# Ghost in the Twilight (Action Thread)



## Doelago (Nov 29, 2009)

Kerox Valorus could see the Thunderhawk gunship arcing slowly towards the hangar port. The ship was still far away, but Kerox augmented eye could clearly see that the ship belonged to none other than the Blood Angels. At his side stood the archmagos Severus Reetheus, along with a Techpriest and a squad of Tech Guard soldiers. The archmagos could have been mistaken for some ancient servitor, though a well maintained one. The man, if it could be called a man, had no visible organic material on his body, and appeared as being entirely mechanical, something wish felt odd to Kerox. “How can someone live a life like that?” he thought for himself. 
The techpriest was a robed figure, but the parts of him not covered by robes were entirely mechanical. The Tech Guard, also known as the Skitarii, were equipped like the men of the Imperial Guard, but unlike the soldiers of the Imperial Guard, the Skitarii had received Emotional surgery, and several of them bionic eyes or limbs. Their weapons resembled Lasguns, but heavily modified versions of them. “Experimental Weapons?” Kerox thought.

Suddenly a voice boomed out from nowhere. “Incoming landing craft on the way. Clear hangar port nine.” 

Kerox stopped thinking about the Mechanius, and concentrated on the ship that flew into the hangar. Now that it was close he could clearly see the markings of the Blood Angels chapter on the hull of the ship. The ship lowered its landing gear and touched down. There was a moment of silence, before the ramp at the front of the Gunship dropped down. Out from the darkness walked three figures. 
The first one was clad in a suit of Tactical Dreadnought armour. The primary colour of the armour was blue, but the shoulder pads and some other small details were covered in red. “A Librarian?” Kerox thought. He had met Astartes before, but he had never met a Librarian. 

Behind the Librarian walked two other Terminators in blood red armour. 

Kerox walked up to the Librarian, and welcomed him. “I welcome you, along with your retinue, aboard the “Vengeful Spirit”. I hope your trip went well. But I believe we will have to skip the other formalities. I ask you to please follow me.” He turned around and looked at the archmagos. “I ask you to please follow us as well.” The archmagos nodded, spoke some machine code and begun walking, flanked by two of the Skitarii and the techpriest.

“It seems like our Archmagos does not trust me.” Kerox told the Librarian. The Librarian smiled, turned to his brethren and said, “Brethren, pray for Sanguinus blessing, and prepare yourselves, both mentally and physically.”



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Decado Lyanor: After having given orders to your brother marines, you start following the Inquisitor. As you follow him you are taken through a pair of doors, easily large enough to fit a Warhound Titan. You enter a large hallway, filled with statues. As you look at them you can see that some of them are clad in power armour, just like Astartes, while others look like navy officers. You keep walking down the hallways until you reach a second door, but this time it is a smaller one. As you walk through it you enter a small room with a holo-table in the middle. The Inquisitor walks up to it and presses a button. The table flares to life, and projects an image. 

Kerox turns towards you and says,“That, brother Librarian, is the “Ghost in the Twilight”. A Space Hulk is nothing new to you, is it not? I have read your records. You took part in the boarding action aboard the “Sin of Damnation”. Could you tell me about it?”

(Well, I guess you figured out something you could do…)



Severus Reetheus and Otaku: You follow the the Inquisitor and the Space Marine, but you prefer to keep your distance. None of you two likes being under the command of the Inquisitor, so you might want to talk about the matter at hand. As you enter the strategic command room, you seat your self close to the door, with the two Skitarii standing behind you. 

(Not much for you to do, talk to each other or something, or just listen to the Librarian…)


Brother Arthur kael and Nerovar Exellion: The Librarian wanted you to prepare yourself for the coming challenge, so you might do it, any way you like. 

(Will you go to the cathedral and pray to Sanguinus, or do you have some other ideas, such as visiting the armory and blessing your weapons? The choice is yours, and you are free to do whatever you like…)

Jacen Ilrik, Lawrence Renault, Katie Dent: You are all in the mess hall. You have been eating for some time now, and are mainly bragging about your past to each other. 

(Will you keep talking with the others or will you go and find yourself something else to do?) 

Gaius Curio and Lauren Renault: You are both at the firing range, competing with other about who is the more accurate. Currently Gaius has hit a target at a longer range, so will you, Lauren, be able to beat it?

(Lauren, you are under high pressure now. Gaius has hit a target at 80m, and now it is your turn. You know that he did it on pure luck, but will you be able to do the same? Gaius, feel free to make it as hard for him as possible…) 




(Sorry for those of you who dont get all that much to do... I left the options as open as possible for you, but I am mainly focusing on the main plot, so at this stage there aint all that much for you all... Sorry... It will turn to a better direction... )


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## Samu3 (Sep 19, 2010)

*Episode 1*

Hanger port nine was an enormous place filled with the hustle and bustle of the ship’s crew as they prepared to receive their latest guests. It was quite cold and it was showing on the workers as many of them seemed to be dawdling behind time trying to warm themselves by the heat shafts which prevented the hanger for going below freezer level. It was at times like this that Severus Reetheus truly appreciated his mechanical body, the cold clung to him and stole the heat away from his armored exterior but the organic sensors that the workers possessed had been removed from his being long ago and now the temperature of the hanger bay was just another statistic to be recorded and filled amongst a whole other sea of Information. 

The Thunder hawk gunship was on approach now and the crew of _‘Vengeful Spirit’ _doubled their efforts to be ready in time. Meanwhile Severus and his retinue remained as they were, Otaku the junior Techpriest stood at his side and a dozen Skitarii loyal to Severus stood behind them. The Skitarii are often widely different in appearance between their Archmagos masters, each unit personally customized in a way that reflects the one whom they serve. Severus however was far too busy to bother with any sort of intricate design and his personal unit was merely a group of red robed guard with augmented features and emotional surgery. They stood to attention in an orderly line to show a degree of respect to the ones whom they are about to greet. 

The klaxons boomed at the oncoming vessel as its presence was announced over hanger bay nines speakers, _“Incoming landing craft on the way clear hanger bay nine”. _Heeding the words of their fellow crew member the workers of hanger bay nine begun the slow process of retreating from the hanger in time. Outside the hanger bay doors the Thunder Hawk gunship was arching around in preparation to set down onto the vast amount of space that the hanger provided. Gradually slowing to meet the docking shields it passed in through the hanger bay doors and the soft shrill of its landing gear could be heard as the pressure inside the vessel was released and it was lowered to the cold metal surface of the hanger bay pad. 

Silence followed, it hung in the air like an unwanted visitor but it was accompanied by anticipation and that made the wait all the more unbearable. Finally the ramp from the Thunder Hawk gunship descended to the ground below and the figures of their new arrivals loomed in the doorway. They were armor clad giants and proved to be an imposing sight as they marched down that ramp towards the Inquisitor in front of him. Severus would leave the formalities to his host it was after all Kerox’s ship as far as Severus could tell, but the agents of the Emperors Ordo’s are always figures clouded in mystery and one could never truly ‘tell’. 

The Inquisitor broke away from the group and paced himself to the warriors before them. Astrates the Emperors finest, such was their dedication that they had sent Terminators and one of them was a Liberation as well. It made Severus uneasy but he did not show it; these were elite soldiers so they must be expecting trouble if this is who they send. It was not long before Inquisitor Kerox greeted the Space marines.

_“I welcome you, along with your retinue, aboard the ‘Vengeful Spirit’. I hope your trip went well but I believe we will have to skip the other formalities, I ask _
_you to please follow me”_

Turning to address Severus the Inquisitor repeated himself 

_“I ask you to please follow us as well”_

Turning to make his way out of the hanger the inquisitor began his long journey into the schematics of the ship, the space marines following behind him. Quickly Severus gave a few lines of machine code to his brethren to indicate his instructions to the others.

_“One and Two follow Otaku and me, the rest of you may retire to your quarters”_

With that he left to pursue the Inquisitor Kerox and the space marine retinue.
They entered a large hallway with a roof so high that it could easily house a warlord class titan. Along the sides of the hall was a seeming endless and perfectly placed line of statues, each one representing some ago old hero or former ship master perhaps? Severus’s servo skull hovered over his shoulder making an effort to capture the image of each and every statue, he made it a note to study those captions later. After a long walk down the hall they reached yet another door this time leading them into their destination. 

It was a small room, one which sacrificed the grandeur of its predecessor for many much more useful items. Banks of machines took up much of the space provided in the room and in the centre rested a large Holo-table. Once Severus had found a comfortable position at the back of room near the door and the Liberian seemed contempt with where he was seated the Inquistor moved on pushing one of the numerous buttons on the Holo-table.
Turning to face the Liberian once more Kerox begun to speak 

_“That Brother Liberian is the ‘Ghost in the Twilight’, a space hulk is nothing new to you, is it not? I have read your records you took part in the boarding action aboard the ‘Sin of Damnation’ could you tell me about it?” _


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## Arkeoptrix (Oct 8, 2010)

Lawrence gestured with his hands as if that would help convey the rest of his story as he chewed. He took his time in trying to swallow another mouthful of lumpy brown sludge that constituted his meal. He would admit that it was better than the beige sludge he had eaten earlier in the day, but that was where the credit would end. Hoping that the others were hanging on his every word, even through his gorging, Lawrence decided to finish the story.

He continued his tale, "So the ork goes headfirst into the latrine we dug just the day before and Commissar Evans can't help but laugh halfway through his speech. Seriously, he tries so hard to keep composure but people start hearing him busting up over the vox. It get's so bad the Chaplain has to take over. So we decide if it get's old stone-face Evans laughing why not keep it up? I take the guys in my squad and we charge out of the trench line, while the Ork is still trying to clean up, we sneak up behind him and push him back in. Well that really gets Evans going, he's trying to bark orders while holding his gut from bursting he's laughing so hard. He can't even finish a word. People start hearing him down the line and wondering what the hell's going on. The Colonel runs over and he's thinking something's wrong, Evans points just as a second charging Ork trips over the first one and he goes headfirst into the Latrine too. Now we got the Colonel as well as the Commissar cracking up!"

Lawrence clapped his hand down on the table, finding it hard to stop from chuckling at the memory. The silverware rattled with the force of his impact and the sound echoed around the mess hall. His mouth hung open exposing the semi-chewed foodstuff as he tried to take a breath between guffaws.


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## Hellados (Sep 16, 2009)

As Lauren took aim Gaius couldn't help himself, in the biggest voice he could get away with; 
'look right! it's a perfectly suitable modification. I traded the sight with one of those rat like short half people! Also no one seemed to notice that i went without food for a week or two, that stuff i was eating that i traded from the other one for a battery pack for my Lasgun that I got from that dead guy who got it from somewhere was not too bad, i was only a little sick a few times!'

He knew, despite the sight fitted to his Lasgun, that Lauren was a very very very good shot, almost his equal, they had a lot riding on the third shot. If Lauren missed this as well he would be eating like a Commissar for a month, anything to get the edge.

Was it really luck that he hit the target? Could he hit it at 85meters? Was lauren right was it luck? No, no, no time for self doubt, self doubt becomes self fulfilling, he was Gaius Curio, he had survived many fights and spent days on the range, he was the best shot in the Guard that he knew.

Now he was just bored, waiting, cold, damn Bionics were getting sore, the modifications he had had done by that skittari were increasing his strength and of course they were helping him with his aim somehow but his right arm was feeling really heavy.


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## Bane_of_Kings (Oct 28, 2009)

The Librarian wanted to prepare Exellion for the upcoming challenge, so prepare Exellion would. In his bulky Terminator Armour, the First Company Veteran made his way forward down the halls of the _Vengeful Spirit_. For a moment, the Blood Angel noted that this ship shared the name of the arch-traitor Horus' flagship that he had piloted during the Horus Heresy long ago. 

But it did not matter. Arriving in the Cathedral on board the ship, The Terminator found the room to be empty. "Sanguinius, give me strength," he remarked through his helmet. "I fear no evil. I fear no death. For my Primarch, and my Emperor will protect me."


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## Marshal Ragnar (Sep 5, 2010)

_Breath, and squeeze. Breath, and squeeze. Breath, and squeeze. _ Thought was the thought that was running through Laurens mind as he was sighting down his Hellgun and the sight 80m away. He was already breathing slowly and steadily as he squeezed the trigger. With a load pssst, the hell gun went off. Standing up and pulling the charge pack out of his gun, Lauren turned to Gaius and said, "I think I got you!! But I gatta tell you, you are either very good, or very very lucky. I have never had any one shoot this well against me." As Lauren was talking to Gaius, he had pushed the button to bring the target up to the firing station. 

As the target got closer and closer Lauren began to get nervous. He knows he is good, but Gaius was really good to. And that last shot looked a little off. When the target got to him, Lauren started mumbling under his breath and held up the target for Gaius to see. A half-inch to the right of the bulls-eye was Laurens 80m shot! 

"looks like you got me this time man. Defeat tastes light sit though. Ive never lost a marksman challenge." He then pulled out a field pen from his uniform pocket and wrote, _'Loss number 1, given to the Titan by Gaius Curio. Enjoy it while it lasts_' and handed the target to gaius and said, "A trophy to remember your win. But, lets go see who does better in the boxing ring, huh? what do you say?!"


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## G0DSMACKED (Feb 12, 2010)

*Otaku*

Otaku was lost in a sea of machine voices and spiritual connections, communing with the logic engine of the Vengeful spirit through an up-link in the hangar bay, when he was suddenly startled by a booming voice "Incoming landing craft on the way. Clear hangar port nine.” 

This shook him from his peace, and he turned to see what was coming... He could see as it arrived the Thunderhawk Gunship's Machine spirit was represented by a Great Chimera, body and head of a lion with great eagle wings and the tail of a scorpion. Otaku couldn't wait to greet the new visitor... He was very curious and approached the craft almost before it was finished docking. He was just saying his hellos to the ship, when the door opened and not one but three tactical dreadnought armor suits walked out...... His green eye lit up bright, and scanned these three. He could see a Jackal, a Owl, and a Werewolf. He approached and was about to speak when the inquisitor spoke first, “I welcome you, along with your retinue, aboard the “Vengeful Spirit”. I hope your trip went well. But I believe we will have to skip the other formalities. I ask you to please follow me.” he then turned to Otaku and “I ask you to please follow us as well" and then the Archmagos spoke in code to his men, and Otaku, and we followed. 

The great hallway of the "vengeful spirit" was of little interest to Otaku, this place was small and confined compaired to how free his mind was inside the logic engine of this great vessel. He hurried behind the Marines in dreadnought armor. He cared little for their rank or ability, but he must persuade them...

He Began, " Excuse me." In a small voice at first, then speaking up. "S1r L1brarian Decad0 Lyan0r.... a w0rd s1r!" Then thinking better of it, he decided to fall back into line... he would wait for a better time...

loking to the ground, then up to the Archmagos, in machine code he says, "1 d0n't l1ke serv1ng under a 1nqu1s1t0r. They are too pass10nate ab0ut the emper0r, they take th1ngs t00 ser10usly. Y0u never kn0w if they are sett1ng y0u up to fa1l."

Otaku's Mind is quick like steam in a strong wind, but he is used to being with machines.... This arduous crawl down the long hallway seems to be taking forever. While mere minutes have past it feels like hours to Otaku. Finally the progression arrives at a small room with a holo table. The Inquisitor flicks it on, and Otaku is more than just curious, he immediately connects to the logic engine of Vengeful spirit, and begins exploring any known details of this "Ghost in the Twilight" as well as an analysis of its construction from the holo image.


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## Serpion5 (Mar 19, 2010)

*Jacen Ilrik*

Jacen tried to listen intently to Lawrence`s story about an ork in a latrine or something, but far from being amused by the absurd tale, but in truth, the smile on his lips was not from his fellow stormtrooper`s supposed antics, but rather of the pleasant view Jacen had, one that Lawrence and Katie were utterly oblivious of. 

One of the ship`s crewpeople, an attractive young woman who looked to be barely in her twenties (but who was hopefully younger) sat several tables away. For reasons Jacen could only guess at, she was alone, and a beautiful girl alone was like a screaming beacon to a guy like Jacen. Granted, he was not exactly a seedy type (by his standards at least) but what red blooded male wouldn`t jump at the oppurtunity to at least get to know a gorgeous girl like this? 

'Well, Lawrence, that was an amazing tale.' Jacen said, rising to his feet. 'It was great to hear, although I do think that you`re full of crap.' He smiled at his squadmate`s stunned expression for a moment before continuing; 'And now, I have in important matter to attend to, if you`ll excuse me.' 

He sent them both a wink and a grin before sidling off to sit beside the young woman. 

He announced himself to her with a tough sounding soldierly grunt, making sure that the sergeant stripes on his uniform jacket were clearly visible. 

'So.' He began with a grin. 'How`s your day been?'


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## Lord Ramo (Apr 12, 2009)

Katie sat there playing with the food in front of her, barely listening to Lawrence. She was bored to tell the truth, it wasn't Lawrence but she wanted too see some action. There was only so much training that one could do before getting back into the heat of things. She was sat opposite Lawrence which is probably why she was staring down at her food, the man liked to talk while there was food in the mouth. She picked up some slop with her spoon half-heartedly before dropping it back to the plate.

*"You think the Inquisition would get some decent food, being the elite of the Imperium."* She said as she pushed her food away. She just caught the end of Lawrence's joke, giving him an encouraging smile. She might as well pretend that she was listening then not. Jacen got up and moved towards a girl sitting by herself, typical of their Sergeant wasn't it? Katie got up looking at Lawrence,* "I am going to go do some weapon drills, ignore Jacen, I am sure that your story is true."* She smiled before walking off, trying to help Lawrence confidence.

She moved through the ship quickly heading towards the barracks. She would make sure her gun was in perfect condition, you never knew when you would have to rely on the meltagun.


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## Captain Stillios (Mar 8, 2009)

Decado marched down the front landing ramp in front of his brothers, he swept his eyes over the hanger searching faces and minds respectivly, the Inquisitor's he found was protected as per usual for a member of the Inquisition, the Magos's mind was a flurry of binery which Decado could not make sense of, the Tech-Guard however were different for whereas their charge's mind was a rolling sea of confusing information they had smooth, dry and flat plains akin to the deserts of Baal with no thought other then the protection of the Priest. The Priest's mind was akin to the Magos's and so Decado only briefly passed over him.

Inquistitor Kerox walked up to him and welcomed him. “I welcome you, along with your retinue, aboard the “Vengeful Spirit”, I hope your trip went well, but I believe we will have to skip the other formalities. I ask you to please follow me.” He turned around and looked at the archmagos. “I ask you to please follow us as well.” The archmagos nodded, spoke some machine code to his retinue, flanked by two of the Skitarii and the techpriest he set off after Decado and Kerox. Decado turned to his brothers and said “Brothers, pray for Sanguinus blessing, and prepare yourselves, both mentally and physically.” As they entered a huge chamber Decado observed statues of what he assumed to be past commanders of this vessel, among them he noted were Astartes of several chapters, there were Novamarine, Salamanders, Bone Dragons, Space Sharks and even what he thought looked like a Blood Angel resplendent in Mark III plate. As they walked the Tech-Priest spoke up but quickly broke off after perhaps thinking better of it however Decado still turned and stared for a long time at the Priest along with a slight psychic nudge to make him uncomfortable.

“That, brother Librarian, is the “Ghost in the Twilight”. A Space Hulk is nothing new to you, is it not? I have read your records. You took part in the boarding action aboard the “Sin of Damnation”. Could you tell me about it?” Kerox asked

Decado glanced up, and spoke quietly "I was attached to Squad Gambo, a squad consisting of ten brothers including two assault cannons plus myself, for the duration, we were the first aboard adn established a beach head for our brothers to land. Captain Raphael then tasked three squads, Gambo, Lorenzo and Mecro, with the destruction of the hulks escape pods, this we must also do to prevent the escape of our foes. That mission cost us two of my brothers but they died well in the service of the Emperor beloved by all." Decado cast his mind back remembering those lost and continued.

"Soon after we were simply asigned to hold the left flank of the beach head defence however this became more complicated when we discovered that not all of the Xenos on board were Genestealers, a dormat group of Tyranid warriors awoke and would have roused the rest of their foul brood had my brothers and I not been present. Although they had just woken they had almost twice as many warriors as we did to their credit and although we stopped them it was not without sacrifice" As he said this he pointed to the beginning of a roby scar just showing above the collar of his armour. 

"Sergeant Gambo was cut down before my eyes but his sacrifice gave us time to gun the rest down and recovered his body, we were then recalled to the Techmarine outpost to re-arm where we resided for the rest of the battle, that is untill we withdrew as we were tasked with holding the xenos at bay while the rest of our brothers retreated to safety. We succeeded mostly but just moments before we were clear one of the leader breed which Lorenzo had discovered appeared and sent three of my brothers to their dooms before confronting me, while I was badly injured I did manage to drive the thing off long enough for us to break off and reach safety. Going on what I know we should target a few key points once insdie, the engines, the escape pods and the control rooms as some few systems may still be in working order and if not I am sure our esteemed friends of the Adeptus Mechanicus can certainly salvage somthing" He nodded to the Magos as he said this and finally said.

"Also Magos you may want to discourage your Priest from doing what I think he is doing other wise all of the known information from thousands of star ships xenos and imperial will flood his brain and even if he survives Inquisitor Kerox here or myself will be forced to excecute him for being influenced by Xenos technology" He kept his tone civil but there was no mistaking the gravity of his words.


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## warsmith7752 (Sep 12, 2009)

Brother Arthur kael walked down the ramp of the thunderhawk into the landing bay behind librarian decado. The hanger was very textbook with not much except the bare necaserry. Arthur preferred simple things, it was his job to kill and that was one of the simplest things in his opinion.

“Brothers, pray for Sanguinus blessing, and prepare yourselves, both mentally and physically.”

"of course brother,"

Arthur decided that he would pray, there were not many foe that could best him but no one was immune to a mental breakdown. And especially those who live with death around every corner.

He made his way to the chapel, Arthur was never the strongest mentally so he took every opportunity to improve. He prayed that Sanguinis would look after his and his brethren souls. The chapel was simple, twelve rows of wooden pews, off White Walls, plate floors, a raised platform at the head of the room with an altar marked with the aquilla. Arthur liked it, simple yet fulfilling, everything he needed to be at home in his mind. There was one other in the room, a man in a plain grey uniform sat in the front row. He looked uneasy with himself and was rather restless. It was because of the massive armour wearing astares with two massive claws sitting patiently with a hungry look in his eye. Arthur thought it best to calm him down,

"I mean no harm human, I exist to protect people like you."

The man nodded and left the room.


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## Hellados (Sep 16, 2009)

'Ah yes a tempting thought, however i think we should head to the mess to get some grub with the others. beating you this thoroughly has built up an appetite. Lawrence was saying he had an amazing story about those Orks he was fighting he wanted me to hear.'

Besides i don’t wanna beat you twice in one day, i don't know if your ego could take it. 

Have you heard when we are heading out yet? I wanna put some of this skill to work.

Gaius quickly gathered up his stuff and made for the door kissing his gun on the way. He had no intention of getting his hands dirty, that was not where his skill set was. fighting this undoubtedly ferocious and rather annoyed trooper was not an idea he cherished

Also where on earth was that Tech Adept with his modified power packs, yeah he has range and accuracy but what is that without power.


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