Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-33521582-20180324203957/@comment-33521582-20180326114312

Holding your new weapons, you take your seats on the shuttle once more. You feel the ship shake as the magnetic clamps disengage, and the rumble of the Cybindis' engines roaring to life. The display lights up once more, with an image of the planet below as the Blackstar approaches it. Across its grey expanse red lights signal the main manufactorums and industrial regions. A thick cluster of red is shown prominently, its light reaching out from the display and hemming the black armour you and your brethren wear in a pale crimson glow.

"That's the World Furnace, our target." Sergeant Invexus indicates the large cluster with his Deathwatch silver arm. The red glow makes it look blood-soaked. "Brother István will draw us near and we'll jump down."

As if on cue, Brother István's unsettlingly mechanical voice clicks on in your helmets. "Entering atmosphere in: 10 seconds."

The magnetic plates in your seats engage, holding you securely, as the bottom falls from under your feet. The freefall lasts for approximately three minutes, before you feel it starting to gently slow. Another minute passes, and the magnetic plates disengage. "In position. Altitude: 20 meters." To punctuate this statement, the hatches on the Cybindis open, showing you view of sprawling grey buildings, surrounded by smoke, and the occasional shuttle taking off or landing.

"Kill-team Invexus, deploy!" And with that, Sergeant Invexus jumps down into the clear area below the Blackstar.

You all follow, raising clouds of dust and ash as your power armoured forms hit the ground. Before you stands a small retinue of the Mamluq Warriors. The look on their faces is a mixture of relief and fear; they have never seen your like before.

"H-honoured Astartes" A huge specimen lumbers forward. "We have been sent to show you the way to the tunnels where the creatures were last encountered." You see that he bears severe lacerations, as though sharp claws have been drawn across his flesh, gouging it open.

You follow your guide in somber silence, as he leads you away from the open sprawl, and into the entrails of the complex around the World Forge. As you walk, a constant stream of human workers bustle past you, giving you wondering looks and a wide berth. They are swarthy, muscular men and women, their hair and skin blackened by smoke, and marked by small burns. Most of them have tattoos or brands in the shape of one of the great chimneys that rise above the World Forge. "These are the Smelters" Your guide offers. "They live and work in the forges, it is their sacred duty to tend the fires, and make the holy plasteel from the ore the Miners collect."

A group of men move past you, twenty of them pulling on a small cart while another belows orders. As it moves by you, you can see that the cart is carrying long, gunmetal grey ingots, all marked with the Imperial Aquila.

As you descend deeper into structure, you encounter less and less people. The ones here seem to be mostly devoted to maintenance of massive conveyor belt machinery and water pipes. Your guide, who has become increasingly twtichy and nervous, leads you past a final corner.

The sight before you is distressing, even with your hundreds of years of experience. Eviscerated corpses line the floor, blood, gore, and some body parts cling to walls and ceiling. Blood drips steadily from the machinery and piping. A pile of inhuman, charred corpses blazes away merrily, aided along by two of the Mamluqs equiped with Heavy flamers. A contingent of well over one hundred of them is entrenched around an opening in the bare rock, gripping their blades and shotguns with white-knucled intensity.

Your guide's face is twisted in panic now. "T-this is the most recent opening, L-lord Astartes" His hands shake, but the nature of the warrior caste is one of strength. "D-do you wish to know anything further, or for us to accompany you into the tunnels?"