Day One: Part 1

[Karl Jak]

Face to Face
#40 Tartaros vs #38 Desco, #37 Luffy, and #23 Guu

Tartaros Castus hadn’t been long in ‘the Abyss’ when he made his way down through the little city and out the western edge. Although he had been robbed of his normal weaponry and provided only with a bag of feeble ration and a ‘weapon’ that would sully his reputation as an Adeptus Astartes if he even tried to use it in combat, he strode proudly toward a small campsite. Whoever they were, they clearly didn’t understand much about to survive.

The space marine trudged forward, knowing that he would need to deal with whatever creatures were huddled around the dead fire and acquire their weapons. A space marine without something that spat fire and death was just not acceptable by any means.

Marching into the camp, the armored war machine paused near the tents and saw the group’s sentry—some sort of tall, gangly armed human—had actually dozed off during his duties. Who had deemed these individuals fit to compete in this contest of skill and survival? Making his way toward a bag that had been left open, Tartaros bent down and tried to rifle through its contents. Unfortunately for the space marine, it is nearly impossible for an eight foot man in a power suit to sneak around.

A few feet away, Luffy snapped to attention at the sound of a armored boot thudding against the ground. The rubber pirate, although still somewhat groggy, quickly figured out what was going on. “Hey!” He shouted as he sprung up to confront the space marine.

“Lie down,” Tartaros growled as he extended an armored fist. The collar around his neck flashed briefly as his Tirgrus-Pattern Bolter appeared and began to spit rounds at Luffy. One of the explosive bolts caught the rubber man in the leg and caused him to yelp in agony.

Thinking he had the man on the ropes, Tartaros let off on the trigger and moved in to slay the strange, skinny human. His fist found Luffy’s gut, but before he could release a follow-up attack, a giant metal disk smashed into his face, denting his helmet and hitting with enough force to stagger him.

As Tartaros reeled from the impact of the giant Vibranium discus, he managed to catch Luffy fumbling with something in his pocket. A beat later, there was a whir of an energy weapon and the whole scene was cast in a red glow. The space marine tore away his helmet and turned to see the pirate was now wielding some sort of energy sword, and he was now being flanked by two diminutive creatures. One had another glowing weapon, and the other held a shield at her side.

“Freaks,” Tartaros growled as he lifted his bolter to mow them all down. Before he could find the trigger, Luffy moved forward and swung his sword at the space marine’s weapon. The energy blade cut through the bolter and clean through Tartaros’ right wrist, severing his armored hand. The garish scene was enough to make all the members of Ambrosia pause and glance down at the bloody gauntleted fist lying in front of them.

In that moment of hesitation, Tartaros stepped forward and kicked his own severed fist at the trio like a soccer ball. As they scrambled to get out of the way, the Adeptus Astartes fled into the night, knowing that this was never a fight he could win on his own.

They may have been freaks and they may have had no prior experience surviving in the wild.

But that hadn’t stopped them from making him look like a child.

Although he was never one to come unwound, Tartaros Castus found himself cursing each and every one of them beneath his breath. He’d be back… and the next time, he’d have real firepower at his disposal.

[spoiler]Tartaros has used his Level 0 Super Move (Bolter) -1 SP
Luffy has a wound on his leg... it's nothing too bad, +1 Damage
Tartaros has a severed right hand -- Insane Injury (+10 Damage)[/spoiler]