WARHAMMER 40,000: ROGUE TRADER: THE CITADEL OF SKULLS (Roleplaying on the Farthest Frontiers)

"Em, dear...I have an idea," you whisper, a...possible vision of the future unfolding in your mind. It might be because of your recent contact with...Him...but you're remembering the old storybooks you'd read when you were a child. The ultimate chapter of the Heresy, the tragic ending that every child of the Imperium could rattle off from heart. The earliest memories of trillions was their mothers or fathers or lectors reading that story to them as they clustered around them...and you were no different.

Bravely teleporting onto Horus' battlebarge.

But you knew how difficult teleporting like that had to have been. Targeting it in the mess of the orbital battle had to have been a nightmare. But the Emperor hadn't just been a bold leader. He was of the Trinity - psyker, space marine, and human being - that made the Imperium possible. Without any of the three, the Imperium would fall apart, and thus, without being each of the three, the Emperor would never have become the godly figure that he was.

If the Emperor could guide a teleportarium strike...and he must have...

Why not you?

Or, more accurately, why not Ryia?

Ugh.

Humility was a virtue, yes, that was why it felt so bad to admit it.

"What is it?" Em asks.

"I think a psyker can serve as a teleportarium beacon," you say.

Em frowns. "Is that true, Ryia?" he asks, looking at her.

"I...don't...fucking know," Ryia whispers. "But...maybe?"

Em considers. But Em did not make youngest captain in the Segmentum for being hesitant. He gave the subtlest of nods, then put his finger to his vox. "Jessie, do you read?"

Faintly, crackling, buzzing, Jessie's voice came through. "Sir...yes...yes sir...report...weapons fire...edge of system...think the...-astard is coming in...-aster than exp-...-using guns to- ... -ear the way."

Em frowns, then says. "Jessie. Tell the first: Xoti's Birthday. I repeat. Xoti's Birthday." He lowers his finger.

"That's it? That's the entire fucking command?" Ryia asks, but you're too busy grinning your head off. Em gestures the krigers to their positions as, down below in the center of the room, the daemon engine begins to stomp about. Ryia shakes her head, then closes her eyes. She clenches her teeth and her fingers alike as you feel her trying to reach out with her impressive psyker talent. Every daemonette's heads jerk up and they begin to look around, sniffing - but they don't have a lot of time before there is a buzzing sound...and then...

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

The First had arrived. Every single of them looked faintly terrified - only to become absolutely terrified as they saw the daemon engine looming before them in the darkness. The fear clearly gripped their breasts, and Corporal Lidda trembled - almost dropping what she gripped in her hands. Which was a shame, because each of the First had arrived bearing an old surplus from their time as members of the Imperial Guard. They were, essentially, tubes with krak missiles strapped to the front of them, designed for a single shot, and then to be tossed aside until a new one could be produced. Some people called them tank-punchers, but the Elysians preferred the term 'Knuckles'.

And it was a lie, actually, that the entire First was terrified.

Becuase Xoti was beaming as she held TWO of the fucking meter long krak missile launchers. She had both of them leaning on her shoulders, and looked as if she planned to fire them akimbo like some kind of lunatic. Like...

Well.

Like Xoti, actually.

Em snatched one of those launchers from Xoti, causing her to pout at him - but it was you who broke the spell of terror from them, even as the daemonettes screeched.

"INTRUDERS!"

"I love you guys, you know?" you laugh, and just that simple moment of affection seemed to be all that was needed for the First to shrug off the sight of the engine as Em stood and shouted.

"FOR THE EMPEROR!" He fired and the krak missile whipped out and smashed, directly into the daemon engine as you began to back up. The rest of the First leveled their missile launchers and a chorus of screaming missiles and bellows of 'FOR THE EMPEROR' rang out. The krak missiles slammed into the face of the daemon engine as Ryia leveled her crossbow and started to loose bolt after bolt - impacting into the chest armor of one of the heavy gunners, blowing his arm completely off with the third bolt as the engine began to stumble backwards under the barrage of krak explosions. The chest piece ripped open, and then a blue-white flare filled the world as you sprinted forward.

The engine screamed as it went up, screamed in fury and frustration as the daemon within was sucked backwards into the warp.

It screamed, also, because an explosion of white light roared outwards, sweeping over the daemonettes, who screeched in fury and pain as they reared away from the blast, lifting their claws and hissing as they were scorched.

But by then, you had finished your sprint and had leaped.

The catwalk groaned and bent downwards, causing a Krieger to stumble as you whipped up and over the chasm between the catwalk and the surface of the column of stone that made up the center of the room. A heavy gunner, trying to react to all that had happened, looked up at you and you landed right ahead of him, Aria sweeping through the air. There was not a droplet of blood on your sword as you stood from the small crater you had made landing - even as the power armored figure fell to the side and collapsed, his head and helmet rolling in opposite directions as blood fountained out of his neck stump.

Across the way, the two remaining heavies begin to flash with lasfire. Ablative patches on their power armor boil away. One of them rolls for cover, just barely managing to avoid the majority of the impacts, but the other stumbles, his body twitching from side to side as blasts crater along his chest, belly, shoulder, helmet. Steam explodes, then turns red around him as superheated blood mists the air around his body and he collapses, proving a grim axiom that has held true across the millennia. Traitor legionaries and...to be honest, more than a few loyalist Marines are known to look down on Imperial Guard.

Call them cannon fodder.

Say they wear cardboard.

Sneer at their flashlights.

But in the hands of the Kriegers, the flashlights were more than enough, and this traitor had learned it just a bit too late.

"Backup! WE NEED BACKUP!" the last heavy bellowed into his vox and you heard the response.

"Backup!? You are the bloody backup!"

"THERE ARE FUCKING ASTARTES HE-UGK!" the last heavy burst apart, blowing into chunks as Ryia put bolt after bolt after bolt into him. She lifts her crossbow, shouldering it with a grin that you can see through her helmet.

You level your twin maglev rippers on the screeching daemonettes, who are looking for something, anything to kill. The scream of your guns fill the air and two of them immediately are torn to shreds - but so many others dart and dodge aside, flowing at you like a river of pure death. Your hands are gripping Aria and your parrying knife - and you bring both up, slashing hard to try and knock aside a shimmering claw that lashes at your face. Your armor clunks and clangs as they slam into you, causing you to stumble backwards, trying to shake them off. A blow slams into the side of your head - and your entire world goes white for a moment. Your ears ring - and stumble to your knees. You are almost pushed to your back, but as the bodies writhe against you, you snarl, then shout.

"You cannot harm me, for I walk in HIS LIGHT!" You brought your parrying dagger up and slammed it into the chest of a daemonette, throwing her backwards and into another two to send them skittering away. The daemonette's corpse dissolved away as you cut one from her hip to her shoulder with an effortless blow from Aria. They all cringe back and you find yourself shouting. "I serve the anathema you fear! I am touched by His radiance and you KNOW IT! YOU FUCKERS PICKED THE WRONG DAY TO GET SUMMONED!"

"Kill her!" One daemonette screamed.

"Rip out her spine!" Another leaped at you, but you sucker punched her in the chest with the hilt of the parrying dagger, interrupting her advance to then bring Aria into her shoulder, then wrench free, filling the air with gouting blood. As the deamonette fizzled away, you laughed, a joyous laugh, a mocking laugh.

"Once I'm done, I'm going to fuck my husband," you say, gloating. "And that passion, that love, that sensation? It's mine! And his! And you don't get a SCRAP!"

The daemons cringe away from you, looking horrified at the truth in your words.

And that's when Em, charging up from the shadows, slams into their right flank. His sword and his shoulder both send a daemonette skidding as the First, the Kriegers, and Ryia join the fray a moment later. The First have bayonets, knives, shotpistols and Xoti. The Kreigers, though? They have nothing but the butts of their guns and their own fury, and that's almost scarier. But considering, in the mad melee, you saw a daemonette, looking utterly terrified, trying to shake off Xoti as Xoti stabbed her repeatedly in the chest with a knife...you weren't sure.

"What? You don't like it, huh? Don't like, huh!?" Xoti was shouting, digging the knife around. "I thought this was your THING!?"

You see two daemonettes no one is in the middle of stabbing and advance towards them. They actually start to back up as you twirl your blades. One lunges at your left once you get close enough. You parry her claw with the knife, then shove up, cutting from her arm to her armpit with the blade, causing her to screech as you impale the other through the chest, then shove both away. They begin to hiss and bubble - then vanish into smoke.

"I got a souvenir!" Xoti shouted, waving a horn that was already starting to dissolve, above her head. Biggs slapped it out of her hand and three KRiegers stepped up and fired hellguns at it until it was nothing but a bubbling crater on the rocky surface of your battlefield.

You took your helmet off with a sigh - and wince as Em steps over, his finger going to the cut on your forehead.

"...you're not bleeding," he says. "...because this appears to be synthetic skin over a durasteel skull, Tine, I have to commend whoever did this because I have...known you, in the liturgical sense, and I never even notice."

You beamed at him. "To be fair...I am pretty distracting."

"So, we're not being replaced?" Lidda whispers, softly, to Em as the elevator rumbles and rumbles and rumbles. It's going down fairly swiftly, but you feel like you still have quite some way to go. Your helmet optics show the cavern walls that are whipping past the edges of the elevator carriage - they're jagged and snarled and crudely cut. But the strange light was growing brighter, every moment, from below. You were getting closer to the Vault, you knew it.

"Absolutely not, Corporal," Em says, chuckling. "We just needed some local guides."

The Kriegers do not smile at this.

"So," Xoti said to one of them. "Is it true you're all-"

"Xoti!" you say.

"What? There's no reason to be ashamed of being a virgins," Xoti says, causing the Krieger next to her to make the strangest expression you had ever seen. It was...like she was chewing on a piece of lemon candy and didn't know if she liked it. "I'm just saying, after that scrap, we can totally help them fix that-"

"Xoti!" you say, laughing.

"-and they're cute, I like the whole stoic thing-"

"PFC Xoti!" Lidda snaps.

"-it's hot is what I'm saying," Xoti mumbles into her collar as the Krieger next to her, for a vanishing moment, almost smiles. Not the dangerous wolf smile from before, but...like...an actual smile.

The elevator, with a whirr and a rattle, came to a stop. The light shone in now from around the seams on the front door entrance, and Ryia shook her head as the First and the Kriegers got ready for anything, their weapons at the ready. "So, like, think it's full of floodlights or something?" she asks. "Who wants to bet its like, two cargo containers with a few scraps of fucking promissory notes and a data..." The doors opened. "...slate..."

The Vault of Secrets was not just a few cargo containers strapped together.

The Vault of Secrets...stretched outwards before you, for nearly a kilometer. The floor was hard to make out, because there were heaps and heaps and heaps of gold and silver coins, shining gemstones, glittering expanses of metal that had to be purified selthsteel and Deverenian shardmelt and rune-scribed adamant. You saw logs of still living nalwood in carefully stacked triangular pyramids, canisters of Aquosian screamwhale ambergris, canisters of enriched hyper-promethium, and of course, cargo-containers on small stilts that were stocked with what looked like weaponry from a million worlds. You could see what looked like a whole quartet of Dark Ages stasis containers, and chests, chests, chests galore. You could see a book on a plinth, split off from other treasures, that was completely covered in Imperial purity seals. The whole place was lit by dozens of lumens who's light was caught and reflected around by the splendor.

"My...Emperor..." you whisper, stepping off the elevator.

"Vall has to have been plundering for millenia..." Ryia whispers. "The loot of a thousand worlds is here."

"Look!" Em points. "That's a cogitator core!" His finger intersects with a remarkably small cube of metal and wires that sits on a plinth, reachable only by traveling through the heaps of treasure. Em looks at the two of you. "Those contain navigation datum for any ship that they're attached to. Who wants to wager that that's the map Vall used to get to that...La'Nasad place?"

---
What do?
[ ] Make for the cogitator core and secure it first.
[ ] Make for the cogitator core, but dispatch the Kriegers and First to secure as much treasure as you can.

If treasure get, what grab? Vote for as many as you want!
[ ] The loot!
[ ] The coin!
[ ] The gems!
[ ] The weapons!
[ ] The other weapons!
[ ] The holy book!
[ ] The stasis containers!