Greaves View: Of Worms And Incompetence

==Of Worms And Incompetence.==
<Damos Crusade Campaign
A few weeks after the Arakhos incident, we arrived at our next destination: A newly colonized feral world that Erika Damos's crew had arrived at quite some time ago. I feel a little bit of bittersweet nostalgia for my old home upon seeing this world, but moreover I notice more security here than my place had. That's good, they're ready in case of an attack.
I finally get to take my bandages, and cast off for good today. On my last mission I lost an eye, and had several fractures in my skull after being punched twice by a Chaos Marine. With some luck, I found a replacement cybernetic eye that I had surgically placed in at the earliest opportunity. I go in front of my room's mirror and slowly take off the bandages.
Once they're off, I look in the mirror to see the actual damage done by the chaos marine's fists. The right side of my face is intact, but my left is another story. I will admit this, the doctors did a wonderous job on reconstructing the left side of my face. You could almost say that nothing was wrong, but save one highly noticable exception. Surrounding my cybernetic left eye, in the abstince of my fur, I notice a crescent moon shaped scar. A rather cruel and wicked mark that stretched from the top of my forehead, covered half of my left eye, and stopping just above my mouth. Overall it does look good, but I would still prefer not having it as well as having my original eye.
As far as seeing with the new eye is concerned, it works perfectly. I can see just as well from it, as from my right eye. It makes a suitable replacement and I welcome the experience of being able to see from my left side again.
We make landfall in a couple of hours on our arvus lighter. Once we landed, Vandal starts asking the locals for an emissary of Erika's; left behind for us to talk to about the current situation. The locals make it very clear that he is in a rather large tent on the outskirts of the town, so we make haste to meet with Erika's lackey.
When we reach the tent, we get an oral invitation from inside telling us to come in. What I see as I enter is not a sight for the squeemish. Behind a desk was an eldar. Naked. As in a naked zenos, drinking wine and acting like it was no big deal that he was entirely exposed, eldar. "Greetings!" he exclaims. "My name is Za'Shan Shawe, how do you fare Mr. Conningham?"
Vandal merely states "We're fine.... Don't you want to put some clothes on?" Za'Shan replies "O this, I do this only when I'm drinking so that the universe may gaze upon my magnificence as I gaze at it." (A rather loony one this guy is, and what is that SMELL?) He soon puts on a robe made entirely out of black feathers, much to everyone's relief, and explains what is expected of us.
He orders two guards to open a pair of curtains inside the tent and says, "Gentlemen, you are here to get rid of this!" Before our eyes laid a giant dead worm far bigger than the Eldar. It's mass only matched by the foul odor coming off its rotting body. As he tells his tale of the foul beast in question, Kalei moves up to it and starts eating it. (Is he really that hungry? Eh, I guess when you desperately need to eat, you'll settle for anything.)
Za'Shan tells us that Erika's crew discovered the "Incompetence" (as the beast was named, to mock the previous captain in charge of the planet's proceedings) while investigating the disturbances on the planet. They took it out with an orbital shot from their ship's cannon. It was now our turn, to find the rest of the Incompetence, and kill them.
We debate over how to get this done, when our cat astropath Narvaris speaks up. "I know how to use my powers to lure creatures like this to the surface, if I can contact them, we can simply destroy them all with our own ship's cannon." Za'Shan looks intently at him, examining him from head to foot before saying "I like this guy. All you monkeys should be more like him."  Vandal agrees to the plan, and decides to add to it by adding an augmenter to increase his power's range. It is also decided that prior to luring them to the surface, we should let the worms carve out tunnels to make digging easier.
Before we leave, I ask Za'Shan what the worm's capabilities were. After taking a long look at me, and muttering something to the effect of "Freaky mutant monkey" (Not that I'm offended at being called something other than wolf boy) he told me that it had a thick outer shell, and was a quick digger.
We leave the town in order to call the strike in an isolated area. Our group gets inside a truck being driven by Vandal. Za'Shan on the other hand rides along side us on a mortar-cycle. I can't help but admire the beautiful machine the Eldar rides. It gets you were you need to go, and let's you be by yourself while driving.
I believe I've found my motivation for driving, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
We finally find a desolate crator perfect for luring the worms out into the open. Once the pylon is set into place Narvaris set's to work on contacting the Incompetence. Several minutes pass by as the cat psychic just sat on the ground muttering to himself. Then with no warning the crater explodes as a mass of writhing mouths of the Incompetence crash through the grounds surface. Vandal gives instructions to the crew onboard our ship, and we head towards our truck to escape the location before we get caught up in the blast.
Our exodus is stopped however, as the truck refuses to turn on. Feeling a little panicked the group tries in vain to get the vehicle started. Kalei even gets out in an attempt to push the vehicle, but just as he starts pushing, he yells in pain and grasps his leg. It seems to me that he got a major cramp at the worst time possible.
At that moment, the truck's engine roars awake. I quickly pull Kalei inside the vehicle before we take off. After some time, we see the ship's round impact the spot we targeted, and hear the thunderous boom of the earth shaking. Narvaris reels back and howls in pain. It appears that he was still connected to the worms, and felt their last moments. Not an experience I would wish to take part in.
Afterwards the team decided to talk to the village's mayor. Our commander talked to him for a while, but I refused to stay in his office due to the fact that he was one of those rambling old types that were insistent that his generation had the best everything. I look at the planet's surface one more time before getting on our arvus lighter.
Category:Log
Category:Damos Crusade
Category:Campaign