# The Black Crow - Chapter 1



## Void_Dragon (Jun 11, 2009)

NOTE: Please read the Prologue before reading this chapter.
http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showthread.php?t=39247

Chapter 1
824.697.M41 (Nearly 4 years after the Prologue)

The pale, watery sun peeked up over the horizon, the strange gasses of the planet’s atmosphere, whilst not poisonous, turning the light from the sun a strange turquoise colour when it hit the atmosphere at that angle. Nitrogen was thin on this planet, she remembered. That was why it didn’t give the lush blue of her homeworld skies. She couldn’t explain why the colour changed so radically throughout the day though. Turquoise as the sun rose, going on to orange throughout the middle of the day, and finally back to turquoise shortly before sunset. It was beautiful, that she couldn’t deny. But it freaked her out.

And anyway, now was hardly the time to be thinking about that. The huge trees whipped past, their leaves still coated in tiny pearl droplets of rain water from the storm the night before. The air was unseasonably clear, after the muggy, cloying heat that had accompanied yesterday’s storm. It wouldn’t be long before the static charge built up again, and the huge, almost black clouds begun to gather across the rainforest. Trust a Natural Chaos Cult to perform their rituals during storm season. Trust the Inquisition to let them slip away, and have to send bounty hunters after them, with only days to spare until the ritual is complete.

Well she had shown them. Slipping in in the middle of the night, she had slit the throat of the cult leader. It hadn’t been part of the contract, but it had been necessary. At least, necessary in her eyes. After 6 days of tracking these Chaos worshipping pigs through the jungle, getting bitten, scratched and shit on by what felt like every creature out there, after getting through almost 20 de-tox stimms to keep her alive, when given the chance to kill the man to blame, it damn sure was necessary.

The Inquisitor wouldn’t care. She had what he sent her for. She was used to special requests on her bounty hunting trips, for she had no qualms about accepting the more lucrative, if less legal, bounties, that came from the big gangs, the rogues, the pirates, and sometimes even xenos. She had once been asked to bring back a man’s eyes in a portable stasis field. Another trip had seen her killing 6 renegade guardsmen, just for the recovery of a plastic card key. In fact, the bounties where you just had to drag a man kicking and screaming to the authorities quite bored her. So this request was nothing new to her. She could feel the weight of it in her kit bag, banging softly against her back as she sprinted through the forest. She had been told to be prepared for some serious opposition - the cult was well funded, and had access to some serious gear. What she hadn’t been expecting though, was being chased by cyber-hounds.

To her left, flitting in and out of view between the trees, was a river, no more than 30 meters across, but flowing fast. She knew she could lose the hounds if she dived in, but from the crashing, booming noises she could hear, there must be a waterfall nearby. She would be damned if she escaped the hounds, only to be dragged over the edge of a waterfall and smashed into a rock pool below. All the same, it gave her an idea. As she ran, she started to sidle left, out of the dense forest, towards the water. She could hear the sounds of the hounds whipping along behind her, slowly but surely gaining on her - she was an amazingly fast long distance runner, having competed in the Olympic games of her homeworld, earning a gold in a 20 kilometre sprint. But these creatures were made to hunt bigger game than her.

Suddenly, she burst through the trees, right onto the sludgy bank of the river. As expected, the flat ground stopped abruptly a few hundred meters in front of her, the river plunging over the edge. Also as expected, a number of large boulders could be seen, pushed to the edge of the cliff by the force of the river, but unable to take that last little nudge over the rim of the cliff, to allow them to plunge down into the lake below. The hounds broke cover behind her, and she risked a glance back as she closed the last hundred meters to the edge. Three of them, black matt paint scratched and worn from the sprint through the forest, their glassy green eyes reflecting glimpses of tree or river as they ran. They were gaining fast now they were in the open, the distance closing to little more than five meters, where twenty seconds before it had been twice that distance.

She threw herself off the embankment, landing perfectly on the centre of the nearest boulder. Before she had even left begun the second jump, the nearest hound had leapt after her, landing on the boulder milliseconds after she had left it, snapping it’s powerful jaws shut on the air just after she had left it. The hound staggered slightly, and switched intelligence modes, becoming more catlike than dog. Slowly, it positioned itself for the next jump, landing perfectly on the second boulder that the woman had gone to. The other hounds followed suit, spreading out to surround her, like pushing the Queen to the board edge in a game of Regicide. Except here, the board edge was replaced with a forty meter drop into a shallow pool of water.

The woman reached the final stone, a large one, lodged right on the edge of the fall, overhanging slightly. She turned to the hounds, slowly, stone by stone, making their way towards her. She had perhaps twenty seconds until they would be upon her. Quickly, she flicked a tiny, hand portable laser pen from a pocket on the strap of her bag. She held the tiny device out over the fall, pointing downwards. The device showed a 38 meter drop, followed by 7 meters of water. Taking into account the gravity on this planet, she calculated that she would only need about six and a half meters of water to stop her. It was just a matter of staying out of the actual waterfall, for the pressure of that would accelerate her much faster than gravity, and she would hit the water much faster. If that happened, she would need about 8 meters depth to stop her without cracking open her skull. 

“Nothing to fear. Just a little jump. Just like at the swimming pool back home…” She muttered to herself. She crouched down, making the sign of the Aquilla across her chest.

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Standing beside the pool, Rex and Janus watched as the woman, cornered by the hounds, crouched on her boulder.

+She’s going to jump.+ Rex sent.

+Ha, I think you’re right kid. Think we should help her?+ Came the amused reply.

+This chick’s about to throw herself off a waterfall. I think she’s our kind of lady…+

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She jumped. Flipping backwards in a long, graceful arc, she soared through the air, stretching her body out into a perfect dive. Her hands broke the surface of the water just as the hounds reached her last perch, and she plunged under just as they looked down.

As she fell, Rex’s gun had been charging. Bleep, one charge. Bleep, 2 charges. Bleep, fully charged. The first hound leaned over the edge, peering after the girl. Rex puller the trigger. The gun kicked back, pushing his weight completely on to his right leg, which was braced into the floor. The projectile, a ball of metal precisely 4mm in diameter, shot out from between the two, meter long magnets that made up the barrel of his very unique weapon. The ball itself moved faster than the eye could trace it, but it’s trajectory was obvious from the perfectly straight stream of plasma linking the barrel to the body of the hound, then on up into the sky, created from the immense speed of the highly charged ball ionising and heating the gasses in the air.

The hound barely even swayed when the projectile punched through it. The other two hounds looked at it, their simple artificial intelligence confused. The hound’s front legs buckled from the damage the projectile had done whilst punching through it’s inner systems. It toppled slowly over the edge of the boulder, and fell into the waterfall, ungracefully smashing into the pool a few meters from where the girl had landed.

The other two hounds backed off slightly, preparing to follow the girl in her jump. Before they had begun to charge, Janus had raised his weapon, an old-Earth style assault rifle, and fired off a burst of 3 shots into the nearest dog. The shots pounded into it’s flank, smashing it off the boulder. The final dog re-evaluated the situation quickly, and leapt off the waterfall, landing perfectly on the bank of the pool. In an instant it had recovered, and begun the sprint towards Janus. It leapt into the air in front of him just as he brought his rifle back round. He threw himself down onto his back, and the hound soared over him. As it passed, he slammed the barrel of the rifle into it’s chest, and shot a quick burst through it. The mechanical beast crumpled in the air, and fell awkwardly behind Janus, it’s shoulder embedded in the ground, it’s body twisted and out of shape.

+Thanks for helping me with that one Rex.+

+I could see you had it. Was just letting you get the big epic finish.+

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The girl saw the first flash as the heavy weapon discharged just as she broke the surface of the water. Her mind raced. Were these friends? She had always been taught that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. But she had seen enough of the fringe worlds of the Imperium to know that that wasn’t always strictly true. Before resurfacing she kicked hard, pushing herself underneath the waterfall. She reappeared on the far side, hidden from view by the rushing water. Was the exchange over? She couldn’t hear a thing through the water. She pulled herself in to the small cave that lay hidden behind the waterfall, pulling out her SnubLas as she went.

She quickly checked the integrity readout of her backpack - still fully waterproof. Good; she didn’t want to have to explain to an Inquisitor why the book he had sent her half way across a sector to retrieve was returned soaking wet. Now for the more pressing problem. How in the name of the Emperor did she deal with a group of armed men with just a SnubLas and a Resonance Blade? If she got close, her blade could make short work of them, she had no doubt. But one of them had a heavy weapon. So how did she get close?

Before she could come to a decision however, the choice was yanked out of her hands. Janus threw himself round the corner, smashing the SnubLas from her hands with the butt of his rifle. He was so fast the she hadn’t even leased a single shot. Before she could defend herself, he had thrown her to the floor. Well, thrown was a bit of an exaggeration. He had lowered her to the floor, applying just enough pressure that she knew who was in charge. But she didn’t like not being in charge.

Rex dashed forward, sliding her sword out of it’s sheath. He then picked up her SnubLas, and backed away. Neither man spoke to each other, but the girl felt the slight prickle as psy messages flitted between them. Psyker scum. Great.

The girl’s supple limbs were barely limited by the pressure of the man’s hands on her shoulders. Not limited enough to stop her, at least. Rex smiled as he saw her long legs curl up above her head, and watched in amusement as she grabbed Janus by the neck, and threw him off her. She was up in seconds, but was startled to find that the man had already rolled out of the throw, and was standing in front of her. Rex, still holding her Resonance Blade and SnubLas, stepped back, giving them more room.

The girl threw herself into Janus, slamming her shoulder into his face, and following it up with a quick jab to the gut. Janus stepped back, holding up his hands in defeat. A cheeky grin spread across his face. Speaking for her benefit, he addressed Rex.

“I think you were right boy. She might be just what we were looking for.”

Rex tossed her sword back to her, as a sign of trust, and placed her SnubLas on the ground, kicking it over to her. She caught the sword one handed, the blade laying flush to her forearm, pointing down towards her elbow. She remained in combat pose, but loosened slightly, and carefully recovered her gun.

“I think it’s time we left,” Rex began, “whoever it was you pissed off is probably heading this way. It’s time the Crow left this god-forsaken rock. Hey, it’s hardly cutting our trip short. I wanted to go back soon anyway. Fucking need a shower.” Janus needed no more encouragement, and was already ducking out on to the shore of the pool before Rex had finished.

Rex followed, signalling the girl to follow him. She obeyed, more out of curiosity than fear of the cultists. She was almost at her transport anyway; she could escape if need be. The two men quickly broke camp, collecting up their kit bags and expertly covering the remains of the camp fire from the night before. Within minutes the area was such that even an expert tracker would have be hard pressed to find any trace of them. The girl watched, impressed by their professionalism. Who were these people, she kept wondering? Now that she had time to look, she realised that the heavy weapon slung across Rex’s back was like nothing she had ever seen. It looked advanced, impressive, and most of all, alien.

“I’m Rex by the way, and this is Janus,” Rex called to her, “and you are?”

+That’s Shipmaster Janus to you, boy.+

+Oh shut it you old fart, you couldn’t even restrain one little girl.+

The girl felt the little flit of a psychic message, and saw them chuckle slightly to themselves. Despite her better judgement, she couldn’t help but trust these men. So talented, yet so relaxed, they reminded her of the multi-discipline athletes from the Games back home. “I’m Jenny, but most people call me Fox. Before you ask, my business here is my own, and I will not discuss it with some strangers.”

Rex stopped dusting the ground, and turned to face her. “I wasn’t going to ask what you were doing here. It doesn’t matter. The shipmaster over there has taken a shine to you, so we would like to offer you a place amongst our crew. I'm guessing you're a bounty hunter. You fit the bill for one at least... I tell you, bounty hunting is nothing next to the adventures we have.”

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Less than an hour later, the three of them were in Janus’ lander, heading back up into the sky. Fox sat in the back, holding her pack to her chest, contemplating what to do with it’s contents. She still sat there as the beautifully sleek form of The Black Crow loomed up to meet them. One thing she did know; that Inquisitor didn’t deserve the power she held.


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## The_Inquisitor (Jul 19, 2008)

Character and plot development is coming along nicely. Some of the charcter developments are a tad obscure but that is easily explained by the time lapse between the two pieces. 

Action writing is very good, moving along at a good pace. I got a little bogged down by the calculations on top of cliff but that may be personal preference. Apart from those minor gripes, an overall good read. Will be waiting for next installment. What's the Inquisitor after???

L.


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## Shogun_Nate (Aug 2, 2008)

Good stuff bud. I really enjoyed the read. I hope to see more soon!

Good luck and good gaming,

Nate


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