A slightly smaller Mess

He takes the offered drink "apparently so."

"eh, my home was prolly imperial at some point. If it was, twas long before I were born."

"We don't know what language was spoken during the age of strife."

"I aint talkin bout that far back" he chuckles

"Your World rebelled, then?"

"Got conquered. Long before my time, don't know the full story."

The powder settles upon the corpse the canister landed on, and those in the near vicinity. Within seconds, exposed skin begins to pale, and crack, creating irregularly shaped plates of skin. The extremities begin to convulse, fingers twitching, and faces contorting, while the flesh exposed by the cracking skin begins to weep liquid, foul smelling and viscous.

Werner: "This world has been loyal since first brought into the light."

"Aye, good on it. Not too well defended though. Not nockin you lot, yer doin a good job all things considered, but ya'd think there'd be more of ye"

Werner: "We are in the periphery. There are no hive cities, our population is minimal."

After perhaps a minute, from the first signs of infection, there is a gruesome cracking sound, and the chest cavities of the corpses are forced open, the now blackened and necrotic flesh within opened to the air, and yet more of the white powder drifts from the cavity, spreading slowly, coating the ground and nearby dead.

"Aye, makes sense"

Lyanna: *next to laurence*...what did you just do

Werner: "But given the difficulty that just once city has given you. I am confident."

Laurence: "I released a bioweapon. By throwing it, then shooting it."

"Thing about that lad... the guys in command, up there?" *points upwards* "They aint takin this all that seriously"

Lyanna:...and your men have no kind of protection against it... why...

Laurence spreads his hands, and tilts his head to the side. "I'm standing right here."

Werner: "Hmn. We'll see if they're so nonchalant by the end."

Lyanna:.... yes of course, i forgot you are several miles wide, clearly enough to cover the entire line

Erwin: if they were takin this seriously, they'd have turned the cities into craters from orbit. Hate to break it to you lad, but this is pretty much live fire training for us.

Laurence: "More than capable of killing a spore that passes that line." he gestures at the line inscribed by the burnt earth

Werner: "Live fire? By the emperor we'll give you live fire. Those damned astartes won't be so uppity with a lascannon hole in their chests."

Lyanna: and if you're wrong?

Erwin: aint sayin its sensible. Personally would rather I weren't down here riskin me life and the lives of me crew unnecessarily. Don't get to pick your deployments eh?

Caiber meanwhile, makes his way to the firing range, a small leather pouch tucked under his arm. quietly, he approaches the workbench, and places the pouch upon it. He reaches for it...then hesitates.

Byrne is stood at the target shooting range, with laspistol in hand, his left hand made into a fist, and pressed into the small of his back. His fire is slow, measured, his brow furrowed heavily.

Laurence: "I'm usually not."

Werner: "No, indeed we do not."

Caiber hasn't noticed him, yet. He's just staring down at the pouch, his hand hovering over it in silence. his hand trembles a little.

Lyanna: not what I asked.

Erwin nods, somewhat solemnly, glancing over at the bed Werner had slept in

Byrne continues to fire at the range, stopping only to change the charge pack. When he does, he sees Caiber from the corner of his eye, though does not approach him.

Laurence: "I'll have to do some more strict triage of the situation."

Werner: "Lost a crewmember in that last attack?"

Caiber pulls his hand away, clenching his fist, trying to stop himself trembling.

Lyanna:....great confidence boost right there. But I feel it's wasted. The weak points in the line have exposed themselves by now.

Erwin: aye. Erich, my radio man. Poor lad, green as grass, only just recruitment age.

Byrne finishes a second charge pack. Turning to retrieve another, he now raises an eyebrow, seeing caiber in the same position as before. He holsters his pistol and walks towards him. "Caiber, are you quite alright?"

Laurence: "Indeed, but A, they're where we want them to think they are, and B, now they have to walk through a field filled with a horrific bio weapon."

Werner: "The cost of rebellion, as it were."

"Hm? oh.. Byrne. Yeah just.. decided to finally fish this old thing out"

Lyanna: and that bio weapon will do what to say, sealed tanks who's occupants are in sealed suits? Also... what sort of bio weapon are we talking?

Erwin: rebellion?

Byrne: "This old thing being?"

Laurence: "Well, one, it turns any cut in a sealed suit into a kill, and two, an engineered self propagating fungal spore."

Werner vaguely gestures at his aquilla lapel pin

Caiber takes a deep breath, reaches out, and opens the pouch, revealing... a large revolver of a type byrne doesn't recognise

Lyanna: well...they can just burn that out with incendiary munitions...which they have lots of.

Erwin: lad never rebelled against anything. He wasn't born into your imperium n switched sides, he was born into this side. That aint a rebel, that's just an opponent.

Byrne: "Right... Odd reaction to have to a gun."

Laurence: "They could, but they might not."

Werner: "The sins of the father."

Caiber:... it requires...context. This belonged to a member of my cult. My childhood hero. It's all that's left of him.

Lyanna: and why might they not?

Erwin: you do realise many o the purebloods round here use that same logic for why they hate you? Ancestors of your kind burned their home down.

Byrne: "Ah, i see. I suggest you rid yourself of it."

Laurence: "Usual human stupidity?"

Werner: "And why did the imperium burn it? I assume they rebelled, or consorted with xenos."

"Why?"

Lyanna:...renegade astartes and a greater daemon... i don't think human stupidity applies

Erwin: story goes, their lords, the iron warriors rebelled. Your lot decided to scour the planet clean.

Byrne: "I was under the impression you fully realised the cult's lies. That." he gestures at the gun "Is just a relic of those times. Best forgotten."

Laurence: "Oh trust me it does. Astartes may be stupider than humans."

Werner: "Sounds perfectly justified to me."

Caiber: I've realised it Byrne... he was still a dear friend to me.

Lyanna:... *sighs* Five, four, three...

Erwin: maybe, maybe the rebellion too was justified *he shrugs* All I know is, that lad had nowt to do with it. He was born to his ma eighteen years ago, millenia after any rebellion happened. Grew up, had a sweetheart back home. Signed up to try n honour his dead dad's memory, follow in the old man's footsteps, make his Ma proud. Said goodbye to his family n his girl, shipped out, and wound up choking to death on his own blood from shrapnel in the throat, a trillion miles from home on some mud soaked hellscape where he didn't even need to be deployed. Somewhere out there, his old Ma n his girl are cryin right now.

Byrne: "Dwelling on it won't get you anything."

Laurence: "I swear if we hear artillery firing when you hit one i'm going over there to gut every single man who's even touched a basilisk."

Werner: "A rather odd perspective from a soldier."

Caiber doesn't reply. after a moment, he gently reaches out for the weapon

Lyanna: two, one. *turns out, it is artillery fire.*

Erwin: I wouldn't call meself a soldier, lad. I'm a conscript who's better at his job than he wants to be.

Byrne simply watches

Laurence: "Excuse me, i'm off to murder some gunners."

Werner: "The phrase we would use in the guard would be, 'coward'."

Caiber: dozens of tyrants of the rust-worshippers died to this gun. They'd be found, dead in the street where they fell, their bodies riddled with bullets, surrounded by their dead guards, the words 'sic semper tyranis' painted on the wall in their blood.

Lyanna: please tell me you're not serious.

Erwin: *shrugs* I aint afriad of my duty lad. Just didn't choose it. And I'm aware of the hurt my duty causes.

Byrne: "I am horrified and saddened in equal measure."

Laurence: "Deadly, i'm going to kill people to make a point."

Werner: "Duty... You're failing your duty as a human."

Caiber: every one deserved worse than they got. My people were little more than slaves, chattle to the machines of industry.

Lyanna: they're... at the back of the lines... you've got their entire defensive works and army to get through first...

Erwin: *shrugs* Aint something that ever came up. My duty's to me family and me home. Things which, given your 'sins of the father' logic, your lot'd happily burn. It was too late for me the moment I started breathin eh?

Byrne: "The toil of the forgeworlds, are the only reason that the imperium stands."

Laurence: "Good point... I wonder if i can fit one of those canisters in an earthshaker..."

Werner: "It is never too late to find faith."

Caiber: They can vat grow people to create cybernetic labour, the suffering they cause is not just unnecessary, its only justification is sadism.

Lyanna: you're just asking for the daemon to fuck with you at this point....plus the blast of firing would shatter the canister and it'd just spray on your own men.

Erwin: yer faith help you on that battlefield? Don't look like it did. Erich had his faith too. Didn't stop him choking on his own blood.

Byrne: "No, it's cost, plain and simple. It is the same reason we do not have legions of astartes, rather than the Astra Millatarum. A man is cheaper, and fulfils the same role as more expensive alternatives."

Laurence: "I didn't particularly consider deployment methods, i just made the things... I'll have to come up with something"

Werner: "Faith is holding you back at this very moment. Faithless men would break before a titan, would they not?"

Caiber flashes Byrne a look. His eyes say it all, Byrne almost able to see the visage of screaming humans, packed like sardines, behind those stern pupils.
"The things I saw cannot be justified Byrne."

Lyanna:...you deployed an indiscriminate bioweapon...without properly thinking about it

Erwin: The lads in charge wanting to be meticulous is what's holdin us back lad. There aint nothin worth havin on this rock for us beyond land to fortify. Your bosses know that, my bosses know that. Not worth fightin over, not really. My boss made that clear to me. Did yours when he decided you and your men were gonna die here instead of gettin you out with the rest of the evac?

Byrne: "I have seen similar, caiber. Life aboard a ship is not always pleasant. But it is necessary. We all play our parts."

Laurence: "It's not indiscriminate... as long as i'm nearby to direct it. I have some properly indiscriminate ones too."

Werner: "Our leaders have made it, very clear. That we are to bleed you dry for each step you take."

Caiber: no. They were people, every last one. Just like you. They didn't deserve the lives they had.

Lyanna: you're really good at making me even less confident with just a few choice words.

Erwin: givin us more live fire training was worth your crew dying?

Byrne: "None of us deserve what this galaxy metes out. But we play, our parts."

Laurence smiles, then breaks into quiet laughter. "Oh, i do try."

Werner: "Worth it to hold you back, give other planets time."

Caiber: and what's my part? What was my daughter's part when she was paraded through the streets nude and bleeding by the zealots of your emperor? what was the part my.. *he stops himself, taking a deep breath*

Lyanna just sighs at that

Erwin: and if this was our only battlefleet that might be what yer doin here. It aint.

Byrne: "You were taken from your parts by xenos. And i would suggest, you check your tone, regarding the emperor."

Laurence: "What inquisitor doesn't have weapons of mass destruction in his basement?"

Werner: "We are holding this one."

Caiber: *raises his rending claw arm* I am Xenos, Byrne.

Lyanna: having them and knowing what you're doing with them are crucially different.

Erwin: cause we weren't in a hurry to begin with. If we were, we'd have cleansed it from orbit.

Byrne: "You're human enough in my eyes."

Laurence: "I made the things, i know how to use them."

Werner: "That, being your own mistake."

he stops himself at that, clearly taken off guard by that. he goes to speak, but doesn't have a reply.

Lyanna: riiiight....

Erwin:... *sighs and leans back* everyone in that city's gonna die Werner. And it's for close to nothin.

Byrne straightens up, tucking his hands behind his back, assuming the same position he would, upon the bridge of a ship.

Laurence: "Wait and see. I've got a specific one in mind."

Werner: "Plenty of blood, is what its worth."