replied on: 11/03/2004 21:13:48
Message:

'Destroying daemons? It cannot be done Dauphan,' Van Helser said solemnly. 'They are energy manifested in a sick form, you cannot destroy energy. Banish yes, but not destroy. I don't know what the encounter back on Denopsis did to you Voke, but these thoughts you are having, they are just wrong.'

Van Helser stood and began pacing, placating Voke.

'Some of the Emperor manifest? Are you mad? There is no way to bind part of the Emperor's spirit into a weapon; Voke, where in hell are these notions coming from?'

Van Helser glanced away, before remembering a brief part of what Voke had said. He turned back to Voke slowly.

'Dauphan, did you say that "Slaanesh destroyed us, the Eldar?" I hope I misheard...'

A suspicion in Van Helser's mind suddenly flared as little scraps of memories and ideas flowed together.

'Did you Dauphan? Did you?' Van Helser shouted.


Reply author: Inquistitor Voke
Replied on: 13/03/2004 12:15:11
Message:

"Do you not believe that the Emperor fights with us? Is always with every human on every battle field? My blessed weapon will just be a conduit for for the Emperor's watching. It's hard to explain, not so much a manifestation of the Emperor; you are right, such a thing is impossible; but my blessed sword will have a spirit of it's own; very similar to the idea behind a daemon sword but without using the twisted energy of a daemon. I will fully manifest the daemon prince that is contained in my sword and use it as a scrifice for a new weapon, a blessed weapon, a force weapon! Have you heard of the Singing spears and swords of the Eldar seers? I have had the read research on them," that was a lie, Voke knew such documentation excisted but had never read much of it,

"it will be similar in effect to them but naturally not using the same prinicples. I have read of something similar before but i cannot recall where! Atleast one other inquisitor has had a similar weapon, not possed but with a mind of it's own; lacking a daemon and covered in runes. I will do somthing similar but with my knowlage of daemons I will be able to make it stronger, and using Nul'Ra as a sacrifice will strengthen it! Also daemon can be destroyed. It is energy only; and energy can't be destroyed! BUT it can be transfered, changed! At the very least all daemons could be trapped into a vast host of weapons, and the weapons would be kept somehwre safe, secure; so no daemons would ever be able to threaten humanity again!"

Voke could start to feel a growing warmth inside him; as if something was slowly forcing itself into his body; but it was already there!? No! Not forcing into his body; AWAKENING!

Van Helser still looked at him with distain.

"Dauphan, did you say that 'Slaanesh destroyed us, the Eldar?'"
"Did You?!"

Van Helser's shouting and asking of that question ripped into Voke; it tore into him, forcing a battle to start within himself. Something in every cell of his body rebelled; every cell faught against Voke's mind! Voke's mind even faught against Voke's mind! His very nature, his core, his soul ripped out, lashing out and threatened to destroy Voke. Each revulsion brought with it a stronger whiplash of replusion, which brought out stronger revulsion from each cell. His body threaten to rip itself apart from inside. His soul was fighting his conscious, what it had become. Voke could feel, see, each cell of himself fighting to overthrow and destroy itself. His body faught against the warm glow; at his heart and head. Accept it wasn't a glow any more, it faught back against Voke's body, faught to quell the rebellion in him. It was the same pain and cause as when he faught the slannesh greater daemon; only apllified. Before his body hadn't faught, only the points of pain. Voke had never imagined such pain, his mind was a raging tempest, his soul as black pit of dispair and uncertainty.

As Van Helser finished the question Voke collapsed, his body jerking itself into shapes which were impossible for a human. It looked as if every muscle, every cell, was trying to get away from every other; escape from Voke. Without warning light errupted from Voke head an chest. The spasaming became more violant. Van Helser could hear bones snap, tendons ripping themselves apart, organs being pieced and torn. Van Helser would have to act quickly if Voke was to stand any chance of survivng this.

"Mikael; don't let this kill me."

Voke struggled to voice his words, each word was accompanied by a rasping breath and a spurt of blood.

"Mikael, you cannot let me die, not here, not now. I know."

Voke set his molten red eyes against Van Helser's. Voke's eyes piced through Van Helser and stared right into his soul; pleading.

"Mikael, please"




No one is truley sane; we are all just different levels of insanity


Reply author: Van Helser
Replied on: 13/03/2004 13:41:16
Message:

In front of his eyes, Van Helser could see Voke's very substance changing. It was killing him, tearing him apart. Voke's cries for help degenerated into fitful, gargling screams.

'Quirrick!' Van Helser yelled desperately, opening the door to the room thunderously, 'Quirrick get in here with some Ease!'

'Ease?' Quirrick asked, clearly confused as he poked his head out of his own quarters, 'what do you want Ease for?'

'Voke's dieing in here! Come on!'

'Throne!' Quirrick exclaimed as he ducked back inside his room, grabbing his pack. He sprinted down the corridor into Voke's room. What he saw almost made him sick. Voke's twisting form was convulsing on the floor, muscles detaching themselves from their original locations and slithering around under the skin like giant parasites. Van Helser was leaning over Voke, trying to hold him still. Quirrick pulled a tube of Ease from his pack, and stuck it into what he thought was Voke's leg and depressed the button. The chemicals flooded into Voke's system, calming the raging cells, the convulsions stopped.

'We need to get him to the infirmary,' Van Helser said, 'quickly.'

They picked up Voke's bloody, mishappen form and carried it from the room as fast as they could. The screams had alerted Ela, and she was coming towards them at speed. Seeing Voke's form the way it was brought tears to her eyes. She joined the cavalcade, wailing.

'What happened to him?' she cried in disbelief.

'I don't know,' answered Van Helser solemnly, 'which way to the infirmary?'

Ela pointed ahead, and lead them to the lift. They descended a few decks and dragged Voke's bedraggled body the last few yards into the infirmary, where med-servitors began working straight away, confused by the bloody mess infront of them.

Van Helser quickly realised that if Voke was to have any chance at all, he would have to regain consciousness and regenerate himself.

[VanHelser]

Reply author: Inquistitor Voke
Replied on: 13/03/2004 21:39:53
Message:

Ela, Eswt and Van Helser looked on as the med-servitors did there best to keep Voke alive. Tears on the edge of rushing out stung Ela's eye's as she faught to hold back the despair. Even Eswt had lost some of her cold composure.

"He's not going to make it is he?" Ela's eye's held hope even as she asked Van Helser the question. She turned to Eswt. Eswt just shook her head solomenly.

"He may survive yet. If Voke can regain consciousness he'll be able to regenerate himself. I just hope I acted quickly enough for med-servitors to bring something back into consciuosness."

The med-servitors had reformed Voke's body so that at the least each part of his body was near to where it should be. The med-servitors had also managed to repair the links between the organs; that's where the least damage had been. Unfortunatly nearly every organ was a bloody mess. Each of Voke's organs continued to keep working as if there was no damage but his body's efforts could not counter-act the damage done. His heart continued to beat but blood was lost everwhere, it even gushed out from the heart itself. Voke's lungs rasped in breaths, most of the air breathed in escaped though the puncture marks in the lungs. It was a miricle that Voke was still alive at the moment. Voke had lost so much blood, but thankfully his skin had remained relativly intact and the med-servitors had healed all damage there.

Eswt stared at Van Helser and Ela.
"If Voke's to return to consciousness than the affect of the Ease will have to be reversed."
Shock could clearly be seen on Van Helser face.
"that could start the spasaming again and kill him!"
"and if we don't he'll die anyway." Ela's voice was a harsh whisper, turn with emotion.
"She's right" Eswt quite voice betrayed her, she was in as much pain as Ela.

The med-servitors added drugs to what was left of Voke's body. A drug to combat the Ease, a drug to try and bring Voke's mind into consciousness and oxygenated blood was flooded directly into Voke's skull to give him the best chance to return to consciousness. The spasaming started again instantly, more violent than ever. It looked as if they had just done what so many daemons, heretics and xenos had failed to do, kill Inquisitor Dauphan Voke.
______________________________________________________________________

Voke's mind ripped itself back into full consciousness. He couldn't remeber what had happened clearly. Slowly his memory slotted together again. At his heart and his head. His body had rebelled and faught against them. It had been what was in each of his cells, the basic traits of his soul which had saved him or had they? The battle of soul against control and torn Voke apart, mentally and pysicly. The battle still faught. Van Helser had given Voke this chance to live; presreved him and brought him back into consciousness so Voke could try and save himself. Voke couldn't see with his eyes but could see Ela, Eswt and Van Helser. They moved so slowly. Voke saw his body destroying itself. He saw himself cough up a large ammount of blood. The blood moved slowly through the air; so slowly. The med-servitors swarmed around him, the moved so slowly. Had time realy slowed down? How could it. Then it hit Voke.

His body clock had slowed to a crawl; in a desperate, faint, glimer of hope that he could live.

With speed Voke had never known he set about regerating himself, saving himself. He seeled wounds, renitted bones, created new cells. His mind travelled down so many paths of thought; each working as quickly as possible. Before Voke wouldn't have been able to do it; but now it was as if there was multiples of himself, each with a differnt task. In truth his mind was just doing several things at once. How was it that Voke could do so much at once? He worked as a factory would work; each person doing one thing each to creat a whole; except now Voke's mind was just splitting itself, focusing on doing so many differnt tasks at once. Voke had only ever heard of a person being able to heal one wound at a time. They might to repairing many cells but only one wound at a time; Voke was healing his whole body. but it was not enough. His body still faught. He healed a wound just to see it reopen.
______________________________________________________________________

Van Helser stared in wonder and horror. Voke had clearly gained consciousness and was regerating himself but yet his body tried to tear itself apart. Tendons flarred away from bones only to have the bone pin itself against the tendon again, the tendon would then snap the bone in half only to have itself turned into a lung and replace the flaided one which had just disappeared. Voke's body was constantly turning apon itself. It tried to destroy itself but Voke would force repair and change it into something else. Van Helser had to fight every erge to throw up.
______________________________________________________________________

Voke couldn't keep this up. Almost as if sensing him tire those points ragged even more fircly and eiry green light errupted from Voke face and his heart. Voke would lose the race to heal his body so he would detroy the opposition. While continuing to do his best to hold his body together Voke set about destroying those stones. They felt Voke focusing on them and tried even more desperatly to destroy him. Each instant seemed to take a lifetime time, each second lasted for eons; even though one secone did not pass Voke felt as if he had aged mellenia. Voke touched a presence in the stones. He touched them, assessed them; then grapped them and tried to destroy them and banish them from himself. But Voke was too weak to do anything of the sort; so he did what he could.
_____________________________________________________________________

A green flare errupted from Voke's chest and his head. Van Helser stared in wonder but the flare was gone in an instant. Then the spasaming stopped. Voke just stopped.
'And so another friend passes' though Van Helser. But no! He could feel Voke's mind, it was alive, Voke was alive!
______________________________________________________________________

Voke lashed out; using evrything he had ever learned he through the most powerful psycic blast he had ever managed at the essence inside him. It reeled, and hesitated. Voke pushed; determination not to die, many task left uncompleted filled Voke. He would not die due to his own body! The essence fled. Voke could no longer feel it; wouldn't be able to destroy it later, but he'd won. The threat to his life over time returned to normal for Voke. His mind snapped back to a more linear and human mindset. Voke worked quickly, wound by wound healing himself. Voke opened his eyes. A deep cough errupted from his chest as his lungs faught to drew breath. Thick, warm blood splurted from Voke's mouth. He'd won the battle but he would die anyway; his wounds were too much. Voke saw Ela and Eswt looking at him.

No!

He would not come so close and fall short of the mark. Voke wipped ahand against his mouth and focused. The bleeding stopped. Voke changed his focus, another wound ceased to exsist.

Voke looked up at Van Helser.
"Thank you friend, I have much to tell you", his voice a harsp of a whisper. There would be much to talk about and think through, and Voke would need the guidance and support of all his friends, but that would have to wait. And with that Voke finnaly let hiself slip into the welcoming blackness of unconsciousness, but continued his regenerative work.



No one is truley sane; we are all just different levels of insanity



Reply author: Van Helser
Replied on: 14/03/2004 16:54:55
Message:

Van Helser looked over the message from Inquisitor Blackbane, enthused by the matter of Jaekomus's supposed downfall. He had been killed by another Inquisitor, of the Ordo Malleus no less. Ranchak's words were beginning to ring true; perhaps Jaekomus could help with his attempted subjugation of the warp. Perhaps he had even been "executed" for performing such acts.

He had earlier sent a message to the ship's navigator, telling him to set a course for the Messalon system. The trip would take a few weeks, but that would hopefully give Voke time to recover from whatever it was that had afflicted him. It was a disturbing phenomenon to say the least, and it reeked of the daemonic. Van Helser would have to watch carefully over his friend.

Van Helser had also penned a note of thanks to Inquisitor Blackbane, and had had the astropath send it. Hopefully Blackbane would not act upon the simple request, the last thing he needed was a puritan storming in and ruining his research.

The klaxon sounded, announcing the ship's ominous transition into the warp. Pondering what the next part of his life would hold, Van Helser leaned back on his bed and shut his eyes.

[VanHelser]

Reply author: roBurky
Replied on: 16/03/2004 21:38:13
Message:

Van Helser's slumber was interrupted by a knock at his door. When he opened it, a stunted savant scurried in. Van Helser recognised it as one of Voke's minions that he had set to work continuing research on Inquisitor Jaekomus.

"I have fund things for master Voke, but master Voke will not see me. I have come to you."

Van Helser wiped his eyes and pinched the bridge ofhis nose. "Go on," he said.

"I have several documents relating to the late Inquisitor Jaekomus that I feel are relevant. The first one is dated almost a hunmdred years ago. It's the official documentation for the issuing of a Rogue Trader license." The savant blurted his words out quickly, obviously excited by the work he had done.

Van Helser sat down in a chair and looked at the short savant in it's dirty cream robes and holding a rack of dataslates with mechanical arms. "A license? How is some piece of paperwork relevant to this?"

"Firstly, it was initiated, signed and approved by Jaekomus. As an Inquisitor, you have the power to requisition anything owned by the Imperium, and it seems that Jaekomus used a Rogue Trader license as a bribe or reward for a man named Kye Maxson."

Van Helser frowned. "Kye Maxson? That name is familiar?"

The savant nodded vigourously. "It should be, from the notes and files on Messalon that I sent to you."

Van Helser glanced over to the dataslates on his desk. He had only had a chance to glance through them, what with the excitement of recent events.

The savant continued. "Kye Maxson is one of the current rulers of Messalon IV. As you'll recall from my notes, Messalon isn't ruled by the standard practice of a planetary governor. Instead, the role is filled by a council of the six richest and most powerful men on the planet. At the time this license was issued, Maxson had only just joined he council. Now, he owns almost half the planet due to the profits he sends back from his exploits as a Rogue Trader."

Van Helser tried to take this in. "So.. this Maxson has become very powerful as a reward from Jaekomus. But he isn't on the world any longer?"

Again, the savant nodded with enthusiasm. "That's right. And investigating this further, I found some more references to Jaekomus. Shortly before Inquisitor Jaekous gave Maxson the Trader license, there was a series of events in subhive Primae that culminated in a large battle at Maxson's palace. Several members of the Inquisition were involved, and it seems they were attempting to shut Maxson's businesses down."

Again, Van Helser tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes. Seeing the relevance of all this was a little difficult at the moment, especially with Voke lying at near-death in the infirmary. But he retained his composure and his Inquisitorial grip on the facts. "Do we know why?" he said.

The savant shook his head as he spoke. "There is very little details at all on the motives of anyone during that period. Many files have been corrupted in the same manner that the rest of Jaekomus' history has."

A thought entered Van Helser's mind. "What were the names of the Inquisitors involved in that battle?"

The savant glanced at his notes. "Only one name is listed, the rest are lost. Inquisitor Serort Abram."

Now things became interesting. Van Helser grabbed the communique from Blackbane, and double-checked the name. Yes! It was the same one that was reported to have slain Jaekomus.

The savant continued before Van Helser was given a chance to ask anything more. "My third item is a xenos research paper. This actually came from a member of Blackbane's staff. It seems the Inquisitor Lord's library hold the only original copy.
"The paper was written by Inquisitor Jaekomus around seven hundred years ago, and is a thesis on the possibility of the Orks being a bio-engineered race, soecifically focusing on the ideal fo constant warfare built into their biology. It was recalled by Inquisitor Blackbane about three hundred years ago, and most copies have been burned.
"Portions of the paper do include a clear admiration for the philosophies behind the engineering behind the Orks he proposes in the theories. And the last section is bordering on Istvaanian in nature."

Van Helser frowned. "Istvaanian? Is there no evidence for his experiments in the warp? The use of Chaos?"

The savant looked uncomfortable. "No, master. I haven't found anything of that nature. But I'm sure I shall!
"But before I resume my studies, there is one last item."

The savant handed Van Helser a dataslate.
"It is a noble birth document. Very old, and very long, as it details ancestors of six thousand years previous. But what's important is the date, the name, and the place of birth."

Van Helser looked incredulously at it.
"Messalon? Jaekomus was born on Messalon IV? And... and surely that date can't be right."

"I've checked it twelve times, master, against every available source. Our cogitators are 74% certain that the document is accurate."

Van Helser leant back in his seat. "Emperor protect us." he whispered.



Reply author: Van Helser
Replied on: 17/03/2004 13:35:00
Message:

The date of Jaekomus's birth still rolling around his head, Van Helser took the lift to the cargo deck. He had sent the savant back to the cogitator to find out some proof that Jaekomus had investigated the warp, whether or not any would be turned up was doubtful. He was going to pursue a much more likely source of information.

The lift stopped abruptly, and Van Helser exited onto the metal plating of the cargo deck. He headed towards a thickly walled adamantium reinforced chamber, usually used for the containment of plasma waste products from the ship's engines. He placed his signet ring in the locking mechanism, and the metre thick door rolled aside in a stuttering motion. Light bathed the chamber revealing its two occupants.

'Ssso nice of you to visssit,' Voor'acht said mockingly, slowly drifting off the ground.

'I am not here to talk to you Voor'acht,' Van Helser answered turning towards the other prisoner, his hulking form wrapped in great chains, 'I am here to talk to Ranchak.' The second daemonhost shifted its red-eyed gaze towards its master, letting out a menacing growl.

'What do you want Van Helser?' Ranchak asked, 'what do you want to discuss?'

Van Helser brought forth Crian'laar from within his jacket, the daemonblade hissing as if steam were boiling off it. Ranchak was taken aback by the sight of the weapon.

'This is Crian'laar, Ranchak, a daemonblade of my own creation. Just like you, it is my slave,' both daemonhost and daemonblade growled at their master's words. 'Crian'laar was bound long ago, Ranchak, and the blade has come to know my moods. It knows that I am not happy, and that makes it unhappy too. Do you know why I am unhappy? Because you have lied to me Ranchak. You have lied, and Crian'laar is displeased, as am I. We are both going to punish you.'

Ranchak roared in defiance, trying to struggle free of his bindings. He was held fast though, not even able to bring his hands together infront of him. Van Helser could see the fear in the daemonhosts eyes.

'Jaekomus has had no contact with the warp, Ranchak,' Van Helser announced, stepping towards Ranchak's quivering form, 'I've run some research, and there was no link with Chaos whatsoever. Why did you lie!' Van Helser plunged the blade into one of the daemonhosts legs, Crian'laar roared as it drank the daemon-infected blood of the host, slowly weakening Ranchak as it did so. The daemonhost screamed.

'I did not lie!' he wailed, 'not to you, not to my master!' Van Helser withdrew Crian'laar, held the blade up for a few seconds, before slicing into one of Ranchak's pectoral muscles, not deep enough to seriously injure the host, but deep enough to make it cry out in pain once more.

'Why are there no records then?' Van Helser shouted, 'why is Jaekomus only known as an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor? All we have found is that he worked with Orks! That is useless to me! You have lead me on a wild-goose chase, and you will be punished!'

'No! He did meddle with Orks, but he was bloodthirsty, he had such rage within him,' Ranchak grimaced, 'we found him, we found him on the battlefield, fighting Chaos.' Van Helser pulled Crian'laar from Ranchak's chest, and stared at Ranchak, urging him to continue. 'Jaekomus became involved with Chaos near the end, I would have destroyed him had I not felt the thirst within him. A great servant if the Blood God he would have become, had he not been found out.' Ranchak looked up at Van Helser, who was contemplating where to stick Crian'laar next. 'There are no records because no-one knew. He kept it a secret. I doubt there are many records of your endeavours Van Helser, records of all our creation,' Ranchak spat.

'Indeed,' Van Helser said, turning from Ranchak, satisfied with what he had been told. 'Your last remark, earns you this,' Van Helser said, before plunging Crian'laar into Ranchak's shoulder. The daemonhost roared with pain once more. Voor'acht started chuckling at his once-servants plight. Van Helser strode towards him, sheathing Crian'laar and reaching into his robes for something else. A bottle of silver nitrate. 'Just so you and he are even,' Van Helser whispered before pouring the contents of the bottle over Voor'acht's cold body. The daemonhost's flesh bubbled and burned under the touch of the liquid it reviled so much. Voor'acht let out a low moan.

Van Helser left the containment area, sealing the door behind him. He started towards the infirmary to check on Voke.

In an hour of darkness the blind man is the best guide. In an age of insanity look to the madman to lead the way.

Keep your profile on the IC board up to date - it benefits us all!

[VanHelser]

Reply author: Inquistitor Voke
Replied on: 17/03/2004 17:27:43
Message:

Voke lifted his heavy eyelids.

"He's awake!" That was Eswt's sing-song voice. Voke's head was proped up. He could see his body laid out infront of him onfront of the bed. Med-servitors scurried around, checking reports, changing drips etc. Voke could see them both. Ela and Eswt were sitting on chairs either side of him. He could see that Ela had been crying; even Eswt had shed a couple of tears, strange considering her strong emotional control. Ela leaned forward and slapped him hard across the cheek.

"You dispicable git! Do you have any idea what you've put us through?! How could you do that to us? We've never been so cruel to you!" Voke could see the anger in her eyes but it quickly faded. Ela embraced Voke in a strong hug.

"We though we'd lost you. We though that you we're going to die. After you'd started to heal and were stable Van Helser warned that the..the...." Ela's voice tailed off," could have broken your mind; and you would have been dead anyway! Don't you dare do that again!"

Voke could see the tears welling in Ela's eyes. Eswt leaned forward and embraced him as well; he ridgid emotional control faltering.

"Neither of you have changed!"
"What?"
"Ela, I've been unconscious for nearly 48 hours and neither of you have changed, I can see dried blood on both of you!"
"And I suppose you want that back don't you Dauphan?", Ela smilled, "We never left your side, we've both been here for the whole time."
"We'll talk more later, I need to speak to Van Helser."
"But you've only just woken up!"
"Ela, go. We'll talk more later; I promise."
"You better!"
______________________________________________________________________

Van Helser walked through the door.
"Glad to see your still alive Dauphan."
"Good to see you too Mikael."
"Navalis has made a full recovery. The med-servitors finally allowed him to start trainging again."
"Good. Mikael I need you do some things for me. I should have recovered by the time we reach our destination and have had time to build up my strength again and make sure everythings o.k. Could you please train Navalis for me? Make sure he's pysically fit soon; I want him to start training the I.G squad onboard. Also can you make sure Ela and Eswt train; make sure that they keep busy until I'm up and walking again. Actually just make sure they get some time."

Voke could see the unvoiced question on Van Helser's face 'I though you refrained from emotional attatchment'

"I've been working with Ela for about 500 years now; Eswt for 450 years. After so long you form very strong bonds. I'm just glad I can use regenerate on them as well as I can on myself! Mikael I can see that you want to know what happened; I think I have an idea, but we have a mission to focus on; it would be a distraction. I will explain everything when the chance arises. So did I miss anything?"



No one is truley sane; we are all just different levels of insanity



Reply author: Van Helser
Replied on: 17/03/2004 21:28:18
Message:

'Miss anything?' Van Helser chortled, 'just a little.'

Van Helser told Voke about the Savant's report, making sure that Voke heard Jaekomus's birth date. He too was slightly dismayed, and not a few words of doubt escaped his mouth. Van Helser told of his interrogation of Ranchak too, which Voke found most interesting.

Van Helser took his leave and went to look for Quirrick. The ex-bounty hunter probably needed more training than any of Voke's personnel.

In an hour of darkness the blind man is the best guide. In an age of insanity look to the madman to lead the way.

Keep your profile on the IC board up to date - it benefits us all!


Reply author: Inquistitor Voke
Replied on: 18/03/2004 17:13:01
Message:

Qurrick walked into the ships trainging room. The hall was vast; allowing long range shooting exercises. There were dummies every where. But these were clever dummies; worriengly intelligent and even more worrying was the prince Voke must have paid to buy them; and in such large numbers! Qurrick couldn't help but be stunned by the vast area. Voke really did have alot of power! And money!

Qurrick saw Ela, Eswt and Navalis enter behind him. Van Helser had passed on Voke's messages to Qurrick. Navalis was fully healed and needed some training before enetering a fightl; and Qurrick was the one who was going to train him.
'I'd better be careful, that guy's been bedridden for ages, don't want to hurt him again!' Quirrick though to himself. He saw Ela and Eswt behind Navalis. Both looked very raged.

"Sorry ladies, it's gonna be a boy's trainging sesion today." Quirrick was always careful around these two. He knew Eswt would have him in a fight any day, and Ela was always quite emotional. Those two things mixed together after what had happened could lead to Quirrick being thrown around the room.

"Qurrick, We're here to train before we get to where ever the hell we're going; and you're not going to stop us!"
"Now calm down Ela; it's just that Voke asked that I train Navalis alone; and more importantly he said for both of you to get some sleep!"

Qurrick could see anger in Ela's eyes; but comman sense, and weariness saved Quirrick from a beating. Ela and Eswt both left leaving Qurrick and Navalis alone. Quirrick looked Navalis up and down. He was quite tall, about 6'; he had emerald green eyes and rougish brown hair. He looked like a fighter but it was clear he was a leader of men. Well he might become a leader of men anyway. Qurrick would have to go through ever type of fighting there was. Lots of punch up's, and ranged practice. Qurrick would keep it simple. Focus on one and slowly get harder and add tactics and other more complicated forms of combat.

But where to start. Then Quirrick had a good idea. He'd start with a melee; he'd attack Navalis by supprise and see what happened; then he'd work from there. Simple, no weapons. Quirrick leapt.
______________________________________________________________________

Navalis saw Quirrick suddenly leap for him. Navalis quickly side-stepped. Quirrick kept his balance but went past Navalis. In one fluid motion drew a knief from his left sleeve. The knief slipped into Navalis' left hand. While he side-stepped Navalis trew the knief into his right hand; and as Quirrick rushed past him he brought the hilt down onto the back of Quirrick's head; hard. The blow disorientated Quirrick; he landed flat on his face.
______________________________________________________________________

Quirrick lifted his head off the floor. Quirrick shook his head to try and make the fuzzyness dispear; it did so, but in it's wake pain came from his nose as he shook his head. There was a large amount of blood bushing from Quirricks broken nose. Navalis rushed over to him.

"I'm sorry sir, do you wish me to get med-servitors?"
Quirrick decided to lash out with his heel at Navalis' knee; teach him to never let his guard down. Navalis simply jumped over Quirrick's thrust and landed with both feet on his out stretched leg. There was a sound of snapping as the bones in Quirricks leg gave way.

"O.k; now call the med-servitors. Were they training you before I got here?"
"Every hour since Voke woke up. That would be 12 hours. I then had a couple hours sleep before comming here."
Quirrick only managed to spit out a few words through the pain.
"d**n them!"
"Are we going to carry on sir?"
Quirrick could only shake his head. The pain from his broken nose swaying either side told Quirrick how stupid it was to make that jesture.
______________________________________________________________________


Van Helser was walking down one of the ship's corrider's and saw Quirrick.
"You done trainging then?"
"Been doing so for a whole four, five hours."
"Navalis fighting o.k?"
"He fights as well as a experienced guardsmen with no wounds who's just been taught by Ela and Eswt for the last 12 hours! It just took some time for all his knowlage to come back to him" Quirrick forced a smile.
"You learn anything?"
"Yes"
"What?"
"That it's about time I whacked Ela and Eswt over the head with the flat side of a hammer."

Van Helser couldn't help but laugh. Quirrick was in no state to carry out his threat. He was covered in slick blood. The signs of being patched up by med-servitors were all over him. It looked as if he'd broken ribs, one leg, both arms and his nose(repeatedly).

"You look a complete mess! He beat you up really bad didn't he." It wasn't a question. Quirrick only managed a two word response.
"Quirrick! I could a planet killing Exterminus brought down on you for talking like that to an Inquisitor."
"Good! Then you could get rid of the pain at the sides of my head!"

Van Helser walked on. Good. It looked as if everything would be ready.



No one is truley sane; we are all just different levels of insanity

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