ARC II: CULTISTS OF BROCANTE
Part 1: Once more unto the breach
Following your departure from Hubei, you had seen the view from the narrow apertures of your wagon switching from the rolling fields of Wahun to mountains and then to the bleak leftovers of the strip mining that took place on Brocante the previous centuries, legacy of its designation as a mining world. Cooped as you were in the servitor bay, the two acolytes and you tried to pass the time, with Telemacus reading (
life and death of Saint Ambroise of Karlovac), Electryos tinkering with small pieces of technology and as for you,
[] you prayed to the Emperor for wisdom and guidance on what happened in Wahun, interspersed with meditations upon Telemacus' copy of the Lectitio Divinitatus
[] you repeated close combat drills in the narrow space, either with your combat knife or with a piece of tubing that approximated the length and weight of a basic sword. You're most proud of how you didn't hit even once either of your comrades during your exercises.
[] you read the various guides and random facts compilation about Brocante on your dataslate.
[] write in (but keep in mind that you're still stuck in the servitor bay)
But in the afternoon, on your third day of travel, Electryos suddenly re-enters the wagon
"Telemacus, Balda, grab your stuff, we have to exit the train at the next stop. Which is in two minutes!"
As you scramble to gather your belongings, you ask for an explanation, with Electryos answering
"You know how I was able to exchange messages with Interrogator Vince, using the comm line of the railway? I just received new orders and just in time, praise the Omnissiah for this."
"What do we have to do?"
"Vince's latest investigation has revealed a compound of the Bloody Fist not far from CoronduNor, which where the train is stopping. Normally he'd send a bigger group, but apparently the cultists are preparing to leave, or perhaps something else, so we have to stop them before they do."
"Just the three of us?"
"No, with the message was a one-use auth code that would allow use to requisition local forces, either PDF or enforcers. And the Inquisitor is sending a team led by Kyriakos for the clean up, but they won't be there in time for the assault."
"That creep? Throne, I can't stand him and his..."
You cut Telemacus' complain.
"He has the trust of the inquisitor, it is not our place to question his choices. Electryos, anything else?"
"Kyriakos' team will try to call us on vox frequency Charon-Scar-sixteen to coordinate, once they are in range. We should be able to get a vox-caster from whichever group we requisition."
You step off the mostly empty train on the platform of a decaying train station: the headhouse is an empty shell of rusting metal, off to the side, a pair of burned out freight wagons are left on an overgrown track and you don't see any personnel, just a loading servitor abandoned next to a boarded up ticket booth. As you move to exit the station, Electryos adds.
"Vince also said we'd have to gather as much intel on the cult as possible, it seems we haven't seen the end of them yet. And to take care of not letting any proscribed knowledge spread in the local population. Which means..."
"That we might have to purge those who helped us and any other witnesses. Or bring them back to Villeneuve for 'debriefing'." You add, knowing full well why it is the case and what might happens if it is not enforced.
From where you exit the station, you can see that the city ahead of you isn't in much better state, rows of run-down houses dotted with the dilapidated machinery of disused refineries, all covered by grime and with the horizon closed off by slag heaps. Some of the refineries are in the process of being dismantled, the noise of tools ringing in the air as they are reducing the buildings in pile of scrap metal to be reused elsewhere. As you consider where to go, Telemacus starts speaking
"In addition to the enforcers' precinct and the barracks there's a local Redemptionist chapter that could provide us with some additional fighters, fearless zealots would be properly motivated to fight heretics like those we're facing."
"It's true that such industrial decay is a fertile ground for such Redemptionist cults," Electryos says "but I'd hardly call them reliable, especially if we want to gather information on the Bloody Fist cult and not see it go up in flames. Also, let me remind you that we're on a limited time-frame: Vince's intel suggests the cultists will move out around nightfall and their compound is some distance outside of town, so I don't think we'll have time to requisition them in addition to any official forces."
The redemptionists would surely provide more fighters, but less disciplined and not as trained as the other options. The enforcers might also be trained in gathering information or at least not destroying it while fighting. Taking a decision, you start looking for a car to go to
[] the enforcer precinct to requisition them
[] the PDF barracks to requisition them
[] the Redemptionist chapter to ask for their help
AN: the first choice is more of a character development choice and won't have much bearing on the rest of the arc.
I'm trying something slightly different, more combat focused this time, we'll see how it goes.
Also choosing to go with redemptionist or PDFs doesn't mean you won't be able to gather any intel, it means it'll be harder, but there will be some choices to mitigate that