Rogue Trader - Lost in the Void (IC)

[Hemnon]

http://media.moddb.com/images/groups/1/3/2055/44ddd66258ecc5fd4829698f460469c1.jpg

It had been a perfectly normal warp jump towards Footfall. But it would appear to not be so the same moment you all entered the warp. A hellish warpstorm hit the ship, the navigator was unable to keep the ship on course.
Someone, maybe the Emperor himself, kept you all safe as the ship was hurled and swung around in the storm, pressing the Gellar field to it's limits. Then came the huge impact and psychic assault that flattened EVERYONE to the floor, passed out and totally unconscious.

Minor Beeps and system-overload warning wailed from every station as you all slowly began waking up again. amazingly, only a few amount of people died during the event. mostly low-rating servitude-crewmen and such.
Everyone had their own share of bumps and bruises, but nothing serious except for a few gashes or flash-wound impalements from loose-blown spikes and some such.

The view outside the ship was a black nothingness with flares of white points of light here and there, indicating stars.... you were back into realspace. the Nav-Cogitation-banks indicates only error-messages when asked to show current location.
They have no idea where you are. No star-patterns or signal beacons is out there. or at least none that is recognized or ID'ed.
--------------


Well, that's the introduction. please post your own character-intros and whatever thingamagigs you wanna do.:smallsmile:
if you wanna do a roll for something, post it in a spoiler.

[scottsman1]

What by the Greater Good. Var thought as he opened his eyes. Gue'la ship bridge was pitch black. He turned on his blacksun filters to allow him to see. "Anyone else alive" He shouted as he backed up to a wall weapon raised. Var had heard stories both from the Tau and Gue'la about the horrors of the void he would not be caught off guard.

He began trying to calibrate his drone controller after all helper could take over and watch the door, while he checked for survivors.


Int 41 [roll0]

[Aneurin]

Anastasia - Bridge

By the time she arrives on the bridge, Ana is seething with fury. Unplanned and unexpected real-space translations are not in any way pleasant, and being caught in the corridors between her suite and the bridge has done little to assuage her temper - or the nausea.

Cloak slapping around her ankles, she stalks up to the command throne and glares at the assembled groaning officers, the cogitator banks and the stars outside.

"Raise the void shields and run an active scan," she snaps with cold fury in her voice. "Dispatch teams of priests to the lower decks in case of daemonic infestation. Locate the Carto-Artifex, and begin running analysis on the local stars. And, for the Emperor's sake, bring the damnable Three-Eyes who has gotten us lost and bring him here so he can explain himself!" she roars.

[Dekana]

His Serene Highness, Leitz, picks himself up from the floor in front of his seat on the bridge, his head still in pain from the impact. The first officer only has enough time to rouse some of the other senior personnel before Captain Ana storms onto the bridge.


"Raise the void shields and run an active scan," she snaps with cold fury in her voice. "Dispatch teams of priests to the lower decks in case of daemonic infestation. Locate the Carto-Artifex, and begin running analysis on the local stars. And, for the Emperor's sake, bring the damnable Three-Eyes who has gotten us lost and bring him here so he can explain himself!" she roars.

For orders that the bridge crew can handle immediately, raising the shiels and determining the ship's position, Leitz is content to let Ana's orders stand without him having to echo her. The senior personnel know their jobs. But for the instructions that may require more organization that the captain doesn't need to involve herself with, Leitz takes the lead.

"Master of the Vox, raise the Ship's Confessor, Master-At-Arms, Navigator Primaris, and Chief Chirugeon, and order them to report to the bridge immediately. And get our Infernus Master to vox in with a damage report." He speaks loudly enough for his voice to carry across the bridge and without a trace of concern in his voice. Leitz then turns to the captain and bows (not exactly a military salute, but it's the sign of respect he's most accustomed to).

"M'am."

[Aneurin]

Anastasia - Bridge

Anastasia nods to Leitz approvingly, before taking her customary place on the Throne. A competent, loyal officers are a positive delight to work with after the drooling idiots that had been promoted under Alexei's rule.

"Excellent, King Leitz," she replies coolly as she gazes around the bridge. "We will begin the usual procedures for a collapsed gellar field - holy water shots for all crew, and anyone who's skin blackens or bursts into flames will be purged," she adds - less for Leitz's benefit as for the newer officers, recruited in the wake of the reorganisation and defanging of the more politically vicious members of the dynasty.

Anyone who wants to take the Scrutiny+Detection roll for the augers can have the +10 bonus from Exceptional Leader. As I don't think any of us have Scrutiny trained, we may need it :smalleek:

[Iron Warlord]

Sebastian adjusted himself slightly in his seat, the rough re-entry to realspace had knocked him out, but luckily he had already been seated so he didn't end up on the floor. He quickly reached up and reconnected the spinal plugfrom his seat into the back of his neck. The now familiar buzz of energy and information that flooded his brain and then seemingly seeped into his blood before rocketing through his entire body told him that no damage had been done to his implants or his control chair. The view through the front screen of the bridge provided very little information so Sebastian immediately began running an auger sweep of the immediate area, if there was anyone or anything out there they needed to know about it posthaste. And if anything was out there they would be in serious trouble if they couldn't move.

"Helm to engineering, I need a status report on all motive systems."


[roll0] Per: 35+20(Detection)-20(untrained)+10(MIU)+10(Exceptional Leader)

[Cyberius]

Darwin awakens on the bridge and quickly rises to his feet. Having little emotional response to the events and everyone's confusion around him, he calmly moves back to his stations and interfaces with his MIU. He becomes unresponsive as he communes with the ships spirits, searching for their cries and pain, soothing where he can with automated systems and soon dispatching servitors, servo-skulls, and technomats where they are most critically needed. Hearing the ship's helmsman in the distance he focus on what maneuverability the ship has, knowing the captain's fury would only be calmed with progress. As he begins to mentally order and speak in a far more efficient tongue, Binary Chatter, the language of his world, he can't help but remind himself and wish others could see the clarity of logic. We must focus on what we can control, not what has already happened.

Not sure if a roll is necessary or not, just a general tech-use test or if a ship action is needed, like an extended test. Are we going to be putting our rolls in spoilers for you to do? Are we making our own rolls in this thread or another?

Int 46, Tech Use +10 Combit tool, +10 MIU

[Hemnon]

As the T'au spends some time trying to get his drone controller back into functionality (which takes much more time that expected), a more calm and effecient-laden sense spreads throughout the ship as everyone gets back to work.

As the void-shield is reactivated, it flickers a few times, seemingly unable to re-ignite correctly, but then an almost explosive force of energy is created around the ship as the Shields almost self-overload from the activation. They manage to hold and calm back down to normal functioning quite rapidly, due to all that expert ministrations done by the 100s of techpriests milling about, fixing blown fuses and chants of re-activation.

A communique arrives at the Lady-Captain's Command Throne via a big hololithic privacy-screen (a oneway view of the message).
In this report there's both casualty ratings, damage reports as well as blessings and benedictions towards the Lord-Rogue Trader herself for being able to saving everyone and getting them back into realspace.

At that same moment the carto-artifex (a wiry man, and a navigator as well) slides inside, his spindly limps instantly creeping out most that spots them underneath his heavy navis robes and clothing. "My Lady Captain," He said and gave a slight bow. "I must sadly tell you that the ship's Navigator has died trying to get the ship out of the warpstorm safely. Her remains are already being prepared for sermon and afterwards the disposal via incineration and then airlocking of the ashes. A new Ship-Navigator have already been apointed and she, the Lady Vissiera, is already going over the cogitator-data to discern what have happened." He explained and then took in a deep breath of air, preparing himself to speak once more. "On another note, you called for me? i saw it more reasonable to arrive here so i could explain some of the situation." He continued on and ended.

Other high-ranking crew also slowly begins to trickle in, people like the Master-at-arms and the Infernus Master. a small communique via holo-lith transmission from the Chief Chirurgeon whom tells the 'Serene' Highness to stop interfereing with unneeded calls so He can consentrate of saving people's lives.
The Master-At-Arms and the Infernus Master both reports that there's remarkable little damage to both the internal systems, but also the outer hull. No reports of Daemonic Incursions have happened yet and so far, it would seem that the emperor himself had enclosed the ship in a protective fist.

When it comes to the holy shots, only a few crewmen have black and/or blistered skin, but that's because of the contact they've had with a few fires and/or electrical explosions. Not due to drinking holy water.

For the Augery-checks, everything seems black and empty outside the hull. no contacts, no nothing. except for a small lone moon out there in the emptiness, it's mass only about 7/8s of records of the size of Sacred Luna who orbits holy terra.
There's no rhyme or reason as to WHY that small moon is out there, except it's there and it's in Realspace and not some warp-manifestation. It might be the reason for your ability to slip out of the warp and back into realspace, although that's only a beginning theory.


All in all, the ship is slowly getting back onto her feet and nothing seems damaged beyond routine repairs and such.
There's one small planetoid nearby, but otherwise it looks like there's nothing else inside this 'star system', not even an actual star or other planets for that matter.

[Aneurin]

Anastasia - Bridge

She drums her fingers idly on the arm rest of the throne, as she eyes the damage reports. Negligible, for the most part which is no small mercy. And the wretched three-eyes has made blaming her for the mess damnably difficult what with dying a hero like that. Perhaps matters do bear a more thorough investigation after all.

"My condolences on your loss. I shall, of course, attend the sermon as duties allow," she bows her head briefly in a respectful gesture. "Confer the the Navis and have them consult the Astronomican to find our approximate location. Even if our whereabouts cannot be determined, I believe we would all feel more ease for knowing that we can safely depart this blighted stretch of the void for more... habitable climes. In the mean time, we shall investigate the planetoid below - for the God-Emperor works in mysterious ways, and we may have been brought here to further His cause," Anastasia adds piously, since there's no excuse for passing up a chance for faith at a cursed time such as this.

"Ladies, gentlemen, and... Var," she goes on. "Your impression of the situation, if you please?"

So, yup, looking for the Astronomican to take a guess at how far away we are from it - if we're lucky, taking a guess at what sector (or at least segmentum) we're in, too.

Then, checking we can actually leave (and do so safely) if we feel we need to run. Even if we can go, I'd still like to look at the planetoid (and I suspect we don't have much choice), but has anyone else got ideas or things to try?

[Iron Warlord]

"Ma'am, I believe we should begin detailed scans of the planet. Our best chance of getting any concrete fix on where we are is if the planetoid has any history of habitation and we can locate any kind of records or better yet star charts. There isn't any sign of immediate threat in the region, but I would recommend we attempt to run silently until we get a better idea of where we find ourselves." Sebastian calls out his thoughts on their current situation.

[Dekana]

Leitz meets the personnel he called as they come to the bridge - with the exception of the ship's doctor anyway. He had intended for the doctor to administer care to injured bridge personnel, but it becomes apparent that the Emperor was watching over Twilight Dancer, and no one (on the bridge) was seriously hurt.

To the Ship's Confessor and Master-At-Arms, Leitz mostly relays Ana's orders. "Your early report is certainly promising, but we'll take no chances. If any daemons did enter the ship during the unexpected transit, they may be simply be hiding until they can do the most damage. And for the Emperor, we'll seek them out! Master-At-Arms, organize search parties to go through the lower decks with assistance from the priests." Leitz nods at the High Confessor. "Conscript ratings if you need more manpower. At the very least, it'll be good practice for boarding actions."

As the Master-At-Arms gets to work, Leitz returns to Ana's side. "Permission to join the search crews, captain? And the Tau might like come along as well in case we turn up any mutants." While the Twistcatcher may have a good reason to join the daemon search, Leitz is simply thinking of getting the chance to use his power sword.


Anastasia - Bridge

She drums her fingers idly on the arm rest of the throne, as she eyes the damage reports. Negligible, for the most part which is no small mercy. And the wretched three-eyes has made blaming her for the mess damnably difficult what with dying a hero like that. Perhaps matters do bear a more thorough investigation after all.

"Ladies, gentlemen, and... Var," she goes on. "Your impression of the situation, if you please?"

"With respect to the late navigator, it seems she ran into some deadly warp eddy during the transit. I'd suggest we get simply back on course after the ship's integrity is verified, unless something of value turns up on that rogue planet."

[Aneurin]

Anastasia - Bridge

"I'm inclined to agree, Master Loch. Begin the approach at your leisure, and set up preliminary scans. Find us something interesting, if you please," she commands, after a pause for anyone else to speak. "King Leitz, by all means you may join the search crews and take whosoever you may wish to accompany you. I ask only that it not interfere with your duties. Do recall, though, that the Great Twist Hunt is due soon and we'll need some hideous speciments left alive to keep it interesting,"

She settles back on the throne, and runs a loving hand along the ancient carvings. And then she smiles as she gazes on the imp.

"Prepare void suits and a lander for a shore party. Let us go exploring,"

Feel free to shout out alternate courses of action, if you have them.

[Dekana]

"Gladly, m'am," Leitz says to the captain, bowing once again. "I'll try to hurry things along so I can join the shore party, naturally."

I don't expect any daemons actually did come aboard the ship, but I'll join the search party with the Master-At-Arms, priests, and possibly Var if he wants to come.

I do, however, want to join the shore party if there's not enough time to do both. I suppose Leitz will search until it's time to go down to the planet, and then he'll rejoin the captain.

[scottsman1]

Var having finally finish toying with his drone stood up and walked toward Leitz. "I will gladly join king Leitz with the search party after all it will give me an opportunity to build a rapport with him. Besides I have much to do for the great hunt. I do request that I be present for shore party having one of my kind may prove useful if we are near Tau space. Also I do believe I am the only one with a translator unit."

[Hemnon]

Any divinations made by the Navis Crewmen seems to yield no tangible result. it is as if the Astronomican is everywhere and nowhere at the same time, which makes no sense at all.

The Daemon Hunt ends in failure... or success?? well at least there were no daemonic entities to be found at all.

The Approach towards to planet takes a dozen or so hours via sublight engines. Initial scans seem to indicate that it's a moon or small planetoid of sorts. it's got gravity and shows signs of either life being present or earlier settlements of sorts, but a closer inspection and auger-scan is required to get more details, as well as any indications of an atmosphere.

A Lander is prepared as well as a pilot and an asortment of servants and servitors to make the in-flight more pleasant with drinks and fine dining... unless all those extra frivolities are being removed by the Rogue Trader of course.

After about 10 hours of flight, you get into a geosynchronous orbit around the small planetoid, allowing both more accurate auger-scans as well as any landing party-possibilities.

The Master of Aetherics replies that She is ready to start primary scans of the planet, at the RT's command.

[Aneurin]

Anastasia

Ah, the underlings are preparing an 'Alexei Special' in the in the shuttle. Damn, damn, damn. Blast, for godd measure - she'd been so certain that the last of the decadence had been purged, but apparently not. Well, that's another thing to fix, then. After the big problem, of course.

Anastasia pinches the bridge of her nose in an exaggerated display of weary frustration.

"The Astronomican is nowhere... and everywhere. How... delightfully paradoxical. I trust you will have this unravelled by the time we return, yes?" she asks, after a long moment - and with the faintest hint of a suggestion that the Navigators had better have the mystery solved, or there will be consequences. Many, many consequences. "In the mean time; begin scans for a suitable landing site, have the servants cleared out of the shuttle and replace them with a squad of armsmen. Or surveyors. Or someone, anyone, who does something useful," she represses the urge to sigh. It's... honestly, quite difficult. "You may leave the food in place, however,"

So, yeah, Exceptional Leader's +10 bonus to the augur rolls. Let's find something worth landing on!

Are we using TV physics here (and assuming it has passable ambient lighting for humans to see by, gravity to use, and a survivable external temperature despite the lack of a star), or are we potentially going to find a life form that can survive at minus two-hundred-and-something degrees celsius? Or, at least, one that's made arrangements so it hasn't?

I don't mind either way, it's just that if it's pitch black out then we may want a few redshirts carrying torches for us.

[Hemnon]

A full scan of the planet reveals that it's got earth-like gravity, which is a but odd since it's mass is just about the size of Luna and thus shouldn't really have such a heavy gravity for such a low mass. There's also signs of an actual atmosphere, although it's not possible at this time to determine of it's breatheable at all. but it's NOT a giant toxic fume, at least not visibly so. The weather appears very cold and some places it seems to be ranging from Space levels of cold, to nasty winter-levels other places.

There's no indication of life at all, except for some sort of microbial life in the air itself. Signs of prior life IS detected beneath a weather phenomena near the equator-line of the small planetoid. the weather phenomena appears to be a dense concentration of cloud-cover on an unnatural level. Either it's a fluke of chance, or some sort of tech is keeping it so. higher levels of temperature (although still in the cold negative on a celcius scale) is also detected beneath the cloud cover, which would indicate that the core of the moon is actually hot and active, since the heat from it is being trapped underneath the clouds.

There's also faintly detectable buildings down there. oddly shaped and ruined long ago, leaving only what is presumed to be empty husks with nothing but loneliness echoing throughout the buildings themselves.

It is time to go down there, and the ride is relatively smooth.
Planetary touchdown is confirmed and a warninglight is on indicating that the weather outside is rather hostile and protective suits would be recommended. Time to suit up and exit the small transporter.


Whomever wishes to go can go. bring what you think you might need and then write it down in a spoiler in your following post so i know which items is taken along.
standard ammo is 3 spare clips, although more CAN be stored in the transporter if wished so.

if you do not wish to go, you can do something else on the ship.

[Aneurin]

Anastasia - Shuttle

Servants evicted, banquet still in place, fully suited with a half-dozen armsmen in tow Anastasia takes her pleace in the cockpit of the lander, and peer speculatively at the data summaries she's been handed. A flock of lumen-skulls are stashed in a rather large lockbox.

"Mm," she says thoughtfully, still flicking through the charts. "I believe that one of the structures in the 'warm' areas would be most interesting. Especially if the weather differences are artificial,"

As the lander's hull kisses the surface of the moonlet, Anastasia takes a place at the hatch and rests a hand on the controls to open it as she looks about the cabin.

"Well, ladies and gentlemen, are we quite ready to proceed? Untold riches and adventure await us,"

Okay, Ana's taking her weapons and armour (if it can be worn beneath the void suit at least), six armsmen and eight five servo skulls whose only functionality is to carry a light source. Oh, and the food.

I'll let you know how many armsmen and skulls stay with the lander, depending on which PCs go where (and how dark it is outside). At least four armsmen and two skulls will stay at the shuttle, however.

If Darwin and Sebastian decide to remain ship side, then I'd like to add 'surveyor' and 'spare pilot' to the list of assets we bring.

[scottsman1]

Var One Hour Before Shuttle Launch

Clearing the lower decks had proved a relatively easy effort with the assistance of King Leitz and his honor guard. Var had keep quiet most of the time after all it was had to relate to the Gue'la and his men. Var had so much to ask about the Gue'la culture and technology like why they seam to look to the past and not the future. In truth he did not know where to began. He had opted to remain quit and scout ahead of the party for the sweeps allowing him time to think. Time he used to think about the mission ahead as well as how he would answer to the greater good upon his return to the Tau if he returned. It was during this time that his mind began to ponder about the planet. There was almost no way anything could survive on the surface for long on such a world yet the scans showed structures. Maybe a dead race? But if they died from having no stars to warm them then how where the structures standing. He did not know how long it took for a building to crumble with out maintenance. However the time the stars take to die is longer than his own race had be alive. Such thought could drive him to madness if he was not careful. He ponder still. The answer had hit him toward the end of the sweep.

"Lady Undynne, may I request an audience before launch, I have a theory to share." He voxed as he headed to the shuttle. No matter what happened he hoped he was wrong and that the world was dead.



"My lady I am no expert on architecture or Gue'la scanning technology, but I have a theory about the moon below. If all life need heat and there is no heat above. Then would a race not live below. I think that the reason we see structures above but no life on the surface is that the life is below it. After all it is the nature of all sentient beings to change their environment to them, to adapt and over come. We will know more once we get a closer look, but by your Emperor or my Greater Good I think there is something more than structures down there."


Pulse Carbine 3 mags
Pulse Pistol 3 mags
Drone Controller
Helper- Drone
3 mags for Drone weapon
3 Tau Photon Flash grenades
and a Void suit.

[Cyberius]

EDIT: Changed to reflect OOC rolls on servo skulls and sealed suit.

Darwin spends most of his time finalizing the and overseeing ship repairs. As much as he wanted to spend time on the planet, his first responsibility is to his ship. Whatever there may be, the ship needed to be ready fight, flee, or rescue. While most Enginseer's would have stayed on the ship, Darwin relished the opportunity to discover what technology could allow for survival in such harsh conditions. Such a "rogue planet" could hold lost secrets and treasure, was well as untold danger and death. He would need to be there to help protect the captain and his crewman. Though he wouldn't express it emotionally, he believed in his team and knew they held a place and importance. Losing them would be detrimental to Darwin's own survival and that of his ship. That is not an option. Besides, how often do they go running off without a doctor? Luckily Darwin was trained in Medicae and was usually accompanied by his Servo Skull that specialized in Medicine. He had a host of others he used at his leisure, but this one was his personal aid. He secured it and attempted to gather a half dozen other servo skulls that could be used for repair, scans, and light recon but was unable to find any. Used to wearing a void suit in dangerous environments, Darwin was not stranger to it. But now as an officer of the ship and the singe foremost expert on technology, Darwin's knowledge was invaluable and crucial to the ships survival. It's with this knowledge that other tech-priest had gathered and put together a Sealed Carapace suit from Darwin's own light carapace armor. As he stashed his tools, dawned his modified armor, and grabbed his weapons from the armory, he made his way to the shuttle in preparation for leaving. After personally making sure his equipment had been put aboard and stowed correctly he open's himself to the spirits of the craft and caressing her spirits to guide us safely to our destination. Satisfied the ship was ready and safe to venture in such temperatures, he takes a seat and joins the others. Darwin isn't much for words and doesn't fully appreciate the feast before him. Instead he fills his head with thoughts and theories, as few things excited him in this way any more as lost civilizations and archeo-tech.


Multi-key
Combi-tool
Servo Skull (personal)
Sealed Carapace Armor
Hellgun
3 spare clips
Power-Ax
Medikit x2 (one for me, one left on the shuttle)
Glo sticks/lamps x 10 (Bringing extra in case others forgot and they last 1d5 hours..)
Microbead
Dataslate

[Aneurin]

Anastasia - One Hour Ago



"My lady I am no expert on architecture or Gue'la scanning technology, but I have a theory about the moon below. If all life need heat and there is no heat above. Then would a race not live below. I think that the reason we see structures above but no life on the surface is that the life is below it. After all it is the nature of all sentient beings to change their environment to them, to adapt and over come. We will know more once we get a closer look, but by your Emperor or my Greater Good I think there is something more than structures down there."

"Entirely plausible, from what we have seen," Ana conceeds amiably, and entirely unconcerned by the implications. "It is also possible that the owners were dead and dust long before their little world was flung to the far void - or that our augurs have misinterpreted the what lies and these 'structures' are merely some curiously-shaped rock formations. Perhaps they did dwell upon the surface, in something akin to an Imperial asteroid mining facility. Perhaps it is such a thing, long since lost.

"Whatever it is, I have no plans to depart until the Navis have made some progress unravelling the mystery of where, precisely, we are. Un-plotted Warp jumps are seldom pleasant, and I have no desire to undertake one if it can reasonably be avoided," she adds, stalking over to a view port to gaze on the star-studded blackness outside, and the nearly-unseen planet below the Dancer's keel. "So, in the mean time, we shall explore this Emperor-sent opportunity and, with some luck, we shall add to the glory of the Imperium whilst we are here. I do, however, feel it unlikely that anything still survives on the planet below us - the kiss of the void's chill is inimical to most every living thing I have encountered. Does this help lay your concerns to rest?" she concludes, with a slight twist of her body so Var can see a questioning eyebrow raised.

[Dekana]

Leitz isn't at all comfortable with the void suit; how is he supposed to dodge a sword strike if he doesn't have any peripheral vision? Regardless, he brings his usual weapons with him: 2 bolt pistols, his power sword, and combat shield. It was little tricky fitting his holsters and sword sheath around the void suit's waist, but his personal fitter rose to the challenge.


"Well, ladies and gentlemen, are we quite ready to proceed? Untold riches and adventure await us,"

"Bring either of them on, m'am," Leitz replies with a dashing smile that doesn't show very well under the void suit's visor. "I just wish the boys up on the ship could see us down here, leading from the front."

[Hemnon]

http://www.gamer.ru/system/attached_images/images/000/472/119/original/mechwarrior_online_frozen_city_concept.jpg
Icy and frozen wastes meets you all as the vague gloom of the snow illuminated by the stars above (as well as the lights from the Lander and any Glow-globes brought along,) gives off a rather haunted sensation to the place. Dead and empty-looking city ruins can seen just 50 meters from the lander's Touchdown position. At first glance from this distance, they looks fairly 'standard', or rather they look imperial-esque in design.

The snowdunes all have a tinted Emerald deepblue to them, as if huge gemstones were hidden just underneath a top-layer of snow.
The winds howl about and it's obvious by now that the small planetoid supports a stable and, from any looks of it so far, breathable atmosphere (although the harsh temperatures would freeze lungs if one did not regulate one's breathing to shallow intakes).

With the howl and snow flailing around in unspecified patterns, the strange screeching sounds echoing off the husk-like empty buildings sounds eeriely like the call of the frozen dead, coming to claim the lives of the foolish intruders...

--------------------------------------


What will you all do now? there's forward towards the city (with which you can bring 2 redshirt lifeguards, 4 others remaining back to protect the Lander and keep it functioning and welcome at Your return.

I need a quick summerize at WHO are down on the planetoid (last chance to change mind if you originally didn't want to go, but have now changed your minds) and last chance to update any equipment list or do any needed rolls to try and see if such gear could be found on the ship and brought along.
I also need to know what kind of formation you're all in, so i can more easily figure out who is killed first where you are in conjunction to eachother and your surroundings.

[Aneurin]

Anastasia - Frozen World

"Skulls one through three, ascend seven meters and keep pace with my position," she says calmly, as she strides into the snow, taking her customary position at the head of the party, flanked by two of the armsmen gripping lasguns in their clumsy, suited hands - the Hussar's livery painted over the suit's fabric, and looking marginally less imposing than the same livery painted onto Anastasia's suit, along with several badges of rank and the Undynne crest of a black raven. "Four and five, remain with the security team by the shuttle,"

Crunching through the snow, and ignoring the eerie-sounding wind Anastasia pauses for a moment, to look around. The servo skulls mill aimlessly above her, casting a radiant glow from their crude, heavy-boned features and their fanged maws - they are, naturally, what the ship's company has dubbed 'servo orks', taken from the dead of Kaptin Borgash's ill-fated attempt to board the Twilight Dancer several years previously and have proven curiously durable, despite doubling as skeet when the officers grow bored.

"The city, I think?" she asks over the microbead, to the exploration party at large. "Magos, is there anything of note on the augurs that would give us a direction?"

Ana's at the front with her armsmen. Three servo skulls with lumen globes lit up and hovering seven meters above the group to maximise their area of illumination (ordinarily 12m radius).

Just to check, the giant mech thing in the picture isn't actually there, is it? 'Cause if it is, I think that might be our first port of call.

[Iron Warlord]

Sebastian does one last check of the shuttle's system, making sure to keep the fuel system cycling to keep the prometheum from turning to slush in the frigid temperatures. He then double checks the seal on his void suit before disembarking the shuttle.

"Hopefully we will not need to stay here for very long, this environment is not exactly conducive to long term exploration." He says to the others as he looks out at the landscape.

Archeotech laspistol
bolt pistol
power sword
micro bead
pict recorder
vox caster
void suit
lamp pack

[Dekana]

Leitz places himself at the rear of the formation, ostensibly to guard against any sort of rear ambush. In actuality, it's simply good practice not to have the CO and XO walking side by side in case any stray ordnance lands nearby.

Although he doesn't expect any harm to have befallen the shuttle so quickly, Leitz decides it would be good practice to remain in contact with the armsmen left behind. "Shuttle detail, away team. Comms check." After getting an answer (or not?): "Keep your eyes open and try not to fall asleep in that toasty shuttle while we're trudging in the snow. I'll expect you to report in your status every 10 minutes. Acknowledge."

Void suit, belt worn on top of it, power sword in scabbard at belt, two bolt pistols (currently in hand I guess, but holsters are on the belt), and a combat shield strapped to the left arm. I suppose I'll take a backpack too in case we find any loot that needs to be stored. I assume the backpack and belt are common enough not to need acquisition rolls.

[Cyberius]

Darwin steps off the shuttle and begins directing his servo skull and communicating with others through his MIU. After hearing the captains request he take a moment to scan the immediate area while saying My scans are limited to 50m, I will scan at regular intervals and report any findings. A man of few words in low gothic, but a man of many more in binary chatter. The servo skulls hovering about and scanning in all directions with their augers, obeying the commands of the Explorator. Darwin moves into the center of the formation as to center himself in the servo skull net.


Rolling Awareness with Auspex on Servo Skull (my personal one): +20 Auger, +10 Awareness, Per 35 vs [roll0]
Those are the stats of the Servo Skull, not mine. Theirs are better as they have Awareness at +10.

[Hemnon]

Eerie Theme (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTHm-6TFoB8)
The slow walk through the snow goes without much happening. Only a scattered few bone-piles, obviously human in appearance can be seen littering the pathway up to the city.

The odd thing is that the first bones looked really old and even more would properly be found if you dug at the snow further back. The further FORWARD you went, the more the skeletons seemed to be younger and younger, as well as more and more fresh in appearance, until they all just suddenly stopped about 10 meters from the city-line. the last bodies, and yes there were indeed slow-rotting corpses here in the ice-cold winds, all wore what looked like the same type of Voidsuits that the lot of YOU have on. from the looks of it, there's around 8 or 9 full bodies laying there, with the row of older and older corpses and skeletons stretching out behind them with a few meters distance from each other.
Their equipment is frozen brittle and all the bodies are more than half-buried in piles of snow.

Only the horrid sound of the wind going through the empty buildings a less than a dozen meters away, as well as the impacts of fluttering snow against your voidsuits can be heard.

Does anyone of you wish to investigate the corpses any further?
will you rather just leave the dead alone and continue on towards the city-edge? or is there something else you'd like to do?

[Aneurin]

Anastasia

Ana scowls at the bodies as they walk past them. Simply baffling, and it appears as though someone has been here before them, to boot. Although with any luck they disabled whatever defenses the place might have had before their untimely demise.

"Magos, is there any indication of how long the bodies have lain here, or what brought their end? she asks after a moment of surveying the desolation. "With the Emperor's grace what slew them will prove nothing more than the ailing machine spirits of a forgotten defense array, but I see no reason to take foolish risks when we have no indication this world has anything worth chancing our lives for,"

[Dekana]

"I don't like the look of it, m'am," Leitz says perhaps obviously as he observes the bodies from a fair distance. "I know an ambush spot when I see it." And then, to the magos: "Well? Hop to it, unless you want to meet the same fate!"

[Cyberius]

Darwin moves among the corpses, baffled and curious. He finds an ideal corpse to examine, one that has been preserved as best as possible. He takes a closer look utilizing his medkit and medical servo skull.


Medical test with kit and Servo Skull (It has +20 Medicine, but I dont know what bonus it would provide Darwin)
INt... vs [roll0]

This sight has slowed to a crawl recently for me, no matter what connection I use, maybe its just an Asian thing right now, but it takes ages for me to load any page here and really kills the mood.

[Iron Warlord]

Sebastian kept a tight grip on his las pistol while watching the horizon, something had killed all these people, and it was quite possible that whatever that was had lined them up like this after the fact. Even if it was just the cold of the void that had killed them it was still possible that someone was alive out there, and he had seen what long term isolation could do to the mind so any survivors could quickly turn hostile after what could have been decades on this frozen rock.

[Hemnon]

One of the freshest bodies (a female by the looks of it through the Helmet-visor) only reveals a very sunken-in face, nearly skeletal or perhaps closer to mummified, having been preserved by the Cold enviroment...

What Irks you all is a sort of resemblance to the fallen corpses. Their equipment is like all of yours, the suits looks quite identical to your own, except for the Freeze-damage to the dead ones' gear. Even the bodies look very familiar... As if you'd all aged by 30 or so years, gotten mummyfied and then left for the elements to do with as it pleases.
The Security Escort that's there with you all appear quite spooked by this. It's as if you'd all been here many times... and died. Each time managing to get a little closer to the city before whatever calamity smote down the others would strike down on the fresh versions.

The Enginseer doesn't discover anything major about the bodies (besides the above-mentioned of course), however a Journal (handwritten) of sorts is found in buried in a snow-pile next to the Female Corpse (the one resembling your own Rogue Trader). it is highly weather-damaged and the text a sort of... OFF-ish High Gothic, like as if the words had another dialect to them.
Some of the text is highly smeared and very garbled in looks, as if scribbled down in haste and with clumsy gloves on.
----------------------------

Anyone that wanna try and decipher the Text needs to make a +0 Linquistics (High Gothic) Test. If you're a Polyglot (got the talent) then the test is at a +10 instead.
Or if you don't have High Gothic, you can make a Linquistics (Low Gothic) Test at a -40 (-30 if Polyglot).
Anyone with Forbidden Lore (Warp) MUST make a +10 Test as well (this is an Obligatory roll and may not be chosen to NOT be rolled).

[Dekana]

"Let me have a look at that," Leitz says as he takes custody of the journal. "With any luck, this fellow had the presence of mind to write down something useful while he was being killed."

Leitz will take a shot at interpreting the journal. He does speak High Gothic, but he's not a polyglot. And he has no forbidden knowledge, because the emperor frowns on such shenanigans.

Speak (High Gothic) [roll0] vs 31 (Trained skill, Int 31)

The journal says: The monster that killed me is.... Arrgghhhh

"Eh? Is this even Gothic?" says Leitz with a puzzled look.

[Aneurin]

Anastasia

As Leitz examines the journal, Anastasia regards the bodies with a cold eye. This is proving to me a most vexing planet.

"...may I?" Ana asks, holding out a hand for the journal. Most irritatingly of all, she'll likely have to lie about the journal's contents to stop the armsmen from getting spooked. How tiresome.

Speak Language High Gothic:
[roll0] vs. 51 (41 Base +10 Training)

EDIT: Well, so much for Ana's tutors :smalltongue:

[Cyberius]

Darwin waits while the others give it a look, surely if anyone could read it, it would be them. As they each attempt and fail, Darwin sees no harm in trying to have a look, as intelligent has he may be, he hasn't been gifted with human language.

I doubt I can read it, but I must try if you can not.

Linguistics -40 vs 46
[roll0]

[Cyberius]

Don't know why it didn't take, lets try again.
[roll0]

[Aneurin]

Anastasia

Anastasia hands the journal to Darwin as she gazes thoughtfully at the unbroken expanse of snow before them.

"I could only make out a little, but it appears to be my aunt's," she gestures vaguely at the bodies. "I always did wonder what had become of her. Have the shuttle relay a message to orbit; they are to begin another sweep of the planet for signs of a shuttle, or an Imperial voidship," Anastasia commands the armsmen team - it will improve morale, if nothing else. "I find it unlikely that her crew would have abandoned her body here without any effort to retrieve it. Skull three, descend to point-five meters and advance forty,"

As the snaggle-toothed skull skims forward, Anastasia turns back to Darwin.

"Tell me, does the Reclamation Facility still have any gretchin in stock? I have some vague notion of hosting a shooting party in the future, and some skeet would be appreciated,"

They lying Rogue Trader is lying. She feels it would be good for morale, and is going to go with this line of nonchalant prevarication regardless of what she may actually reads in the journal - unless, of course, it actually is another family member who met her end there, or a party of coincidentally dressed explorers.

She's also sending the servo skull out ahead of us to see if anything nasty happens to it.

[Hemnon]

The Pages of the Diary is too damaged and smudged out to get much out of them. a Logis-Engine and a Reconstructor-press would be needed to make a readable copy (this is on your ship), although who knows how long it'll take the Logis-Engine to Decypher the text.

All that can be gleamed from the pages are the following few Passages:

"We are alone. but something is *unreadable Text*. The Ship's gone by now. This Frozen Rock is a deathtrap.... i can barely move my arms and my *Unreadable Text* - Sounds like something is out there, wandering in the snow."

"They are me.... I'm Them. We are separate yet the same... We are all Dead."

"Lost.... and Dead...."

"Evil... everywhere it's looming...."

---------

That's all anyone of you can gleam from the pages.
The servoskull hovers on towards the city, yet nothing happens to it, it just continues on it's merry way towards the empty buildings in a slow zoom through the air.

Now that you're all closer to the edge of the City, you can all easily see that the buildings are at once both of Impeiral Design, but also extremely alien in nature... as if the original look of it have been warped and changed slightly, making it all out of sync with what it was supposed to appear as.

[Aneurin]

Anastasia

"How unpleasantly cryptic," Anastasia says with no small amount of disdain in her voice, as the last person finishes their reading. "This world is looking less and less promising. However, it would be a pity to waste the trip down and the way ahead seems clear enough. Unless anyone has any objections, we shall perform a cursory investigation and then return to orbit while the journal is decrypted. We will also return my aunt's body to the ship for a burial as befits her station,"

She pauses a moment, turning to face the rest of the group as she waits for their thoughts on the matter.

At least her mind is laid to rest on one score - she, herself, would never write something so ridiculously imprecise and unhelpful.

[Iron Warlord]

"This is an ill-omened place." Sebastian says quietly to the Captain. "Until we know more about what happened here I would recommend limiting the time any crew member spends here and forbidding anyone to move about alone."​

[Caimheul]

Tristan scans the surrounding area, hellgun at the ready. "I have to agree with that assessment ma'am. As usual I am of the opinion we should seriously consider an orbital bombardment," he states plainly, concerned more with safety than solving any mysteries.

[TheFallenSon]

You and your fething orbital bombardments. THERE IS NO PROFIT OR KNOWLEDGED GAINED IF WE GLASS THE WHOLE PLACE!!! I mean, why even come down here if you were going to crater the joint? I'm sure the ma'am has better sense than that." It was probably an old and played out argument between the too of them. The Master of Whispers and much maligned purser, Dempsey had made a name for himself by insuring every venture they embarked upon was profitable. He glowered at the old soldier, it was men like him that made his job all the harder. Straight laced former officers...ugh. Tack onto that the man had this insufferable need to be by the book...at least that was the way Dempsey read him. Their interactions were relatively few beyond the occasional dirtside mission. He had to admit the man was good at what he did, that's why she had hired him, right?

He had been examining the corpses with those who's imaginations had been sparked, especially when he noticed the bodies were...wrong...but right...but wrong all the same. He would continue to bemoan Tristan's suggestion as he moved from meatcicle to meatcicle. Nasty way to go..."we should probably nuke it to, right?!?!?"

His curiousity was definately piqued by the place. Most unusual. Especially the way they all reacted after reading that little bit of old tech journal. Gonna be a good day, either to die or make a ton of money.

[Aneurin]

Anastasia

Ah, void suits. The mechanicus would do well to design them so that it is possible to pinch the bridge of your nose to ward off an incipient headache.

"May I ask what it is you intend to bombard, Mister Sawyer?" she asks after a moment. "I agree that this planet is taking on a most unwholesome air, but we have yet to discover any specific signs of a threat and I am loathe to commit such mass destruction with no reason. Unless we find some conclusive evidence that requires such, I believe it may be best to hold our decision until we have explored some of the ruins, at least, and found some clue as to the nature of this world,"

[Caimheul]

"Just a general observation, sir, ma'am," Tristan states, unfazed by their responses. He pats down the nearest set of bodies looking for weapons, and should he find any, he attempts to examine their magazines to see if they had been fired.

[Gavinfoxx]

The Explorator Alaric agrees with the Rogue Trader, "Based on what we know, the expenditure necessary to bombard the place would be an irresponsible waste of resources, especially given that there may be clues that will help ensure the ship's survival in such unknown circumstances. Especially notable is the fact that we are standing on a Rogue Planet that is existing at temperatures well above absolute zero, with an improbably high mass for it's volume as well. There may be very large quantities of extremely valuable highly dense radioactive and non-radioactive elements on this planetoid, as well as other technology or resources or knowledge of use."

He also presumably get's his chance to examine the book, and promptly memorizes it, and attempts to see if he can puzzle it out.


Linguistics Low Gothic Trained, Int 65 10 Implant -40 Inappropriate Skill = 35; Roll under 35 to succeed
[roll0]

[Hemnon]

The weapons, or at least, the ones not completely brittle to the touch ones, appear to be of Imperial make and design, looking quite similar to the ones some of you are carrying as a matter of fact.


Alaric's close-examination of the Journal Reveals some disturbing things... first of all the writing, though smudged and frost-damaged, appear eerily similar to One Lady Captain who owns the ship that's orbiting this little frozen planetoid... but the truely disturbing thing is what is gleamed from the pages themselves.

"The Dead Walks on this planet... we're all gonna die..."
as well as the following passage.
"I, Lady Anastasia Faydra Undynne of the Undynne Dynasty is now alone.... the others are dead... the ship has vanished and the Dead ones have returned to the snow... I am alone, and lost-" Is all that is viewable since the rest of the page is smudged with freeze-dried blood.

Not much else worth of note is in the journal, but a deeper investigation might of course reveal more, but such should not really be done while in a Vac-suit and on a planetoid who's atmosphere feels as if Ghosts are wandering the dead frozen wastes...
That same moment, a small crack of ice and/or some sort of stone/wood can be heard in the distance (most likely a little kilometer away) as a small mountainous hill's side suddenly gives way and collapses to the ground beneath it, a strange and bonechilling wail can be heard, as if deathless throats were screaming out. The same instant the winds pick up and the snow blows up into the air in swirls of fluttering lumps of frozen liquids, turning the calm drizzle of snow into a Blizzard.

The Accompanying Men appears spooked beyond twitchy and even though you're all wearing Vac-sealed Voidsuits, the snow and flash-feezing liquids almost conciously appear to be attempting to freeze you all in place..... and suddenly the snow just stops. it flutters to the ground and the gale winds have totally halted as well. the air is still to the point of unnatural....

Everyone are to make a Fear Test.
Failure will force your character to try and convince the others that it's a good idea to leave... like RIGHT NOW. and depending on the levels of fail, you might even flee back towards the Shuttlecraft you came here in. Im not gonna set a 'this much fail means this'. go with what feels natural for your character, as well as the amount of DoF you roll on it :)

[Aneurin]

Anastasia

"Wonderful," Anastasia says, as the weather dies down as a frown creases her face. "How... unnatural. I suspect some form of witchery to be at work, and we lack a psyker to detect the source. It would, perhaps, be best to return to the Dancer and have the journal decrypted in full, as well as having the Astropaths scan the planetoid. If there is anything worth bothering with on this miserable rock, it will most assuredly be recorded in the journal and the astropaths may be lucky in their search,"

[Gavinfoxx]

Alaric's voice cracks as he replies, "We a-are unequipped to deal with this threat. We must return to the ship post-haste, and return with not only a Psyker, but a Priest and possibly one of the secondary Navigators, to be fully equipped to handle Warp effects, which should only be done with due diligence as you mentioned. I would also suggest that several shuttles land, rather than one, and we only explore in force. I may also be able to rig up some of the diagnostic equipment of the Gellar field into a portable aetherscope or psy-tracker or psyocculum, albeit bigger than the genuine article, to have mechanical means to find the direction and intensity of Warp effects, to better avoid them."


Fear Test against +0 Willpower, difficulty 37
[roll0]

[Caimheul]

"Definately human manufactured weapons, but too old for me to tell if they were fired prior to death." Tristan says as he stands up and dusts his hands off. He merely shrugs in his void suit to the Rogue Trader's suggestion. "As you wish ma'am, however I recommend that we limit exposure to this planet to only essential personnel if there truly is warp contamination here. More bodies increases the likelihood of possession, or other unfortunate happenings," he states plainly, seemingly not noticing the wind.

[Iron Warlord]

"Whatever this place is or was it certainly warrants exploration, but I still urge caution. Whether this strange weather is natural or the work of some other force it does not bode well."​ Sebastian says as he keeps his eyes on the horizon around where the minor avalanche had just occurred.

[TheFallenSon]

He would shift a bit uncomfortably from side to side. His eyes locked on the distant quake and tremoring surface. The wave of frosty fear seemed to barely face our favorite away team member. He grunted at the overly cautious Captain and Mechanicum monkey. This place must really be getting to them. He had thought them made of sterner stuff. He would do a quick once over of his personal gear, waiting for the boss to make the final say. He had come prepared to do some good ol fashioned hard work. His fingers practically itching to get inside the buildings further a field. Today was still a good day, he could feel it in his bones.

"I say we go for it as is boss, the more people or equipment we expose to this... " He gestures to the obvious little bit of hell they have found themselves tromping across. "The more bodies end up in the snow right?" He fingered the hilt of his sword, then looked back to his comrades. "This should be one hell of a ground trip boss, I wouldn't pass up this story for all the quality amasec in the verse."

[Aneurin]

Anastasia

She shoots Dempsey a cold look at his words, her anger only increased by the fact that the void suit's confines force her to turn her whole upper body to do so.

"You appear to have a low opinion of our ability to keep our crew alive," Ana replies, her voice crisp with anger. "Vox the ship and have an astropath shuttled down with a two-man escort. They will join us as soon as they are able. In the mean time, we begin walking - as we planned, we shall investigate the nearest set of structures,"

So saying, she brings the armsmen and the glow-skull flock to heel with an imperious gesture and begins walking towards the structures at a brisk pace.

...I think we had a slight majority towards carrying on?

[Caimheul]

Sawyer Falls in a half step behind the Rogue Trader, within a short distance should he need to place himself between her and some unnamed danger. With a series of short hand gestures, he instructs the armsmen to spread out slightly and keep watch on the horizon.

[TheFallenSon]

Dempsey would fall in behind the others, a wolfish grin crossing his lips. Oh he had gone and upset the boss did he? Well can't have that. He took up a rear guard sorta position. Ensuring that no foul warpish beasty, or crazed 'former' ship mate was ghosting around behind them. He thought of how he had ended up on the blasted rock and began whistling an old war tune to himself.

[Hemnon]

The Erie atmosphere continues pressing in on you all as you head towards the near edge of the dead cityscape.
Every small crackle of breaking ice and tiny howl of wind flying through the empty windows sends shivers down all of Your spines.

One of the House Guard suddenly picks up a sign of activity on his Scanner.
"Ma'am, my scanner picks up signs of active power down below us... right here. straight down." He voiced out over the Comm-bead. "The power-signal indicates an outlet 30 meters left from here.... it might be a door, bunker or something else that might allow us access... I'm only picking up that weak level of power for that enclosed space. There's nothing else around us to show signs of life or even former activity." He finished off, turning towards his Mistress, ready to show the readings if she so wished to see them.

[Aneurin]

Anastasia

After a cursory glance, she waves the armsman and the scan towards the magos on the grounds that they're more likely to draw something useful and relevant from it.

"I believe we have a direction, at least," she says diffidently. "Eyes open and weapons ready, please. While I am not inclined to trouble myself unduly over cryptic ramblings I am also disinclined to die to foolish carelessness,"

[TheFallenSon]

"Right'o madam. My eyes have been wide and taking in all the sites since I adopted the rear guard position. I must say, you cut a dashing figure in that void suit, all seriousness aside of course. On the serious side, I have my multi-key if that door is a bit stubborn. I do so love that little gizmo. Mars outdid itself when it made these." He would dig his key out and away from his belt, flashing it for the gathered to see. He would return to his habit of scanning, the one that seemed focused on the front of the column more than the rear. He was a petty criminal of a man after all. The Emperor could forgive him a bit of imagination and what have you. Then...reminding himself that he couldn't act upon his imagination if he was a frozen corpse on a dead planet, he began to scan in a more serious manner.

[Gavinfoxx]

The magos, a sensor-man himself holds out his hand for the auspex, and decides to have a go at it, interfacing his combi-tool with the appropriate parts of the Auspex so he can do more to see if he can determine anything else from the sensing capability of the unit. He also makes sure, using whatever vox equipment on hand, to make sure the ship sends down an Astropath as the Captain said, and gets an estimate on how long that will take.


Okay, an Auspex is '+20 Awareness' when in use, and you can make a tech-use to determine imperceptible things, which his combi-tool gives him a +10 on. If we are only being aware of imperceptible things, is it +20 tech use? His tech-use is 65 + 10 for the combi-tool. His Perception is 37, and Awareness is a Basic, so I think that's halved for 18? Is the Auspex +20 awareness before or after halved for untrained? But it doesn't make any sense for Auspex's to be Awareness only, when Scrutiny is what Into the Storm has as a major skill of Master of Etherics, and apparently what ships use... and Scrutiny isn't an Explorator and probably shouldn't be a sensor skill at all, being a social skill to sell if someone is lying! I'm not entirely sure Scrutiny OR Awareness should be the only skills you can use with auspexes in general! Of course some things might be easy to spot, so those might be a bit easier. Also, Auspex range is 50 meters, unless it is a Locke Auspex, which is 175 kg, IE 386 lbs (you aren't carrying THAT, it goes on a vehicle), which goes to 5 or 10 km, depending on if it is good quality or not. Things are that close? How do you want to do this?

[Caimheul]

"And if the multikey doesn't work, liberal application of high powered las bolts opens a lot of doors," Tristan rejoins, training his hellgun on the doorway just in case a threat should emerge.

[Hemnon]

The Trek along the cold, frozen wastes, following the edge of the city itself happens without any incidents worth of notice, except for a few spooky moments, although those were just written off as ambient noise.

You reach a sort of Ridged-hilltop and looking down you can see a dull red light behind piles of driftsnow that's plastered what, one would hope, is a sort of door or entrance to a possible bunker complex... but it's clean-covered in snow and ice. Had it not been for the Auspexes and that light, no one would've had any second thoughts about this ridgey hill hadn't been something more.

The icey snow covering the whole front appears solid hard, but brittle like glass if hit hard enough... but there's so much of it that it would take one heck of a boom to shatter it.
The Atmosphere here is much worse that back near the city-edge, what with the long-ago crumbled wall-skeletons that can be seen around the place, as well as the odd deep rumbling sound that comes from below.
Had it not been for the horrors experienced while travelling through the Maw, this place would most likely rate number 1 on spookiest place ever visited... but the warp beats it by a longshot.... although that's not to say the place is not scary as hell, because it is.
----------------------------------

How will you all manage to get through the wall of ice and packed-up snow?
It's gonna take more than a simple frag or krag grenade to get the snow out of the way.... although Void-ship Lancefire might be overkill, but I'll leave the idea-thinking to you guys ^3^

[TheFallenSon]

"Well isn't that dandy? The door is covered by a glacier and we are stuck out here staring at it. I don't suppose any of you brought some boom down here with you, eh? I sure as hell didn't." He walked over to the block of frozen door. Giving it a once over, just to see if maybe he could find a weakness with his old jaded eyes. After all, it wouldn't do to have the cyborg engineer walk over with his do hicky and figure out a way in, busting into places was his job after all. He would flip the the mental roladex of doors and what not he kept, always good to know how to get into a place, doors also tended to whisper the secrets about what was behind them.


Security to find the best way in using what we may have available here and now.
[roll0] vs 35

Maybe I will get lucky eh?
Common Lore Imperium
Forbidden Lore Archeotech
to see if I can figure out what is behind the door...by knowing what kind of door/light combo that is.
[roll1] vs 35
[roll2] vs 35

[Caimheul]

As the Seneschal steps forward, the pistol at his waist catches Tristan's eye. "Begging your pardon Master Rainor, but I don't know many things that can withstand repeated blasting by an inferno pistol, similar to the one on your waist. That would incidentally solve the issue of any locked doors that may be behind this wall of ice."

[Aneurin]

Anastasia

After treating the pseudo-glacier to a frosty glare, Anastasia clicks her tongue in irritation as she turns to the entourage.

"Let the ice keep it's secrets for now. Record the co-ordinates, and we shall come back another time with excavation equipment. There must be other, more accessible locations on the surface and I see no reason to spend our time and air on a glowing snow bank. Perhaps there is another, more readily available entrance further into the ruins - it seems unlikely that anything truly important should have a single entrance," she waves a hand carelessly at the skeletal buildings that loom all around. "If you wish to try the door you are welcome, though. I simply believe it would be more efficient to mark locations of interest now and potential hazards, and return later with full salvage teams,"

[TheFallenSon]

"As profitable and fun it would be to blast open this pile of rock and ice, I agree with the lady. We should come back...who knows, the pistol's ability to deal death maybe more valuable in the end." He would wait to see what the others decided, but would still move away from the pile of no that had shown itself this morning. He took in the sights, hopefully something would be worth seeing here.

[Caimheul]

Tristin scans the area, looking for any building that look interesting or promising. He takes particular note of anything that would appear to have been a high end business. There are a few goods that would be unaffected by the weather and passage of time.

[Aneurin]

Anastasia

After looking around speculatively for a few moments, Anastasia's gaze settles on one of the larger, and fancier looking ruins and she points decisively towards it.

"That looks suitably important. I believe we shall start there, and the circles back towards the shuttle," she says calmly as she starts the trek towards the crumbling structure. "We can return and explore the ice-bound glow when the cryptographers have had an opportunity to decrypt the journal further," she hesitates a moment, and then shrugs. "Or not, as the case may be,"

[Hemnon]

The dead city remains as empty and hollow as always, and the short break in one of the more intact-looking buildings you all take on the way back to the Ship is only marginal improvement to the surroundings.

A few hours later....

You're all now back at your Voidship, Decon-screened and back on duty, with the ship still in geo-sync Orbit around the small moon-like planetoid.

As for the very damaged diary-logbook found on the planet... well, it's been cleaned and re-made as well as the Technographers and reprinting cogitators could do. It's still very spotty and not much else than what a certain Techpriest already managed to translate.
It's a bunch of scary writing, eerie hints at what's on the planetoid below, as well as odd scribblings looking like a numberical serie repeating at a series of 4. possibly a sort of access code, broadcasting sequence or perhaps something totally OTHER. It's not Imperial Codifixion or Numberical values though, that much is certain, which could easily hint at the planetoid below's cityscape is NOT of imperial Nature at all... but it's hard to say really.
Oh and not to forget, and this information was deemed top secret prior to re-printing: The Writing in it is a 99,9995327 Percent Match to the Lady Captain of this ship. This information is of course only known to the people that went to the planet and a few others who reprinted it.... but how could something like that happen? the Lady Captain's handwriting couldn't possibly appear anywhere near this place, wherever the heck you've all ended up.

A report from the Astropathic Team on the ship, as well as the Navis-Group tells the same story: The Astronimican is acting strange here. It seems like it's glow works closer to a ship's Augers, if one were to make an analogy so others can more easily understand. It's waxing and waning pulse reveals stuff, rather than work as a guiding point, as if the Astronomican was everywhere and nowhere at the same time, as previously stated. it's indeed odd and rather mindboggling.
------------------

What will you all do now? Time to head back down and investigate the bunker area, or would you all rather just leave it be and try travelling the void with no sort of stable guidance or map? Or would you all rather do something else prior to/instead of heaving back to the planetoid or travel on blindly?
It's up to you all.

[Caimheul]

Once the shuttle takes off Tristan visibly relaxes. After all, the Lord Captain's safety is in the hands of the pilots now and it was entirely out of his control. He tensed up slightly after they docked, as there could have been a mutiny, or an assassination squad lying in wait in the hanger. Once the opening doors reveal the awaiting honor guard of Dancing Hussars, he stayed at attention, but was significantly less vigilant. After all, by agreement, the Hussars were responsible for the Lord Captain's safety shipboard, while the "Tube Breathing Dirt Suckers" as the Hussars typically referred to them semi-behind their backs, had that responsibility planetside. Shipboard, Tristan could look forward to the mess of paperwork that constantly awaited him, punctuated by leading training sessions, enforcing discipline, and the occasional "friendly" duel with his opposite number in the Hussars. He made a mental note to check the shipboard stores for equipment that would be exceedingly useful should the Lord Captain decide to once more descend to that frozen, barren wasteland, or risk her life in an equally foolish manner on some other world.

[Gavinfoxx]

The Explorator spends his time trying to at least see what options the ship has for detecting Warp disturbances via a mechanical device that can fit in a shuttle, rather than risking one of the ship's few and quite rare psykers. He spends some time examining the equipment used to repair the sensors for calibrating the gellar field and similar devices to see what it might be possible to scrounge up...

[Aneurin]

Anastasia

After a day or so poring over the tattered fragments of the wretched journal, Anastasia loses her patience. The cowardice and resignation in there are contemptible; be damned if the metre and handwriting match hers to perfection - no true true scion of House Undynne would ever pen such a disgrace.

As the pages flutter to the ground behind her, Anastasia strides from her quarters in full bellow;

"Prepare a landing party with minimum escort; prepare for thick ice, salvage and arm for tunnels. I shall be leading it. Have another shuttle made ready for an archeology party, medium escort, to begin examining the other ruins for anything of interest. Despatch a third team to begin recovery of the bodies and transfer them to the temple - we shall give them the Emperor's benediction before we send them to their rest,"

As flunkeys, lackeys and officers too foolish, green or unlucky to be somewhere else scatter before her to carry out her bidding, Anastasia feels a swell of satisfaction. Tracking down a mystery terror on a haunted world is infintissimally preferable to brooding aboard a ship, waiting for a Warp Storm to settle.

"Oh," she adds in a lazy tone, almost as if it were an after thought.. "Present my compliments to the Choir Master and inform him that I require an Astropath in my escort,"

[TheFallenSon]

He sat in his own little special part of the ship, collating the latest whispers and songs from his collection of informants on board. Of course there was some small talk of the nature of the journal found dirt side, how the rumors began he wasn't sure yet...but people talk, it was human nature to talk. He fiddled with the firing mechanism of his inferno pistol as he read the various reports that had been fed to his office, he didn't have the real time to make a legitimate reporting to the captain, but he put his "best and brightest" people on finding who had begun this clearly traitorous bit of talk among the ratings and what not. Hopefully no one picked up on his trying to provide disinformation in that initial blast, his agents were smart, but none so smart as to be able to replace him...right?

With that bit of necessary work completed, he made his way back to the shuttle bay, stopping in a few places to attempt and scrounge up some more gear for the coming work. In particular he wanted to ensure he had a few canisters of melta ammo and at least 4 charge packs for his las.

[Caimheul]

Tristan sets down his quill and leans back in his chair, rubbing his eyes. "Never thought I'd miss the Munitorium," he mutters to himself as he files the last of the paperwork required after every planetside mission. The knock at the door is a welcome distraction from the various discipline and performance reports that constantly accumulate in his "Incoming" box. "Enter," he orders a split second before his aide opens the door. "Sir, I was able to locate enough Footfall pattern voidsuits for the command contingent, and enough survival suits to outfit a platoon. The survival suits are one of the shoddier designs, but so long as the Lord Captain does not require them to remain on the surface for over seventy-two Hours, they should suffice. Given more time I might be able to..." she trails off as she notices he has gestured for her to stop. "At this time I have no idea if the Lord Captain will wish to return to the surface, and as such that will suffice Victoria. Thank you," he says sincerely, secretly hoping the armour on the voidsuits won't be necessary.