The Recapture of the Space Station Dagger of Fate

Reconquest of the Station Dagger of Fate in the Grace Sector

Report By: Navigator Secundarium Maturinus of House Pazzano
Classification : pGhb6CJz-ZYMS-lDKV-pSb6-qSI71vORDjt7

Prelude

The In Purgatio Lumen was now the ‘flagship’ of the Hossian Battlefleet in the Grace sector, joined by the Orkish Frigate Da Ship Eata. After having the Orkish mercenaries pledge loyalty to Captain Hos (through the gifting of an Orkish psyker of some kind) it was decided by the Inner Council that we should head to the Space Station above Grace, known as the Dagger of Fate. The objections of First Officer Astropath Eckhart were noted, but it was decided that the entire point of this mission was to “regain the trust” of the Iron Hounds. In this is was believed that retaking the Space Station would leave the Hos Dynasty in a more favourable light. At this In Purgatio Lumen and the Orkish "vessel" moved towards Grace.

Choir Master Poe, and Lady of the Augurs Nichols recorded no known signals on our approach in the system, despite our loud and insistent broadcasting of the inspiring “Men of Hos” anthem. At least that was until we were very close to the Dagger of Fate. Messages were simultaneously received from the planet Grace and the station. Lord Hos first accept the transmission from the planet (see Recording Gamma-Epsilon-kH1LdKEMT4). It was a frantic and garbled message about needing rescue. Before it could be finished the signal was jammed by the Dagger of Fate. Answering the audio only from the Dagger of Fate we were introduced to Warboss Toofgutz (see Recording Gamma-Epsilon-3xzYIMVeLE). He was a very ‘high functioning’ Ork xenos specimen. Lord Hos found this intellectual Ork interesting and decided to take him up on his offer of meeting aboard the Dagger of Fate.

The senior crew consisting of myself, Lord Hos, Artifex Felicis, and Astropath Eckhart would depart for the Dagger of Fate. It was decided to be a wise idea to bring along representatives of the foul Orkish race, Barka Da and the so-called Captain Chaintusk. Scribe Kerris Xei-Li offered to come along for posterity, but was ultimately ordered to stay aboard the vessel by the Lord-Captain.

Positioning the In Purgatio Lumen in a position so that Da Ship Eata was between any broadside from the station. We headed via a gun cutter to the designated docking bay. Surprisingly the Station had not undergone the tradition of Orkish ‘craftsmen’ blasphemously ‘improving’ Imperial workmanship beyond what appeared to be a superficial remodelling of the external structure, and presumably some foul perversion of the botanical gardens into a birthing pit for their creatures.

Upon landing, Lord Hos failed to impress the hundreds of Ork troops who had gathered to greet us as we stepped of the gun cutter. It would appear that Barka Da was able to cow many of the Orks with an impressive display of strength (Hos was truly intelligent to bring along some ‘natives’ for this negotiation). The Orkish Psyker continued to show his prowess by headbutting two of our guides into unconsciousness and scaring another off, leaving us with enough to bring us to Warboss Toofgutz.

Toofgutz had made his headquarters at the bridge of the Dagger of Fate. It was at this point that I followed Lord Hos towards the colossus of a xenos known as Toofgutz. The Warboss made a remarkable, and unusual, idea for an exchange. For 10% of the crew of the In Purgatio Lumen he would grant the planet of Grace to Lord Hos. Never mind the legal issues of who the actual owner was, Hos was reminded via the Mind Link Service (established by Astropath Eckhart), that it would be bad form to give away crew to xenos. At this point I informed the Captain as well that I had not detected any warp interferece on Warboss ‘Toofgutz.’

At this point Lord Hos dramatically realized something. This wasn’t an Ork at all. In fact it seemed to be a ‘panzy’ to use an Orkish term, but better known to us as the Eldar. It the appeared that the jig was up, and it was as if the fury of a warp storm had broken loose inside the station.

The Battle

From the vaulted ceilings ventilation ducts Eldar dropped down and dispatched our Orkish guides with the exception of one particularly lucky Ork. As well a blast of light shot out of the giant Ork Warboss Toofgutz, hitting our glorious Captain. Although the Captain was on fire he was not out of the fight yet! Eldar also appeared out of the shadows to snipe at some of the Orkish guides.

What was later identified as an Eldar Wych dropped down in front of myself and Astropath Eckhart. She lashed out at him with both of her razor covered gauntlets, but Eckhart used his outstanding swordsmanship to catch both hands on the edge of his blades. What appeared to be a brief glimmer of shock appeared over the xenos’ face, but was soon turned into a grimace of pain, as I drew my Vandimir Hellpistol and shot the deadly xenos with all the fury my gun would muster. Two Hellpistol rounds connected, seriously injured her and perhaps even stunning her, though xenos physiology is indecypherable at the best of times. Astropath Eckhart took this opportunity to disengage from her and place himself between whatever ‘Toofgutz’ actually was and Lord Hos burning on the floor.

With the Wych stunned, “Captain Chaintusk” took advantage of this to show his powerful Orkish axe and rip the dainty Eldar from head to toe. Truly the Orkish race can be a mighty sight. I rue the day when we must come up against him, and hope he cannot do that same to me.

With the protection of Astropath Eckhart, Lord Hos was able to get himself up on one knee of his Golden Power Armour. He then gave the orders to hold fast and destroy whatever “Toofgutz” was.
It was at this point that something odd happened to the Ork Psyker. It seemed he was manifesting some sort of psychic power, as a bolt of lightning roared towards the Warboss at the center of the room. This blast passed through the image as all of our attacks had thus far, but this was not the end of his manifestation. Lighting seemed to arc from his eyes and ears. His Orkish head seemed to swell and then as he let out a scream, the lighting arced from his eyes and mouth onto a copper rod. Needless to say the copper rod melted and splintered in an explosion, leaving 5 melted pieces of it in Barka’s hand. The lightning then arced out towards whatever “Toofgutz” was, and with a soundless explosion 14 Orkish Squigs appeared. They then ravenously charged through "Toofgutz", revealing once and for all that his manifestation was some sort of hologram, as well as the very real dangers of Orkish psykers. I request that we take effort not to use their powers as they seem to have a hard time controlling them.

Needless to say at this point Artifex Felicis was attempting to move toward the cogitator pits to gain information for the Omnissiah. Unfortunately an Eldar would not let him leave, rolling over the back of an Orkish guide she confronted him. She had apparently not realized that one doesn’t confront or hinder agents of the Omnissiah. She was greeted with mechandrites waving a childish yet distracting pattern in her face, followed by a powerful and much more distracting Power Axe to the chest. Being fascinated by mechandrities is not conducive to living as she soon found out.

The newly summoned squigs were quickly swarming whatever was in the middle of the ‘Toofgutz’ projection. It was at that point the quick thinking Astropath manifested his own powerful psychic abilities, and deprived all senses to the creature in the center of the holographic mass. This, as one can imagine, only made things worse for the Eldar. And there were many squig attacks coming at him. So much so that he was simply consumed under the weight of a simple Orkish creature. Truly we should marvel at the hubris of the Eldar to believe that they could control the Orks for so long and think nothing bad could happen.

At this time, I turned to engage the last Eldar which was also being attack by Barka’s personal (non-summound) squig. I attempted to unleash the warp against this foul xenos. Unfortunately it did not work (yet again, I may force myself to learn to better control the warp. Perhaps the Navigator Primus has some pointers).

But as squigs are wont to do they devour. They devoured the Eldar in the projection, finally disabling the hologram and revealing the ruined body underneath. Barka’s squig caught the leg of the Wych it was in combat with, tearing off her leg and spraying blood everywhere.

After-Action

With the battle complete the remaining Eldar attempted to escape. They ran to there ship and moved off the station. We would pursue them, this would lead to the Battle at the Asteroid Field in Grace. But not before venting the entire station of the Orks and then pinning the blame on Captain Chaintusk, who bought into our deception and begged us not to reveal his mistake in exchange for his undying loyalty. Again.

There were no casualties on our side except for the fact that Lord Hos seems to have taken some light singing to his eyebrows from the fire, and is in need of some heavy medical attention.

Two Eldar were reduced to paste, and two other Eldar were confirmed killed. The remaining two “escaped.” Orkish casualties due to the venting of the station number in the hundred of thousands. My estimation is that approximately 345,000 Orks were killed.

Data logs on the Grace system were recovered. In addition as per our agreement with the Hands we were able to loot some Eldar weapons systems and some priceless works of art. In addition I believe that I have seen what I believe to be Benetek’s Device located in this treasure.

The most interesting piece though appears to be a stasis casket. It appears to hold a women resembling a member of the Chorda Household. This could be an interesting development we could use to weaken her power base.