Time passed.

It was not pleasant.

For what could have been hours, days, months or longer, the Inner Council of the Hos Dynasty languished in darkness. Confined in narrow cells, paralyzed inside of sensory deprivation tanks. Their only reprieve is when they were silently wheeled out and turned over to the hands of the Eldar torture technicians. Their interest was clinical and detached, they asked few questions, and seemed to barely give care to the answers – their goal was seemingly only the cause of pain.

Eventually, they were subjected to the “great hunt”. The new prisoners were released into a simulated environment, where they would be hunted by others. The Dynasty naturally sought each other, but found that as part of their torture, their voice, face, and all distinguishing features of their bodies had been removed. New faces stared back at them from the stagnant pools of water, and voices that they did not recognise echoed inside of their ears. The lost limbs of Hos and Eckhart had been regrown, and any cybernetic enhancement was stripped out. Released into the arena, Hos was swiftly hunted by a voracious and wild Kroot, with Eckhart succumbing shortly afterwards to the same foe. Jian engaged a group of humans who were hunting the new arrivals for sport, and despite being unarmed managed to make quite a good showing for himself before being brought down and knifed in the swamp.

Death itself was not a release though, as the Eldar captors refused to allow them any escape – merely regrowing their bodies and again changing their appearance. Once released, they found themselves inside of a primitive holding facility that appeared to be some sort of converted storage facility. Left to their own devices, Jian, Hos and Eckhart were able to reconnect along with Vasquez, Dalia and several other Hos Dynasty members, but there was no sign of Arch-Militant Caine in this facility. Hos attempted to contact the outside world for negotiation or some sort of face-to-face meeting, but inside of this prison, the Eldar seemed content to ignore the prisoners to their own devices. Their next meeting was an attempt to find the Kroot that had slain both he and Eckhart, but the Xenos proved unwilling to meet the Captain and broke his arm when he attempted to force a confrontation with their Shaper.

Eckhart in prison seemed almost like a broken man. With the possibility of killing Winterscale now denied to him, and a strange implanted device inhibiting his psychic powers he was left unsure of himself and without the fire of revenge burning inside of him, he would have seemed lost. Were it not for the presence of Vasquez and the few other Death Bastards to survive imprisonment, he likely would not have responded to any stimulus at all. Though he still accompanied the Captain as a bodyguard – his combat skills honed through the years of combat they’d faced – he barely spoke a word to anyone.

Jian met the situation with his usual method of unrelenting angry piety. His tour revealed that the facility was populated with several dozen broken humans, left to mull on the horrors inside of their own head. He attempted to set up some crude shrines to the Emperor, but was met by the Brotherood of the False Dawn, who attempted to “convince” him to meet with their leader through a strong-armed escort, and explain to him that they had found “other” Gods to worship in this facility, as well as several other phrases that used literal air quotes that left him no doubt as to their heresy. Quietly listening to them, he responded in his own succinct manner by ramming the speaker’s head into the wall to break his neck, and squared off for a fight. The others merely laughed, and he felt a pain inside his neck before darkness overcame him, and he sank to the ground.

There was indeed one rule in the facility, and it was that no one could take a life but the Eldar, though non-lethal violence was perfectly acceptable. Jian was relegated to another session of torture, and his victim resurrected through the perfidious Xenos science. Hos in the meantime had met up with a group of Xenos that were willing to listen – a small cadre of Tau that had originated from the opposite end of the Galaxy and were captured by the Eldar and imprisoned in their own game. They expertly set his arm and informed him of the only way they knew to get out – to impress the Eldar in their various bloodsport arenas and win a mysterious tournament that would allow them to be purchased as fighters, bodyguards, or perhaps merely subjects for the visiting slavers of various races, but was at least an escape. The next such bloodsport would be against an “Omega” level slave, a creature of such terrifying power it was kept separate from the rest of the population. Naturally, Hos seized at the chance to prove his worth.

Once Jian had been returned, volunteers were sought to entertain the crowd. Seven were permitted to join, and with Jian freshly returned to them the remaining Inner Council met and when the time came, joined up with a small group of the Tau, including the one they had nicknamed “Shazzy Law”, after finding his actual name too confusing. Hos took this moment again to attempt to negotiate with their captors as they were armed for battle, but quickly backed down when he realised they would kill him if he did anything but arm himself. Their gear was of good quality, and seven fighters entered the arena watched by thousands of Eldar in the surrounding area. Shortly, the opposite gate opened but no creature appeared to step through – until one of the Tau was brutally ripped apart by an unseen foe. Jian was the next to fall, and eventually sharp eyed observation revealed a swift moving creature camouflaged expertly in the ground. Law managed to get a clear view of it, and grimly informed those involved that it was a Tyranid Lictor – a chameleon-like nightmare creature that had plagued his own people, and was almost impossible to put down. Drawing its attention, he also fell to the thing’s nightmare talons, but had provided enough clues that the remaining members were able to concentrate enough firepower on it to drop it, and put the creature down.

The cheering from the crowd was disappointed, but nonetheless victory was theirs. The dead were carted off for the unholy resurrection, and Law informed the group that the winners traditionally got to demand one favour to their captors, though unreasonable requests were often met with derision and/or torture. Hos demanded the return of his entire crew, and shortly upon returning Caine had come back to the fold as well as the remaining captured Hossian members. Along with their victory, a man approached them on behalf of Captain Anya Shen – a slave-trader now imprisoned inside of the facility as the result of the shifting fortunes of the Eldar. She had a large number of her former crew with her, and requested a private meeting with Hos that he refused, counter-proposing that she meet with him surrounded by his crew. The offer was ultimately refused, but she sent her former first officer Marco Malleyn to liaise with them instead. He spoke of that if the party could indeed do well enough in these events to earn entry into the “Tournament of Champions”, then they would be able to force an escape from the facility.

Interested, but unconvinced of the sincerity of these words, Hos instead took to rallying the inhabitants of their prison to his cause through oratory, in the hopes that someone would know of any information missed. The Kroot again rebuffed any attempts to see their Shaper, with increasing force this time. Henara Tiris, leader of the Cult of the False Dawn, also took this opportunity to meet with the Captain saying that she too had a way out of the prison, but would like a chance to speak with the Rogue Trader and his crew in private, and have them listen to her sermons. Jian categorically rejected this offer and, rather disconcertingly, Eckhart could neither see nor hear this woman. Caine was willing to go along confident that he would be able to resist any temptation, but was convinced to stay behind by the others. This action would come back to haunt them when, during one of their inspirational gatherings, a group of her cultists walked in and detonated a series of toxic bombs that maimed or killed many present, at the cost of their own lives. Henara again invited everyone to a sermon, and explained the bombs as proof that she had secret passages out of the prison granted to her by the Gods. Again, there were no takers.

After another unknown length of time spent waiting and skirmishing with the False Dawn, another Omega fight came up and the reunited Inner Council, two Tau and Marco – who had forced himself in with the group – volunteered for this one as well. Eckhart asked if they could turn off his psychic blocker for this fight, and was surprised to find his request granted. The arena cage was smaller this time, and their opponent was a headless suit of armour, glowing from within by an un-real light that threatened to consume them. Summoning up his power, the Astropath unleashed a series of devastating Force Shards on the foe, only to find it – rather unsurprisingly – immune to his force. Jian charged in, but upon striking it was lashed by a bolt of force from the foe. It then counter attacked with an energy blast of its own that blasted a section of the arena, but fortunately caused no damage. Their ranged weapons were primarily handled by its force field, and those few attacks that got through seemed to cause minimal damage. Unwilling to back down, Caine directed a withering barrage at the thing, and though he took a powerful blow in return managed to bring down its shield, at which point it had little chance of survival against the massed attacks.

With two victories under their belt, their entry in the Tournament of Champions was assured. Eckhart, Jian, Caine, Hos and Law all earned an invitation, as well as two of the burly gladiators that had fought Jian back during their arrival. Each was allowed to bring one warrior along with them, with Jian opting to bring Captain Shen at her request, Eckhart choosing to bring Vasquez, and the remaining three each bringing one of the Tau. The gladiators each chose one from their number, and the fourteen were so entered into the tournament. Shen informed them that the challenges would be seven rooms they would have to pass through, that were randomized and updated, but one in particular she was familiar with and could make her escape from. Entering the first room, they found themselves in a lush paradise-like garden with gentle running streams, beautiful flowers and a peaceful light beaming down from above.

Before moving through, an Eldar voice in both Gothic and Tau informed them that this was the ultimate tournament where their worth would be decided, and death here would be the only release they were promised – there would be no resurrection. One of the Gladiators seemingly lost their nerve at this pronouncement and swiftly took his own life. The remaining thirteen steeled themselves, and as the door opened upon this veritable garden they quickly sought to move through it to the door opposite for the next chamber. Their travels were quickly interrupted as they found that that the room was filling with a hallucinogenic gas, and many of them were lost inside their own minds for a time as the vegetation slowly blackened and the room began to lose its paradise-like qualities. Most managed to fight it off with time, but one of the Tau succumbed completely to the gas and was violently resisting attempts to leave. The remaining thirteen had all reached the door, but Shen said that it would not open until all were gathered for exit – or dead. Regretfully but decisively, the members executed the delusional Tau who could not be reasoned with, and escaped the room before the now acidic air overwhelmed them.

They found themselves in an antechamber where the same voice mocked them upon completion, and the next room revealed itself: A maze of twisty passages, all alike. The surviving dozen readied themselves to solve yet another Eldar room and make their way to what was not just survival, but hopefully their redemption…

With the Hos Dynasty now trapped inside of the entryway to the Engineerium and the Mechanicus Shrine in general, concerns now turned towards questioning the voice of Lady Ashe, as it was their only source of information. The Seneschal now identified herself as the current Rogue Trader of the Fel Dynasty, and that if the crew did not reveal to her the location of Astropath Eckhart, their torture would only continue. Since as of their last sighting he was possessed by a daemon and vanishing into the Warp they did not know, they were unable to produce him. Saying that she had “other business” to attend to, her communications were cut off despite attempts to solicit more information.

Unwilling to accept their capture, Sarvus and Caine both turned their formidable weaponry and strength towards testing the shield imprisoning them for weaknesses, demolishing walls, ceiling and fine statuary in order to seek an exit. Captain Hos again attempted to gain control over the Mechanicus systems, but sensing no further headway was to be made he located and began rewiring the speakers used by Lady Ashe to turn them into some sort of loudspeaker. Once the door was burned down, Jian ventured slightly out past the entryway only to confirm that there was another shield trapping them on this side – as well as approximately a dozen combat servitors on the other side in case it went down.

The explorations for escape lasted barely five minutes before a familiar, terrible sound issued from seemingly everywhere, and a hole in the fabric of reality opened disgorging Eckhart. His helmet tucked jauntily under his arm, his face was bare to reveal bloody, raw pits where his eyes once were that burned with an unholy flame and a mocking greeting signifying his possession was not over. Sarvus attempted to climb out of his pit to strike at his foe, Jian readied his weapons and began saying a battle prayer while Caine and Hos hesitated to ascertain the situation. Fortunately the daemon then, for reasons all its own, chose to leave Eckhart’s body, and the Astropath was restored to the ranks of the Dynasty.

Hos began recapping their situation, when Sarvus and Jian realised that within moments after Eckhart’s arrival the Servitors that were held at bay were now apparently free to come through the shield and, along with a compliment of servo skulls, were now swarming into the room. Sarvus’s quick reactions felled one, but the remaining eleven came into the room and began their murder spree. Hos’s attempts to use his knowledge of Mechanicus protocols to stymie the Servitors seemed to only enflame them, and they quickly pinned the Rogue Trader as well as Eckhart to the nearby wall in an orgy of violence. The fighting was fierce to bring down these opponents, and eventually the Dynasty prevailed but not without the loss of more of their men, and a few more bruises to their already fatigued bodies. As the last of the servitors fell, the enhanced gravity field again re-asserted itself to again begin to crush them, leaving the survivors scrambling to reach a safe area.

Sarvus confirmed the inner shield was still down, though the one leading back to their dropship still functioned. Fearing being trapped, the survivors rallied and moved deeper into the ship, following Eckhart’s psychic certainty that their quarry was further inside. A more in-depth mind scan revealed the presence of three beings: Navigator Letscher, Lady Ashe and Lonnie Belleheumer, exactly as was theorized. Reading the mind of Ashe, Eckhart learned that she had been subject to a mind wipe for much of the last six months and was currently under orders to follow the directives of Lieutenant Salome – currently in communication with them – or Hadarak Fel – whose location was unknown. The Dynasty debated going further to try and capture/slay their foes, or to try to head back to the Guncutter, but ultimately decided to press onwards.

Reaching the command room where the trio of Fel’s inner circle had held up, Salome contacted Lady Ashe saying she should detonate a “Psyk-Out” grenade, and upon doing so severed Eckhart’s connection with Ashe. The Dynasty set up firing lanes around the door, and Sarvus breached it with his demo charges – only to find that the room seemed entry. Unwilling to forfeit the iniative, Jian dove into the room and verified that it was indeed empty, though there were a few other exits that the group could have fled from. Hos, Caine, Sarvus and the Honour Guard all also entered as Eckhart, the Death Bastards and the Crusaders stayed outside to secure their flank. The Captain attempted to gain control of the devices that Ashe was using to monitor their progress, but as he scanned the room noticed a bomb-like device concealed in the Mechanicus scrollwork about to go off.

Though Sarvus and Caine both followed the Captain’s directives to attack it, it did indeed detonate and all mechanical devices in the immediate vicinity – including Hos and Sarvus’s power armour as well as Caine himself – shut down. Jian had attempted to flee out an exit only to run into Lonnie and Letscher who seemed to be waiting for them. With most of their weapons down, the battle was joined between the Hos Dynasty and the oversized bodyguard and the mutated Navigator. As Eckhart entered the room, Letscher had focused his Warp powers on the Astropath, and managed to drop him through his own connection to the Warp, firing a bullet that unerringly found its way through Eckhart’s formidable defenses. Eckhart had attempetd a psychic power to strike back at the Navigator, but passed out before managing to use it – the only effect being a disturbance in reality that knocked out the Crusaders and Honour Guard.

Though the Haywire field wore off shortly, the damage was done as when equipment powered back up, the damage to Hos’s mind as his cranial implants short-circuited had knocked him out. Attacks naturally focused on Letscher, but Belleheumeur was relentless in his defense of the Navigator, trusting in his incredible resilience to keep him standing. Unfortuantely, as before, with the reactivation of Caine the Arch-Militant’s formidable firepower eventually wore down the bodyguard, dropping him to the ground. Though Letscher had used his time to also drop Sarvus, once his protector was down, Jian made short work of the Navigator. As the battle seemed carried, Salome teleported into the chamber to join the fight, and landed several clean blows on the Arch-Militant as well as the Missionary, weakening both. Ultimately she could not prevail over the might of the pair, augmented by the two still-standing Death Bastards, and she too went down.

As if the galaxy itself was unwilling to give them a break, Lady Ashe had used this opportunity to re-enter the room, and pointed a powerful weapon at the downed Rogue Trader Hos, urging their surrender. Jian had other ideas in mind, and hurled his Witch Lance at her. Though it missed, it threw off her aim allowing the remaining combatants to refocus. Unfortunately her own salvation shield protected her long enough for her to fire her weapon at Caine, downing the Arch-Militant, and left her locked in a duel with Jian. Though Jian was the superior combatant, he was fatigued and worn down, while the Seneschal was fresh and fully equipped, and at last the Missionary went down, and with it the hopes of the Hos Dynasty.

But it was not their end. The quintet awoke to find themselves stripped and chained to the floor, except for Eckhart who was securely locked inside a Witch cage. Facing them was the members of the Fel Dynasty they had fought, as well as Calligos Winterscale himself – or so it appeared. Breaking down his plot in a moment of villainous gloating, the Rogue Trader revealed that he was Hadarak Fel in mind if not body, utilizing Logician science to transplant his consciousness into Winterscale he planned to usurp control of Winterscale’s holdings without any further violence. Lady Ashe would inherit the Fel Dynasty. As for the Hos Dynasty, the cloning technology that had slowly been distributed through the Expanse was also from the Logicians, initially acquired via an alliance with Krawkin Feckward, who received it in trade from the Dark Eldar.

Fel had come to believe that death itself was not enough of a punishment for Jequin Hos, and he and his Dynasty were to be sold as slaves for Feckward’s next bargain with them. Languished and forgotten. The Hos Dynasty itself would be usurped by a genetic clone of Jequin Hos, grown via Logician science, and loyal completely to Hadarak Fel’s ambitions. His only offer of clemency was made to Sarvus – in exchange for serving him and using his knowledge to bankrupt the Hos Dynasty, he would allow the Seneschal to redirect the funds however he saw fit to his own family. A tempting bargain, and one that did indeed appear to spur Sarvus into accepting, earning him a pledge of vengeance from Jequin Hos, as well as a curse on the entire Fel Dynasty.

With the Winterscale War now over, a peace treaty between the Winterscale and Hos Dynasty announced, and the machinations of the Xenos apparently thwarted, no doubt a great celebration was heard across the Expanse. Few were left who knew of the deceit and heresy that had downed the Hos Dynasty, and as time grew on, fewer questioned or sought a deeper truth. Jequin Hos, Jian Veng and Zacharya Caine were all sold as nameless slaves to the Dark Eldar to be forgotten. Eckhart as a powerful Psyker no doubt faced a worse fate as the experimental subject of some depraved, Dark Eldar madmen.

And though separated or alone, all of them swore that this would not be the end of the Hos Dynasty…

Despite everything that had been happening, the Hos Dynasty had no time to rest. The daemonic angel that had just emerged from a tear in reality itself opened its mouth, and let out a song of beauty and despair, and a horrible change began to overtake the people inside of the Medicae Deck. The loyal Bastille crew members that had aided so boldly against the Xenos began to warp and change, and left only terrible, warp-tainted spawn in their wake. To Eckhart’s horror, his precious Void Rhino familiar shared their fate, the shock of which left him reeling and caused his nigh-indomintable willpower to fail and he collapsed to the ground.

The warp phenomena didn’t end there, with the ceiling seemingly opening up to stormclouds that had not been present, and a deluge of blood pouring down and threatening to knock those gathered off their feet, and the link between Duke Morrow and Captain Hos splintering and forming another tear in existence with daemonic visions emerging assailing the mind of those few that survived. The Gyrinx, never one to back down from a threat, charged in at the daemon while Jian lit his incense, began reciting a prayer and readied his own weapons for battle. Captain Hos’s will had stood up to this point, but found that he could not approach the daemon, and instead turned his power fist and its considerable might to dealing with the warp spawn that now plagued them.

The angel never drew a weapon against them, seeming content to merely sing its wracking songs and attempt to drown the souls of all present in the warp. Duke Morrow’s claws left brilliant, burning-red marks on the angel’s skin, but it wasn’t until Jian charged in with his witch lance that the creature was undone. One ferocious assault from the missionary later, and the angel burst open in fire, and then darkness. And out of the darkness came yet more horror, as shadowy spider-like creations began to swarm all over those assembled. Jian’s armour shone like a beacon to ward them off, but Captain Hos proved vulnerable and the creatures seemed to swarm inside of his body, and when they faded the Rogue Trader was gone – his soul replaced by a daemon.

Acting quickly, Jian charged forward to try to exorcise the daemon and took a power fist to the chest for his troubles. Nonetheless he perservered and managed to slip his psychically warded amulet over the Rogue Trader’s head, never letting up in his chanting for a second. Duke Morrow, recognising the threat to his master, re-established his psychic connection and combined with Hos’s legendarily indomintable willpower, drove the daemon from the Rogue Trader… which then proceeded to attack the newly recovering Eckhart. To the disbelief of Hos, the daemon overcame Eckhart’s mind, and possessed him as well, taking the Astropath’s body and using it to flee through the very portal he had summoned. Though Hos and Jian tried to contain the Daemonic Eckhart, it eluded them and stepping through the portal, it snapped shut and the Astropath seemed lost…

Sarvus and Caine had no better fortune shepherding Bastille to his command bridge. The Eldar Autarch that had plagued them earlier was proving a nimble opponent, using his teleportation field to nimbly dodge around the confined transport car, and his powerful blster slowly whittled away at the Seneschal and Arch-Militant. Though both could have triumphed if they thought only for themselves, neither shirked their duty of protecting the Lord-Admiral, and absorbed blow after blow from the Eldar, even as it sang a mocking chant at them in Low Gothic.

The Lord Admiral calmly used his command codes to override safety proceduers on the transport car, and accelerated its speed past recommended safety limits. Meanwhile at Sarvus’s suggestion, he and Caine turned their shots to the floor and walls of the car to destroy them, and reduce the area where the elusive Eldar could safely transport himself. Just before reaching the bridge, the Eldar did appear to lose his will to fight and teleported out of the car, but not without one final riddle posed to the occupants:

Just one, I’m a few, no family too. Who am I?

Puzzled, brusied, but intact, Bastille reaches the bridge shortly before his fleet managed to crush the Sheed Cruiser that was jamming in-system transmissions. The Astropaths themselves reported a great psychic upheaval that was making astropathic communication difficult, but Hos’s warnings from Farseer Anaris proved essential in preventing confusion, and the fleet did seem to be rallying. However, communciations now came in from both the Hossian and Winterscalar fleets, who had each been informed that their Rogue Trader was betrayed and killed and on the way to seek retribution.

Arriving at the Bridge, Hos managed to talk down his fleet, but Bastille’s crew reported that Calligos Winterscale was nowhere to be found. He was last reported vanishing into a cloud of light with no trace of his presence after the fact. Though Warp Spiders were feared, Bastille ruled that out mostly out of necessity because if Winterscale was dead the war might be inevitable. Combined with Hos’s and Sarvus’s logic, they deduced the other possibility: If Fel is alive as they suspected, then perhaps the Fel Hand was responsible for the disappearance – and indeed scans revealed its teleportarium was currently active. Unfortunately the jamming extended to being unable to ascertain if it was used during the fight, it was enough of a lead that Bastille left for the Colossus to coordinate his fleet, and left Hos in charge of the Versailles to investigate what happened to Winterscale.

Though Sarvus was tempted to just destroy the Fel Hand, the Dynasty decided to board it and try to locate what had happened. Taking one Astropath, the Honour Guard, Crusadesr and Death Bastards – the only regiments present aboard the Versailles – with them to search for the crew, they boarded to find it mostly abandoned. Approaching the Engineerium, as they went to the grand entry hall of the Mechanicus’s domain, the gravity of the floor beneath them suddenly greatly increased, pinning many to the ground. Hos managed to reach a control panel, but his efforts at hacking were completely stymied by the security system. With a void shield cutting off their escape, Caine and Sarvus turned their attention to the floor. Destroying the plating, they found odd devices underneath and began vaporizing as many as they could.

A scant minute later they had disabled most of the devices, but most of the assembled Crusaders, Death Bastards and Honour Guard were dead or disabled from damage sustained by the increased gravity. The survivors reached the area created by Sarvus and Caine, but less than a dozen could be viewed as in combat shape. They turned their weapons to the door, and began blasting it down. As they did so, a Vox turned on with a message from Lady Asche – Fel’s personal seneschal. She welcomed Jequin Hos to the end of his life, and that this would be the end of his adventures…

With the apparently imminent bio-chemical attack thwarted on Svard, the feeling of an invasion by the forces of Calligos Winterscale seemed ever closer, but the mood of the defenders was almost fanatical in wake of these recent successes. It was perhaps that and only that which allowed Captain Hos to take the In Purgatio Lumen out for sake of a “feeling”, and require the rest of his forces to remain behind. Taking only the members of the crew he fully trusted – even excluding his new completely trusted ally – he set a course out into space, making minor corrections seemingly at random guided only by his feelings. Although normally navigating via feelings is a recipe for insanity, the crew had enough faith in their Rogue Trader to not outwardly question it.

Astropath Eckhart joined in with these bizarre navigation directions in time, and eventually their faith was rewarded by arriving at a heavily damaged Whisper of Anaris, and the confirmation that Farseer Anaris had been sending a psychic distress signal to those whose minds he had previously touched. As the Dynasty wondered what could have attacked him, the Stryxis convoy they had previously dealt with appeared in realspace as if from nowhere, and resumed its attack on the Eldar Cruiser. Though Anaris had asked for help, a conclave was very quickly convened to decide if the Eldar was worth the help, or if he should be abandoned to his fate.

After debate, although it was felt that in general, his advice had not been particularly helpful and that there were a lot of questions around his origin, the Stryxis themselves had proven to be unreliable and clearly working for their own agenda. The choice was not so much as to whether they should side with the Stryxis, but whether they should help Anaris or finish off the wounded survivor, and ultimately the decision was made to help the Eldar. The battle itself was short: The Hos Dynasty fired a massive salvo, as Eckhart used his psychic might to burn the Stryxis convoy to ash. The Stryxis for their part fired an impressive, but less devastating salvo that seemed infused with warp-witchrcaft to penetrate the shields of the Lumen as if they were nothing, but ultimately could not stand up to the combined firepower of both cruisers, and disappeared as suddenly as it had arrived – but not before detonating the Xenos scanner they had previously given to the Dynasty, and causing moderate structural damage to the Hull of the Lumen.

Anaris thanked the captain for his intervention, but the damage to his Cruiser was severe enough that he felt that he had to withdraw for repairs, and warned the group that Winterscale would be arriving within days. Angry almost beyond words at the Eldar’s withdrawal, they nonetheless allowed the Farseer to leave, and took his dire prediction back to Svard and finalized preparations for battle. Less than a day after their arrival, long-range vox communciations came from the outer system condeming the Hos Dynasty as traitors and sinners, and that the retributive hand of Calligos Winterscale had arrived to strike them down. The fleet itself seemed uninterested in talking, merely broadcasting on as many frequencies as possible as some sort of propoganda-based attack.

The morale of the Svardic defenders held, and in close orbit around their homeworld, a siege was begun between the Hos and Winterscale forces. Continuing to insist that they were innocent of their crimes, the protestations of the Hos Dynasty were rejected by Winterscale’s lieutenant – Angelus Fabrizio. A former captain of Aspyce Chorda, he had been accepted into Winterscale’s council at the insistence of Hadarak Fel, and the captain had taken the death of the Rogue Trader extremely hard. He challenged the captain to a duel to avenge Fel’s death, which Hos rather gleefully accepted in order to further weaken the Winterscale forces.

Fabrizio did as he said and came down to duel with Hos, although not without bringing a small force of servitors, servo-skulls and adepts to record the duel so that all could see the perfidy of the Rogue Trader. Though Sarvus did his best to block out the transmission and stall for time, Fabrizio would not be deterred and demanded his combat now. Lightly armoured, and with no weapon but a chainsword and bolt pistol, his challenge was taken up by Jian Veng who set the terms of unarmed combat to unconsciousness. The fight between the pair was swift, and the Missionary found himself matched against an opponent even more skilled than himself, who managed to knock out the preacher without taking a blow himself.

With Sarvus still unable to block the transmission, Hos was reluctant to accept Fabrizio’s challenge, but equally unwilling to allow the Captain to leave his airspace. Since he couldn’t claim an accidental death by provocation, he finally agreed to another fight – but with full arms and armour this time. Fabrizio agreed, and donning a Carapace suit, Chain Sword and Bolt pistol, squared off against the Rogue Trader in full power armour, armed with a half-dozen weapons and his liberated force field from the Logician he had earlier slain. Despite this, Fabrizio again dominated the fight, and only the force field prevented the Rogue Trader from a handful of almost-certainly fatal blows. Ironically, when Eckhart reached out to him telepathically to ask if the Rogue TRader wished for some psychic intervention, that caused the force field to finally overload, and allow Fabrizio to knock down the Rogue Trader and ready a killing blow.

Impulsively, Eckhart reacted and blocked out the senses of Fabrizio, leaving him blind to the world and forced into an almost helpless position. Screaming at the psychic treachery and proof of the lack of honour in the Hos Dynasty, Fabrizio triggered a device that – as discovered later, irradiated the Rogue Trader almost fatally and left them both weakened in combat. Nonetheless, the loss of his visual acuity allowed Captain Hos to regain his footing, and strike down Fabrizio in battle. Though he had hoped to take the Captain alive, a power fist sadly has few “non-lethal” settings, and the body burst into flames, destroying almost everything present.

Though the duel had ended, it was only a matter of pride and Winterscale in orbit laconically insisted that nothing had changed. Pledging to starve the Hos Dynasty out rather than engage in open warfare. With the bulk of his forces now gathered, and Winterscale promising that those loyal to him would bleed the Dynasty dry while they were trapped, options seemed slim. Salvation arrived in the form of Lord-Admiral Bastille VII, who had arrived in answer to the Dynasty’s claims that the Xenos were working behind the scene to encouarge this war. Though Bastille swore he would not fight against any Imperial forces, he did propose a mediated talk to encourage both sides to calm down, and allow for dialogue to allow the truth to come out.

With the threat now on their proverbial atmospheric threshold, and their fleet unable to move without costing them their base of operations, a conference aboard the Bastillian vessel Versailles seemed the last, best hope if not for peace, then for avoiding mutual destruction…

The death of Maturinus Pazzano was a heavy loss for the Hos Dynasty, not the least of which was the friendship that existed between himself and the other members. From a tactical standpoint however, the inability to rely on Maturinus’s legendary Navigational ability greatly hampered the Hos Dynasty’s ability to coordinate a defense response across their burgeoning region of space. The famed speed of the In Purgatio Lumen had been augmented in no small part due to Maturinus’s ability to reduce travel time in realspaec and the Warp, and with his loss the decision was made for the time being to wait in Svard for the forces of Winterscale to arrive, rather than risk venturing out and being caught away from their world when the war came.

The first person to make systemfall however was a frigate belonging to Winterscale’s Forces, but one that claimed to have defected from the Rogue Trader’s retinue. Led by a charismatic missionary named Jian Veng, he told of how Winterscale’s ambitions to claim the Heathen Worlds – and Vaporious in particular – was viewed to be an unholy perversion of the Ministorum’s sarced duties. Tales of strife, of the careless loss of entire villages or even cities that were ground under the heels of the Winterscale armies without offering a chance of salvation were told, and Jequin Hos immediately recognised the enormous propoganda potential that this defection offered him.

The next being to enter the system was Farseer Anaris, who had explained his absence by recognising the arrival of the Stryxis, and warned the Hos Dynasty that any further collaboration for them would only doom all involved. Hiding the bargain struck between them, Captain Hos requested a glimpse into the future again to try and determine why the forces of the Svardic Space Defense Fleet appeared to turn against him in the critical moment of the battle. Refusing to believe that his forces could be that disloyal or that infiltration had occured at that scale, his faith was rewarded by a vision showing a great disaster befalling Svard, and that his forces turned on the Hos Dynasty under urging that this was the only way their people could be saved. His vision even identified the source of the disaster – some sort of weapon of mass destruction detonated outside of the main Hive of Svard, which would no doubt carry death and destruction inwards.

Utilizing the Missionary’s allied forces as a joint operation with the Svardic PDF in order to judge their combat effectiveness and sweep the area, an expedition was set out to the region identified by the Rogue Trader’s vision. The first and largest target in the general area was an abandoned outpost city of Svard, once greatly populated in better times. Housed by outcasts and fringe survivors, the traps and defenses were formidable, but ultimately could not stand against the forces of the Dynasty. Sarvus and Caine utilized their physical might to overcome most obstacles, and Astropath Eckhart interrogated the few survivors to see if any of them knew of some sort of widescale terrorist plot. Though he learned much of the people who cared about whether or not Hos had sworn his oath of office aboard a Naval Svardic Flag or not, there was no indication that a widespread terrorist plot had been carried out here.

The next major landmark in the area was the palatial family estate of Lilia Kusinen, a devout political enemy of Jequin Hos, and one the Dynasty took great relish in entering and subjecting to a close examination. Though his people tried to deflect the Dynasty’s curiosity quite adroitly, a thorough enough search was done here to also find any sort of infilitration at this area unlikely. With growing urgency, Hos moved to a central Mechanicus listening post to try and review its records for the last year to pinpoint anything unusual, while the rest of the Dynasty searched the surrounding area. It took many weeks of investigation, but finally the hyper-enhanced senses of Arch-Militant Caine did indeed find a cloaked building in the wastes of Svard, and a confirmation of that area by Jequin Hos did indeed detect some suspicious seismic activity in tha tarea – on the same day as the arrival of Hadarak Fel inside the Svard system no less.

Convinced they had their culprit, the Dynasty made with all haste to that area, and coordinating with a drop-pod assault by Jian’s forces, the battle began. The facility clearly abandoned all attempt at subtlty, and battle servitors as well as automatic defensive weapons opened up on the invading army. With the bulk of his forces not committed to the fight in order to preserve the element of surprise, it was a close fight to breach the walls of the facility incurring many casualties among Jian’s forces and the accompanying troops. Nonetheless, Eckhart, Sarvus and Hos all managed to breach the facility from the front, while Jian led a cadre of his forces from the rear in a flanking action. Arch-Militant Caine would also eventually make it inside, but not before absorbing several expertly-placed Krak rockets which his mighty forcefield managed to deflect.

Inside the facility, the Dynasty members found an extremely advanced Mechanicus shrine, at least to the eyes of Sarvus and Eckhart. Captain Hos however realised that they were in the presence of the heretical Logicians, the beings that had almost overthrown the Ixaniad sector and whose names were of the most traitorous to the Adeptus Mechanicus outside of their forces that had fallen to Chaos. Desiring a chance to further prove his worth to the Mechanicus they made to breach the Shrine itself, but were met in combat by a single Logician who proved a match for the combined forces of all three cobmatants. Eckhart in particular attempted to level his psychich might against the target, only to find that it appeared to have no mind nor soul to its sentience, yet also was clearly no untouchable. The battle only turned when Caine led a small contingent of Dynasty troops into the Shrine, and the Logician then attempted an escape. Desperate to prevent it, Sarvus managed to finally grab the thing while it was leaving and battered it against a wall until it finally shut down.

Meanwhile, Jian had made it inside and to a different area of the facility where he witnessed an Astropath and some sort of minder loading an unknown device on board a landskimmer, assisted by Servitors. Leading his men in a charge, they engaged the mindless robots while he charged in at the pair of living humans. Cursing their name, the female warrior proved an ample bodyguard for a time, engaging and wounding Jian severely until his wrath overpowered her and she dropped down. The Astropath reached out to Jian in an overture of friendship, but was rebuffed by the Missionary who suspected treachery, and quickly dispatched him as well.

The Astropath and his Warden were indeed captured alive, though the Logician appeared to be inert – and upon autopsy without any sort of living brain inside of him at all. The male proved a more than sufficient opponent for Astropath Eckhart, and their duel of mind scanning would be the stuff of ages if anyone were allowed near instead of forced to keep their distance due to the warp disturbances. Ultimately he triumphed however, and the Astropath yielded his secrets: He was a true member of the Astra Telepathica along with his Psylakis Warden, sent as a remote communication device by Winterscale initially to report on the Hos Dynasty and prepare the planet for its inevitable “sale”. They had known of the war, and continued to report back on what they gleamed from civilians via mind scanning, but were unaware of any terrorist plot. They did believe the Logician to be a Magos of the Adeptus Mechanicus, who had kept her orders to herself.

Though the pair were spies, they were also clearly members of the Adeptus Telepathica, and unwilling to risk incurring the wrath of another governing Psychic body of the Imperium, the Dynasty decided to ship them back to Port Wander with a sternly worded diplomatic note. The body of the Logician, once drained of fluid and the Captain reasonable sure it was inert, would also be sent for Felicis to study and report back as to if this heretical sect had again raised its head. The “bomb” they had recovered was of a supremely advanced technology, and Sarvus estimated that it was some sort of highly radioactive agent, though without detonating it he couldn’t be completely certain.

With the possibility of a new superweapon in their hands, and a major threat to their security disarmed, the Dynasty at last felt that they were on strong enough footing to be ready to face Winterscale. A resolve that would serve them well, for the time of War would be sooner than any of them foresaw…

The mood around Svard, and throughout the Hos Dynasty territories in general, was one of jubilation. With the forces of the Blood God fought off, the general consensus was that the looming war with Calligos Winterscale could pose no greater threat, and their territories would surely be secure. Though the mood of the Inner Council was less than thankful, they all recognised the potential that a good victory celebration could have, and encouraged this belief at all costs. Of course the true purpose of this celebratino was a cover for what they all immediately zeroed in on – the possibility of salvaging the remnants of the Chaos Fleet.

Most of the invading Khornish vessels had fought to the last, detonating their own warp cores in a last attempt to damage as much of the defenders as possible. Those vessels that survived were either hulked or non-space worthy, but three were identified as possible for salvage, among them the flagship that the Dynasty had fought so hard to maintain. Unfortunately even these three were heavily battle-scarred, and there was little chance that they would be in full fighting shape prior to the arrival of Winterscale’s forces. Astropath Eckhart encouraged the conversion of the three vessels into fire ships as a suicidal option, but Captain Hos instead remembered that there may be another race interested in acquiring ships only suitable for carrying large populations – the Stryxis.

Utilizing the bizarre communication device last given to him by the Stryxis a call was put out for these bizarre Xenos to show up for wares peddling, but the next to arrive in system was in fact a battleship of the Navis Nobilite, that was answering charges of the kidnapping of Navigators by the Hos Dynasty. It didn’t take long to realise that they were referring to the four Navigators taken from Maleziel, but the Nobilite denied receiving the Astropathic messages informing them of this capture, and wished to be taken at once to Damaris in order to verify their life signs. The ambassador of the Nobilite that spoke to them was a woman bearing the marking of House Pazzanno, one of Maturinus’s senior kinsmen, and she assured the Captain that she had every confidence in his innocence, and this could be wrapped up in no time at all.

Taking the Nobilite vessel to Damaris as they were assured of its speed, Navigator Maturinus was secreted to another part of the vessel reserved for true Navigators, while Hos, Eckhart and Sarvus went to luxury quarters that were elaborate, but clearly marked as for dignitaries. Arch-Militant Caine remained behind to perform security sweeps at Svard, and to promote his debut as a pulp novelist. The trip was uneventful, though the Dynasty was bothered by how Maturinus had been kept from them.

Arriving at Damaris, the Dynasty went to the surface along with Navigatrix Pazzanno to interview the rescued Navigators and return them formally to the Imperial fold. The planet well received him, though celebrations were to be deferred until the mission was complete. Maturinus was to meet them on the planet, but appeared delayed and did not join them immediately. As the Dynasty strode out to the starport to meet their Navigator, he descended from the shuttle and jerked backwards in a spray of blood. Rushing forward, Captain Hos attempted to perform medical aid to find that the wound was too precise – the Navigator was dead.

A second shot rang out and Eckhart sprinted to use his psychic powers to defend the Captain, while Sarvus’s enhanced sight picked out the sniper and began sprinting towards him, keeping him fixed in his vision. The sniper, realising his cover was blown, made to escape but once freed of covering fire, Eckhart and Hos both took private vehicles in pursuit of the killer. The assassin was picked up by contemporaries, but Eckhart’s training with the Death Bastards had left him a superior pilot, and coupled with the heavy fire provided by their own personal arms, and the coordination of a Damaris response, the group were brought down.

A coordinated response to hunt down the assassin cell was conducted with ruthless efficiency, and Eckhart was forefront at the violence capturing and mentally tearing at the minds of the rogue cell, but they seemed to have no greater tie to Winterscale. They were just a random group of angry citizens who conspired to embarass and attempt to free Damaris from Hos control. During the purge, the four rescued Navigators did indeed have their story confirmed, and though the Pazzano family was horrified by the death of one of their own, absolved the Hos Dynasty of responsibility.

The Navigators made to leave for proper Imperial space, ignoring the Captain’s request for them to remain while this was investigated. Desperate for more time, he begged of them transport back to Svard, which was reluctantly granted. The brief journey aboard the Battleship saw petitions, diplomatic harranging and formal requests from the Rogue Trader, all of which were shut down by the Navis Nobilite. Though suspicious, there was truly nothing he could do and with a heavy heart, they were returned to Svard and the Navigators left to bear Maturinus’s body back to his family. The celebratory mood was greatly diminished in Svard, and thoughts turned towards defense with a more somber air.

The intervening time did allow the Stryxis to make it to Svard, though the negotiations went much less smoothly this time. Whether they were less interested in the Chaos vessels or simply had no desire for them, trading proved much more difficult. The enigmatic Xenos of course refused to explain themselves without an exchange of information, and they finally accepted one of the smaller Chaos vessels in order to expound on how they had achieved “all they were after” for awhile, and had no desire for exchange of that nature. However, if the Dynasty was willing to help them track down a component long ago traded – to a man named Erasmus Haarlock – they would be welcome to salvage the vessel that still integrated their engine.

Accepting the bargain with the Stryxis, a strange cogitator that could be used to both signal the Stryxis and to track down the vessel of Haarlock – The Spear of Destiny – was given. Despite the potential of tracking down the legendary lost vessel of the Haarlock line, the loss of their companion and the looming war dampened the spirits of all involved, and the Dynasty wished for Winterscale to make his appearance so that they could properly vent their feelings.

And a galaxy away, having successfully faked his death, Navigator Maturinus was debriefed by Lady Sun Lee for another mission that could have dire implications for the entire Koronus Expanse…