Mission Actual- 14 minutes:
“Red, I need you to head off the reinforcements. We can’t let it free him! I’m heading to the truck!” Inquisitor Sand’s voice chimed in Red’s micro-bead.

“Master, it’s too dangerous! I must insist on accompanying you. This thing is…” Red’s voice cut off as the first wave of cultist reinforcements rushed down the corridor unloading a volley of small arms fire as they surged forward. Red and the two Arbitrators took up positions to block the passage while returning fire with their own weapons. Most of the bullets from the cultists’ weapons bounced off the heavy carapace armor of Red and his companions while the lightly-armored cultists weren’t so lucky as the Arbitrators’ combat shotguns and Red’s bolt pistol started cutting down their ranks.

Sand’s voice came over the mirco-bead, “Red, I’m on the road. Got three Arbitrators with me. Keep me updated. Sand out.”

Mission Actual- 21 minutes:
The daemon slammed into the truck again and then flew, leaped, bounded away as the Arbites hammered away at it with their guns. Blood, crystal shards, splinters, ichor and a myriad of other substances blew off the daemon from the impact hits. It was difficult to tell what the daemon’s true form was, or what it was made of, as it was constantly shifting its shape and composition- it was a winged humanoid made of flesh, then it was a crystal like humanoid, next a granite serpent, then a robot-like golem of steel, then a being of pure energy, and a number of other forms that it constantly shifted to, or remained all of them at the same time.

Despite several solid hits from the Arbitrators’ shotguns and autoguns, the daemon showed no signs of being injured and its relentless assault continued. It landed hard on the hood of the cargo truck just as Sand turned the truck into the mid-hive level business district that was his destination. Talons, tentacles, warp energy, and a mind-boggling assortment of shifting attacking appendages easily shattered the truck’s windshield and attacked the occupants within. Sand saw the Arbitrator in the passenger seat slump lifeless to the floorboard as several of the daemon’s attacks easily punched through the Arbitrator’s heavy carapace armor like it was paper and into his torso.

Sand tried his best to navigate the truck through the parking lot with the shifting daemon obstructing his view and screamed as one of the daemon’s appendages tore into his side several times and then grazed his head. Letting go of the steering wheel, Sand quick drew his bolt pistol and inferno pistol and fired both pistols simultaneously point blank into what best passed as a torso. A huge hole opened up on the daemon- big enough that Sand could see the light pole a couple of seconds before the truck slammed into it throwing the daemon away and sending Sand’s head into the dashboard.

Mission Actual- 33 minutes:
Red turned to Kessa and Uriel, “I just received a vox call on the Inquisitor’s encrypted channel from someone identifying himself as Rusty. He appears to be a citizen in the business district where the storage facility is located that Inquisitor Sand secured the cult leader. He confirmed that Inquisitor Sand is alive, but seriously injured.”

“Good news if its true- it might be a trap,” Uriel said while lighting up an Ilho-stick. “Perhaps the cult leader got freed and he’s just trying to lure more of us in to kill?”

“I don’t think so,” Red replied, “this guy sounded pretty shaken. He confirmed that the daemon was there.”

“Well, let’s mount up who we got available and get over there.”

“I’ve seen what this thing can do Uriel. It’s not typical of its kind, though that itself is an oxymoron. I want to save the Inquisitor too, but it’s too powerful for a conventional assault. There has to be another way to save the Inquisitor while limiting exposure and causalities.”

“What about special munitions?” Kessa says. “If the storage unit is properly warded and reinforced as you and the Inquisitor were supposed to make it when you prepared it for the cult leader then I have a suggestion.”

Mission Actual- 109 minutes:
“Confirm the Inquisitor is secured in the storage unit?” Red asked the voice on the other end of the vox.

“Yes. Yes he is. The thing, its out there,” came the reply.

“Standby,” Red told the voice and closed the channel before turning to Kessa, “Do you have the Inquisitor’s psychic signature?”

“No. No I don’t,” the Astropath replied. “There are only two possibilities to explain this- he is warded by someone or something, such as the wards you and Inquisitor Sand placed in the unit, or he is deceased, in which case his soul has already gone to the Emperor.”

“Either way it sounds like we go forward with the plan as our best hope. The Emperor Protects.” Red opened up a vox channel to Rogue Trader Captain Melua aboard the Arcadia. “Is the Psyk-out bomb barrage prepared for launch?” he asked the captain.

“Affirmative Red. My crew has pre-plotted firing trajectories and are ready on your command.”

“I want them to thread the needle right through that tear in the hive wall and into the business district. Make sure your crew has double and triple checked those trajectories or I’ll bring the Emperor’s light to everyone on your bridge!”

“Understood,” Melua responded.

Red opened the vox channel back to Mitch, “you and your companions have been loyal servants of the Imperium. Standby, relief is on its way…”

*GM’s Note: This mission was modified for Dark Heresy from Ross Payton’s Delta Green Shotgun Scenario “Burner." Listen to his great actual play session with his friends at RPPR. It can be found “here.”