[X] Send Komeiji a strongly worded Astropathic message "urging" her to compile a report "at her earliest convenience" on whatever issues are affecting Tenma that caused her to ignore two planets experiencing very credible threats.

If Reimu had any concerns that the lacking amount of omissions from her briefing were a sign that her secretary was losing touch, they would be dashed when she began communicating an even more abbreviated version with some of her new advisors. A couple of military experts, experienced in the workings of War and Warp yet new to her inquisitorial employ, had assumed the skittishness of the Rogue Trader to be sourced from cowardice or perversity, and Reimu had found herself having to mollify them on certain parts of the relationship. Though, there was much they clearly weren’t ready to be disclosed, and Reimu wondered how much they really knew of what they were signed up for.

Firstly, the particulars of her somewhat inherited inquisitorial stance on the Komeiji. Like many Inquisitorial factions, the Ordo Minoris in which Reimu had been involved during her learning years ultimately saw the Imperium’s state as one of constant decline, with the general state of the past being an ideal state to recreate, even if that wasn't realistic. Unlike many, however, they did not see any given deviation of the present as one of decline and instead sought to preserve any aberrations of both past and present however they could, even if that was only in hibernating sarcophagi. After all, any random abhuman species or piece of archaeotech could turn out to be the next Ogryn, and circumstances could always change to make one or another invaluable. Maybe the animalistic augmentations the purple-clad hag was so fond of could be the perfect thing to deal with an aggressive xenos species, or maybe some seemingly innocuous scroll of a psyker’s party trick could be the point on which a whole segmentum’s fate would turn. And fates had turned all the more rapidly in recent years, with the rumbles of awakening Primarchs and other news great and terrible, so the turbulent beginning of the 42nd Millenium had largely just steeled their resolve.

The secret sanctums each of her superiors maintained were named in ancient upon ancient languages, never to be spoken outside of their walls. Senkai. Mayohiga. Ushirodo no Kuni. Aside from the dissonantly beautiful habitation wings of each sanctum that the Inquisitors maintained for their staffer’s comfort, they were haunting places, lined with slumbering beasts, men and machines of times long, long past. Supposedly the sarcophagi were of the same make as those used to empower dreadnoughts, their STC taken from a monastery-world long lost to Chaos; their sole surviving whole model was slumbering in a cargo hold deep below Reimu’s feet.

She’d seen both the worth and folly of their stance, as had at least one Inquisitorial Lord, who tentatively sanctioned their actions and yet watched them all like only an Inquisitor among Inquisitors could. She had been the creepiest person Reimu had ever met, of any species or design; speaking of the most utterly brutal punishments, horrifying nightmares made flesh, and harrowing experiences in the same tones as a mother would scold her child about staying up too late. She made the blank that Reimu had recruited seem like a model member of society, and the so-called ‘Judge of Hell’ was nominally just a normal Terran noble.

It was through this aligned hopeful attitude to abhumans that the relationship with House Komeiji had been conjoined. The Komeiji had long been open supporters of such a doctrine, perhaps unsurprisingly, considering their own familial mutation that made them stand out even among Navigators. The like-mindedness of her teacher and House Komeiji had proven to be beneficial for both party’s aims; allowing Komeiji to dial back and yet progress their rhetoric and still enjoy a level of Inquisitorial protection, and allowing giving Kasen a more official avenue to prove the benefits of her cloistered treasures and access to the vast funds of the noble house. In particular, Reimu saw the unsanctioned matter of the various abhumans as largely moot; Kasen had pulled those strings before, and she was likely preparing to have the option open to do it again even as she wrapped up her other matters.

Very little of this information were matters Reimu felt she could disclose to her new subordinates. Fortunately, the details of the report Reimu’s own attempt at summarization had initially neglected were more easily disclosed, and helped to ease their concerns, at least about Komeiji’s character. First and foremost was that the dataslate had been penned right as she was preparing to leave Lapin; the lacking report on Tenma’s details were only attributable to her haste in sending a response before she could get there herself. Second was the tacit point that this was the sort of behavior her teacher hoped of the Rogue Trader; in especially tenebrous situations, it was better to call them ASAP, focus on light gathering of various rarities as much as she could, and then step aside and be on call to deal with the issues if requested. It suited relatively well with both parties’ proclivities, and ensured in the worst case that a modicum of the valuable pieces would still be preserved.

Third, and finally, was the fact that the Lunar Flare had, seemingly, silenced the guns of the Gensou Cluster; whether systems spoke through communicators or cannonfire, nearly all other systems had ceased their contact with Koumaris and Lapin. The fact that she was two for two on finding problems had convinced Satori that there were likely far more issues, and she couldn’t even be sure that she’d found the worst of it yet. Satori detailed that she should have ended up on Lapin by their warp-navigation, but found herself on Koumaris instead; she opined that other threats drawn by the Lunar Flare were likely much the same (the idea that a Komeiji Navigator had made even a slight mistake never crossed her mind), and inflicted themselves on other worlds first. Thus, Reimu had to her name possibly the most expensive sublight scouting force one could possibly afford.

This went at least a ways to mollifying their admittedly valid concerns, and she’d nonetheless agreed that opening communications with Komeiji as soon as reasonably possible was a priority. With that settled, she could at least breathe a sigh of relief for now. She’d been frankly caught off-guard when they’d raised their doubts; she was too used to people nodding along at the Rogue Trader’s antics from the longstanding relationship between her and her master. She’d have to steady herself; many of her staff came highly recommended, but were nonetheless new to the quirks of her organization and associates, and she knew this would not be the last time that she would have to detail something she’d taken as a given.

---

(Previous vote is still ongoing, but while I’m waiting to write that, I might as well answer the inherent questions prompting the bonus option people are making and now taking. And hey, it lets me detail some more backstory stuff!)

[X] Go to Koumaris. Their people were most in need as far as she knew, and a disease was ever happy to spread if left unconfronted.

She considered her options.

Lapin would be a problem, for sure. But just because it would be a problem didn’t mean it yet was.

Through one way or another, it didn’t seem like there was open conflict on the planet yet. And the population they had was yet stable, so perhaps they had some method of containing their psykers that Satori hadn’t been able to tease out of them.

And if they had some way to redirect incoming warps, like Satori had suggested, the most likely threat was not an enemy within, but an enemy without. Something else that could capitalize on establishing a hold in realspace nearby, and invading the conventional route.

So the potential Nurglite plague was the first priority, at least to ascertain if it was or wasn’t one. Nurgle didn’t have to invade with his whole forces; he could just throw enough lumps of plague and rot at the planet until something survived the point-defense to worm its way in. If it wasn’t related to Nurgle, they could just leave the medical supplies there and move on to Lapin. And however the dispute between Lapin would go, if they were able to requisition a few more Imperial Knights that would at least force the factions to re-do the brutal math of the uprising.


She made a quick note to sharpen quarantine and hygiene discipline on the way. The ships needed to be spotless at least if they were entering a potentially Nurgle-infected zone, and it’d also undoubtedly help make a good impression on the highborn.

---

The younger of the two Scarlet sisters finished her mouthful before speaking. “It’s called the Baku’s Mark-”

“It’s called Ochre-and-Ichor.” Her sibling corrected, earning a glare from across the table. The elder sister paid it no heed, sipping at a glass of wine and murmuring appreciably about the taste. Neither sister seemed fully-grown, and were supposedly late bloomers as well, leaving them looking almost childlike. Remilia Scarlet was nonetheless much better at seeming beyond her years, at least when she didn’t get caught up in arguing with her sister. She was in an exquisite pink dress, all frills and furls (particularly around the chest to make ambiguous how far along she’d most likely not developed) and yet she was completely sleeveless, instead donning beautiful rings on her fingers. Sprouting from her back were two metallic wings, bringing to mind for Reimu the image of a Pteraxii, though these seemed smaller, and exquisitely ornate - perhaps some kind of ornamental garb.

The younger of the two sisters took another bite of her sausage, her scowling unabated. Flandre Scarlet had chosen what was clearly a dress uniform, blood-red with white trimmings. Though she was, ever-so-slightly, the taller of the two sisters, it was still a little too big for her, perhaps a hand-me-down or piece of inheritance with the signs of almost-unnoticeable stitchwork around the cuffs. She had her own attachments into her back, though hers were less like traditional wings, instead being little more than two frames with octahedral flasks hanging off them. Each time she moved, a dark liquid sloshed within the coloured glass. She’d tucked into the feast with gusto, and was proving the more openly combative of the two.”Sis, you not-gonna deny the similarities between the symptoms and the ridiculous look of those dream-eaters-”

Remilia clicked her tongue, interrupting again. “I am not denying it. I am simply not implying a connection; the Lapinites would never use something like a disease as a bioweapon, if only because they’d consider it ‘impure’ by default. They’d certainly never design a disease to look like any of their noble’s regalia.”She took another sip of her glass. “If this was intentionally designed to look like a Baku, the goal of such a design choice would be to turn us against them. So, assuming it is, you should be rattling your saber at literally anyone else, Flan.”

“Better to rattle the saber in the wrong direction than sit on your hands and do nothing about it!” Flandre snarled. “By the time you decide to make your oh-so-careful conclusions, half the planet will be dead!”

Remilia growled, an effect Reimu had to conclude was a sincere attempt at intimidation, if one rather lacking in self-awareness. “And if you go off in a pointless war just for action’s sake, the other half will follow suit! Do you never think things through, you beastly woman?”

Reimu rolled her eyes as the two sisters exchanged glares. It was all too typical, to have the world falling apart around them and the highborn squabbling about who had the worst idea, rather than coming up with a communal solution. She found herself looking out the window of the deck, looking miles below to the surface of Koumaris Prime. Still, meetings like this were necessary, to get whatever information the local nobles knew, and get the score straight.

It appeared that the two sisters had split over ideological divides, and traditions had sundered the rest of the land in turn. Remilia was the rightful heiress, by any measure; but unlike most Koumaris fare, she did not treat diplomacy as something that happened solely after you’d run a battalion of Knights through the enemy’s capital. She fancied herself as more a mastermind-type; to her, war was something to be committed to sparingly, and only after you’d performed as much reconnaissance, subterfuge, and sabotage as you could.

Flandre was much the opposite. She was a much more classic Koumaris ruler, a firebrand who saw tactics off the battlefield as a sign of weakness. She wasn’t unfamiliar with dirty tactics, but she saw them as something far beneath her - if she found a spy within her ranks, her solution would not be to send her own spy in return, but instead return the intruder to the sender, thoroughly disassembled in helpfully-labeled boxes.

They’d split, and their forces had split between them. Flandre had edged out her sister in collecting military officers, gathering on the south side of the planet, but Remilia had more of basically everything else, and a larger share of the usable land in the north. And now, with the ongoing plagues, most of their important functionaries and themselves had retreated into spacecraft, hovering over each pole. The younger sister, if she wanted her big standoff, would have to pick her moment extremely carefully, as Remilia would win the long game.

The difference could be spotted even among the company each sister kept. The eldest’s silver-haired bodyguard pulled off a fairly convincing simulacrum of an unremarkable maid, perfectly still and composed. But Reimu knew an expert killer when she saw one, and the defensive jerking Flandre underwent whenever she made any sudden movements told the rest of the story. Meanwhile, Flandre’s bodyguard was a giant redhead, stifling an occasional yawn with her hand and salivating over the highborn’s food. She stood out like a sore thumb, but she moved with unerring ease even in what looked to be fairly heavy armor, and the fact she fitted the meeting’s nobility so poorly was clearly testament to her abilities in areas Flandre valued more.

The young inquisitor almost found herself thanking the Emperor for Nurgle’s suspected presence, of all things. As far as chaos gods went, he mixed poorly with either ruler, and thus likely poorly with their armies, as well. One had to count their blessings where they could be found, even if those blessings were just in the form of less inconvenient curses.

Reimu cleared her throat, before the conversation got too far out of hand. “Quite frankly, whatever it’s called is the least important detail right now. What we need to know is the symptoms and transmission vectors.”

A tomboyish voice spoke up from her left. “Because if it’s a disease we’ve already come across, we’re going to use the Imperial designation for it. So settling the name matter can wait at least until we know for sure it’s something new, ze.”

Reimu nodded appreciably at her companion. The young black-clad tech-priest hardly seemed to fit the mold associated with the term, still seeming more human at heart than the average cog boy and being rather un-augmented in appearance, only a single eyepiece and the occasional sign of a small cogitator cresting her golden hair belying her true nature at most times. This wasn’t because she necessarily was more attached to her flesh than the normal tech-priest (though Reimu would note her reputation as a heart-breaker seemed to bely a reliance on at least certain parts) but rather because of her frankly unrealistic expectations in terms of the quality of pieces to graft into herself. Reimu presumed that had something to do with that “da ze” thing she did - maybe a speech impediment from a faulty cogitator. Or maybe she did it just because she could - not like she’d ever expect to get a straight answer, as Marisa was a habitual liar at the best of times.

Remilia nodded. “It’s primarily a fungal infection. Large, black mushrooms start growing in the body, growing along blood veins. It causes necrosis in the skin, and eventually the mushrooms themselves break through, making large bulbous growths. That’s the Ochre. The Ichor is -“

“Pus! It’s just pus, sis.” Flandre interrupted. “The mushrooms have this discharge that makes the parts of your skin that don’t rot swell up with these massive whitish boils, bigger than my fist. I even saw one person with a boil bigger than Meiling’s fist once.” The young woman shook her fist to demonstrate, and the giant behind her - presumably Meiling - did the same. “The combo of the black mushrooms and the white boils look like the Baku uniform, so that’s why we’ve been calling it that.”

Reimu hissed between her teeth. Seeing something like the light of recognition in her eyes was all the encouragement Flan needed. “It’s… it’s apparently really, really painful. Like, the doctors were saying that patients were asking them to kill them rather than try to help them. But then they go crazy from the pain and want to spread it!”

Remilia nodded, grimly. “If they’ve been sick long enough, they start to hallucinate or something. Start attacking other people to spread their disease through them. Bite their moldy fingernails into crude claws and go running at you. And they run and attack like it doesn’t even matter they’re in agony.” She shivered. “As for treatment… We've had occasional successes, but nothing sustainable. If you chop whatever was scratched off right as they get scratched and then cauterize the wound, then they’re fine, but that’s… just as impractical as it is extreme.

She sighed. “We tried loading up one of our criminals with enough antifungal medication that they could kill a squatstool by breathing on it. It did help… but even if it killed the fungus, it killed the criminal too.”

Flan scowled at her. “That better not be a true Koumaris citizen who decided to protest your underhanded-“

Remilia cut in on her again. “No, one of those ‘the disease is divine punishment’ lunatics. Not a rebel for your childish endeavors, if that’s what you mean. For all your talk of fire and brimstone, they certainly seem to be fine scratching their rears watching other people suffer up north.”

“Oh, I’m sure they have nothing on your-“

“If I may interrupt?” Spoke a gentle voice from Reimu’s right. The green-haired Sororitas’ eyes were locked on Remilia, wearing that disarming smile that set Reimu’s nerves on edge. “Do you mean to say there are people who are calling the disease a curse from above? That bodes rather ill.”

Kochiya Sanae was, by Reimu’s reckoning, a rather unusual-looking Sister of Battle, one of pristine white armor and blue trappings, with snake and frog iconography adorning her clothing. She was also at least somewhat unusual tactically for a Sororitas, in that she at least somewhat believed in diplomacy, and would try to convert those who weren’t immediately hostile. Her Order deified a story of a Saintess, through her words, converting a daemon prince back to the Emperor’s side, if only to die gloriously together. They thus believed that anyone and everyone could serve the Emperor, provided they were willing to listen. That made them rather amenable to the Ordo Minoris Reimu was still, she supposed, a part of. Of course, those who did not prove willing to listen intently were then fired upon, had their ears cut off, and fed to holy serpents, and Sanae in particular seemed to take a rather unholy amount of satisfaction from the act. Still, when she was acting the missionary (and you hadn’t seen the face she made when watching someone getting crushed in serpentine coils) she was a model figure of the loving embrace of the Emperor, and that had helped in more than one case Reimu could recall.

Remilia shrugged. “Blessing, curse? Frankly, I can’t make heads or tails of them. They seem to believe O-&-I is both our curse and their blessing. Making House Scarlet vulnerable to being toppled, as punishment for the misdeeds of the princess.” She cast a venomous glare across the table, making it clear who she suspected was being blamed.

Flandre returned it with one of her own. “How did that last rambling lunatic go…? Ah yes. ‘The blessing of our blighted blood makes us exempt from the dhampirs’ tithe. They shall defy the cycle no longer!’” She grew a small smirk. “Naturally, I haven’t the foggiest what they mean by ‘the cycle’. Maybe you’d know, sister?”

“The cycle of Death and Rebirth.” Reimu’s voice caught whatever retort Remilia was about to give. “Which means it’s plague cultists.” She closed her eyes, thinking for a second. “I won’t say it’s the best-case scenario, but it’s about what we expected, and prepared for.”

Remilia raised an eyebrow. “I’m glad to hear that you’ve prepared for it. What… exactly are we dealing with, here? If they’re cultists, what are they worshiping?”

Sanae looked at the young girls, her smile falling to a serious expression. “Daemons. They seek to corrupt the hearts of mankind, and bend them to their will. They whisper into the hearts of mankind, slither into their dreams, promise them many boons… and corrupt them, inside and out, until they’re hollow shells of themselves. Or worse.” She sighed, looking down at the table.. “...Perhaps those who keep their minds can yet be saved, and perhaps the others don’t know what they’re dealing with… but daemons have many tricks to conflate service with succor.”

Both sisters looked at each other, concerned, suspicious. “Is… is everything going to be okay?” Flandre asked, turning back to Sanae. She was trying to maintain her composure, but she couldn’t quite contain a tinge of childish fear in her voice. Remilia looked… pensive, clearly deep in thought.

Marisa clicked her tongue. “If you want to save Koumaris, we’ll need your full compliance. The forces of our Sororitas here will help shore up any places where your scripture’s gotten a bit off track. After all, worship of the Omnissiah - of the Emperor - is the best way to reinforce your soul against the temptations of Daemons.”

Reimu looked down at the world again. It didn’t look infested from this far above, which was a good sign. “As for the more direct problems… we’ll have to infiltrate and tear out the heart of their operations. And we need to execute this quickly.” She nodded. “If they’re only just starting to get aggressive now, we may be able to cut them off before something really troublesome gets here. So, we’ll need your Knight forces to engage them, and we’ll snoop around as a small force. You specialize in Knights on Koumaris, right? How good are your small-arms?”

Remilia shook her head. “The Imperial Knights are our backbone - we’ve never had great small arms weapons. Not compared to our neighbors, at least.” She gestured at the two bodyguards. “When we have to fight in small situations or avoid drawing attention, it’s usually with highly-trained individual specialists like Meiling and Sakuya. Or you could just stomp on dissenters with an Imperial Knight, but I think we’d all agree that’s inappropriate, yes?” The end of the question was pointed across the table, causing her sister to scowl.

“What are you implying, Remi? I’ve never done anything of the sort.” She looked back at Reimu. “If it comes to large-scale fighting, we can each protect our halves. But neither of us are able to fight well without our knights… and what we do have for individual fighters who are infiltration-ready are… well, our bodyguards? And I’m not letting Sakuya come anywhere near me to skulk around..”

Remilia nodded. “And I don’t trust your meathead of a guardian not to break something important bumbling around the north.” She smiled weakly at Reimu. “We’ll happily provide the distraction, but… I hope you have more covert operatives.”

Reimu… took a moment to consider.

Her standard force was sitting right beside her, but that didn’t mean it was her only force. It helped to keep a few people on the sidelines - specialists, of all shapes and stripes. Counting either one of the bodyguards as four… One more of her specialists would be a good round number to make it a solid five. And she could think of a few people who might be the right fit for the job.

[ ] It’d be risky having her fall ill and have to recover before they went to the psyker-infested Lapin Prime, but Reimu did have a Blank in her employ. She was a good frontline fighter, and it never hurt to have someone who could so completely shrug off the work of Daemons on hand when dealing with their cults.
[ ] Perhaps the young lady Psyker she had in her employ could be a good choice? She might be able to befriend the scarlet sisters as someone roughly their own age, and her telekinetic abilities would keep her safely away from combat.
[ ] Then again, she did have a slumbering dreadnought in the hold. It would not, under any circumstance, be a stealthy choice, but having living, moving cover that could match an Armiger was nothing to sneeze at.

As she made her choice, she looked down, to see the sisters bickering again. She sighed. She had to take control of this conversation if she wanted to get anything done.

“If you two are quite done arguing…”

{ } “...What is a ‘Baku’?” Satori hadn’t mentioned anyone by that name on Lapin.
{ } “...What’s the dhampir’s tithe?” She could make an educated guess, but it never hurt to know what exactly heretics chose as their fulcrum point.
{ } “...Do you know why Inquisitors use Hellpistols?” These two could barely go five seconds without getting snippety at each other. It was time to firmly get them to stay on track.

[X] Perhaps the young lady Psyker she had in her employ could be a good choice? She might be able to befriend the scarlet sisters as someone roughly their own age, and her telekinetic abilities would keep her safely away from combat.
{X} “...What’s the dhampir’s tithe?” Reimu could make an educated guess, but it never hurt to know what exactly heretics chose as their fulcrum point. She muttered a direction to one of the servers, the woman scurrying away.

Remilia took a moment to consider the question. “It’s a few key traditions considered summarily, and a vital part of Koumaris’ infrastructure. You are aware that most of the Gensou Clusters’ residents are… only derived from the standard human template, right?” She sipped her glass. “Koumaris’ residents are mostly the Planetary and Lunar Rabbits, The Tengu of Tenma are entirely abhuman, and the less said about the hellscape that is the Chikushou system, the better. See, that causes a variety of problems when someone goes and gets their liver blown out or something; organ donation is a nightmare.”

Flandre nodded. “The half-beasts can’t survive having one species’ organs placed within another. On Tenma a wolf can’t even donate to a crow, and there’s various issues to varying degrees on numerous planets.” She grinned. “But Koumaris? Not only are we all true humans, we’re a special case. A Koumarine’s organs could go to a Lesser Rabbit on the Lapin planet, a Wolf on Tenma, and a Lapinite noblewoman, and all three would have their bodies accept it flawlessly. Sometimes they even work better for their recipients than they did for their donors.”

Marisa’s eyebrow raised. “A whole system of perfect donors? That does sound incredible, ze.” She furrowed her eyebrows. “...does that mean cloning technology doesn’t exist in the cluster?”

There was a momentary look of alarm on Remilia’s face, but she eventually managed to pull herself together. “I… If you’re suggesting there is such a technology, that could be a disaster for Koumaris economically.” She looked out. “Koumaris is the highest-population system in the Gensou Cluster, and our population is continually expanding. That means our own resources can very easily be strained to the limit just sustaining ourselves, and we end up needing to trade for basic food with other planets.” She gave a devious grin across the table. “But we have only one resource we have to spare.”

Reimu met her devious grin bluntly. “...So the dhampir’s tithe solves both problems at once. You cull your population and trade the organs to other planets for other resources.”

Flandre nodded. “Yeah, that’s half of it. We expect our law enforcement to hand over a certain number of criminals each month for organ donation. Though only criminals, mind!” She clarifies hastily. "...Well, if there's enforcers that are consistently underperforming, the enforcers make up the shortfall. We do have one of the harshest penal systems in Gensou, but as a result, we also have the nicest cities for the productive members of society.”

Sanae tutted. “Is there any levels of this? You’re not about to tell me someone who steals a loaf of bread gets disemboweled for his trouble, are you?”

Remilia shrugged off her concerns. “The quota does have an upper cap, and to the best of our abilities we average out across sectors. If you’re just a pickpocket, chances are you’ll be fine unless we’re desperate. Especially if you volunteer for the second part of the tithe, the blood donation.”

Flandre nodded, spreading her wings. “House Scarlet has a disease in our genes… one that causes blood to essentially decay in our bodies at a rapid pace. These wings have an inbuilt function to store blood and give us incremental transfusions across the day. If we didn’t use these wings, we’d be passing out from blood loss before we got to our beds.” She scowled. “And it’s not like our medical beds are especially pleasant, either. We’ve been reliably informed that they look like coffins, but they’re ironically the only reason we’re not dead by the morning.”

Remilia scowled, nodding. “Apparently the whole practice makes us resemble some kind of ancient beast of Old Terra called ‘dhampirs’, hence the whole procedure being called the 'dhampir's tithe'. Imagine! The noble House Scarlets being some kind of evil blood-drinkers! Who could even conceive of such an insult!” She took a moment to take a deep breath, composing herself. “...I’m sure you can see rather quickly how Ochre-and-Ichor is even more devastating to Koumaris than it would be to any other planet. We depend on healthy bodies across our population, not just in our military force. We’ve been operating under the assumption that whoever the disease is from, it’s definitely a bioweapon - it’s too spontaneous, and the disease seems to almost be designed to make House Scarlet vulnerable.”

Reimu nodded in agreement. If only they knew. She paused, examining their wings more closely. It was pretty clear that Remilia’s miniature wings were much, much lower-capacity than Flan’s hanging crystals. The difference between a military and ceremonial model? Possible, but they did call them wings, and Flandre’s didn’t even seem to give a suggestion of that.

Noticing Reimu’s close scrutiny, Flandre pulled them behind her. “It being a bioweapon is one of the few things that me and sis agree on. Our tech-priests have determined the mushrooms aren’t closely related to any recorded species, either. Guess it being from daemons explains it.” She shuddered. “We’ve both agreed to only take blood from our soldiers offworld, because who knows what could be in anyone’s blood from the surface.” The younger sister sighed.

Remilia nodded. “And neither of us consider the other the culprit of the plague, either. I’d never think of doing something so self-destructive, and my sister would never think of doing something so underhanded.”

Reimu nodded, turning her gaze once again to the planet. “So, what are the worst-hit areas?”

Flandre put up a finger, looking serious. “The first and most ingrained place is the capital on Remi’s side. That’s where the plague-ridden are at their most numerous and infested. I believe your friend the Rogue Trader compared the capital to ‘A small hive’?” She shrugged. “Tall towers, floors upon floors upon floors; chances are they’re festering in the sewers down there. Not surprising Remi’s delicate approach isn’t working there.”

Remilia slammed her glass on the table, all the wine landing neatly back inside it. Clearly it was her preferred method of punctuating an objection. “Ex-cuse you, Flan. You’re forgetting to mention the first cases were found in a small town called Blacklily, on your side of the planet, and the whole place is infected there. If this is a bioweapon caused by some daemon, you’d assume the source would be near Blacklily, wouldn’t you?”

Flan growled, managing a much more feral timbre than her sister’s earlier attempt. “The highest number of victims is on your side. Are you just going to let all those people suffer, Remilia?”

“Better to cut off the head rather than just where they’re most concentrated. Or did you learn nothing from-”

“Enough!” Reimu’s gauntlet slammed into the table, causing both sisters and most of the plates to jump. She groaned, pulling her hand over her face. “We’ll go to both places. And as the commander of this fleet, I will decide the order. All you two brats need to do is inform us of the areas in your own territory worth consideration, and provide your Knights to back us up.”

She was just debating pulling out the hellpistol and giving them both a stern lecture on an Inquisitor’s priorities when there was a knock on the door. A very familiar face poked her nose through, looking nervously into the room.

Reimu put on a gentle smile. “Ah yes, come on in. I’ve been expecting you, little one.” She turned to the two Scarlet sisters, still seeming rather shocked. Flandre had a look with a mixture of rage and awe, and Remilia was mouthing the word ‘brat’ still, trying to process being called such a demeaning term. The redhead giant was slack jawed, and the look the ‘maid’ was giving was positively venomous.

She gestured to the door, ignoring the assorted Koumarine expressions. “Now, if you’re both quite done bickering… Ladies of House Scarlet, I’d like you both to meet the strongest Psyker in the fleet. Alice, would you like to introduce yourself?”

The spinning pirouettes of the dancers were mesmerizing, even Reimu had to concede. Still, it was only an intricate performance, and no Inquisitor worth her salt would let mere intricacy distract her from judging her cohort. She glanced over at the two sisters, gauging their reactions.

Flandre was positively spellbound. Her eyes were absolutely transfixed by the display, her jaw hanging open in a loose grin of awe. Her bodyguard’s eyes were similarly transfixed, though she seemed to focus more on the gleaming steel of their lances than the dance itself. Rightfully so, Reimu noted; she’d spotted that quickly.

Her counterpart was seemingly forgoing any assessment of the potential threat to instead continue glaring daggers at Reimu for the previous slight. Reimu wasn’t even sure she’d blinked in the time since the dancers had begun. Remilia, meanwhile, was almost as enraptured as her sister, but with much, much effort, she managed to tear her eyes away from the dancers.

Or, rather, away from the puppets and straight at the puppeteer. The young blonde girl was maybe Flandre's age, and cowered behind Reimu’s chair at the look. The blue of her clothes and ribbon contrasted all the more strongly with the red-dominant attire of those nearest to her in age. A breathing apparatus covered the lower half of her face, and she couldn’t seem to meet anyone’s gaze. Practiced instinct brought Reimu’s hand back, and the young girl took it, clinging to it like her life depended on it.

It made perfect sense to keep a powerful and sensitive psyker on a short leash, and when they’d been discussing it, her advisors had been clear to do so. Really, though, Reimu’s biggest problem was rather the opposite - she was often nearly underfoot, and Reimu tended to attract a lot of the fire. At least she was just as happy to hide behind Marisa’s powerful tech, or in the warm glow of Sanae’s Flamer.

As the dance of the puppets finished, they made a bow, and Flandre burst out into applause, with the others joining in with a more restrained tempo. A few of the dolls landed on the table, defensively in front of Reimu - and thus Alice. Here, it was easier to see that there were mechanical parts - clicking limbs and a spinning key in their backs, though the latter was rather vestigial in the hands of the Telekine. She heard Alice mumbling into her mask, and the vox-speaker on the frontmost doll crackled to life.

“Thank you for watching our performance. We do it in honor of our princess, Lady Alice Margatroid.” The frontmost doll took a bow. “I, Yumeko, and the Makai Royal Guard, stand ready to assist with the defense of your planet.”

Remilia raised an eyebrow, steepling her fingers. “I see. You’re… clearly all rather skilled at intricate formations.” She eyed the lances the dolls were carrying. “Am I… correct in assuming that those are not mere ornamental weapons?”

The head doll nodded, with two of her associates spearing some of the food on the plates to make her point. “Quite so, Lady… Remilia, was it? Our lances are the pride of our army. We need no more than one of our cunning maneuvers to flay a krootox to its very bones!” Reimu stifled a chuckle, rolling her eyes. That wasn’t exactly true… but it was far less false than it had any right to be. And it wasn’t like these girls would have any idea what a Krootox was, anyways.

“That… is SO COOL!” Flandre hopped up onto her feet, running over to examine the dolls more closely, with Meiling in hot pursuit. “How do you do that?! How do you-”

Marisa chuckled. “Best keep your distance and let her approach you, Scarlet. Alice and her guards can get a little jumpy at times.” Sure enough, the dolls had pointed their lances in Flan’s direction, and Alice had cowered even further behind the Inquisitor. “Their flight is provided by young Alice. She’s a Telekine - a psyker who can move objects with her mind, ze.”

The younger of the Scarlets sagged, clearly disappointed. Remilia chuckled, considering the young Psyker’s potential. “...I see. The only psyker groups with any notable presence in the Gensou Cluster are the telepaths on Lapin. If anyone else has psykers with abilities like that, they keep them to themselves.” She chuckles. “Such a singular existence here is quite interesting. You must be quite talented, Alice. And your Guard is one-of-a-kind, I’m quite sure.”

As the three girls began to converse, with the intermediary of the Yumeko-doll, Reimu stood up and stepped away from the table, looking out to the city. Blacklily and the Royal Capital… both were likely key centers of cultist activity… and she’d naturally have to decide which to go with first.

She didn’t turn around when she sensed the maid approaching. “If you’re going to try and threaten me, don’t bother. We both know you can’t afford to attack the only ally you have against this plague.”

There was a scoff from the maid, edging closer. “Nobody speaks to my lady or the young mistress that way. Nobody.” In the reflection of the glass, she could see the deadly glare of the maid. “They are the noble House Scarlet, heritors of Koumaris, and I will not stand for them to be insulted.”

Reimu turned around, staring at her evenly. “They could be the rulers of the entire cluster and I’ll still call them what I like. The powers of the Inquisitors are designed precisely to go over the heads of squabbling bureaucrats, regardless of the specific station or position.” She folded her arms. “After all, there are decisions no planetary governor could stomach, if only to preserve their own interests. If the daemons on Koumaris manage to extend a tendril to Lapin, forget the Gensou Cluster - the whole galaxy could be endangered.”

She looked at the planet, disinterested. “I don't have the time or the inclination to humor two sisters who can't go ten seconds without starting a slapfight. If you want me to respect House Scarlet, you should be doing what you can to guide them towards seamless cooperation with us and each other.” She crossed her arms, lowering her voice to a mumble. “And that goes for you too, Redhead.”

Meiling, who was politely observing the three girls talking, gave a guilty glance in Reimu’s direction. The maid irritably sheathed her knife, scowling.

The young inquisitor nodded, looking back at her. “Sakuya, was it? Tell me about the Capital situation. Surely you have the best knowledge of it?”

The maid nodded, clearly still stiff in her words. “Second only to my lady herself.” She thought back, idly tapping the hilt of one of her daggers. “The… you called them plague cultists? Have taken over the underlevels, particularly the sewers. They’ve created and defended several makeshift dams in the sewers. We suspect their goal is to contaminate the water supply, and we’ve done our best to mitigate the risk, but the simple truth is that our sewers were not made for armigers to walk through them.” The last part took physical effort for her to voice. “We… would greatly appreciate your assistance.”

Reimu nodded, glancing back at her. “What about Blacklily? I assume it’s a problem that’s similarly difficult to solve?”

Sakuya folded her arms. “Though less obviously so, yes. It’s actually the ancestral home of an old Knight House that was eventually crushed under the boot of House Scarlet. While the military that used to serve that house ended up betraying them when their coffers were emptied, considering that’s the source of the disease, it’s natural to assume that there are at least some loyalists there. And no self-respecting Koumarine nobility wouldn't have a suite of hidden passages all under the town... We were thinking they wouldn’t have had the resources to bio-engineer this weapon; but some otherworld influence would definitely explain it.”

Reimu sighed. “Of course some idiotic lordling’s toady would…” She shook her head. “So, the Royal Capital probably has the highest number of cultists, and is poised to take even more power. On the other hand, Blacklily is the source, and thus probably has any of the daemons who’ve made themselves manifest.”

After a moment's thought, Reimu turned, walking back to the trio of girls. “Alice? Feel free to keep discussing things with the ladies of House Scarlet for a while, but it’d be best not to stay up too late - we’ll be heading out in the morning.”

The three young ladies turned to her. At some point, the sisters had managed to convince Alice to let them hold a doll each, and both looked rather pleased at having done so. Remilia belatedly realized what she was doing was rather undignified, and tried to carefully place her doll surreptitiously back on the table.

Flandre didn’t seem to care, all but squeezing the life out of her doll. “Oh, but these dolls are so well-made! I think Suki here is my favorite.”

Alice spoke up, for once not through one of her dolls. “U-ummm… Her name is Yuki… please stop calling her Suki…”

Remilia finished unsubtly putting down her childish indiscretion, and cleared her throat. “Right, uhm, yes… does that mean you’ve decided on a location to begin with?”

Reimu nodded. “Yes, and I hate to cut the meeting short, but there’s much planning and preparation to do, and the sooner we leave, the better. We’ll organize troops to visit and start containing both areas, so we’ll need your Knights ready by the morning as well. As for our core team, we’ll start in one area, and move to the other once we’ve cut out the throat of the threat.”

Flandre nodded, stiffening up a bit. “We’ll have our Knights and bodyguards ready to assist you. Will you start with the Royal Capital, or with Blacklily?”

[ ] “The Royal Capital takes priority.” Extricating cultists from even a ‘small’ hive was going to be a nightmare, and if they managed to sink their claws in, they’d be dealing with pockets of resistance for years to come. Nevermind the risk of them establishing a second ingress point right under the capital.
[ ] “Blacklily. We’ll take this out at the source first.” The worst of Nurgle’s beasts would be in there, and if they left it too long, something truly wretched could come through, and singlehandedly doom the planet. And knowing more about this dead Knight House would help shed light on the specific ideological form of these Nurglite worshippers.

[X] “Blacklily. We’ll take this out at the source first.” The worst of Nurgle’s beasts would be in there, and if they left it too long, something truly wretched could come through, and singlehandedly doom the planet.
-[X] Have some of the advisors more experienced with matters Daemonic assist with the containment of the situation in the Royal Capital.

---

“Blacklily. We’ll take this out at the source first.”

Remilia immediately grew a smug grin. “Of course. See? I told you Flan, Blacklily is the more important issue.”

Reimu waved off her triumphant smirk. “Don’t look so pleased with yourself. It means there’s a damn good chance that at least some of their Royal Capital plans will be developed, and that this will devolve into very, very messy street fighting.” The elder sister’s grin duly faded as she considered the implications, slowly replaced by a smirk on the younger as she realized she was much more inoculated from losing any face. The maid’s glare only got more venomous.

She turned to her two closest subordinates. “Send the dominant force of the Skitarii down to help with the Royal Capital. Especially those who have the ability to run without an external water source for extended periods of time. Focus on quarantine of still-clean areas and disabling public waterworks. Back them up with the Hospitaller and whoever else you can spare of the Sororitas without directly affecting combat readiness, especially those who are good at sniffing out Daemonic influence - I’d like to send more of them to help take care of those who can still be saved, but we need the ground trooper Sisters to help with Blacklily, and chances are we won’t exactly need experienced eyes to spot the daemons there.” Both of them nodded, Sanae already reaching for a combead to relay the order.

Her gaze returned to the two sisters. “I expect both of your forces to be outside their battlefields by tomorrow. One of my specialists - a miss Komano Aunn - will be taking care of the macro-tactics in my stead, so you may see her join either of your retinues. She can act fully in my stead, and I expect her to be treated as such.”

In most cases Reimu had a reputation among Inquisitors for a fundamental aura of honesty, with no-one able to keep a lie going around her for long - least of all herself, hence her close association with the tech-priest now summoning up her Skitarii. With that said, Komano Aunn was one of the few genuine tricks Reimu was reliably able to pull on anyone, largely because there was nothing dishonest in her description. Aunn was good at the macro-organisation of deciding which general would have what based on whatever high-level plan Reimu gave her, which gave Reimu the time to dive into ground-level missions without things falling apart around her. She was also perfect for intervening in some big factional infighting. People would inevitably believe that with the description Reimu gave, whoever Aunn accompanied had earned the Inquisitor’s favor and her eye, and would thusly both be self-assured in their position and unlikely to cause other mischief. And if asked by said acolyte to keep the secret of her exact deployment, few were dumb enough to even consider bragging about the earned favor - and thus revealing the deception; that there was likely an Aunn at the other side’s table as well.

The twinned Psyker - using the plural was debatable - had been Reimu’s oldest ally, even before she was officially recruited into the Inquisition. Her stony, but vaguely canine mutations had made the following recruitment easy to agree to for Kasen, and their same disposition made them easy to pass off as unusual augmentations. And once Satori saw Aunn (an Aunn, more specifically) Reimu was promptly declared a kindred spirit, and that whole mess began.

Both of the sisters nodded in agreement, and Alice gathered up her dolls. Remilia spoke first. “It appears this meeting is at a close, then. We’ll be coordinating the battles from our capital ships - we’ll make sure your Aunn and any other tacticians you send are well received and await their instructions.”

Flandre nodded in agreement. “And I’ll make sure Meiling’s ready to receive you the moment you touch down at Blacklily. Let’s teach these daemons that Koumaris is not theirs to take.” The grin she gave toed the line between that of a mischievous child and the type of Commissar who believed in ‘sending them off with a smile’. Reimu just nodded stiffly, and swept away to make her own preparations.

---

“You know,” Reimu said, making sure to include as much reproach as she could in her tone, “You don’t need to constantly gun the engines like a madwoman, Marisa.”

The pilot chuckled and turned her head back to her, seemingly paying no attention to the direction they were actually going. “But where’s the fun in that? Trust me, the Blazing Star’s enjoying this as much as I am.”

Reimu sighed. “Do you think the machine spirit will enjoy it if Alice throws up on the deck? Slow down, for god’s sake.” That did bring an appropriate look of concern, and Marisa dutifully slowed down, at a gradual pace so as not to produce another lurch. Reimu flicked the little monitor she had to the passenger’s compartment to inspect the troops.

Aboard Marisa’s personal Stormraven, it was a fairly even mix of Mechanicus and Sororitas forces. A set of the heavily-augmented Skitarii sat on one side, one giving her a weak thumbs up to show their approval more explicitly than what remained of their faces could allow. The other side was a near-matching set of Sororitas, each determined to seem less phased by the mission than their borderline-faceless counterparts, ending with Sanae trying to comfort a queasy Alice. The young girl’s appearance was… rather amusing, to be blunt. As much as it was… not exactly hard to get guardsman armor that’d at least reasonably fit a girl in the start of her pubescence, Reimu had instead managed to get some Votann void armor for better protection of the Psyker. The little head poking out of the armor was rather hilariously dissonant with the rest of it, but it kept her safe, and that was most important. Every now and then, her eyes would flicker to the cargo crate where her dolls were kept.

Reimu had never been one to command a mission where she couldn’t see where they were going, so she was in the dorsal cockpit, manning the twin lascannons. She looked out at what she could of the grounds, examining the lands of Koumaris before them. The conifer forest they were passing over was technically green, if only because of it begrudgingly accepting that it couldn’t be pure black, and must make at least some attempt to resemble normal vegetation. Thick mist hung low and heavy, obscuring much below the tree-tops. It was thus not hard to spot their destination even now, a pale and sickly green in the midst of the rolling treetops of darker and gloomier hues.

“My word. It’s a dreadful stain on our forests, isn’t it?” Reimu looked down at the monitor again and changed the image. The gloomy face of Koumaris’ head techpriest was watching her own monitor, her striped purple robes draped over her body.

Reimu found herself cocking an eyebrow. “Odd thing to worry about for a tech-priest, Miss Knowledge.” The woman waved her off, her arm revealing a small array of tubes connecting her and her chair. “You don’t exactly seem like the type to get around and see the sights.”

Patchouli Knowledge rolled her eyes, the augmetic one at a slightly slower pace than the real one. “A plague is the last thing I want on Koumaris. My flesh is even more of a waste of carbon than the empty safebox Meiling calls her skull.” She broke out into a fit of coughing, causing a black-and-red pteraxii to scurry to her side in aid. “...First thing I’m requisitioning from the Imperium is the best STC you have for augmetic lungs and a toxiphage.”

Marisa stuck her hand up, anticipating a question from her gunner-slash-commander. “I’m sending her the combat data from our skitarii. I don’t want to have to keep coming back here every few months if the cultists spread out, so giving them the knowledge to fight their own battles is a big boon to us.”

Reimu raised an eyebrow, before turning back to the screen. It was more than she would have given beforehand, perhaps using it to negotiate more, but deals could always be made retroactively. “While we’re flying, then, can I ask for a few more details?”

Patchouli nodded, lifting a dataslate with a mechadendrite. Her eyes split, one reading the dataslate’s contents and the other still focused on looking at Reimu through the monitor. “...If it’ll help you clean up this mess, please do. Spaceship air is only making bad lungs worse, here.”

Reimu lifted her eyes up to survey the growing patch of Nurgle greenery in front of them. “You’re the chief tech-priest on Koumaris, yes? And the Mechanicus here are considered neutral to any house disputes between or within Houses?” Apparently, that at least nominally held true even to this day, though the fact that the tech-priest’s ships largely mingled among Remilia’s fleet gave considerable cause for doubt. “Were you familiar with the House that used to live in Blacklily?”

The tech-priest glowered. “Though I wish I was less so. They’re technically still deep in the red with us financially. Should’ve carved out their useless brains and made them servitors when I had the chance.”

Reimu raised an eyebrow. “They shortchanged the Mechanicus? Rather bold for anyone, really, all the more so when they’re a Knight house.” She briefly switched her comms to internal. “No exposed skin, we’re nearly there now.” There was a series of shuffling noises below her, and a metallic clang as, presumably, one of the Sororitas dropped their helmet. A problem for Alice or the Skitarii to solve.

“The previous generations were fine, but the sisters of this generation were both utterly terrible with money.” Patchouli scowled. “The younger was an insane spendthrift who wasted her money on more jewelry she could wear in her life, and went through a century’s savings in only a few years. And the only reason she didn’t spend more is that her older sister was money mismanagement incarnate, and made several dozen ventures for new sources of income with nothing to show for it. Not surprising that they collapsed quickly.” She managed a wheezy chuckle. “Remilia really gave them the runaround - she sold the ‘fashionista’ a whole bunch of Scarlet family heirlooms at great cost, and then when she inevitably began to default, she managed to take them all back and more at a steal. Set the Scarlets up for several lifetimes at no long-term cost, even if Flan hated using family heirlooms like that. But then, she’s never appreciated truly cunning maneuvers.”

Neutral party, right. Reimu could see Marisa counting on her fingers, and couldn’t blame her - this’d be, what, the fifth pair of sisters somewhere important in the Gensou Cluster right now? Komeiji, Komano(?), Scarlet, the ones on the moon, and- wait, worth checking actually.

Reimu looked back at the monitor. “What about these sisters? Are they still out and about?”

Patchouli shrugged. “I know as much as you do on that front. They were alive when Remilia spared them, and we didn’t make them into servitors on the assumption that those most likely to donate to help them with the funds would find appreciation for their whole bodies.” She sighed. “Perhaps this could have been avoided if we were more… direct in seeking recompense. Or perhaps this was caused by some spoiled maids who didn’t understand the connection between the opulence they were experiencing and why everyone hated them.”

Reimu sighed. “Well, that’s something. How were they as Knight pilots?”

This clearly took a bit more thought. “The younger sister was almost unmatched when it came to fighting dirty, and was always very aggressive when fighting. The elder… I don’t have much data on her piloting skills, but if the younger was doing the fighting… that implies little good about her.” She narrowed her eyes. “If it turns out they’re responsible for this, give them an extra shot for me, will you?”

Reimu didn’t respond to the request directly. “We’re coming into Blacklily now. Sorry to cut this conversation short - feel free to reopen it if you spot something important in the Skitarii data.” With one last nod of approval from the tech-priest, Reimu terminated the connection, and promptly opened a new one. “Flandre - how’s the initial assault going?”

The image of a knight’s cockpit flashed up, revealing a scowling Flandre. “Nowhere near where we were hoping for. We’ve been bombarding them at range, but we’re struggling to make any progress. Lots of little blobby things, and we haven’t got the small-arms to take them down cheaply. So me and my knights are spearfishing and churning the earth to take them out, rather than risking them climbing up on us. Then there’s the cultists themselves, who are… suspiciously well armed for what should be a bunch of destitute peasants.” She gave a desperate look. “Please tell me your troops are getting close.”

Reimu nodded, giving a reassuring smile. “They’re just behind us. Guessing those are what we call Nurglings. Don’t worry - as long as your Knights can take a bit of heat around the legs, the Sister’s flamers wil take good care of them.”

Flandre nodded in relief. “Tell them to expect heavy resistance. If this is the Baku’s Mark, it’s changed the people here, in a really weird way.” She shuddered. “Seems like they’ve grown into hunchbacks or something like that, and it looks like there's more pointing bits moving around than they should have hands. Haven’t exactly had time to look at it closely myself yet, what with keeping them away, and Meiling’s been hanging back to wait for you, so nobody’s gotten close enough to check.”

Reimu sighed. “Right. Where does the corruption seem most concentrated?”

Flandre pointed at something Reimu couldn't see from the camera angle. Maybe a map, or out her viewports. “There’s a big block right in the town center, but the old mansion’s in a pretty sorry state as well. Probably means the real mess is in the tunnels, and it’s just cropping up where they meet the surface.”

Reimu took a moment to consider. Entering through the mansion would probably be easier to find a way into the secret passages, and her instincts told her the portal was probably closer there, but it’d also be much harder to get into in the first place. On the other hand, the town would be chaotic street-fighting all the way through, with Knights rampaging around them, and it’d be easier to get ambushed, but the fog of war would make it easier to slip into the darkness, and harder for the Nurgle worshippers to devote their focus into them.

[ ] “Tell Meiling to meet us near the town square…”
[ ] “Tell Meiling to meet us near the manor…”

{ } “...And get your forces ready to join us there. Let's find out how good Knights are at picking locks.”
{ } “...And get your forces ready to make one hell of a distraction on the other side. We’ll take a stealthy route.”

[X] “Tell Meiling to meet us near the manor…”
{X} “...And get your forces ready to make one hell of a distraction on the other side. We’ll take a stealthy route.”

Flandre sighed as soon as she heard the directive.

“Ugh, you’re going the stealthy route? Laaame.”

Marisa gave a dry chuckle. “This of it this way, Flan: the more hell you raise on your side, the better we’ll have it on ours.”

That did bring a grin to the young lady’s face, and she cracked her knuckles.

“We-ell, they seem fine using their fodder to distract us for now because we can’t take advantage of our units… but they do seem to have some knights of their own in reserve. Maybe by the time your forces get here and help us clean off the rebel civs, their knights will come bounding over to meet us?”

Reimu nodded. “Sounds like a plan. Be ready, they’re likely to have weapons you’re not familiar with fighting. Entering the engagement zone now.” She signed off, flicking the comms to internal. “Get ready everyone, might get bumpy.”

The forest beneath them gave up its last gasp before letting out into the town of Blacklily itself. While the world as a whole didn’t have many signs of Nurgle’s rot, Blacklily was undeniably stained with his unholy influence. The town’s structures were in shambles, undermined and yet supported by sinewy fungal growths and twitching wormlike tubing piercing through the walls and roofing like thread, holding the structures in some semblance of standing. Where the roofs had caved in regardless, mushroom caps now provided some semblance of shelter. Trees went from standing solemn and tall to twisted husks, some few lucky enough to simply be dead while others bearing fangs and twitching tentacles. Any still water was sickly and green, burbling from unseen infected wildlife beneath the surface.

Flandre’s Knights were holding their ground on one of the few pieces of land not yet infected, their backs to a riverbank of somehow-yet-clean water - likely a very deliberate choice to protect downstream settlements. It was impossible to mistake where Flan was - the Levateiin, her Knight, stood proud and defiant, front-and-center. Hers appeared to be a Knight Valiant, a hulking beast optimized for close combat. equipped with a tri-flamer to incinerate whole battlelines of daemons and heretics, along with a harpoon crackling with electricity, spearing any optimists who tried to close the distance on their own and rending them into small chunks of crackling flesh.

There was visible shock and surprise from Nurgle’s forces as the Blazing Star streaked through the sky above them. Reimu grimly grabbed the controls of her turret, firing a volley at the lines of Nurgle’s forces and breaking the battleline of the human heretics into disarray. The previously dormant knights behind them - clearly showing the undeniable marks of chaos, but seeming to want to wait until their counterparts tired - started to lift their guns at the Stormraven, but Marisa easily swerved around their first few shots. She passed between a frighteningly tight gap between two of the machines, enough that Reimu was stunned that neither of the Knights traded paint with their craft.

As the Stormraven passed out the far side of the battlefield and began a turn, the Knights trundled around to get a bead on their target. It was a testament to their pilot’s inexperience with small and flighty craft, and a massive mistake tactically. Reimu raised her comms, yelling into the microphone. “Now!”

As they committed to facing away from the battlefield, the bulk of Reimu’s forces broke through the mist, transport craft and artillery vehicles eagerly joining the battle. A storm of fire, las, and bolters tore the remaining daemonic frontline to shreds. One of the heretic’s Knights fell before they even realized that there were more reinforcements coming.

Marisa cackled, spinning around and buzzing the towering Knights yet again. The Blazing Star weaved into the Imperial forces, vanishing into the fog of war. “I believe we made quite an entrance there, da ze! Should give everyone some time to get set up before their troops get a sure footing again.”

Reimu couldn’t help a small grin forming. One Stormraven flight had probably just saved several battalions of Imperial forces. “Looks like they’re already beginning to panic and rout. Everyone okay? Still keeping your lunches down?”

Sanae’s voice crackled. “All good here! Even Alice.” Reimu could hear a cheer from the Sisters below her.

The Inquisitor nodded. “Then get ready to disembark. We’re going in.”

[X] “Meiling, are you sure you can punch a hole through that wall?” Strike hard and fast enough and they could be well-established inside before anyone even knew what was happening.

Perhaps the original plan to sneak in was somewhat of a bust, if the Nurglites now had a headcount higher than their body count. The best solution, then, was to turn the element of surprise they had into momentum, and see how far it could get them.

As soon as she heard the question, Meiling put out a big, goofy grin.

“Oh, you better believe it.”

Reimu nodded. “Then let’s come up with a plan to maximize our shock factor. After all, we’re spending the opportunities Flan’s given us all at once, so we better make it count.”

---

While many of the guards were two-headed, nearly all of them seemed quite lax. Or, at least, they weren’t focusing on their task - many of the hosts and those with Baku’s Mark were little more than gibbering fools. The parasites, Reimu noted, seemed more coherent, though only enough to be actually doing their jobs - glancing around nervously and jumping at every shadow and loose stone. But the meandering pace of their entwined entities kept them from looking over the walls, and spotting anyone who actually got close.

It was therefore easy to not be spotted, at least as they made their way up to the wall. The team advanced in ones and twos, until the whole squad was flush with the stonework. What pieces of conversation drifted down concerned the battle in the main town, and if they’d all be fine, though the panic-stricken parasites didn’t seem to get much in terms of coherent answers.

Meiling had a hand against the wall to stabilize herself, and was sizing up the crack, seeming to judge something Reimu couldn’t quite fathom. Eventually, she nodded, and waited for the signal. Reimu waited until the next intertwined couple passed, and gave it.

One solid, meaty thump slammed into the wall, hairline fractures all around turning into gaping gashes. Pieces of rock began to fall loose, and there was the sound of numerous voices turning to look at the noise. One of the skitarii pulled the pin on a flashbang, and at Meiling’s signal, threw it over the wall. There was a flash and a ring as Meiling pounded again, causing the wall to fully give way.

The battle-sisters charged in first, the cloud of dust and rubble crested by spurts of thick, ichorous blood. Reimu leapt over a rock to join them, and started to assess the situation.

For most of the defenders, surprise was total. Many were scrambling for weapons they couldn’t find with blinded eyes, or running in panic and getting in the way of each other. A bloat-drone, caught surveying the other side, crumpled under a storm of heavy fire from one of the gunners before it could turn around.

Reimu heard a falling scream and a grunt behind her. She turned to see one of the defenders of the wall crumpled on the ground. The parasite-woman on her back screamed, her vain attempts to pry off the dolls stabbing viciously into the skull of her host only succeeding in getting her own hands speared. Reimu silenced her with a bolter round, and waved through the clearing fog for the second half of her forces.

As the skitarii came through, what remained of the defenders rallied, as much good as it did them. A few of the infected came running, nail-claws outstretched, but under the vicious fire of the Sororitas, few made it close enough to earn the honor of being cut down by those Battle-Sisters with melee weapons. The support fire of the skitarii further withered them away, turning it into a complete rout.

“Over here!”

Reimu turned to the noise, to see Meiling holding a heavy wooden double-door shut as pieces of twisted metal broke through. Marisa took point, grinning, and waved Meiling aside. The giant did so in dramatic fashion, leaping up in an acrobatic swing to perch on the door itself.

The first of the infected through had only a split second to wonder where the brace went before his body became more a matter of physics than biology. The two stumbling behind him felt Meiling’s bulk crash down atop them, bringing all three to the floor - and giving Marisa a chance to incinerate the stunned parasite-bearer behind them all. The redhead looked up at Reimu, grinning, before her face turned to shock.

“Reimu! Behind you!”

Reimu turned, to see one of the twinned women jumping down from the wall, wielding blades with desperate fear. The attacker’s downward slash… was only a fraction of a hair off target, and before her second blade could finish its swing, Gohei was already humming with energy.

The attacker’s body hit the ground with a thud. Their heads landed a few feet away.

“Nice moves!” Came the martial artist’s response. Reimu turned, surveying the grounds. Few of their attackers remained, with most scurrying back inside of the building through other entrances.

“We have a way in! Everyone inside!”

---

A stench permeated the mansion, even through the heaviest of armor and the most blessed of respirators. The smell roiled the stomach, making the thought of eating anything in the dining room they had entered through even more unappetising than it might otherwise have been. Instead, they set to work dismantling the main table, and propping the pieces up against any doorways they didn’t intend to use.

“Whew!” Meiling said, single handedly putting into place a table that would have required three of the Skitarii. “Ugly bastards, aren’t they? Their defenses were dreadful, too.”

Reimu raised an eyebrow. “Well, they were probably expecting any attackers to be knights. They weren’t prepared for a small force. Perhaps we can consider it a testament to how… distracting Lady Flandre is managing to be.”

Meiling grinned at the compliment to her mistress, but nevertheless tutted. “That’s just sloppy, and they should have known better. Probably lost their actual siege masters to House Scarlet. Well, their loss is our gain, I suppose.”

Reimu turned to Marisa who was examining a small screen. “Got your auspex primed?”

Marisa grinned. “Pretty easy to spot the Parasite Girls, too. Turns out the auspices set to find humans mark them twice in the same spot.” She pointed at one of the doors. “There’s three of them in what we think is the kitchen right now.”

Meiling tilted her head for a moment, and nodded. “Yes, I can hear them now. They’re arguing over which of the knives would be safest to use for self-defense.” She snorted. “Perhaps your little Psyker can give them a surprise by sending some dolls through one of the dumbwaiters?”

Reimu raised an eyebrow, but nodded to Marisa to help Alice coordinate the attack. “That’s some hearing you’ve got there.”

“Learned from the harshest of mistresses, on that front.” She chuckled. “Anyway. If this is set up like a fairly standard Koumarine manor, there’ll be a few secret entrances around the place… but one place they’ll definitely be is in the chambers of the Ladies themselves. Very common tactic is to keep your personal Knights in an underground bunker, offer up a preliminary defense to draw them in, run to your room, and burst out from beneath them when they get close… hopefully it wouldn’t be hard to find? We should be able to just follow the fanciest pieces of work… if they weren’t all repossessed.”

Sanae, slapping her hands across each other to brush away the sawdust, nodded. “That would probably be wise. I’m sure we can find a suspicious wall and blow a hole in it, but, well…” She gestured up to the sagging roof. “I’m not sure the building would last. They might even try to drop it on us themselves, if they’re craven enough.”

Meiling nodded sourly. “That’s unfortunately likely to be very effective. On the other hand, while I can’t speak for the daemons, at least the heretics themselves seem to be more interested in saving their own hides than stopping us.” After a moment, she tilted her head. “They’re probably all scrambling to an entrance to the tunnels themselves. We’d face a tougher defense, but we could just follow the cultists to an entrance for sure. That’s about the sloppiness I’d expect from them.”

Reimu nodded. “You take interest in defense, Meiling?”

“On a tactical level, at least.” Reimu tapped into her combead, hearing a wheezy cough. “If you actually stand her in front of a gate, she'll be asleep in minutes.”

Reimu raised an eyebrow at Meiling, who looked duly sheepish. “Well… the tactics and the execution are different. And besides, the Royal Palace gate is pretty boring most of the time, compared to some places I’ve guarded.”

“Well, perhaps you could do more than sit in front of the gate if you weren’t so hopelessly narcoleptic.” Patchouli’s voice had a rather petulant tone to it. “As it is, you’re just a walking liability to Baku oversight.”

Meiling huffed, turning off her commbead to grumble, rather than protesting directly.

“I must say, Hakurei.” The magos let out another hoarse noise, which Reimu took a few seconds to parse through commbead static as a chuckle. “Your skitarii are finely-optimized. That Kirisame must be proud.”

Reimu nodded. “She takes rather personal care of her Skitarii - said it was inspired by the work of Cia-” She stopped, belatedly realizing that there were very few in the Gensou Cluster likely to have heard of Cain. “By a hero of the Imperium. But it seems to be very effective.”

“Ahhh, she calibrates them herself? She must be extra diligent.” She could practically hear the Magos nodding in false understanding. “I’ve had similar results with my Koakuma, so I suppose it makes sense.”

“More than the skitarii, who I’m most curious about is you, Reimu.” Meiling said. “I was dead certain your head would be split in half by that jumping parasite girl. Actually, scratch that, I thought your head WAS split by it. How the hell did you do that?”

“For that matter,” Patchouli replied. “That blade of yours seemed to glow like the hammers the Lapinite rabbits use. How does that work, anyway? If you can give us more intel, maybe we can use that against Lapin.”

Reimu jumped on the refuge of diplomatic chiding to change the topic, storing the mention of what was likely some pattern of Force Hammers into the back of her mind. “Our goal here is to bring all of the Gensou Cluster back into the Imperium. There’s no need for you to go up against Lapin any time soon.”

“But-”

“Besides, the arts we employed to make Gohei are classified, like many Inquisitorial technologies -” She glanced meaningfully at Meiling. “- and I can’t be certain without personal review that there’s any similarities between my art and the arts used by psyker abhumans. For that matter, many in the Inquisition would take such a comparison as a direct insult.”

Both of them were quiet for a moment after that. Sanae placed her hand on Meiling’s shoulder. “Don’t take it as an insult. I’m not even qualified to know some of the Inquisitorial secrets, and I’ve been working as part of them for years. Secrets must be kept close, lest our enemies discover how to unmake us.” Reimu nodded gratefully at the save.

Still, they’d mentioned a few interesting topics. Once she decided how they were going to search for secret passages, it’d be worth prying for more information.

[ ] Find the bedchambers. Probably slower, less certain, hopefully safer, unless the heretics rallied some stronger forces to them in the spare time.
[ ] Follow the cultists. Almost certain to be faster. Likely to face a stiffer defense.

{ } “What’s the deal with these Baku, anyways?” This was the second time it had come up, and the talk of them being able to oversee planning had her worried.
{ } “Meiling’s far from the typical Koumarine, isn’t she?” It was pretty clear at this point that there was more to the redheaded giant than just being unusually strong. Perhaps there was some special technique she was yet to hear of.

[X] Follow the cultists. Almost certain to be faster. Likely to face a stiffer defense.
{X} “What’s the deal with these Baku, anyways?” This was the second time it had come up, and the talk of them being able to oversee planning had her worried.

“One sec.” Reimu took off at a jog to catch up with Alice and Marisa by the dumbwaiter. “Leave one of them alive, she’ll lead us to a secret entrance if we just let her run.”

Marisa chuckled. “I’ll get one of my boys to lock on to her, then. Alice, let’s make sure everyone’s prepared to move before we get them, okay?”

Alice nodded, looking queasier than she did on the aircraft. Reimu patted the top of her helmet, and turned back to Meiling, who looked a bit concerned. “She could lead us to a trap, you know…”

Reimu shrugged. “Whole mansion could be full of traps. You could consider any slightly weak ceilings a trap in a Nurgle building.” She rested her bolter on her shoulder. “In fact, there’s a good chance one of these panicking cultists will set them off for us. Either that, or we can follow her for a relatively safe route.”

She looked over to the kitchen area. “And if we’re going anywhere near a demon-summoning ritual, we may need to very suddenly make an escape. Or call artillery on our location. And I want to make sure that when we do, we’ll be able to make a clean getaway.”

Meiling head tilted up in understanding, quite literally looking ahead and trying to picture the getaway in question. “Right… servant entrance is likely to be shorter and wider, so more people can get out at once. And if they activate their Knights in the tunnels, we’ll be better off scurrying for them as well. But if we try to run into their defenses, we could very quickly end up in a killbox…” She rubbed her chin, before giving a thumbs-up. “Alright, good thinking. Let’s spook her and see where she goes.”

Patchouli’s voice again entered the commbead. “You’ll have to forgive Meiling. She’s used to the sorts of places where once something gets inside, them trying to get out again is the only thing you’re hoping for.” Meiling gave a big grin. “Another reason she’s not suitable for our tactical defenses with those Baku around.” The grin vanished.

“That’s another thing.” Reimu tapped into her commbead. “What’s the deal with these Baku, anyways? Can you give me the sitrep on that?”

She heard an affirmative grunt. “Sure, I’ll talk you through them. They’re a fascinating topic, really. Koakuma, fetch me the-” The connection cut off midline, presumably only having stuck for a second as she bid that servant of hers to another task.

“All ready here!” Was the sub-vocalisation from Sanae’s commbead. They were all poised to attack in front of the main doors, except for Alice, who by her expression was either focusing on controlling her dolls, or trying not to throw up. ”Good to go at your command, Reimu.”

The inquisitor unholstered her bolter. “Then let’s give her a scare, shall we? Alice, when you’re ready.”

There was a metallic clunk from the far side of the room. Reimu leaned into the door. Now that her team had gone quiet, she could hear the three in the kitchen speaking.

“W-was that…?”

There was a pause. “...I think it was one of the dumbwaiters. I’ll… go check…”

There was the sound of slow, uncertain shuffling, followed by a loud clatter of ceramic dinnerware hitting the ground, drawing panicked yelling from all of them. There was a few moments of silence, before she could hear a collective sigh of relief.

“They’re… a bunch of dollies.”

“Eh? Dollies?”

“What, like Kitty?”

“No, these are like lieeeYYYYYYAAAAA-” The scream broke off into gurgling, being supplanted by more screams.

Reimu waited, listening to the frantic scrambling for the door. Another pair of screams, followed by thudding footsteps…

Once she was certain the survivor had just passed the door, she threw it open, putting on her best furious-Inquisitor voice. “Heretic! Kill her before she reports to the others!” She yelled, her eyes scanning for a target for only a split second.

She fired a round, close enough to pass in-between the two halves of the parasite girl and shatter a frosted-glass lamp ahead of her. The girl shrieked, stumbling only briefly as she ran barefoot through the glass. Reimu let a small grin form, holding back a Sororitas who took her words literally and was about to needle her.

“YOU CAN’T HIDE, HERETIC! WE’LL FIND YOU, WHEREVER YOU SCURRY TO! ...Right, that should do it.” She turned to the team. “Come on everyone, let’s go on a little tour. After all, we can’t let our guide get too far ahead, can we?”

---

The glasswork had done its job, leaving a trail of ichorous purple blood on the floor wherever the girl went. Everyone gave it a wide berth, even as they followed the trail - already in some points, some form of fungus was growing from it, and the stench was unbearable.

They tracked her through the halls, keeping a close eye on her through the auspices. They made sure to keep her running, staying little more than a door behind. Whenever she slowed or stopped, they shot in her general direction, or did something else to get her moving again - at one point, Meiling managed to rip a door off its hinges and throw the whole thing at her. That certainly had got life back into their bleeding feet.

Static echoed in. “I have the dossier.” The local fabricator-general's voice carried an air of smugness, which was slightly marred by the ensuing coughing fit. “Shall we talk about it?”

“You talk. We’re busy.” Reimu scanned the next room they entered, spotting no signs of any traps other than creaking floorboards, and slowly made her way along a wall.

Patchouli spoke like a schoolteacher, reciting everything like it was a class lecture. “The Baku are what you might call the middle ground between the Rabbits and the Lapinite nobles. They’re not Rabbits, but they are psykers - often quite powerful ones. And where most rabbits specialize in more conventional telepathy, the Baku specialize in dreams.”

How many psykers did these Lapinites have? Reimu raised an eyebrow, but focused on edging around the room. A medical kit lay abandoned on the floor, where their prey had dropped it in an attempt to patch themselves up. She carefully stepped around a rusty needle.

“It’s said that whenever someone sleeps, a Baku can sneak into their dreams. Practical evidence suggests that at the very least, they can do some level of listening in on tactical conversations from people snoozing in the meetings. And everyone with any level of importance has stories of Baku speaking to them in their sleep, trying to cajole secrets from them.”

Reimu’s eyes widened, and she spoke in a frantic whisper. “Why the hell didn’t Satori tell us about this?!”

Patchouli took a moment to consider. “Was she in orbit of Lapin when she sent the message? Or near it, maybe? They’d know if she blabbed about them, and they’re surprisingly vicious about keeping their secrets, for such nosy people themselves. It was probably for the best that she didn’t tell you, if only for her own sake. Remilia herself might have recommended it.”

Reimu scowled, but didn’t respond further.

“Baku have been long known to sneak onto the other planets of the cluster, usually as assassins or abductors. People knew they were doing this for a long time… but their targets largely seemed to be entirely random infants. It’s only recently that someone figured out why.” Patchouli chuckled wryly. “Thanks to some crow from Tenma, I’m told.”

Marisa pushed to the front as Reimu opened the next door, showing her auspex. It was pretty clear from the number of dots that they’d reached their target.

“Supposedly, according to her investigation, the people the Baku target… are young psykers. They can somehow tell through their dreams if a child is a psyker or not, and they decide from there to either kill them… or take them for themselves. The assumption is that most of the Baku come from these abducted children.”

A lot of things began to click into place. Like how there could exist a moon full of psykers without this whole place having fallen to the Warp long ago. Anyone familiar with psychic powers knew the risk they posed - how they could endanger entire planets if they were weak-willed enough. The whole purpose of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica was to determine which psykers could be used, and who was too risky to serve the Imperium.

These Baku were acting as a miniature of the Astra Telepathica. Their power over dreams was allowing them to act in that stead, killing those they must and hoarding those they could. She released a breath she felt like she’d been holding since she’d first read the dataslate - for now, feeling completely certain that Koumaris had been the right choice. She saw Meiling cock her head in confusion, most likely wondering why the Inquisitor took the idea of literal cradle-robbing of dangerously powerful people as a good thing.

“Until recently, it was thought that psykers were pure witchcraft, and aside from the rabbits could only be found within nobility or on Chikushou. But now people realize those are just the places Baku don’t have the guts to abduct people from. They only assassinate noble psykers, never take them for risk of having the whole planet give chase, so noble witchcraft has been known for a while.” Patchouli hummed. “...With that said, it’s only with those recent revelations that any known psyker nobles have been allowed to take center stage. Until then, they were usually kept hidden from most eyes, locked in basements or in distant manors. It’s been one of the great efforts of Remilia, among other nobles across the cluster, to change the perception of psykers from witches and Baku-bait to valuable assets.”

Reimu nodded in understanding. “Okay… that’ll do for now. I’ll ask for more details later if I need them.”

She turned her attention to the auspex, and began to assess the situation.

Meiling leaned over the auspex, letting out a small hum. “So… these double dots are the Parasite Girls, yes?”

Marisa nodded. “Most likely. This is currently set to detect humans, and - to the best of our abilities - we don’t think there’s any daemons here either.”

Meiling looked over. “And I’m guessing those lines are… upturned tables?” She let out a sigh. “It’s pretty slapdash, but I’m worried it’ll do the job.” She turned her eyes to the tables in the room with them. “They’re fairly sturdily-made.”

Marisa’s fingers twitched, seeming to take a moment to think. “Mmmm. Depends on how you count it, but we could very well be outgunned here if those PG’s are double-bearing weapons.”

The Yumeko Doll leaned forward, brandishing its lance viciously. Marisa idly reached down to pat Alice’s head. “Yes, yes, the Makai Royal Guard turn the numbers in our favor. But they’re best served with Alice’s guidance, and I don’t want her to be too big of a target.”

Reimu hummed. “I’m guessing anyone in front of the barrier probably has melee weapons, aside from our tour guide in the southwest there. Hmmm… Seems like we have… two main options, in terms of where we can enter.”

Sanae tapped on the screen. “The west and east sides… The west is a lot closer, so our melee combatants can get there a lot quicker, but the east’s got a bit more cover.” She pointed. “And they haven’t protected that northeast doorway very well. If we can get over there, we can attack their flank… a bit worried about that one Parasite Girl, though.”

The young Magos tapped the northwest corner. “What about this door? There’s no door behind them, but imagine their surprise if Meiling or a couple of chainswords burst through that wall!” She let out a chuckle. “They’d be fighting a battle on all sides at that, rough calculations say the chance of anyone getting major injuries quarters if we pull it off right.”

Meiling shook her head. “No, look at the blood. The ‘tour guide’ came that way, they’ll be expecting us to follow. A lot of us could get hurt. Not to mention it’s a bit conspicuous there’s nobody there… it might be trapped or something like that.”

Patchouli chimed in. “I fail to see the problem. Even if you suffer a few wounds, surely they’re no match for you?”

Meiling managed to bring in no small amount of snark at that. “Does the term ‘battle of attrition’ mean nothing to you, Patchouli? Anyone who gets seriously injured in our squad will have to either stay behind or retreat. Not to mention we’re facing some kind of… supernatural disease daemon here. Getting a small scratch could be fatal. And there could still be a whole Knight under the ground after that.”

Reimu nodded in firm agreement. “There’s a lot of ways we could win this fight. The issue is winning it with minimal or no casualties.”

She turned to survey the team, taking stock.

Marisa, wielding her concerningly powerful plasma gun. Two Skitarii snipers, down to admittedly-quite-respectable arc pistols, but pistols nonetheless, unlikely to do more than scorch the wood if they weren’t able to get a clear shot. Four more standard skitarii rangers wielding galvanic rifles, that’d again lose much of their power to the woodwork.

Three heavily armored Sisters of Battle, with shields and melee weapons, including Sanae herself. Two slightly more lightly-armored Sisters with bolters at the ready. Those weapons would much more likely treat the wood as a formality, but the issue was keeping them safe from the attackers.

Meiling, the massive mountain of a woman as she was, and the most heavily armored. Alice, the Telekine psyker, with a half-dozen spear-wielding dolls. And, of course, Reimu herself, with a halberd and a bolter of her own.

What was the best way to win this…?

[ ] * (Write in time!)

>>69460

Reimu took a moment to inspect one of the nearer tables.

They were sizable and sturdy things, made of some stout type of wood. They probably could stop their fair share of bullets, or at least slow them down significantly.

But they were also quite massive, and - from an experimental heft - quite heavy. It'd probably take two of the Sisters or Skitarii to move them, and they wouldn't be able to fire while they were doing it. Could they chop it up into more mobile cover? ...probably not quietly, these things seemed sturdier than the actual walls. But that wasn't exactly a no.

---

I should probably clarify how I'm 'scoring' this, shouldn't I?

Whenever I set up an encounter like this, I'm going to be keeping track of an internal wounds stat for the battle. This is the 'baseline' for how many wounds I'd expect the team to take if they just charged in.

For good things you do, I'll reduce the wounds, and for every thing that goes wrong (whether because it's a trap that wasn't accounted for or a bad plan). I'll mark accordingly. I have certain things I'm expecting to come up, and anything else I'll grade based on the moment.

Once the wounds are calculated, I'll assign them out and fluff the battle accordingly. Wounds will tend to either seriously injure the mooks or disable parts of the 2hu's kit first; but if they're high enough in number or the 2hu's the one who falls for a particular trap, they could gravely injure one of the 2hus as well!

And feel free to ask questions, as well, if there's anything you're uncertain about.

>>69475

Are we all happy to go forward with this plan?

[ ] Yes
[ ] No

I'll give people a few more moments to decide. Though I do normally plan to update Inquisitor Reimu on the weekends, maybe I'll
just

h a v e

....

...............

.................................

ACTIVATING DATASLATE.

ENTER PASSWORD

> MonochromeScalesSixtyYears

...

....................... ACCEPTED.

WELCOME, LADY SHIKI.

ENTER SEARCH TERM.

> Ordo Toho Gensou Cluster

SEARCHING... CONFIRMING CLEARANCE...

1 FOLDER FOUND.

- OTGC

> Properties

- ALTERNATIVE NAME: Ordo Toho Gensou Cluster Reports.
- FOLDER CREATOR: 229
- LAST EDITED: 32 HOURS AGO.
- LAST ACCESSED: NEVER.
- PERMISSIONS: FULL ACCESS TO ALL CONTAINED FILES
- SUBFOLDERS: Dossiers, Mission Reports, Risk Factors

> Open OTGC/Dossiers/Operatives

- OPENED SUCCESSFULLY. FILES ARE AS FOLLOWS:

- Hakurei, Reimu
- Kirisame, Marisa
- Kochiya, Sanae
- Margatroid, Alice
- Motoori, Kosuzu
- Komano, Aunn
- TBD

> Open TBD.

- OPENING FILE... READING...

229: If you are reading this, Lady Shiki, I must apologise. I was unable to assemble all the required dossiers by the time of dispatch. I will amend this once I arrive in the cluster myself.
If you don't see this, I'll just use this for my personal reference.
Files still needing to be added or assembled here:
- The Blank
- The Dreadnought
- Myself (as part of Lady Shiki's reinforcement dispatch)
- Operative K (as part of Lady Shiki's reinforcement dispatch)
- Satori Komeiji (and possibly her staff)
- Koumarine Nobility and/or Major Players
- Lapinite Nobility and/or Major Players
- Tenma Nobility and/or Major Players
I will assemble these as the resources become available to me and Motoori to do so.

> Close TBD.

{PICK TWO}
{ } > Open Hakurei, Reimu
{ } > Open Kirisame, Marisa
{ } > Open Kochiya, Sanae
{ } > Open Margatroid, Alice
{ } > Open Komano, Aunn
{ } > Open Motoori, Kosuzu

> Open Hakurei, Reimu

The Red-White Inquisitor
Hakurei Reimu
Occupation: Inquisitor
Allegiance: Imperium - Ordo Toho
Role in OTGC Expedition: Chief Inquisitor and Expedition Leader
Assignment Rank: Zeta
Likelihood of deliberate betrayal: To be Assessed
Likelihood of inadvertent corruption: Low

A young Inquisitor and the leader of the expedition into the Gensou Cluster. Until shortly before the Gensou Cluster was discovered by Satori Komeiji, Hakurei Reimu was an Inquisitorial Acolyte working primarily under Inquisitor Ibaraki Kasen. In many ways, the Gensou Cluster can be considered her Inquisitorial debut (*1).

Before her time in the Inquisition, Reimu worked as an Arbitrator of the Adeptus Arbites on the world known as Reiiden, a world with heavy influence from the Ecclesiarchy. Perhaps as a result, Reimu shows some traits typical of both more typical law enforcers and of the Sisters of Battle, though the former is more prominent.

Though her Arbites office was perpetually underfunded and under equipped - partially because it clashed strongly with the Ecclesiarchy on multiple occasions - it appears that Ordo Toho took an interest in her endeavors from a young age (*2). Agents of the Ordo Minoris both shielded her from the worst possible consequences and used her as a more official avenue to uncover corruption on the planet. Perhaps as a result of her meager resources, Reimu recruited several highly unusual individuals unlikely to find work elsewhere - except within organizations like Ordo Toho, bringing her into alignment with their interests.

As a result of these and other events, she was eventually directly recruited by Inquisitor Ibaraki Kasen, and groomed to become an Inquisitor. Ordo Toho by its very nature has many acolytes that would be simply unacceptable to most other Ordos as Inquisitors; Reimu not only is one of the few who doesn’t have those unacceptable traits but also displays incredible natural talent as an Inquisitor, leading to her quickly becoming Kasen’s second-in-command and her recent graduation.

Abilities

Reimu is a rank Zeta Psyker, but has received relatively little training as one. She has nonetheless presented innate talent within the schools of Divination and Telekinesis. Despite being a psyker, she is believed to be of very low risk of direct corruption; she displays abnormally strong will, and has proven consistently resistant to daemonic influence.

One of the most notable abilities she displays is her intuition. Reimu has an incredible sense for spotting potential risk factors, clues, and candidates for Inquisitorial employment. It is suspected that this at least partially comes from innate divination, but Reimu appears to struggle to tell the difference.

Perhaps related to this is an unusual form of charisma; individuals of unusual or exceptional talent are often drawn to her. This has both helped her find new recruits for Ordo Toho and uncover plots orchestrated by powerful individuals on different occasions. Many of her recruits are not drafted, but willingly offer themselves to her forces.

Other abilities displayed include levitation, the ability to use force weapons, and augmentation of already impressive marksmanship and dodging skills (*3). However, she has also been trained to fight in the presence of a blank, and though her performance is impaired, she nonetheless is still significantly threatening and powerful. For her part, Reimu consciously keeps her psyker powers hidden from those unaware of her talents, largely for strategic reasons - however, it appears most of her usage of them is reflexive and instinctive, and without conscious suppression, they tend to manifest around her unconsciously.

Her ability to fight under null psychic influence is perhaps the indicator of one of her greatest latent traits; many of her abilities are augmented by her psychic power, but still come from incredible innate talent. There have been two known occasions where skilled warriors, cognisant of her psyker powers, have employed anti-psyker measures against her, only to still be beaten in combat by her directly.

Aside from that, she is generally considered to be an extremely honest person. This both works to her advantage with her charisma, and to her disadvantage when maintaining disguises or false identities - most of her disguises just read to other people as ‘undercover Arbites’. While this is an impediment at times, she has learned to compensate for it; both in using half-truths instead of outright lying, and acting as a red-herring obvious investigator while more subtle agents pass unnoticed.

Personality

While on duty - specifically, while actively working as an acolyte or Inquisitor - Reimu presents a strict and business-oriented demeanor. She is laser-focused on achieving her objectives, and presents little interest in other matters.

While not in a public-facing task or actively deployed - including anything from genuine leave to busywork to even combat training - Reimu’s personality can seem almost to be a different person. She is indolent, petulant, and irreverent. Perhaps one of the biggest examples of this is her recruitment of Motoori Kosuzu, who acts as her personal secretary and handles nearly all documentation work for her. Kosuzu, despite having spent an incredibly short time comparatively in the Inquisition, has documentation clearance and access rivalling that of an Inquisitor (*4), largely for Reimu's convenience.

This lackadaisical nature was for a long time the main source of friction between Acolyte and Master. Kasen has taken a very personal approach in training Reimu, and as a result, they have something of a fraught mother-daughter relationship (*5). Regardless, when the time comes for them to work together, they are a fearsome combination.

*1: Though she has acted as an Inquisitor in the stead of Ibaraki Kasen during her acolyteship, when the latter was incapacitated during their time on Makai.
*2: Possibly from birth or even conception - Reimu’s mother is not known or officially recorded, but comparing her age, the timeline of events and known associations, it is possible that her mother is either an acolyte of Ibaraki Kasen, or the Inquisitor herself. The latter possibility appears to be believed wholeheartedly by the other Inquisitors of Ordo Toho; Kasen herself has refused to comment, and Reimu is heavily dismissive.
*3: Several close observations have recorded instances where her bullets have 'curved' towards enemy combatants, and cases where attacks that should have hit her have instead only grazed. This suggests her combat skills are at least augmented by either telekinesis, divination, or possibly both.
*4: With the exception of absolutely anything relating to Tzeentch. Speaking from the position of knowing and working with Kosuzu personally, and trusting her as much as is reasonably possible, this is essentially a mandatory exception.
*5: This, naturally, only lends credence to the idea of them being biologically mother and daughter as well.

{ } > Open Kirisame, Marisa
{ } > Open Kochiya, Sanae
{1} > Open Margatroid, Alice
{1} > Open Komano, Aunn
{ } > Open Motoori, Kosuzu

(Previous vote about the plan remains open)