Spires of Piety IV: Lord Wyrmtooth's Flight

Lord Feigling Wyrmtooth was petrified. He had survived two assassination attempts in recent days. The first had left his hand-picked bodyguards massacred but him untouched. The second had left him drugged, unconscious, yet still alive and unharmed.  He knew the signs and he knew the legends, and he was a superstitious man. The old stories told of an ancient Harmonculus abandoned deep in the bowels of the hive, four thousand years old, who woke from his stasis-slumber once a century to sate himself with the most exquisite torture. His rarefied tastes were limited to choosing victims only from the most privileged of nobles. Lord Wyrmtooth, it appeared, was next.

He was also a close confidant of former Governor Alaryxx (last seen en route to an Inquisitorial blackship) and he knew it was only a matter of time before Inquisitor Ashrael Ben Sahar came for him. Wyrmtooth was a smart man and knew it
was time to get off-world. He had arranged a discreet transport ship with a shuttle picking him up in a disused manufactorum area on the edge of the hive. To get there safely he had enlisted the help of a shadowy figure known as the Gaoler, a friend of both the Governor and the Adeptus Arbites. She in turn had rounded up a squad of local Enforcers and Arbites. Wyrmtooth had also hired Rogue Trader Calissa Perronnix and her crew, with the promise of the gift of the Transport craft once he was safely delivered. Keen to get off world and back to the profitable business of exploration, Perronnix had gladly accepted.

As they approached the pickup point, it became clear that the trap was closing too fast. After a brief engagement with Ben Sahar's troops, navigator Apollinus from the Rogue Trader crew managed to psychically communicate with the Inquisitor's Grey Knight companion and identify themselves as friendly forces. On the far side of landing zone, Sabine Perronnix came across some Drukhari raiders and managed to deploy some smoke grenades, though only after they had attacked the Enforcers with flash bombs.
Arbites Medicae Niven then managed to open a vox-link to one of the Inquisitor's acolytes, a former Arbites named Taranos. The Medicae persuaded him to honour his oath as an Arbitrator and turn on the Xenos, for which he himself was promptly attacked by the Inquisitor.

The Armsmen of House Perronnix were quickly pinned down by snipers in both the Inquisition and Drukhari warbands. Elsewhere the Arbites did better, their Melta-wielding Squat, Coropral Thrandir, proving particularly adept at turning dark eldar to sludge. The Rogue Trader crew continued to have a torrid time with Armsman Goedendags taken out by the Drukhari leader, and Interrogator Heraclitus taking a plasma shot at Calissa Perronnix, though without success. Sabine finally reached the Dark Eldar snipers in their tower hideout, running in with both pistols blazing - unfortunately a stray shot hit Arbites Sergeant Lloyd as she tried to clear the Western approach to the landing zone.

Taranos finally came to his senses and on the Inquisitor's instruction he persuaded the Arbites squad to hand over Lord Wyrmtooth. His duty done, Inquisitor Ashrael Ben Sahar then promptly executed him for his disobedience. Persuaded by her erstwhile Arbites colleague, The Gaoler turned on Lord Wyrmtooth and struck him a blow with her padlock-flail. Unfortunately this triggered Wyrmtooth's Displacer Field which teleported him directly to the leader of the Drukhari. Lieutenant Calvert attempted to rally the Arbites squad, but since he was known to his men as a coward, and his leadership skills were terrible, the whole squad fled the field instead.
Chief Armsman Du Graal briefly managed to persuade Heraclitus of the treachery of a Dark Eldar, but the Drukhari reassured Ben Sahar with ease. The House Perronnix crew had been deep in discussion with Tech-Priest Explorator Morinn Khuur about future cooperation, and he had sent his

Tech-Adept Aeotha Alyasides to accompany the crew. The Tech-Adept now turned on the Gaoler for her perceived treachery, but the two were equally matched and fought to a stalemate. Left defenceless, Wyrmtooth was taken away by the Drukhari and Ben Sahar, who had struck a deal to interrogate/torture the nobleman together.
With Wyrmtooth lost and the Arbites gone, the servants of House Perronnix executed an orderly retreat. However, Lisbet Perronnix, the Rogue Trader's eldest daughter, was watching Ben Sahar and the Drukhari leader through her sniper scope. Lisbet had two bionic legs, the result of stepping on an improvised explosive device while fighting off a Drukhari raid on the colony they had founded on Uriel IV. Ben Sahar saw his alliance with the Eldar as pragmatic, but to Lisbet this was heresy, pure and simple. She would not forgive or forget what she had seen.