Shooting Point Blanks
We run across to the governer's mansion, where the nobility were holed up, presumed safe, to take care of the genestealers. The problem is that, for some reason, everyone else is running in the other direction, making it somewhat difficult to make swift progress.
In the midst of the panic are the genestealers, ripping people apart, bouncing off the walls. Brother Anatolias sees the xenos and wants to take action. 'Time to chuck some frag grenades down there.'
'There are citizens within the blast radius, Brother.'
'No citizens, Brother Skold, just casualties of war.' I think he's getting ahead of the situation a little. But we resist clearing a path with grenades and use our bolters instead, able to keep range from the vicious genestealers and take them down without too much trouble. But there are more.
Entering the main chamber, where Brother Corpse's body lies, four more genestealers are wreaking havoc. We do our best to rip in to them with our bolters before they close range, but genestealers are fast. I use my pistol to keep firing explosive rounds, Anatolias switches to a sword. Brother Sepheran, behind us, is able to continue to use his heavy bolter.
'Devastation time!' Firing his fully automatic heavy bolter at point-blank range should be an impressive sight. But only if it hits. Even with decades of bonuses on the dice the burst of fire misses. But that doesn't have to be the result. Sepheran uses a fate point and re-rolls his attack, somehow making it worse, as he only succeeds in jamming his weapon.
'I certainly feel devastated. What next?'
The genestealers chew on us a bit more as Sepheran swaps to his bolt pistol. 'Dodge this' he says to a genestealer, pressing the barrel to the head of one of the xenos. But he doesn't have to dodge it when the shot somehow misses. Sepheran doesn't understand what's going wrong. 'I have no idea what I'm doing here.'
No, neither do we.