Fellowship of the Dice

Xanthia stabs one of the dead a second time, just to be safe. The loot is collected, and Solaria gathers the weapons off the heretics in the other room for good measure too. Loaded to bare, the group is ready to move out.

"Haxtes," Jericus says to his brother. "Can you restart the Chirurgeon's self-destruct? We can't afford to let anyone else see what's in this room, much less take any of it away before the Inquisition can clean it up." He feels bad for the hivers who live nearby. But a bit of damage from falling debris is nothing compared to the cleansing that the Inquisition would do if they thought this heresy was revealed to the general population.

"Allright, I will restart the process, if I can. Are you ready?" Haxtes waits until everyone is ready, then gets to work on the screen, reinitiating the self-destruct.

"Will the explosion be big enough to start a Hivequake? We just have to make sure we don't bring the dome down on ourselves..." Going up in a Hive-city, Solaria has seen first hand what a proper Hivequake will do.

A few inspections of the equipment and Haxtes confirms that he can restart the destruct, and that the blast 'should not' be large enough to bring down the hive around it.

So the group moves down and out of the third floor, taking a second to sweep the building once more on Xanthia's suggestion -- just to be sure. No one is found on the third floor, or the second. When you reach the first floor you find some hive scum have moved into the kitchen, but you quickly evict them, along with the food stuffs that aren't tainted. Soliara knows what its like to go hungry in the hive, and she sees to it that the food is removed from the Alm's House and give out to the hungry common man here in Coscarla District.

Haxtes remains on the third floor, and with a shout up the elevator shaft from the kitchen, that same shaft you *almost* climbed up at the very start, Rego calls out. "Burn the heresy to the ground Tech-Priest!" Haxtes then types in the final commands of the selfdestruct giving himself five minutes. The Tech Priest takes the same escape route as the Churgeon climbing down the elevator shaft to join Jereicus and you all in the kitchen. Hurrying out of the building, with Soliara and Xanthia already havnig secured a small place on the street far enough away the four Acolytes race for cover and dive behind it.

...tick...

...tick...

...BOOM...

The third floor of the Alm's House is blown into smithereens! The explosion rocks the eastern wing and the whole side collapses in on itself. The toxic chemicals billow up into the air in a thick green cloud of poison, and the fire races into the other wings of the Alm's House. In minutes the whole place is a conflaguration -- a pyre on which heresy burns.

With that task done you turn your attention on Rego, and confirm that he needs to meet your bosses in the Inquisition. The Cleric agrees to join you, and so you begin your trip to leave the district -- your job finished.

You haven't gone more than a block from the Alm's House when you spy a hab-block on fire, thick poisonous green smoke billows out of the upper story windows, the lower levels are consumed in fire, and Haxtes points out the remains of a bomb near the door to the hab-block that was blown free in the explosion it caused.

There is another earth shattering explosion again just as you are considering what to do. A few blocks north of you the hive shakes, and the rise of a green poison smoke can be seen.

The echoing sound of gunfire plays out as well somewhere in the distance in that same direction you had seen the Rhino Transport go before entering the Alms House.

This whole district is consuming itself it would seem, and its Time to Leave!

"We need to leave this place. It seems, blasphemy will sometimes eradicate itself, it only needs to be nudged a bit. Here we see that those who work against the Machine will be consumed by the cleansing fire." The Tech-Priest shuts up, this being one of the longer 'speeches' the taciturn follower of the Omnissiah has made. He looks his brother in the eyes, showing no feelings and folds his hands in the long sleeves of his robes.

"Such is the fate of heretics," Jericus agrees in a similarly taciturn manner. Then he nods and moves with the others towards the exit.

Rego smiles a grim smile as the Alms house goes up in flames. "The emperor's work, my companions. Those who may or may not starve in the next months will meet a fate far better than what they may have become. Perhaps the scum of this sector will find a way to better themselves in His service, now. "Let us go."

Solaria looks at the fires, her thoughts with the innocents that will burn alongside the heretics. "Innocent lives lost, in the service of the Golden Throne or not, still pull at my heart strings. May they find their way to the Emperor's side in the next life..." The Arbite hefts her load and makes her way with the others, leaving this behind and moving towards their employer's location.

Xanthia is surprised at the poisonous green clouds erupting all over this section of the Hive. Then she nods at Haxtes statements. "Seems very well to be true. I wonder what else they were trying to hide?"

She looks around the hive after Solaria's comments. "Let us hope that not too many were caught in the blasts. Chances are that there were some though. But for those who weren't, they've survived worse already."