Chapter 62 – Whack-an-Ork
 
Even though the Hope in the Void was outnumbered 20 to 1, Thelonious and the command crew correctly identified that there were really, if you looked at it a certain way, only two threats to them and Elerius amongst the Ork Armada. Firstly, the Brute Ram Ships would ignore all of Isendark’s fancy movements and cause catastrophic damage if they came into contact with the Hope and secondly, the Roks were the way the Orks would invade Elerius… they thought that the planet could handle one Rok with the weaponry they had been given but two would require their direct intervention (and they didn’t have time for that) and more than that would mean giving the planet up for lost. Whilst the Kill Kroozers, Onslaught Frigates and Terror Ships were numerous, the command crew had taken on a Battlecruiser and a Battleship before, so they didn’t really fear them… between Isendark’s preternatural flying skill and Mistress Valentina’s psychic skill, Thelonious was confident that the ship would manage to deal with any damage that did come through. Some would have called this foolhardiness, but Thelonious actually had absolute faith in his crew when it came to battle situations and for good reason.
 
Isendark, who had been with the Dynasty his entire life, was truly one of the best Spaceship pilots in the Expanse (potentially the entire Segmentum in Thelonious’s mind, although he would never tell Isendark that) and his ability to keep the Hope in the Void avoiding the worst damage was key to this fight. Mistress Valentina was one of the foremost Astropaths that Thelonious had ever known… her ability to deflect hab-sized projectiles with her mind and her ability to set entire components on fire (or even dampen fires on their own ship) just meant that, unless a ship had their Gellar Field active, they were helpless against her… she was scary! Commander Rolaine had a natural aptitude for guns… it didn’t matter whether they were strapped to her waist (or boots, or chest, or back) or were part of a huge warships’ batteries, she seemed to be able to hit anything with them… even with Isendark’s gymnastics spoiling her aim. Natasha Yorke was the Mistress of Electronic Warfare… jamming their opponents communications and utilising the Targeting Matrix’s around the ship to aid Rolaine’s shooting, and her knowledge of the crew was legendary.
 
Jonas Constantine had the crew of the Hope in the Void in the best spirits they could be… he was a trusted presence so when he told them that everything was okay, they believed him. He was also in charge of the Medicae teams that were spread around the ship and his own knowledge of the human form had been disseminated to them… they were as prepared as they could be in this situation. Bazak, the Ork, was one of the most Kunnin’ Orks that Thelonious had ever seen… and when you added that to the Orks ferocity, there literally wasn’t anyone he would rather have leading the Teleportarium teams… the sheer amount of damage that they had caused, in an insignificant amount of time, to some ships was astounding. And then you had Thelonious himself who, modestly as usual, understood that he was always meant to head up this Dynasty… his command of men and material in the Dynasty teetered on the genius and people had learned that even his mistakes were often found to be feints, putting opponents off their guard. This is why Thelonious felt confident about the odds… and it was time to prove that they were the best in the business.
 
As the Hope in the Void jumped forward into the teeth of the Ork Armada, Isendark made sure that hardly any shots hit them and, those few that did, splashed against the Void Shields and caused no damage. Even with this, Commander Rolaine, working in tandem with Yorke, managed to take down a void shield of a Brute Ram Ship, which meant that Bazak was able to teleport over and wreck the ship from this inside, only just teleporting out before the Looted Plasma Drive on board decided to self-destruct. Mistress Valentina focussed her mind on another of the Ram Ships and spread fire and damnation through its components, killing many an Ork and leaving the ship as a drifting hulk, as fire engulfed the entire ship. Thelonious, commanding the Bombing Squadrons, was able to take out another Brute Ram Ship, his pinpoint instructions allowing one of the Bombers to place an explosion directly in the Bridge of the Ork ship, causing a cascading explosion that took the ship out of commission. In the course of 30 minutes, the Hope in the Void had managed to take out 3 of the 4 ships that could have caused them the most trouble, and the last one was not on a collision course.
 
Whilst the sheer amount of flak that was being flung at the Hope in the Void would have caused entire planets to be extinguished from a Nuclear Winter, Isendark kept the ship on course for the backline of the Ork Armada, with the Roks coming into range. Another bombing run had done in the last Brute Ram Ship, so the command crew were feeling rather confident. However, whilst Isendark was almost flawless in his flying, during one intensive manoeuvre he pulled something so hard that the ship fought against him, sending them in the wrong direction… directly into the firing arc of the Ork flagship. In what seemed to be an instant almost a quarter of the entire crew were killed by the multiple explosions that echoed through the ship as huge shells battered against the hull. Thelonious and Isendark turned to look at each other at exactly the same time; Thelonious nodded at his helmsman and uttered four words, “Don’t do that again.” However, the lack of movement afforded an opportunity, and Rolaine was quick to take advantage, sending shell after shell into one of the Roks and, in conjunction with Thelonious’s bombers, completely destroying its structural integrity.
 
It then became a race, with the Hope in the Void turning, whilst Isendark followed the Lord High-Captain’s orders the others sent out psychic assaults, bombing runs and macrocannon broadsides into the nearby Roks. However, Roks are very hard to destroy without a lot of focus and they were still, inexorably, moving towards Elerius, with the rest of the Ork ships seemingly frustrated by their inability to harm the human vessel. The “Terror Ships” also joined the attack, wave after wave of Fighta-Bomerz angling in for an attack run on the Hope in the Void. What the Orks didn’t know, but were about to find out, was that the Hope in the Void not only had multiple turrets all over their hull, but, after the fight with the Optimus Nemesis, they had taken the Defence Grid and implemented it on their own ship. Fighta-Bomerz were either shot out of the sky or obliterated by the Defence Grid, micro-lasers burning the Orks in their cockpits, and not enough made it through to cause any damage to the Hope in the Void. Another Rok was destroyed with a combination of Mistress Valentina and Bazak, she took down the Void Shields with fire (as well as many other areas) and Bazak’s boarding team left explosives that destroyed the rest of the Rok.
 
Isendark continued to expertly fly the Hope in the Void through the eye of the needle, twisting, rolling and taking the ship to the edge and beyond, whilst Rolaine kept up a withering rate of fire to keep some of the ships off them, with Bazak launching hit and run attacks using the Teleportarium and Mistress Valentina just setting EVERYTHING on fire! Jonas had been directing the Medicae troops and out of the heavy of casualties he managed to get half of them to a functioning level, enough to get back into the fight. Due to the craftsmanship of the Hope in the Void, buffed by the disinformation campaign flitting through the corridors, morale was sky high and everyone was completely behind the command crew. Another Macrocannon, Bomber and Bazak attack left another Rok as a smouldering wreck, but the two remaining were accelerating away from their ship and were getting entirely too close to the planet for their comfort. They couldn’t afford the time it would take to free Elerius from the Orks and they were loath to write the planet off, Thelonious from a profit perspective and Constantine from a religious one.
 
Also strange thing, although not entirely unexpected given what the command crew knew, was just how well the Orks had screened the Roks… usually there wasn’t this degree of cooperation between Orks, they all wanted to fight after all, which seemed to further cement their views that this had something to do with the Yu’vath. Their attempts at communication had also been ignored, again not that unexpected, but it was still entirely disturbing, especially those that had fought Orks before. These creatures were acting in a way completely different to how they should. Yet these elements belonged in the realm of the possible, and they could be discussed in earnest after the battle. Thelonious’s thoughts snapped back into the present as he, and the command crew, grappled with what decision(s) they needed to make to ensure that Elerius could fulfil its potential as a planet with great religious significance… both for theological and practical reasons. There were two Roks left, as well as numerous other Ork ships getting in their way, and the distance between them was growing. The next few hours would determine whether their gambit would be a success, or not.

100% do this. I love it when my players are careless and don't do simple things like ensure the enemy are dead or... reload their weapons... etc because they want to get on to the next part. But even more importantly, a wee little gretchin with orky cybernetics or tiny orky nob armor is the greatest thing I can think of.

So his plan should go from "I want these semi-sentient suits of armour inhabited by the bound ghosts of Sorcerous Chaos Space Marines" to "I want a crew of Space Marines and I don't care where they come from, I bet I could cut a deal with Chaos - the greatest enemy of the Imperium".
 
That second plan has so much more potential for amusement.

. *Insert sinister diabolical laugh from GM*

Pay no mind to the fact that the guy is a witch.

Bah, forgot to note that if you already have Jaded, you get Resistance (Fear).  Basically, the way it worked for my game's Inquisitor is he basically put them through SERE school and weeded out those who couldn't take the heat.  The ones who were already mentally tough just got treated worse, because they had to be better than everybody else, didn't they?  
 
I never had the situation come up where someone already maxed out Scrutiny by the time they wanted Interrogator, so that wasn't an issue either; the system-savvy people would realize that was some good experience saved if they didn't spend it on the final bonus, and the non-system-savvy just bought it before maxing out Scrutiny.  Another fun idea though, is to make it a choice between Scrutiny and Interrogation!  Thematically appropriate as well.

Good news, everyone: the 40kRP Armory has been updated to include Dark Heresy Second Edition!
www.mediafire.com/folder/i3akv9qx9q05z
For those of you who aren't already familiar with the Armory, it's designed to be a compiled quick reference for equipment across all six 40k RPG systems - you can use it to find basic information on gear that matches what you're looking for, then refer to the source rulebook for the full description.
Credits: unnownrelic and eBarbarossa for their previous work on the Armory, and of course FFG for creating some of my favorite roleplaying games.

That would so trigger an admech civil war.
 
Admech 1: "The Computer is the True Omnissiah! The Avatar of the Machine God!"
 
Admech 2: "It's an artificial intelligence! It's existence is techno-heresy!"
 
Both: "TO THE DEATH!"*
 
 
 
* and since they've gotten their hands on R&D's stockpiles they both died due their own weapons malfunctioning/blowing up half a city.

As much as I may harp on the Sisters of Battle for my own dumb reasons, ServantofDante you've done exactly what I would ask one of my players to do when making a character. That is looking for a mechanical representation of their character's preferred fighting style and weapons as determined by their personality and choices in life. Had you said you wanted to play a Sister and then not taken e.g. the Common Lore (Imperial Creed) skill or Hatred (Mutants) when you had the chance bcs you instead wanted "a second dodge" quicker I would be disappointed.
You would be robbing your character of the possible character growth and choices necessary to justify something purely for mechanical benefit. That's lazy in my eyes.
As to DPR and combat builds and all that... I'll let the children and WoW players deal with those, my players and I are here to roleplay.

On both the pdf I'm getting a 404 Firbidden notice

I would love to play a feral worlder who is both and Untouchable and Discordant  just for the "Roleplaying fun" of an null to both Psykers and Tech

Sitting here with my bucket of Popcorn waiting to see how it goes

Well my group will be around and still playing but then again I still Run myself TSR Top Secret/SI which has not seen a supplement since '92.  And I have it running in the current day.  
 
Old Gamers, we never let old systems die

Well my group will be around and still playing but then again I still Run myself TSR Top Secret/SI which has not seen a supplement since '92.  And I have it running in the current day.  
 
Old Gamers, we never let old systems die

Ho boy! You should see what they did with the 'crons.
 
He're some highlights: Necrons are now robot pharao's in spaaaace, rather than omnicidal killbots.
The Wulfen (space wolves 13th company) have returned and the Dangels and the wolves have had some serious beef, again.
The Bangels teamed up with the 'crons to defeat the 'nids (Gaaaaaaah!) The deathwatch turned out to have been formed by the imperial fists in M32, rather than beeing just the chamber militant of the ordo xenos. And least said about what the grey Knights did with some adepta sororitas the better.

and now my take on him
 
Skills:
Speak Language (Low Gothic)
Speak Language (Metallican Character)
Common Lore (Imperial Creed)
Literacy
Interrogation (x2)
Intimidate
 
Talents:
Melee Weapon (Primitive)
Pistol (SP) (x2)
Basic Weapon (Primitive) or Thrown (Primitive)
Unshakable Faith
Basic Weapon (Flame)
 
Background: Redemptionist Firebrand (pg 32 TIH) 200 point
Level 1  Confessor
Awareness 100
Pure Faith 200
Level 2   Redemptionist
Frenzy 100
Hatred (Heretic)  100
Sound Con  100
Sound Con  100
Sound Con  100
Level 3 Priest
Dodge 100
Sprint 100
Willpower +5  100
Wrath of the Righteous (200)
 
You have 1 skill and 1 talent doubled
I would ask your GM
about swapping for Performer (Singer) for Intimidate
and Resistance (Heat) for Pistol (SP)

Well my group will be around and still playing but then again I still Run myself TSR Top Secret/SI which has not seen a supplement since '92.  And I have it running in the current day.  
 
Old Gamers, we never let old systems die

. . . Does C-3PO speak the Linguis Techna or Binaric or whatever it's called? Because that might make him double technoheretical

What if that planet was (pre ep VI) Tatooine?
 
Jabba the hutt: (translated) "What do you mean, they all want to be slave girls?"

Not all all, I would drop that on the Squats if they made an official comeback

Not all all, I would drop that on the Squats if they made an official comeback

I can haz bolter?

That's why I once homebrewed a guard regiment for OW. (We never got around to use it sadly.)
 
Alpha complexian troubleshooters
Hive world  3pts
Guerillia regiment  4pts
Billious 2pts (paranoia)
Scavengers  3pts
Combat drugs  2pts
Favoured foe  3pts ( forbidden lore: cults/ hatred: mutants)
Incompotent leadership  +5pts
 
Extra kit:
Laspistol +2 charge packs  5pts
dose of spook (rare) 15pts
haluciogen grenade (scarce)  8pts
tranq  (abundant)  2pts
 
Armour:
Flak vest
Weapons:
Lascarbine (main weapon)*
knife **
Grenades:
2 blind
2 stun
2 frag
*  local variant :
Lightweight material (-10 single handed firing)
Piercing (felling)
Heating issues (overheats)
Erratic (unreliable)
 
** local variant:
Shearing ‘razor sharp +2 pen)
Poor grip (flies off in random direction)
Brittle (breaks easily in combat)