C01M03S01: The Return of the Shadow Dancer

Well, after four weeks of dancing to the Eldars tune the players managed to not only surprise the DM but gazump the Eldar with a combination of luck, skill and extraordinary stubbornness.

The party assembled in the bridge with Shanks the paranoid cop interrogating the crew with little result, for any knowledge of heretical research or xenos tech.

The players accepted this watered down version of the truth and then proceeded to order the tech priest to get them a better picture of what is going on. The tech priest created an auspex (or at least recoded an existing one) which allowed the team to see the location of every heartbeat on the station.

Fifty anomalies were detected clustered around the stations plasma reactor. Rather optimistically they sent an Imperial security guard to investigate. He reported 50 bone like objects floating around reactor with flashing red lights. They ordered the rest of the red shirts in and they took up defensive positions. The stations tech priest came down with the party to investigate. When they emerged from the lift they round the security detail dead, pumped full of bullet wounds and shell cases on the upper gantry.

The party then bailed. Mavis the Black went to recover one of the devices and successfully retrieved it under a hail of rifle fire. Determining that the 'enemy' had secured the reactor the team headed back to the bridge. On route they comm'ed Commissar Little and got no response, locking and loading they stormed his room finding him swinging from the roof with no apparent injuries - apart from being hung... Well hung... They searched his room, Armandius liberated his uniform, ID and chainsword. Shanks found a concealed fragment of the eye of Drusus.

Thinking the Commissar was tempted and thus the entire bridge crew, Shanks and the team ordered the security head down to the commissars room and interrogated him. Finding his answers weak they dragged him to the bridge and Shanks and Armandius tossed him to the Captains feet. The captain was outraged but intimidated by Shanks admitted heretic research for the Adeptus Mechanicus and lying to him previously.

Stealing the Astropaths assistant Drake, they found that when he held the shard he could view the four mercenaries in the reactor room. With this information Shanks led an assault on the reactor. After considering using Drake to remotely shut down the reactor wiser heads prevailed and they instead stormed the reactor. Duke Lithonius flamed the enemy setting one on fire, Armandius shredded the leg armour of another, four of the guards who were meant to flank the enemy never arrived (two meeting Mirth the Harlequinn and two meeting Dirge the Harlequinn), one joined Mavis in covering fire chipping away at the enemy armour. Drake spasmed one of the guards causing him to collapse and Shanks missed at point blank range. Return fire smashed Lithonius in the leg and massively damaging his foot, bullets also broke two of Armandius's ribs and knocked him to the floor.

The team crawled back to the lift, Duke Lithonius leaving behind a lit frag grenade. Before the doors closed, Armandius leaned out and blasted the spawning merc in the face, shredding the contents of his helmet. The lift doors closed on Armadius's smirking face. The grenade blew damaging the mercs and bringing down the gantry they were on. Mavis blasted away at the prone mercs severely damaging two of them before the team arrived back - this time right behind them. Another merc died to concentrated shotgun blasts and the remaining crippled two surrendered. Stripped of their guns, the remaining fragments of the eye and what armour was undamaged they were banished to the ready room neatly tied and bound on the orders of Lithious.

The commander thanked them, but ordered them to deal with the Eldar. Lithonius and Armandius limped to sickbay, Mavis and Shanks went to boot out the Eldar. Mavis entered the ducts, Shanks marched imperiously through the front door to meet Farseer Weaver and the Harlequins Mirth and Dirge (human not Eldar names). As Shanks tried to negotiate the Farseer explained who the real enemy was...

Meanwhile...

Lithonius (with one fragment) and Armandius (with two fragments) were lying in bed both with legs suspended in plaster and Armandius with his ribs bound when the traitorous bridge crew burst in demanding the three fragments.

Lithonius with some acting worthy of an Oscar said “Sure you can have it, here you areâ€Â