Of Fear And Faith (CLOSED REBOOT)

While the turbulence jarring the Valkyrie could be rather unnerving to many, it was something Lupa had long since grown accustomed to, having had to deal with it countless times over the decades. In fact, the priestess seemed quite at home within the aircraft as it hurdled through the planet's atmosphere, then again she knew just how reliable and robust the Valkyrie could be since she'd worked on them so frequently. Of course the craft's reliability wouldn't mean much if they came under heavy fire during their decent, but hopefully such a thing wouldn't come to pass. Lupa would have been lying if she'd told you she wasn't a little bit nervous about the whole ordeal. Lupa didn't know what the others had been told of the mission, if anything, but upon her arrival to the Pyre of Divinity she'd been given a brief summary of the situation, namely that they'd lost contact with the Malkenan system and the Pyre was being tasked with finding out why. The priestess had never liked dropping into situations without any idea of what was going on, sure it could have been something as benign as a Vox malfunction, something she could easily fix with a little time and the right tools, but it could also just as easily be something more malignant, like an invading army... Rather than fret over the many negative potential outcomes of their mission, Lupa instead let her mind focus elsewhere, namely on some of the men and women present on the transport with her, her eyes resting upon some of them from beneath her hood as she sat in silence in the corner of the Valkyrie. The presence of a Commissar intrigued her in particular, despite her heavy distaste for them and their barbaric methods, there was no denying their effectiveness on the battlefield, Lupa was just glad she was rarely the focus of their attention given she was designated as support and not a front line troop.

The guardsmen themselves were quite varied, some were clearly fresh out of training and on their first assignment whilst others looked like they'd seen quite a bit of action. One short, odd looking man in particular was in the process of telling some elaborate story of some sort to the few fresh faced recruits willing to listen, everyone else seemed content to do their own thing much as she was. Humorously, one of the more rugged looking soldiers seemed to be intentionally avoiding eye contact with her, as were a few others. Fortunately Lupa wasn't insulted by this, she was well aware her appearance could be rather unsettling to those unaccustomed to being in such close proximity with an Enginseer, this could have very likely been the first time many of them saw one depending on how many had just come from basic training, no doubt they'd get used to seeing more like her, if they lived long enough anyways.

After awhile, the very same woman that had been avoiding eye contact with her spoke up and addressed them, revealing herself as a sergeant and the commanding officer for the mission. Introductions...bleh, Lupa had never much cared for them, though she did understand their importance. The priestess was silent as one man introduced himself as 'Jonas', their apparent Vox Operator. Next was the short, odd colored man, 'Mithras'. His use of an Ork word as a nickname made Lupa cock an eyebrow, but she'd heard odder things before she supposed, the man talked faster than most however.

When his introduction concluded and he sat himself down, Lupa went ahead and stood up, her hands going to pull down her hood in the process, revealing her augmented face and head as both her milky white eye and cybernetic yellow one gazed upon the group. "I am Lupa Avilia, Tech Priestess and Enginseer of the Adeptus Mechanicus, a pleasure." Her tone indicated it was less a pleasure and more a recognition of the formality of the introductions themselves, regardless she was very courteous, even regarding the lot of them with a polite little bow before sitting back down, though she'd leave her hood down for the time being. With that done, Lupa merely listened quietly as the others began to introduce themselves.

Sev sat quietly in the Valkyrie, spinning his knife in his hands. He was mostly ignoring the various conversations of his fellow Guardsmen, though he did catch a few of the ridiculous details of Dakka's story. When the Sergeant began the mission debriefing, he placed his knife in its scabbard and leaned back in his seat, listening closely to her and then to his squadmates' as they introduced themselves. He recognized a few of the people, though he didn't know most of them. Unfortunately, it was likely that quite a few of these people wouldn't live to see another mission. People die every day. It's a fact of life, especially in the Imperial Guard, and he didn't see why today would be any different. 

One of the few people Sev actually knew was Griffith. They had served together in the Cadian Whiteshields, though only for a short time. They were five years apart in age and Sev was made a proper Guardsman a little less than a year after Griffith joined the Whiteshields. Once Griffith got out of the Whiteshields, they worked alongside one another again. Sev was there when Griffith took a shot to the ass and Griffith was there when Sev lost an eye and was promoted to Corporal. Sev knew of most of the people that had served in the squad for any significant period of time, though he wasn't really friends with any of them. He knew the faces and names of Dakka, Sergeant Prendaghast and Jonas, but didn't know a single personal thing about any of them. 

As the introductions got around to him, Sev leaned forward in his seat and gave a sarcastic salute to the other members of the squad. "Corporal Severus Severan Severianus. It's quite a mouthful, so call me whatever the hell you like, as long as it doesn't piss me off." He sighed and slouched back again, waiting for the others to introduce themselves so they could get on with things. This mission didn't really sound like anything special, but even the most standard of assignments can lead to the most casualties. And who knows how it will end up. For all he knew, this planet was occupied by the forces of Chaos or being harvested for the Tyranid death machine. All he knew was that he would live, no matter how damned hard the universe tried to kill him. 

The introductions were nothing special, typical meet-and-greet nonsense, though Dakka made sure to make a personal note to not piss off the sniper. That kind of threat wasn't going to earn you friends quickly; though suppose that wasn't the point of anything they did... still, he'd prefer to not get shot in the back of the head, thank you very much. As the ship finally started shuddering, he prepped himself for impact and pulled out a deep red handkerchief to tie around his mouth to serve as a makeshift gas mask, knowing full well that he'd need something for being on the surface of a hive world. As he was doing that, the sergeant told him that he was to join her in the initial check, and after giving her a quick "Yes ma'am," he got up and prepared to cover her should anything want a taste of his explosives. The moment they touched down, he braced himself both for combat and the familiar stench of his home turf, privately swearing that he'd been sent back to one of these hellholes.

Sure enough, as the door cracked open, his nostrils were filled with that unpleasantly nostalgic mixture of chemicals, smog, and oil, something which many of the others in the ship likely wouldn't have been familiar with. Still, he didn't focus on it, instead bringing his gun up and scanning the horizon for threats as the sergeant descended the ramp and making sure that she wasn't about to catch a surprise bullet in the teeth. His eyes focused on the land directly around him as he walked down onto the dried, diseased earth behind her, the barrel of his grenade launcher gazing at any potential attackers. But nothing came. In fact, save the sound of the Valkyrie, there was nothing to be heard. No orks... no chaos... no people. The buzz of the hive which was normally so deafening had been rendered silent. By the time that Lynette called to the rest to come out, Dakka was grateful that he had opted to cover his face, because he felt more than a smidge panicked by the quiet. There was never a time that a hive quieted.

Actually, as the rest came out to join them, he took the lull to scan the hive... he'd never seen one of these from the ground before--he knew that to do so was death under normal circumstances. He always knew they were enormous--a single hive was a nation unto itself after all--yet knowing that was far different from seeing it practically blot out the sky before him. It was like standing at the foot of a god. Yet it was silent... they stood before a corpse. The air was as foul as he had always imagined the lower levels to be, in fact he was almost grateful for the halt in production--were the air as it normally was, he had no doubt they would be dead for stepping on the surface, such were the tales he'd heard. Yet, as a few of the rookies coughed, Dakka was able to calmly sample the air, and he found it peculiarly different from that of home. He did not know if that had more to do with the level he lived at or if it was just a distinct "flavor" of this world, but it was at least a different kind of awful. Yet... it was so quiet. That was something that he wasn't used to. He had often told his fellow soldiers to make as much noise as they liked around him, that he couldn't sleep without noise... and to have the ever-present buzz of the hive fall silent was... terrifying.

Still, as the sergeant laid everything out he tried to remain outwardly chipper, regardless of how blatantly false that was. "Well... this'll be different. Being able to walk in a hive without my hand on my cash," he commented, his eyes tracing over the lowest level in search of snipers or cannons or anything of the like, not that he expected to be able to pick anything up, "So Priestess Avilia, do you consider cities as having machine spirits? Or is it a city for them as much as it is for people?" Of course, as they moved, his mind was searching for any information he might be able to use for the squad, anything that might be of use for them going forward... but all of his information was a bit higher up than this. He told stories about being in the undercity, but it was all bull. He'd seen mutants and heard plenty of first-hand information, but he didn't know how much of it was useful here. However, there was something he could tell them, "By the way, if there are any left alive, try not to piss off the mutants. If the city really has been... deserted... they'll have started taking over the city, and I don't think we want to find out what they'll do to us once they get their hands on all the equipment hive worlders have or, Emperor forbid, get their hands on the factories." Angry mutants with tanks... there's a scary thought. Nowhere near as scary as a hive world getting wiped out but...

With the Valkyrie closing in on the landing zone, Griff slung his rifle around from his shoulder and gripped it tightly in his hands, unstrapping himself with quick and deft agility created after years of dropping into enemy territory. With the sudden jerk of the small VTOL, Griff instinctively rose his rifle to bear and scanned the barren horizon filled with tall structures as the ramp dropped and Guardsmen spilled out. He wasn't here to charge straight out into oh-so glorious combat, he was here to make sure the people charging out didn't take a bullet to the brain from someone a few hundred or thousand meters away and kill the very big baddies that we just couldn't bayonet to death. It took only seconds after the ramp dropped for Griff's nose to be assaulted by the Emperor-God awful smell of pollution and other hively smells. It wasn't his first time dealing with the stench, but he certainly didn't have a fond liking for the assortment of polluted particles entering his lungs like Dakka and other hive worlders. 

After most of the Guardsmen had disembarked, Griff remained on the ship a while longer and scanned the various buildings through his scope to ensure no ambushes from other marksmen or anything of that sort would kill any of his squadmates, sure he didn't really care about them, but they did provide bullet sponges for him, so he appreciates them being in front of him to take a shot instead of himself. Finally taking one last skim of the various buildings, the sharpshooter got off the Valkyrie and stood a few paces back and away from the Tech Priestess, giving himself and the rest of the squad a bit of distance before he finally settled down and stopped his partially military-doctrine, partially paranoid ritual of scanning the vicinity for anything that could decide to lodge a very, very mean piece of metal or plasma into his skull. With Griff's initial ritual set and done, he set himself to actually listen to his squad, mainly to 'Dakka' whom as always seemed to make some form of quip to lighten their drastically, very crappy mood set by the corpse of a hive world. To Dakka's credit, it did make Griff chuckle and respond with his own poor joke. "Hah, with the wages we have from the Emperor's Will, I highly doubt any good thief would ever steal from us, pretty sure you chem-workers earn more." That said, he laughed at his own poorly formed words to walk past and join up with his comrade Sev, only to walk back to the rear of the squad as the sergeant began to speak of their planned movement and ordered the march forth.

He really didn't need to be in the front of the squad, he'd be dead within minutes considering his shiny rifle draws attention from the others, not that he minded having a very, very amazing rifle. Oh how he loved his rifle.

The slow march towards the city was about as expected…long and slow. Unlike her usual battlefields this place was quiet, calm even, if you ignored the downright disturbing atmosphere. The choking reek of pollution and industry grew stronger in their nostrils with each closing meter, and before long Lynnette was regretting her choice not to put on her own gas mask like some of the other guardsmen had. The simplest way she could describe it would be if she could collect sulphuric gas in a jar, and then put it in an oven until the gas itself had somehow been burnt black, and then burnt, all the while filling the room with burning rubber. Then, and only then, could one know a hint of this retched place’s stench.

The route they had taken towards the city was a wide road that had passed through the polluted wasteland, most likely built by smugglers or some other shifty transporter to take supplies to other settlements on the planet, although surely the cost of a transport shuttle would be cheaper then whatever the fuel costs for such a long journey would be? Lynn didn’t know the road’s origin, and honestly didn’t much care. She was just attempting to occupy her mind during the long march. The road was evidently in disrepair, both a combination of infrequent use and the atmosphere of the underhive, resulting its cracked and sometimes buried state. For a brief moment Lynn was thankful for the sturdiness of Imperial equipment, otherwise no doubt her cybernetics would probably be corroded by the time this mission was over.

Once again, Lynnette realised just how calm their journey was, and more importantly how dull it was. As a soldier, caution was in her nature but right now all she felt was creeped out. She didn’t feel in danger, she didn’t sense snipers or traps or anything, just an eerie quiet. Before long she had taken enough, something had to be done, to at least attempt to stave off a fall in morale.

“Rabalius, you seem the jovial sort. Got any carols or chants you sing back home to keep in good spirits? What about you Ameranth? Any hymns of The Emperor, praise be, to uplift us on our potentially perilous journey?”

Inquisitor Ameranth growled from the back of the march, displeased with Lynnette’s jest.
“I’ll have you know Miss Prendaghast that I do in fact have a wonderful singing voice and would be honoured to sing the praises of our lord, The Emperor, if we were not walking directly into what could be hostile territory.”

“Yeah, thought as much.” Lynn muttered under her breath.

After a few more minutes of walking, the squad had almost reached the city limits, but an obstacle had appeared in their way. A stream of fluid, which Lynn very much doubted was water due to its mucky rust-orange appearance, stretched out from the city several kilometres to the east. Lynn ordered the squad to halt, before approached the stream. Using her cybernetic arm she tore out a small chunk of the ravished road and threw it into the fluid. The chunk hissed and spat as it quickly dissolved within the small river, confirming the Sergeant’s suspicions. They could go around it, but that would add hours, possibly even a day to their journey, and they simply couldn’t afford to leave Delta and Charlie alone for that long. The river itself was only a couple of meters wide, enough to jump over, but if anyone tripped up and fell in…well it would probably be more humane to just shoot them.

“Alright men, we don’t have the time to go around this river, so we’re going over it. You all made it through basic, a small jump like this should be nothing. The only issue is that if you slip up…well, you saw what happened.”

Lynn was a little concerned as to how the Tech Priestess would cross, as she wasn’t sure how physically fit the woman was, but she would be able to help her across if necessary. Lynn through her rucksack and scabbard across the stream first to lighten the load for the jump, then took a couple of steps back. Dashing forward, she cleared the stream with ease, landing safely on the other side. She re-equipped her equipment, then turned to face her squad.

“Deleede, chuck me your auto-pistol.” Lynn ordered, Jonas giving her a confused glance before tossing the weapon over the river into Lynnette’s hand.
“Alright men, you’re up. One at a time, and feel free to throw anything across that may impair your ability to jump. In case you somehow don’t make the jump…”
Lynn tilted her head towards the auto-pistol, an offer of quick respite for anyone who might fall in.

The squad began to cross, each jumping the stream with varying amounts of difficulty. Before long the last two were crossing, a fresh-faced Guardsmen who Lynn recalled was Abraxas Mayze, and Inquisitor Ameranth. Mayze crossed first, throwing his rucksack first and then taking the leap. His jump was short however, and he landed on the edge of the stream. Before he could gain his balance the ground beneath his feet collapsed into the stream. Lynn rushed forward to catch the young man before he could fall backwards into the acidic liquid, and succeeded, however his legs had already sunk in to his waist. As the agonizing screams reached her ears, Lynn pulled the man out and on to the more stable ground, but the stream had already done its damage. Mayze’ legs were mutilated, one leg little more than tatters of flesh and muscle on bone, while the other was warped and missing the lower half of his shin. Even as Lynnette’s mind processed this, the fluid still dripping from his legs was eating away at what remained.

“Ameranth, quick!” Lynn called out to the Inquisitor, who hurriedly jumped the gap and moved to the man’s side. The squad had a medic but at this stage, out here in this wasteland, no amount of medical attention was going to save him. The Inquisitor could at least offer him words of The Emperor in his final moments. Lynn paced back and forth while Ameranth spoke his peace, and the screaming began to calm, although that was probably more to do with the man going in to shock rather than the effect of any words. The Inquisitor nodded to Lynnette, and she knelt down beside the kid. She didn’t really know what to say, even if the man probably wouldn’t hear it. At least in battle you could avenge your fallen comrades, here there was nothing to do but pity them.
“Sorry kid, this is it for you.”
She kept her eyes locked on Mayze’ own, as she held the auto-pistol against his head.

Bang.

She stayed beside the body for a brief moment, before standing and moving silently back to the front of the group. She returned Jonas’ auto-pistol, and then addressed the squad.
“We don’t have time to bury him, check his bag for any spare ammunition and supplies, then we’re moving on.”

While the men got to work she wondered a short distance away from them, muttering as she dug her toe into the ground.
“Tch, one down and we haven’t even entered the city yet. What a fucking mess.”
Jonas approached her from behind, putting a hand on her shoulder.
“You alright Lynn?”
Lynnette took a deep breath and shook her head.
“Bullets haven’t even started flying and we’re already down to eleven. I hate this place, let’s get this over and done with.”
The two moved back to the squad and the march continued, however the mood was now much more sombre.

Within another fifteen minutes the group had reached the edge of the city and the stench was palpable. She ordered that anyone who hadn’t already put on a gas mask do so, as they’d be necessary within the city until they moved up to the higher levels. She turned back towards the direction they had come, waving to the Valkyrie in the distance and watching it begin to take off. Once again she returned to the front of the squad, and they began to enter the darkness of the undercity. Once again, Lynn found herself muttering.
“’The Emperor protects’ huh? Sounds like a bad joke to me.”

If her nose was visible, Dakka would have seen it wrinkle as he colorfully commented about the state of the machinery in the underhive. Suffice to say, she wasn't a fan of rust, or neglect of any kind in general... "If the spirits are 'cranky', the machine will not work, or at the least it won't work well." she'd retort. Lupa didn't much mind the dullness of the march herself, she seemed perfectly content to not be in the line of fire for a change, even if that could change at any moment. The continued silence was indeed eerie, but the priestess didn't pay it much mind, it wasn't like fretting over it's cause would make them figure the situation out any faster, instead she kept her mind occupied by scanning the surrounding barrens with her cybernetic eye. A small smirk formed on Lupa's obscured face when the sergeant spoke of carols and chants, though it disappeared nearly as quickly as it had it come when the Commissar effectively killed the idea. While she herself couldn't sing to save her life, Lupa did enjoy listening to it from time to time, not to mention it would have at least lightened the mood a little.

The priestess came to a stop with the rest of the squad when they reached the rust colored river, Lupa was silent as a rock was thrown in and revealed the liquid to be a rather vicious acid. This silence only lasted until Lynn spoke of jumping the damn thing. "What?!" Certainly the woman wasn't serious, I mean she couldn't be this stupid... could she? How could she have known it would take so long to find a narrower point to cross? Why couldn't they just call one of the Valkyries back and have it quickly ferry them over? Heck, they could have just dropped off a bit of scrap metal and Lupa could have constructed a crude little bridge which they could walk over, such a task would have been trivial and not taken much time. Lupa only got as far as "Uhh... Sergeant..." before the woman chucked her things across and followed right after them. With a sigh and shake of her head, Lupa resigned herself to following the idiotic order, the woman lowering her hood before tossing her axe and lasgun across. When about half of the squad had crossed, the priestess went ahead and took her turn. Unfortunately for Lupa, she didn't have the luxury of being able to shed all her extra weight since her mechadendrites were fused directly to her spine. While her jump was a strong one, the Enginseer barely reached the edge, and as soon as her feet planted on the ground she nearly lost her balance and fell backwards into the acidic waters. Fortunately, the very thing that nearly got her killed ended up saving her. With a startling quickness, Lupa's servo-arm shot out and buried itself deep enough into the dirt to stop her fall, and she'd use it to help pull herself to safety. Once it was clear she was out of danger, she'd pull the arm free and brush her robe off with a huff, after which she'd recollect her things and put her hood back up.

Several more crossed safely after her near tumble, but just when it looked like everyone would cross without incident, disaster struck... Lupa gasped when the last actual guardsmen made his jump, for he'd fall right into the same situation she had just been in herself. Unfortunately for him, the ground gave way shortly after his landing and he'd slide right into the acidic waters legs first. The screams that followed were a sound Lupa was no stranger to hearing, yet their familiarity did nothing to make them any less horrifying to hear. The Enginseer didn't need to be a medic to know he was a dead man, and like many of the squad, she felt compelled to look away from the grizzly scene. Lupa felt sickened by the whole ordeal, to die fighting the Emperor's enemies was one thing, but to have ones life thrown away so carelessly for no reason? Disgraceful... And it was the pointlessness of his death that bothered the woman the most. The priestess couldn't help but cast a cold glance towards Lynn as she knelt by the man's side with the Commissar. His blood was on her hands, and if this was the kind of decisions the sergeant was prone to making, how much more of their blood would she have on them before it was all said and done? The gunshot that ended Abraxas's suffering made Lupa flinch beneath her hood, but she'd remain silent as his gear was stripped from his body, her mood turning somber like much of the others before they got to moving again.