The Great Koronus Mutiny (IC)

[dojango]

The great Star Galleon Media Res shudders violently as it is bracketed by explosions. The two lean pirate frigates have got their range now. The galleon is swarmed by small ramshackle boats, like flies on a dying grox. The galleon's flack guns bark out, and dozens of the small craft are shattered, air and bodies spilling out into the void. But a hundred more are now landing, cutting through airlocks and weakpoints on the hull, bloodthirsty pirates swarming out intent on plunder and murder. In the bridge, the rogue trader Tarquin von Drakkan adjusts his hat, turns on the ship's vox, and in an authoritative voice, says, "Well, lads, we're in a tight spot. But you stand by me, and I swear to you, I'll never let us fall while I still draw br..." Draw bread? Breast? Brisket? You'll never know, as just then, his 'loyal' manservant draws a hidden pistol and blows the rogue trader's head off. As the security guards scramble for their weapons, desperate reports of mutiny breaking out all across the ship start crackling over the vox...

Well. You're all in a tight spot. Where are you, what is your job on the ship, and do you have a plan to deal with the man advancing on you, mono-cutlass drawn, with murder in his eye?

[SchwhatNow]

Kais was in engineering, helping to keep an eye on the engines and ensure that the regular maintenance went smoothly. Tarquin had been suspicious about his intentions when he was first hired but, despite feeding information back to the T'au empire quietly, Kais was honest about wanting to help the ship and her crew be as effective as possible. The early days had been simple tasks but he had proven his worth in short order to be trusted with more difficult and important jobs. True that his main calling had always been as a warrior but his mind would have been a terrible thing to waste, something the Ethereal caste had recognized to even assign him this duty in the first place.

As the sound of a gunshot crackled over the vox speakers his instincts kicked in, years of battle having been deeply ingrained upon him, so when a few of the crew in the large engine room drew weapons and began to attack he was quick to take cover and put on his helmet. The eyes of the tau saw much that other races could not, ultraviolet and infrared spectrums were beyond a human for example, but the lack of pupil dilation and precise depth perception hampered his kind in return. His helmet, specifically the optical lenses in the front, would help mitigate his shortcomings. Using his hearing to get an idea of where the threats currently were Kais drew his pulse pistol and quickly snapped around the steel pillar. Most of the crew here were lightly armed or not at all so these mutineers were having an easy time despite being outnumbered. Thankfully his aim was true and in quick succession he pulled back the trigger to release a quick flurry of plasma, four shots and two kills to give him some breathing room before they even had a chance to react.

Taking a deep breath he ran through the scenario in his mind, putting everything together in short order just before the crashing thunder of cannon fire upon the hull rumbled through the bulkheads and told everyone that the attack was from without as well as within. He needed to return to his room and recover his rifle, the long barreled weapon was too cumbersome for most daily tasks but he'd need it now before things got too bad. Steeling himself Kais moved to exit the engine room and make his way carefully through the narrow halls, watching for danger and ready to lend a hand to any loyal members who were in danger. "For the Tau'Va." he said quietly, under his breath.

[Lord Raziere]

Rendara:
Another Captain dead. Another ship going to the warp in a handbasket. She doesn't have time for this and this man here, advancing on her she has no guilt about ending his life here, not even slightly. Guy is probably a Chaos worshipper or did something horrible to somebody at some point, probably to a child. He seems like the type. When the whole world is horrible, why care where your gun hits? Its hurting something that deserves it. So she reaches out with the power of her mind to crush this scum of humanity into meaty chunks.


Telekinetic Crush, Willpower Test opposed against his Toughness
[roll0], success is below 61

If successful:
[roll1] Impact damage

[Catarang]

Little 'uns over there doing a lot of yelling. Can't do my work with all this noise. Making my head hurt worse than all the rumbling going on. Can't work, can't eat. Better go stop them yelling before I can't eat.

Stand u-... wait. Don't stand. Ceiling low here. Stay lower. Move slow. Sloooooooooow. Lotsa smoke over here now. Yelling getting louder. Lotsa little 'uns in here. Something wrong. Some on floor, some screaming. Little 'un moving? Fast. Fast and yelling. He's got something with him. Hamm- "AARRGH! Me will crush you! Crush you to GOO!" ... That hurt. My hammer now. Nice and heavy. No more little 'uns in here looking unfriendly. Lots of them screaming. Maybe I can help.

This 'un is screaming. Get lower. See if picking him up makes him scream more. His arm is missing. Pick up from the other side... Arm has symbol on it. Not Drakkan symbol. Not Navy symbol. Not Emperor symbol. Not Machine Men symbol... Pirate symbol? Yeah. Pirate symbol. Pirate goo now. No more screaming.

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

Violently, the large double doors to the chapel of the Media Res flew open.

Father Answin could hear heavy footsteps approaching from behind.

The haggard, robed preacher himself knelt before an altar, and prayed, paying no attention to the sounds and mumbling. He also ignored the violent convulsions of the Star Galleon engaging in battle. Somewhere in his chapel, something shattered on the ground - he would have to take care of it later.
This time belonged to the God-Emperor, and the God-Emperor alone.

It would take some time until the intruder found him - and he had no doubt this was an intruder, judging from the uneven step - while his chapel was hardly a cathedral -yet- it was vast when compared to even some small colony's main temple.

Finally, silence - the man had spotted him. After a short pause, he let out a battlecry and charged. Solemnly, Father Answin took his helmet, which was fashioned in the form of an Ecclesiarchal Mitre, as was befitting of his station, and put it on. He was already clad in full battle gear under his robes, and his heavily engraved chainsword laid resting besides him.

The chainsword flew into his hands as he turned around, his bearded face, in an elated expression, raised high to once again marvel at the statues of Imperial Saints casting their sacred shadows down onto the two men who soon would be caught in a duel unto death. His weapon's jagged chain met the pirate's monocutlass with an indignant screech, as the missionary parried the man's first, clumsy attack.
Only now, the preacher truly fixated the pirate in a wild- eyed stare.

"No pirate lowlife in service to the ruinous powers shall desecrate this Hallowed Halls of Worship." the preacher hissed."The God-Emperor's will be done. KNEEL BEFORE THE GOLDEN THRONE!"

And so it was. As the vicious rotating teeth bit deep into the pirate's flesh, and the chapel's floor was anointed with the blood of a sinner, the man fell to his knees, before he broke down an eviscerated mess.

[jolinaxas]

Xantha Ward

"Look lively, now. And find the Big Fella. Throne knows we can make a push out of here if we've got him on side."

The scarred ex-smuggler nodded to the crew chief and slid a tine over the nearby activation rune. The poorly maintained underdeck door screamed in protest, before an additional Rite of Physical Maintenance with her good hand soothed the spirit within.

"Not the first time, Xan. Just keep your head down, sort it out."

The scream was the first indication that the maintenance tunnels she was scouting were now enemy territory. The pirate soon followed it, his weapon slicing through the empty space where Xantha had been as she pushed at his side, hoping to turn the momentum of his charge against him. Slamming into a pipe, he started to turn around, only to come face to face with the most expensive thing for a good quarter-mile in any direction. Smoke from where the melta pistol's ammo was ionizing and the subtle mechanical whirring of the magnetic chambers had already begun.

"Bad way to go."

Her assailant grabbed for the pistol, managing to tilt it slightly before the searing heat of the internal workings made him involuntarily snatch his hand away. As the ancient weapon discharged, the left side of the pirate's face turned to ash and he fell unceremoniously on top of her. With some effort, she pushed the body off and resolved to move through the rest of the tunnels in a much stealthier fashion, discarding her vest to reveal more of the synskin beneath.

[Celticbear]

The events came as no surprise. The Ancestors had guided Selrya the night before with dire portents, and she was ready to deal with them. When her captor's final words echoed throughout the ship, she was near the navigator pod, preparing to throw the ship into the Warp should the fighting go sour. When it did, and a pirate was going after her throat, she knew that time was of the essence. Time and reasoning, which would be in short supply now that the captain had died. With the crew and pirates pitted against her, she didn't know who her friends might be. She decided to sink into the shadows and watch the events unfold at a distance rather than make her position known. Her form twitched and shivered as she became translucent, running from her aggressor as quickly as she could.

Going to make a concealment and silent move test as per my Stalker Kindred ability. Both are looking to get under 59.

Concealment (Ag Test v 59): [roll0]
Silent Move (Ag Test v 59): [roll1]

[dojango]

Feeding Bay Charlie Seven:
Kais quickly takes out a few of the mutineers. More slowly, a few gun-servitors trundle out of their niches and mow down a dozen more. The shocked Mechanicus crew looks at the bodies scattered around the sacred spaces of the ship. Kais heads out of the Enginarium towards his quarters. Moments after he leaves, massive blast doors lower down, sealing the Mechanicus Enclave off from the rest of the ship... in theory. He heads towards the abandoned supply closet that make up his quarters. All around him is chaos; not the ordered chaos of battle, but the confused chaos of a panicked rout. He pushes his way into one of the large rooms where the crew is fed. He sees, trapped in a corner behind a makeshift barricade of tables, a young officer with a few even younger midshipmen is trying to fend off about a dozen other crewmen.

Jag-reg finishes off a few pirates. The rest of the crew flees down the tunnels, towards some refuge, or towards the weapons lockers. Jag-reg, urged on perhaps by the sound of fighting or by his stomach's instincts, wanders over to his assigned feeding bay. He sees one of the blue alien on the other end, and in the middle he sees one of the friendlier officers trying to fend off some other members of the crew. The woman's face lights up when she sees Jag-reg and shouts, "James! Squish the bad men!" A few of the men turn towards Jag-reg at that. Four of them are waving boarding axes and run at him, leaving eight more at the makeshift barricade, trying to pull down the officer.

In the Astropath chambers:
Tarquin von Drakkan had often called Rendara "The third most valuable piece of equipment on the ship." And as such, she had been given a fine suite of three rooms next to the Astropathic focusing chamber on the ship's castle. When one of the pirates bursts into the room, she uses her powers to quickly and efficiently crush his feeble body, and he collapses, struggling to breath as his ribcage is collapsed in on his vitals. However, behind him, six more pirates pour through the door, shotguns drawn. One of them (their leader, perhaps?) points at her and shouts, "The blind one! Take her alive!" The pirates are blocking the way to the bridge, but the door to Rendara's private quarters are behind her, where a few of her servants are cowering, no doubt.

In the deep underdecks:
Xantha leaves the smoldering body behind. She is far down in the bowels of the ship. She pauses by a ladder leading up to a maintenance hatch; one that she knows the codes to. The large pipe next to the ladder has a plaque that says "STARBOARD CANNON #4 PITCH HYDRAULICS" and a series of maintenance purity seals on it. Below the plaque someone has scratched "Walloping Wanda goes all the way down". From up ahead, she sees flickering torchlight. A small party of twists is heading towards her. Their strange faces don't seem right in the shadows. As she conceals herself, she overhears one of them saying in their guttural version of ship cant, "Whiteclaw says, smash them pipes good, yeah, we get big gift. Food, meat, good water, yeah. Smashy smashy."

The Cathedral:
The ship's cathedral is just fore of the ship's castle. Secret stairwells connect the two so that officers can visit without having to traverse the lower decks. Father Answin is at prayer in a secluded chapel, watching the blood of the fallen pirate seep into the ornate mosaic on the floor. Most ships would have dozens, if not hundreds of priests, confessors, and religious functionaries, but von Drakkan and Answin's unique approach to the faith meant that Father Answin only had two illiterate altar boys and a few elderly lay preachers to aid him. These were running around the cathedral, helping lead the ship's non-combatants into the designated emergency shelters. The cathedral was one of the places for non-combatants to retreat to; pensioners, children, supernumerary paper-pushers, that sort of thing. Father Answin sees the ship's elderly law-scrivener, William Padding, shuffling in escorted by a few other scribes. The man limps over to Father Answin and shakes his head. "The savages have mutinied" he says. Father Answin recalls that a few years ago, after a particularly eventful warp voyage deep into the Heathen Stars, von Drakkan had bought ten thousand ferals from slavers on Naduesh; these savages had been willing enough to learn the voidman's trade, but had never integrated with the rest of the crew, nor had they been enthusiastic followers in Father Answin's flock. And now they've mutinied in the middle of a pirate attack. Father Answin looks around the cathedral, considering his options. Out the lower-doors he can head deep into the ship to take the fight to the mutineers, or he can head up towards the ship's castle to see what is happening there. Or he could stay here and defend the non-combatants or lead them in prayer, as is his designated role during emergencies.

The Bridge:
Selrya backs away from her assailant and tries to camouflage herself. The swordsman is quickly taken down by a spray of bullets from the bridge's security guards, but more pirates are swarming through the door. Selrya looks back at the body of her captor. The assassin/servant has picked up something from his body, and pushes a button. An armored shell quickly slides around the throne, protecting the assassin from the spray of bullets from the security guards. Someone shouts, "He's got the Lord Captain's baton!" Someone else shouts, "There's more coming through the upper doors!" A dozen pirates appear above the pit of the bridge and begin to open fire on the crew below. Selrya does not appear to have drawn any attention, but a few of the human crew near her are hit and go down in bloody heaps.

[SchwhatNow]

The chaos of battle was nothing new to him though he had never engaged in conflict aboard a ship like this. A part of him missed the familiarity of his bonded brothers and sisters to back him up but, in this case, the crew members who remained loyal deserved his support and attention. As he rounded the entryway and came face to face with a full-blown firefight Kais stopped himself from stepping into the open and exposing himself. A quick glance revealed that the officer and their men were vastly outnumbered but he could not in good conscience abandon them. Reaching to his belt he pulled one of his photon grenades free and activated it, doing his best to toss it into the room and towards the dozen or so mutineers. "Heads down officer!" he shouted, hoping that they would recognize the situation and ensure that their allies would avert their eyes.


Not sure if there are any modifiers to this due to Kais being undetected but here goes his throw.

Ranged Attack (Bs 44): [roll0]

[Lord Raziere]

Rendara:
She curses under her breath. She liked her servants, they were either psykers like her who didn't deserve what they got in life, or were women she slept with. Either way they didn't deserve this. What would the Emperor do in the situation? Probably kill them all for daring to defy him. But this was like, six to one? and while they needed her alive- probably to send messages no doubt, the only thing more valuable was a Navigator- she wasn't sure if she could take them on. So she decided to try something....subtler. Try and influence the mind of the leader to look at her favorably while she speaks this
"Well....you have me surrounded, I admit. Me and my servants will surrender in exchange for your protection. There is no need for us to fight each other after all and you need me to work my full effectiveness which my servants are vital for. They don't even pose a threat to you, and I doubt I can kill all of you. It would be more to your advantage if you turn your guns around and aimed them at others coming to take me from you. I assure you, the others who work the astropath chambers are no threat and will be beneficial to you as they are to me."


Using Delude, Opposed willpower test against pirate leader:
[roll0] (Willpower 61)

If successful, add +30 to a Charm roll of Untrained Fellowship 35, meaning effectively 18 without the Delude Bonus:
[roll1] (Fellowship 18 or 48 depending on Delude success)

[DrK]

Commander Crone

Max curses under his breath as the Captain is blow away metres away from. Chunks of the Captain's brains splattering over the flight console that he's sat by. Rolling out of the chair he rises to his feet, weapons in his hands but is still not fast enough to stop the guards blow away the traitor. He looks for the strange Kroot, whistling loudly, "Selrya over 'ere, lets get off the bridge, that way" he shouts motioning at one of the access doors heading away from the main entrance to the bridge.

Seeing the Lord Captain's Baton in the hands of the assassin being hidden by the throne's defense mechanism he whirls around and moves towards the nearest door, sapping a flurry of shots from his bolt pistol at the scum pouring through the door! He looks to the nearest access door judging the distance, trying to ignore the chaos and shuddering of the vessle and alarms blaring from the damage control panels.


From the cover of the Navigation pit
Called shot to the head of the closest pirate (no penalty thanks to Sharpshooter)
[roll0] TN 61+10 for close range =71
- if Hit [roll1] )tearing dice [roll2]) PEN 4 to the head EDIT: 19 explosive damage (Pen4) to the head! :smallsmile:
-- IF RF [roll3] TN 71 to confirm and [roll4] as required

[Catarang]

Pirates in here. Kill! Kill pirat-

"James! Squish the bad men!"

Friends in here. Pirates near friends. Kill pirates near friends!


Jag-reg let out a bestial bellow, and smashed his blood smeared hammer down on the nearest bit of furniture making as much noise as possible. "Run an' 'll kill you last!" He screamed as he tore his way across the feeding bay towards the Officer and her personnel, sending anything unlucky enough to be caught in his path flying.


Intimidate on the four pirates in front of me, trying to get them not to block my way. If anyone else is within the AOE of my Intimidate roll, I get my strength score of 8 in targets so I'll just keep trying to get pirates to flee until I run out of targets in range.
Intimidate score comes out to 63 (+10 from skill mastery, -10 from But it Dark in Dere!)
[roll0]

Additional roll in-case I need to barrel through a pirate or two to get to where I want to be.
My Str is 63 (If that's what I use)
[roll1]

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

Reassuringly, he put his left hand on the law-scrivener's shoulder. "Steadfast, Padding. If our Faith does not falter, it will take more than some savages and pirates to break this crew." Father Answin replied serenely.

He turned and walked towards the back of the cathedral, where he would normally conduct service, and activated the Cathedral's access to the ship's vox, to address the crew, in strong, solemn words.
"Crew of the Medias Res! Today is a fateful day. Some we had deemed comrades have betrayed us. Insidious Raiders have come to board us.

Like vermin they gnaw at all we hold dear.
Like vermin, they gnaw on our livelihoods.
Like vermin, they gnaw on our community.
Like vermin, they gnaw at the Media Res' Glory.

As we are beleaguered from within and without, I know you all feel smothered by their tide.

Know though, brothers and sisters, that it is the most dire situations, when the God-Emperor's presence can be felt the strongest!
Arm yourself in Faith, brothers and sisters, and together we shall conduct our most sacred duty, to exterminate this despicable vermin sworn to the ruinous powers!

As the vermin they are, they do not understand something greater than themselves. They do not understand, brothers and sisters, that you all are part of this congregation, that it is you who are the Medias Res, in service to Our Saviour, the God-Emperor on his Golden Throne! This day, you all are instruments of His Glory, and it shall shine Bright in our battle!

Know that the Emperor's gaze lies upon us! This is the time that we show our true strength!
In the Name of the Golden Throne, all of you, spill the blood of these sinners, char their rotten corpses and send them to their Eternal Damnation!"

He had opened his arms wide while taking, and raised his eyes to the cathedral sky - only now that he had finished, he moved his hands back to his weapons.
"Brother Bartholomew, lead the congregation in prayer." he ordered his most trusted underling, before he headed up towards the ships castle, flamer and chainsword at the ready.
He was willing, in the Emperor's name, to take the fight wherever he had to - but at first, the castle had the highest priority for the Medias Res.


Okay, I'm trying to inspire the crew/instill hatred for the pirates and mutineers in them.

[roll0] vs 82 / 102 if inspire wrath is applicable. + 10 again if any of peer military/worker/academics/nobility/ecclesiarchy is applicable.
Rerolled to a glorious 3 in the OOC.

[Celticbear]

Seeing the mass of bodies between herself and Max who was the only person to have offered a source of egress, Selrya was drawn to perform desperate measures. She knew that if she tried to wade her way through the combat to the other side of the room, she would likely end up dead. She furrowed her brow as she rose to her staggering height, easily standing heads taller than anyone else in the room. She opened her beak, and let forth a screech that could pierce eardrums, attempting to gain everyone's attention even if for a moment. It was then that she opened her third eye, issuing a red cacophony of light and psychic might; the warp itself flooding into the bridge of the ship.


"WITNESS THE DOOM!"

Using the Lidless Stare power to try and stun anyone looking my way, hopefully, to clear a path towards Max. If the power works, she'll start to bolt over towards him. People trying to resist Lidless Stare also take a -10 penalty to their WP test due to Renegade house. I'll also use my Kroothawk Totem if I fail the test to get a reroll, though I won't use it if I succeed.

WP Test TN: 46 (36+10): [roll0]
WP Test ReRoll (If necessary) TN: 46 (36+10): [roll1]

Damage: 1d10+3 E (ignores Armour and Toughness): [roll2]

[dojango]

Feeding Bay Charlie Seven:
There is a bright flash of the photon grenade going off. The mutineers by the barricade stumble around, clutching at their eyes. The others, facing way from them aren't as badly affected, but the sight of an angry Ogryn charging towards them breaks their morale and cower as Jag-reg sweeps past them. They flee out the door he had come in from. The others are not so lucky. The photon grenade has left them blinded, and between Jag-reg's fists and Kais' pistol eight bodies are scattered around the cafeteria. Even the young officer managed to head-shoot one of them on her second try. She gives Jag-reg a weak salute. "James, thank you." She looks askance at Kais, and then says, "Maybe Father Answin is right about some xenos. Uh, the savages, you know, the ones we picked up from Naduesh a few years back. They're attacking everyone! And they're teaming up with the pirates! We gotta get to the armory and make sure the loyal crew gets the weapons they need to fight back!"

They failed the TN badly so they're blinded for seven rounds, should be easy enough to mop them up. The officer wants you to help secure the armory, but of course, she's not your boss.

In the Astropath chambers
The leader grins and says "orders din't say nothin' about servants. They just want you. Beater. Handspike. See about Oggz over there. You, blind lady, just hold your hands out and don't make no sudden moves. We're headin' back to our ship. Mebbe you can get new servants there." He grins. Two of the pirates take a look at their fallen comrade. They lift him up and try to prop him up to see if he can move under his own power. He can't. The leader pulls out some manacles and slowly approaches Rendara, while the other three pirates spread out to surround her.

The Cathedral:
After Father Answin's inspiring speech, he hears cheers and shouts from the refugees in the cathedral around him. Hopefully the crew will find the speech as inspiring. Or at least, the ones who haven't mutineed. He leaves the cathedral under the watchful gaze of Brother Bartholomew, who salutes with his ill-fitting cybernetic arm and hefts his ancient chainsword. Father Answin's security access gets him into the castle without problem. There are a few bodies scattered here and there... he looks over to the Astropath's chambers and sees two dead security guards lying in a bloody heap next to a dead pirate.

The Bridge:
The security guards trade fire with the pirates on the upper level. Some mutinous crewmen burst through the main door, trying to seize control of the bridge. One of them goes down, missing most of his head. The others pour over the body, waving illegal weapons and tools. The security guards try to deal with the flanking attackers, but fall back... just then, an invisile cacophony of light and sound seems to center around Selrya. The pirates and mutineers (and a few unfortunate security guards and bridge crew) suddenly fall down, screaming, clutching their eyes. There is a lull in the fire as the stunned attackers try to remember what dimension they're supposed to be in. Selrya and Max use the opportunity to make their way to one of the access hatches in the bridge floor. The command throne has already lowered itself into the floor, taking the murderous servant to safety... with the Lord Captain's baton in hand. While the baton's highest executive functions are gene-locked to those of the rogue trader's dynasty, the minor functions could prove extremely dangerous in the hands of a malicious actor. And extremely helpful for those trying to keep control of the ship.

[SchwhatNow]

The mutineers weren't ready for that at all, blinded squarely and left reeling as they mopped up the resistance. Watching the mighty Ogyrn work was certainly unsettling to an extent, he never wanted to be on that one's bad side, but such brutal efficiency was also commendable and he had seen just as worse things from the steadfast Kroot warriors that served the Tau as auxiliary forces. Careful not to hit any allies with stray shots from his pistol he strode boldly forward and quickly reloaded his pistol once the last body fell to the floor. "I assure you I serve for the good of the crew." he replied in low gothic with a nod to the officer and he paused to listen to her words, her desires to ensure that the crew was sufficiently armed. Such a plan mirrored his own thoughts as indeed they'd need the tools to fend off their foes in such a hectic battle. Calm, rational actions to re-establish control and shore up defenses would see them through this day or nothing would.

"Allow me to recover my rifle and you'll have my support." She didn't command him by rank but there was little pride in regards to working together on his part. He knew that most humans were xenophobic but such colored thoughts did not cloud his beliefs in the slightest that cooperation remained possible if only understanding could be reached. Kais would move swiftly towards his room as it were in order to retrieve his more potent pulse rifle but would otherwise be just as quick to regroup and push towards the armory. Each individual had their part to play, it seemed that his was to shore up their defenses on a personal level and he'd not argue against the importance of such a task.

[Lord Raziere]

Rendara:
Well. That didn't work, Rendara thinks Well, if all else fails, using force in enough quantities will solve anything, and she might as well push herself as much as she could to kill or incapacitate as many of them as she can. She doesn't give up, instead Rendara summons up the power of the warp, gripping her staff, spreading her arms out and opening her mouth in a silent shriek, channeling through her mind to unleash as a psychic scream in imitation of the shrieking of long dead xenos she has heard coming out in space, sending out the pulse into all their minds to try and wreck them as much as she can, the high pitched psychic screech having been known to cause all sorts of deaths from messing with the brain: bleeding from the ears, eyes and nose, stroke, forgetting how to breathe, seizures, all sorts horrible ways, and if none of those work they are often left stunned from their brain functions being screwed up.


Psychic Scream on all six of them:
Focus Power Test to hit targets:
[roll0] (Willpower 61)
Impact Damage with shocking quality:
[roll1]
Targets suffers a -20 to their toughness test to resist stunning, if they fail this test, they are stunned for a number of rounds equal to half my psy rating rounding up (in this case, two rounds).

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

This was what he had expected. It was no surprise Rendara, the Astropath would be one of the first targets of the pirates. His face darkened as he readied his flamer, hurrying towards her chambers.

[DrK]

Commander Crone

Max watches satisfied as the first man drops, bolt shell blowing his head off the flurry of return fire forces him to drop behind the command consoles.

He sees the command throne retract and cursed inwardly as the Lord Captains command baton is gone. The sound of the strange Kroot warp reader makes him look up, until he realises what's about to happen and drops to the floor screwing his eyes shut. Screams and lurid red lights glowing through his closed eyes mark the effects. As the sensation of the warp fades he leaps up sliding to the hatch and holding it open for the Kroot.

"effective Navis. Maybe shout a warning next time eh?" he adds, a glance at the bridge full of people clutching their bleeding eyes.

Dropping into a minor access corridor he keeps his pistol close, drawing his xeno blaster in the other. "One of them got the command rod. Let's head to environment Al control, see if we can upset these bastards and retake the old lady."

[jolinaxas]

Xantha Ward

As the twists approached, Xantha ducked behind the pipe, doing the mental calculations that she was used to: she couldn't see any weapons, but they were talking about breaking industrial equipment, and there wasn't any twist large and mutated enough to do that bare-handed. At least none that shared the torchlight.

She couldn't allow them to do... whatever it was they were doing. And who were they talking about?

She'd have to stalk them, study them, and take out the most dangerous one from ambush.


Concealment to let them walk by, TN 62 (42+20 for cloak): [roll0]
Awareness to see if they're a serious threat, TN 61: [roll1]

I have a lot of lores that may or may not apply, since I'm not sure who Whiteclaw is (a pirate, a heretic, some other twist, etc)
Int is 52: [roll2]

[Celticbear]

Selrya brings a hand up to her throat as her alien face contorts into an unfamiliar emotion. She regarded Max as she kept up pace with him and snorted, "I didn't break my vocals in a shout for the fun of it."

She kept her rifle steady as it swayed on her shoulder, unsheathing a blade from within her wrist. The cybernetic augment had been the captain's idea, and while she didn't like human technology on the best of times, this device was her favorite. She regarded Max with a sideways glance as she asked, "That sounds like it's important, there's probably already people there. Maybe we should gather your priest, he seemed spirited over the vox earlier."

[Catarang]

Jag-reg isn't really following the conversation between the officer and the blue-min, but when he see's the officer's salute he returns it enthusiastically, narrowly avoiding slapping the daylight out of one of the other crew-members in the process. Fortunately for all present, Jag-reg is one of the few Ogryns smart enough to know they're stupid, and is much more willing to follow someone with a plan than stick around here without one.

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

Father Answin burst into the room, his purity-seal-adorned flamer raised and ready. There she was, Rendara - surrounded by a group of ragged pirates.
Judging from the dead and the one in agony, they didn't have an easy time with her -and now, it would become even worse.

The robed missionary's experience with the weapon allowed him, with a quick side-step, to reach a position where the Holy Flame would burn as many of the attackers as possible, while not bringing the Astropath in more danger than necessary.

"ARDETE IN IRAE SACRAE IMPERATORIS!" Father Answin ordered them sternly, and with an obvious hint of glee in High Gothic, while his weapon sprayed them with searing hot judgement.


Since Father Answin has Cleanse and Purify, its - 20% to the pirate's agility roll to avoid damage.

[dojango]

Feeding Bay Charlie Seven
The officer sniffs and says, "There's plenty of weapons in the armory. Good, honest, Imperial weapons." But fortunately, it isn't too much of a delay for Kais to slip off, grab his rifle, and regroup. By the time they reach the amory, Lieutenant Kami Seta-Roja has managed to assemble a small force of loyal crew. But the armory is currently under siege by a larger force of pirates and mutineers. The mutineers are holding their crude weapons and tools, while the pirates are much better armed. A tall man with a fancy hat is ordering them as they try to break into the ship's main armory, currently held by a dozen or so loyalists. A few pirates are manhandling a powerful lascannon into position where they can blast through the door, and pour in, and put an end to resistance in the armory...

The armory is guarded by two fortified bunkers. There is an assembly area perhaps 20m square in front of it, with not much cover save for a dozen bodies. The pirates and mutineers are in cover on the other side of the open space, where they are moving the lascannon into position. You and your group are peering in from the other side of the room from about 10m away. It is a barracks, filled with bunk beds, lockers, and the smell of unwashed void-socks.

Astropath Chambers
Rendara screams soundlessly at the man trying to capture her. His eyes bulge out of his head for a moment, and he starts bleeding from his nose. "ARRRGH" he shouts, and drops the manacles, pulls out his shotgun and tries to club Rendara with it. But she avoids the blow easily. Just then, there is the shout of righteous fury from the doorway. Father Answin lets loose a gout of cleansing flame towards three of the pirates. One of them, perhaps guided by instinct, rolls out of the way, but the other two are swept by the flames. One starts desperately patting out the flames on his ratty cloak, but the other is less affected. Behind them, priceless, thousand-year old tapestries burst into flame, and flames start crawling along the ivorywood paneling. The two other pirates, holding their dying comrade, drop him to the floor and reach for their shotguns

The pirate leader resisted the stun but missed Rendara. One pirate is on fire, another is hurt. Rendara is in the middle of the chamber, while Answin is at the entrance. There are richly upholstered chairs and a few wood tables in the room if anyone wants to dart for cover.

In the Deep Underdecks:
The twists approach the pipe. They are wearing ragged clothing, the remains of ship's uniforms. Whether stolen or... what they were wearing when they were driven below after succumbing to their mutations. From her time on the ship, Xantha remembers that "Whiteclaw" was a dangerous mutant that had stalked the ship's corridors some decades ago. It's preserved head and hands decorated the security station whose armsmen had managed to corner and kill it. The thought that some new mutant has taken up that title implies that a particularly dangerous... or ambitious mutant now stalks the underdecks once again. The mutants, however, are more pathetic than dangerous. But there are five of them, and they pull out stolen tools from their coats, and begin trying to pry open the hydraulic pipes. If they manage that, the macrocannon the pipe serves will no longer be able to aim properly...

The vents beneath the bridge
Max and Selya crawl through the vents for a few minutes. They are still in the castle, a few decks below the bridge. They peer through a grate into von Drakkan's personal gymnasium. The command throne escape hatch opens up into the richly appointed room, where the servant/assassin is talking quietly to several other me. Four of the men in the room are clearly Nadueshi crewmen, while the fifth... Max recognizes as the ship's first officer. He accepts the command baton and starts playing with it...

They don't see you, you are hidden in the vents above the room. There is a grate that one person at a time can squeeze out of. In the room there are some cruel-looking exercise equipment that might serve as skimpy cover.

[Lord Raziere]

Rendara:
"Thank you Father Answin. It seems the Emperor protects as they say. I'm the closest person you fools will ever come to meeting the Emperor himself and you chose to treat me as a tool. You were dead the moment you walked in."
She then raises her hand to pinch her two fingers together, focusing her will upon the man in front of her with more focus and finesse to try and crush his neck, wanting him out of her face at once.


Telekinetic Crush at Fettered Strength
[roll0] (71)
Impact damage:
[roll1]

[DrK]

Max

Commander Crone pauses, staring through the gate into the ornate marbled gymnasium below. He glances at the traitor and growls. Looking to the Kroot he whispers.
"The lord captains baton." Grinning at the Navis he nods, "Can your eye thing work again?"

He tries to drop down from a grate quietly, rolling to take cover behind the nearest machine and allow the Kroot to drop down behind him



Silent move [roll0] TN 62
Concealment [roll1] TN 62

[SchwhatNow]

"And all weapons that I am not proficient in." He added. Again he understood the woman's beliefs were solidly within the technology of her own kind but, quite frankly, he found it foolish to devalue the advances of others. This wasn't a time for bickering so he wouldn't push the matter but the practical sense remained the same, he needed his rifle if he was to be a peak performance for the fight ahead. Once they arrived and were able to take stock of the situation it was indeed tenuous as their smaller force was preparing to stand against a horde and the threat of the lascannon being set up on the far hall.

"A frontal assault would be suicidal but we have to do something about that heavy weapon. How durable is it? Could a shot or two from my pulse rifle cripple it?" He wasn't truly a crack shot but he had plenty of training in picking out weak points of an opponent. "Or, with my guidance, do you think the men would be able to ruin it with a volley of fire? I know that I am not as trusted aboard this vessel but if they blast the doors down then we are in serious trouble." As a Fire Warrior, Kais had training in offering guidance to the men of his squad. Perhaps, with this officer's backing, a squad might listen to him for the purposes of sundering that mighty weapon? If not, or that didn't work out, then he feared there wasn't much time to come up with an alternate plan and he hoped that the ogryn's might would be enough to help hold the tide at bay.


Logic test for an alternate plan (Int +10 for a total of a 60): [roll0]

Otherwise was thinking that Kais might be able to spend a round aiming and then make a Called Shot against the lascannon itself with the intention of crippling or destroying the weapon. Or he might be able to utilize his Classified Competence "Expose Weakness" to direct his allies to target the lascannon with their shots thanks to his "New Allies" skill which allows him to treat trusted allies as Tau for the purposes of any of his abilities. Of course, they have to trust him enough to listen to him and unfortunately he'd be rolling against just his base 44 Bs for that to succeed.

[jolinaxas]

Xantha bit her lip and considered the implications of a new "Whiteclaw" as she watched the mutants pass by. Seeing that none of them had anything more dangerous than a particularly weighty wrench, she lined up a shot at the closest one to her and fired, not willing to leave them to their work and get away clean.


Waiting a full round to aim (+20) and firing at an unaware target (+30) + BS 39 = TN 89.
[roll0]

[roll1]+8 Energy Damage, Pen 13.

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

"Our Faith will see us through this, Lady Rendara." Father Answin stated solemnly, although cringing a bit at the blasphemy shortly thereafter. Then again, she had been on Holy Terra, and had been as close to the Golden Throne as one could hope to be.

As he was fairly certain to become the new primary target of the pirates, Father Answin went towards one of the ornate tables and kicked it over, taking cover before again spraying flames at the pirates.


Again, cleanse and purify -

[roll0]

If the three pirates who have already gotten flamed aren't reaching for their weapons yet, Father Answin is going to shoot at the two who are, if it is possible without putting Rendara in danger.
Again, he will try to get as many of them into the area of effect as possible.

[Catarang]

We've stopped... Enemies ahead. Haven't seen us. Got big gun with them. Not sure what to do. Wait for orders.

Jag-reg grips his hammer and looks around him, hoping someone comes up with a better plan than rushing a big gun. He's been in enough charges down long corridors to remember what happened to the Ogryns that went in first. Judging the distance, he could probably cover it and do some good damage to anything in arms reach before the team got the chance to swivel and fire, but if he was wrong it would be one hell of a miscalculation. Best to let someone else make that call.

[Celticbear]

"I have a better idea," the Kroot focused on the one who had the stick everyone seemed so focused on around her and began to peek into the warp around him. She let Max take the lead, preparing to strike once he drew the rest of the fodder's fire.

Using the Eye of Oblivion power as a Full Round Action. Basically, I make a Perception Test and if I succeed I get to add my Perception bonus to damage the first time I hit the designated target (which would be the first officer). I've taken a level of fatigue, but this is one of my chosen House Renegade powers so that cancels it out, and I have Unnatural Perception (x2), meaning I count whatever I roll as two degrees better (basically +20 to the TN)

Perception Test (TN 43, Result adds two degrees of success): [roll0]

[dojango]

The Armory
Kais thinks back to his training. Standard fire warrior doctrine would be to hit the leader and other high-value targets with precision fire, and then fall back, luring the disorganized enemy through pre-planned defensive crossfires. Of course, there's always the question, "WWCFD?" Probably rush in with a magic sword and kill everyone with a few pithy quotes. Finally, he does have two more photon grenades and an Ogryn battering ram... and he realizes that the cluttered barracks will make shooting more difficult. For both sides. As he ponders this, the lascannon is hoisted into place. Two pirates are connecting power cables to it...

Jag-reg too is also pondering his options. He's seen Ogryns using similar heavy guns as that lascannon in battle... both as guns or as clubs... A charge might be difficult although he could simply batter through the bunk beds with brute strength.

Lieutenant Seta-Roja mulls Kais' words. She has a naval pistol, and a few of the crew have illegal stub revolvers... but most of the guns are in the armory. Which is under siege at the moment. The crew is mostly armed with boarding axes at the moment.

Shoots through the cluttered room will take a -10 BS penalty as shots hit beds, lockers, and other obstacles.

Astropath Chambers
Father Answin grabs a table and flips it up between him and some of the other pirates. A vase of flowers falls to the floor, shattering, and sending a bowl of fresh fruit flying, a rare and preciously guarded commodity aboard the ship. Another gout of flame sears across the other half of the astropath's chambers, burning more priceless tapestries. The two pirates nearest to Answin scream and panic as they are engulfed in flame. Meanwhile, Rendara's powers crush the life out of the pirate who had tried to take her captive. He falls to the ground, choking and coughing up blood. She looks around. The ancient tapestries depicting the astropath's progress towards apothesis are burning. The stylized astropaths are engulfed in flame. The last remaining tapestry, depicting a few astropaths kneeling before the golden throne, is the only one left intact at the moment. The smoke alarms begin blaring, and the ancient sprinklers begin to spray stagnant water throughout the room. Handy for keeping the ship intact, but it will put the burning pirates out next round...

The two living, not-burning pirates fire their shotguns at Father Answin. One of them misses completely, but the other one manages to hit him squarely in the table. A few pellets make it through, but bounce harmlessly off his armor.

In the Deep Underdecks:
In the shadows of the under deck, it's hard to tell which one is which. Was it the one who spoke? Or another one? Well, whoever it was falls down with its chest a smouldering ruin. The others are surprised, and turn and stare dumbly at where Xantha is standing, melta pistol steaming.

Beneath the Bridge
Max leaps from his hiding place, through the grate, and exercises a tuck and roll towards some strange device with heavy metal plates at its base. Unfortunately, he lands with a loud thump, and the mutineers all turn towards him in surprise. The mutineers all draw weapons, fancy-looking naval pistols while Commander Linus Harte draws a bolt pistol and holds up his hand, and says, "Commander Crone. So good of you to join us. Tell me, have you dreamed of carving your name out amongst the stars, instead of grubbing for thrones in the dirt in the service of some... Imperial rogue?"

How long has Max been on the ship in the service to the von Drakkans?

Selrya uses her keen hunter's eye to examine the threads of fate surrounding the first officer. Over the years, the man had been dismissive of her abilities, and he had spoke perhaps a dozen times to her, each time his voice dripping with scorn. However, looking at the currents of the warp surrounding the officer, Selrya realizes...

She realizes that he is the true hero of this story. That he will not die today; destiny has another fate in store for him...

[jolinaxas]

Resisting the urge to admire her handiwork, Xantha aimed at the closest mutant still breathing and fired again.


Half action aim and fire for TN 49:
[roll0]

[roll1]+[roll2]+8 Energy Damage, Pen 13.

[SchwhatNow]

Thinking over the situation, and looking hard at the limited weaponry that the crew are armed, with Kais decides against his suggested plan of action even before the woman gives him a proper answer. "Never mind that. This clutter will be too difficult and while my rifle might manage to do the job it's too risky of a plan to rely on such chance." He didn't outrank the officer either, so she might just decide to give some orders to her crew regardless of what he thought was best, but he felt the need to do his part to help them all succeed. He turned his gaze to Jag-reg, not knowing his name but clearly knowing his strength and brutality. "My sturdy friend, could we count on your strength again?" He continued to speak, though this was more for the officer's benefit since it was obvious that the hulking brute was not well-gifted of intelligence. "I would suggest that we leverage the element of surprise and our close-range weaponry. I have two more photon grenades I can toss to disorient them while we close in and hopefully the sight of this one charging with our support should allow us to strike a decisive blow. We are outnumbered of course and may need to fall back quickly but now is the time for Mont'ka, the killing blow. We strike hard and fast, target their leaders, and leave the rabble to disperse or get gunned down."

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

In a righteous battle, Father Answin was unfazed by a burned tapestry or a broken vase. He also did not flinch as some projectiles struck his battle armour underneath his robes. As he watched two of the pirates engulfed in purifying flame, screaming in agony, he raised his left hand with gravitas, as if in a religious ceremony.
"Lo! Your dark gods have forsaken you! In the face of True Faithful, their power wanes, as you may now witness. By His Undying Glory, fall to your knees and DESPAIR!"
With that, he brought another burst of Holy fire down over them.

[roll0] Pen 2 for the pirates, -20% Agility as usual.

Also throwing an intimidate at the pirates, if possible, just for fun and to see what happens :smallwink:
[roll1] vs 62

[Lord Raziere]

Rendara:
"See, now we have to replace holy tapestries of the Scholastica Psykana! Look at what you made him do! I need these relics for my meditations to send messages across the void, you cretins!"
Though she has to inwardly admit, all the astropaths being burned and forgotten while the Emperor remains to keep maintaining the Astronomican in eternal pain is a fitting metaphor for the astropaths struggle and place in life. The redhead astropath raises her hand to point at the left living pirate then close her palm into fist to crush him into chunks of meat.
"Pay with your life!"


Rolling Unfettered Telekinetic Crush:
[roll0] (Willpower 81)

Impact Damage:
[roll1]

[Catarang]

Jag-reg looked down at the blue-min talking to him. He knew he wasn't supposed to like him, but the blue-min seemed nicer than a lot of the other Little 'uns. Although sometimes that wasn't very hard.

Jag-reg wasn't clear on the details of what was going to happen, but he knew that the plan was going to go down just like most of the plans that involved Ogryns would. He got in position next to the doorway, and waited for someone to sound the charge. Once they did, Jag-reg would charge that big gun, and see if he could get to it before it got to him.


Jag-reg is going to wait for some one to shout charge, and then make a charge action against the lasgun itself.
Str test against a 63 (+1 degree of success from Unnatural Strength)
To break down any obstructions between myself and the gun team.
[roll0]

I know the gun itself isn't a pirate, but it seems to either be manned by actual pirates or pirate aligned enemies so I'd like to apply my Hatred (Pirates) bonus if I can.
WS check at the end of the charge to hit the gun, or anyone in range if I fail to make it where I want to be.
WS test against a 61 (or 71 if my Hatred applies) (51 + 10 from charge bonus, possibly another +10 from Hatred (Pirates))
[roll1]

[Celticbear]

As Selrya examined the threads of fate around their target, she was stunned by what she saw. Literally. The human that had rushed into the room without tactic or pause was either dead or about to be seduced by this man's offer. She wouldn't remain to see which. She began to flee as quickly as she could, hoping to encounter that priest near his chapel. It might be on the other side of the ship, but what were her options when she was faced with a man with such gravity?

Another pair of stealth rolls!

Silent Move (TN 49): [roll0]
Concealment (TN 49): [roll1]

[DrK]

Commander Crone

Cursing under his breath that his fall from the hatch has been so graceless he rises to his feet, pistol hanging loosely by his side. He looks at the mutineer and shrugs, "You know me. I been aboard the beast here for a good 4 years. But I been looking out for me for much longer. I signed up for plunder, profit and a bit of fun." Pausing he takes a few steps to the die to make sure he has some cover between one the Lord Captain's exercise contraptions.

Eyeing the mutineer and his fellows he shrugs - "What could you offer me? You know I'm the best pilot aboard her." He grins, "Aye, carving my name could sound mighty fine." As he plays for time he tries to glance to the left and the right to see where the kroot has vanished to.

[dojango]

The Armory
The crewmen assemble in the corridor behind the officer. She nods in agreement to Kais's plan. Kais expertly lobs the grenade down the aisle between the bunkbeds. It bounces down by the surprised pirate's feet, and they look at it, startled... and then the flash goes off. "Go! Go!" shouts the officer, and Jag-reg leads the charge, knocking down and knocking away bunk beds anything else between him and the big gun. With a mighty swipe of his warhammer, he sends the thing flying into the open space before the armory wall. It looks visibly bent. Now Jag-reg has to deal with the angry pirates around him... Most are clutching their faces and groaning, but a few of them draw mono-cutlasses and begin to defend themselves... while the leader of the gang of pirates draws a chain cutlass and points it at Jag-reg. "Take him down!" he shouts. The small mob of crewmen have followed behind Jag-reg and are busy stabbing and hacking away at the stunned pirates.

There is now a confused melee going on in the room. Shooting anyone in it will now suffer a -20 penalty to BS. If Kais wants to get stuck in, he can charge one of the non-stunned pirates. Jag-reg is immediately faced with Pirate Officer 1 and 1 non-stunned standard issue pirate.

Astropath Chambers
The pirates who dared fire on Father Answin are caught in the next gout of flame. Whatever sins, whatever crimes they may have committed are washed away in the cleansing flames. The emperor will judge them now. The two surviving pirates break and run for it, away from Father Answin. One of them suddenly falls over, writhing, as a vise-like force crushes bones and flesh. The last one makes it to the door leading to Rendara's quarters and flings the door open. There is a loud crack and he falls over. A nervous woman holding a pistol carefully peeks out and asks, "Miss Rendara, are you alright?"

The room is still for a moment, save for the water pouring out of the sprinklers and the fire alarm, and the steam rising from the bodies and the ruins of the room's luxury. Over their comms, they hear someone call in for a situation report...

The Deep underdecks
Xantha easily sends a melta blast through the chest of another twist. It falls over dead, and the other three turn and flee down the tunnel into the darkness. Xantha has time to shoot another one down as it flees, but pursuing them into the darkness? Well, that is one option. But this maze of tunnels and warrens, so vital to the ship, is far too big for one woman to patrol. Over the comms, she hears someone calling for a situation report.

von Drakkan's Private Gym:
Max hears muffled thumps rapidly receding into the distance. Whatever he is going to do, he is going to have to do it alone. Old lessons flicker back to his memory about never trusting a xeno... The others hear the noise as well and train their guns on the vent. "Friends of yours up there?" Harte asks. "Well, the offer is open to them as well. Except that bloody warp chicken, of course. The navigators will pay quite handsomely for its head. You are a fine pilot; have you ever wanted to command a ship of your own? This whole thing is bigger than just this. A lot of ships will need captains. A new order for the Koronus Sector. But first, we have to take the baton to the emergency command deck. From there we can override central control, and shut down the engines. Once our friends join us, the ship will be ours."

In the Vents
Selrya flees back into the depths of the ship's castle. After a few false starts, she finds her way to the corridors near the passsageway to the ship's cathedral. While she is on her way, she listens in on the comms. Someone calls for a situation report. She's not entirely sure where the priest is right now, but someone of his caliber would no doubt go where the fighting is hottest. On the other hand, if the ship does escape the planet's gravity well, they will need her skills to bring the damn thing safely through the warp...

It comes back: The castle and the bridge are secure, the pirates and mutineers have been pushed back by von Drakkan's house guards. The Mechanicus have sealed off their enclave and are refusing to set one foot beyond the safety of their defenses. Pretty much what you'd expect from the cog-boys. The ship's main armory is under siege and fighting rages through the lower decks. One bright spot is that the gun-deck clans, bitter rivals to each other and aloof and haughty to the rest of the crew, have kept their realms safe and operational. The ship's guns can still try to fire. However, the bridge's gunnery controls have been damaged, so the secondary controls from the gundeck itself will need to be used. The two pirate ships are content to leave the Media Res under their guns, broadcasting demands for surrender. It seems that they want the prize relatively intact. The bad news is that many of the ship's automated internal defenses have been disabled, and that internal bulkheads that should be sealed are being opened up by the attackers. The captain's baton needs to be recovered in order to remove that capability from the mutineers. Finally, it also looks like the pirate's boarding craft have returned to their mother ships and are preparing to launch another wave...

[Lord Raziere]

Rendara:
she breathes a bit of a sigh of relief as she turns to the servant.
"Good work. I am fine, these pirates wanted me alive so they couldn't open fire on me. I managed to crush a couple but...Father Answin was here to help with the rest, thank the Emperor. We need to figure out a plan."
Her shock-staff makes a tok sound on the floor as she walks with it around the room.
"With Tarquin dead and our ship in disarray....we need the Captains Baton, and we need to get rid of those two pirate ships. We are in no position to board and take the ships for ourselves, so its probably best we figure out how to destroy their two ships to cut off any further forces so that any remaining forces on here are either forced to surrender and serve us or die. We can figure out who gets to play at being Rogue Trader later, right now we need to survive and win. Of course, I could also try using my psyker abilities to affect the battle on a large scale, but doing is difficult and risky, and may cause unwanted warp effects, and I would not want to attempt such an endeavor without your blessing, Father Answin. The smaller the scale I use my powers, the safer we will be.

I can probably safely send telepathic messages to anyone on the ship within about 4 kilometers and definitely safely within two kilometers, so if there is anyone you want to contact for something, tell me who. The message can be for multiple people at once but it will be one way.

Also we should probably ensure anyone who can't fight is safe somewhere."
She will head towards the rest of the bridge, her green robes swishing and her staff making little thumps as she walks
"We should probably keep moving, we won't do much good dawdling here, and we can come up with a plan along the way."

[SchwhatNow]

Smiling beneath his helmet Kais was pleased that his throw was so perfect, they'd need every advantage they could get after all. When the officer shouted the charge and the ogryn performed his duty, he followed suit to keep ranks with the crew as they closed in. His rifle would be worthless here so he shouldered that and instead drew his knife and pistol. Close combat was not his forte but he wasn't about to leave the loyal crew mates to fight by themselves. Picking one of the nearest threats Kais would not directly charge for melee but would instead close as much of the distance that he can, attempting to squeeze off a point-blank shot as he fires a shot from the hip. He hoped to clear a path towards the ogryn so as to ensure that the burly creature would not be left surrounded and alone for long.


Not charging but utilizing Hip Shooting to make a full move and a single ranged attack. Distances are not approximately measured but he's got 10m full move and is hoping to get within 2m for the point blank bonus. Even if he can't reach point blank this turn he'll still be shooting so just pick which modifiers will apply.

Bs vs 44 (54 if Point-Blank / 24 if not): [roll0]

Damage: [roll1], Pen 4, Type E

[Catarang]

Jag-reg was back in his element. No more pipes to clean. No more choking gases. The battle surrounded him and he was free to crush pirates once again.
With the lascannon eliminated and its crew scattered, Jag-reg fell into his lust for Pirate blood. Turning to the yipping Little 'un with the chainsword and raising his warhammer high, Jag-reg let loose his most savage bellow in retort as he brought the hammer down.


All Out Attack action to hit the Pirate Officer.
WS test against an 86 (51 + 5 (Good quality) + 10 (Hatred (Pirate)) + 20 (All out Attack))
WS test: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1] Pen 3

If this attack succeeds, I'll use Furious Assault to either hit the Officer again if he's still standing or the other pirate that is unaffected by the stun grenade if the officer dies in the first hit.
WS test against an 86 again (Furious Assault uses the same bonuses as the attack that proc'd it)
WS test: [roll2]
Damage: [roll3] Pen 3

[DrK]

Commander Crone

Crone looks carefully at the traitor before nodding. Aye, that sounds okay..." he eyes the baton, wondering how he can get it from the traitor given he's with 4 others. "Whats the plan for getting to the emergency command centre. Be a pretty few folk who'll want that baton." He looks at the four men with the traitor and then back up at the vents. "Sounds like that space chicken went and ran eh? Why not retake the bridge - better than the emergency command, when you eft she had left most ffolk on the bridge, pirate or crew dead with eyes bleeding from that accursed warp eye?"

Trying to trick them into heading back to the bridge
Deceive [roll0] TN 31 / opposed by scrutiny [+10 if Peer [underworld] applies

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

"By the Divine Grace of the Emperor, the tainted shall crumble before the resolute steps of the Righteous. Sic scribebatur." the Missionary intoned serenely, lowering his flamer and letting it rest by his side.
Alongside the Astropath, Father Answin left the farmer's quarters.

"I generally agree with your assessment, Lady Rendara. We must trust the Media Res' gun batteries to shatter these raider ships. The Captain's Baton - too much depends on it, and too much can be sabotaged if the enemy gets to use it to his ends. I believe it is ours to recover."

The Priest took the time to confer with a bridge officer, who informed him of the baton's position. Considering the ship's size, it was not too far away.
He reminded the man of the need to guard the Cathedral as well if the pirates were able to override sealed doors, before addressing the Astropath again.

"For the moment, there is no need to tempt the warp, especially with the servants of the ruinous powers so close by. Also, make no mistake - they are such. Their lives are forfeit."

If Father Answin came upon security personnel that wasn't immediately indispensible for the defense of the castle and the bridge, he would take them with him in search for the Captain's Baton.

[Celticbear]

Though tempted to join in the fighting, Selrya knew that everyone who was currently onboard, be they loyal, mutineer, or pirate, required her survival in order to have a safe warp journey. She wanted to kill, wanted to take out her fears and aggressions on humanity on these savages, but there would be time for that. She began to head towards the bridge, doing her best to avoid any human presence she encountered.

[jolinaxas]

As ionized gas began to billow from the inferno pistol, Xantha thanked what must have been the Emperor's intervention, to have the mutants scatter. Muttering what passed for a prayer from a forge world slum scav, she let the red-hot power pack fall from the ammunition chamber and loaded in another - a slow process that would have given the saboteurs plenty of time to clamber over and beat her half to death, had they noticed.

"The situation is good and fethed, Sir Situation Report. Identify yourself proper, or settle for silence."

The dark, confined atmosphere was doing little for Xantha's latent paranoia. Without some kind of code or identification, she reasoned that she could be giving information to the mutineers. With little else to do to affect real change, she headed towards whatever passed for the nearest loyal stronghold to her knowledge.

[dojango]

The Armory
Jag-reg brings his hammer down on the pirate. The ex-pirate. There is a horrible crunch, a spray of blood, brains, and bone matter. One of the pirates tries to slash at Jag-reg with his mono-cutlass, but misses. Kais tries to push his way towards Jag-reg's side, firing at a pirate as he pushes past a fallen bunk bed, but misses. The pirate swings his mono-cutlass in a vicious slash back at Kais!. All around them, the crew are finishing off the stunned pirates. But some of the pirates are recovering, and starting to fight back! One or two crewmen go down. Without any leadership, though, the pirates are uncertain about what to do. There is a huge racket from out in the open space as the armory's heavy stubber opens up on any pirates in the open.

Kais takes [roll0] pen 2 damage. Unless he dodges or parries, of course.

Astropath Chambers
Father Answin and Rendara leave the ruined chambers and head out. Unfortunately, the ship's elevators have been shut down by the security protocols, and so Rendara will need to find an alternate way to the bridge. She and Father Answin, they make their way to the stairwell near where the baton was reported. Over the comms, someone reports "It's moving down stairwell Port C3." Father Answin opens the door and checks out the stairwell. He hears footsteps from the stairwell about two decks above where he is.

Basically a metal stairway going back and forth in a stairwell. They would be about 4 landings above you, there is no cover in the stairwell, although every other landing has a metal hatchway. There are also pipes and utility stuff lining the corners, if that's of any use to you.

The Port Gun Decks
There is a pause on the comm network for a moment, before someone breaks in. "This is subcommander Houlder. Xantha, is that you? You're still alive? Do you need help? Where are you?" Xantha heads up the ladder and pops open the hatch using her personal access code. She climbs out into the eerie calm of the lower port gun decks. There, the men and women of the port gun-clans are waiting for the great guns to fire, so they can carry out their solemn duties. A few of them look over in surprise at Xantha, and one of them hurries over, holding an illegal shotgun, which he hastily attempts to conceal once he recognizes her. Gunner's mate Arns Quatre says, "Xantha, what's doin? What's the word from above? Why arn't the guns firin'? We, uh, are keepin' the pirates at bay. Hain't heard nuthin' from the idjiots over portside. Reckon they might need some help, tho."

Xantha knows that the portside and starboard gun deck clans are great rivals. The port gun deck clans are more feral, with each clan serving and worshipping the machine spirits of their great gun, while the starboard gun clans claim descent from ex-Naval ratings, and attempt to emulate the traditions of the Imperial Navy as best they remember them.

von Drakkan's Private Gym:
Commander Harte's eyes narrow and he says, "We have a plan. Made in consultation with a great many working parts. We are not changing our plan based on input from our newest recruit. Now come along." Behind him, the servant pulls out some keys and unlocks a secret panel in the wall. The others slide it open and open the hatch behind it. He waves his bolt pistol towards the hatch. "After you. Emergency command is only thirty decks down."

Back on the Bridge:
Selrya climbs back up through the vents and climbs back into the bridge. There is some surprise as she vents, but everyone relaxes a little as they recognize their "navigator". The bridge is in far worse shape than it was when she left; there are a few dozen bodies scattered all over, and smoke and sparks fly from damaged consoles. Subcommander Houlder comes over to her. "Your navigator's pod is still functional, and it's got helm control if you need it. Did Crone get killed? We need to break free of the gravity well before we can jump into the warp, and I reckon the other ships'll start firing if we try and make a break for it." He wipes his dirty, blood-stained brow and adds, "Not sure what we should do. Gunnery control is down, but if someone can take charge from the gun decks or emergency command, we should be able to take open fire again."

[jolinaxas]

Xantha Ward

"Don't bother stowing that. Until we're back in control of the ship, consider standing orders against munitions contraband belayed."

It was obvious that the Starboard gunners were the closest thing to working order on the ship right now. To her, this deck's only value was as a safe place to formulate something better. After assigning a pair of gunners to patrol their internal systems for saboteurs, she switched her micro-bead back on.

++This is Organizer Ward. If anyone from the Portside cannons can hear me, please respond. Or Senior Staff, for that matter.++

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

The Priest exchanged a silent glance with Rendara. Whoever held the Captain's Baton, they were heading this way. With his right hand, he slightly gestured to the ground before returning it to the Flamer.
It was probably best to just remain silent, wait for them to go round the corner of the stairway, and receive them with a fiery blast - and the Astropath's power.

Father Answin remained where he was, taking cover behind the doorframe for now. Once the presumed pirates arrived, he would peek out to spray them with fire.

[Lord Raziere]

Astropath Rendara:
She will nod and take position behind Answin, not wanting to be in front of his flamer, and readies herself attack their mind- wouldn't be good sense to crush the baton now would it?

[SchwhatNow]

He couldn't ponder about why his shot went wide in the skirmish as he tried to push inward and for his trouble he had moved perfectly into range to be attacked by a rather sharp and deadly-looking mono-cutlass. Reacting as quick as he could Kais twisted his body to try and slip past the weapon but he just barely was unable to manage it as the tip cut against his armor and spilled a fair amount of his blue blood through the new hole in his suit. Grunting in pain he willed himself to focus and defend himself from this pirate, turning and again attempting to snap off a shot from his pistol. At this distance he didn't have to worry about the chaos of the fighting getting in his way but he had no time to truly aim or otherwise be more accurate than a quick snap-shot. His knife was ready if need be but, well, he trusted his aim more than his strength.



Shooting in melee with a pistol, no penalty but no bonus either.

Attack vs Bs 44: [roll0]

Damage: [roll1] (Type E, Pen 4)

[dojango]

Armory
Jag-Reg looks around after the second pirate's body hits the floor. And the walls. And a little bit on the ceiling. Around him are several stunned pirates trying to regain their bearings, but the active pirates are trying to stay out of his reach. Kais and Seta-Roja are on the other side of the scrum, in the middle of the room, maybe 5m away, but there are struggling pirates and loyal crewmen between them. Ahead of Jag-Reg is an open area, where stubbers from the armory have kept it clear of pirates. A few pirates charge out from other rooms and are cut down; mostly they are trying to stay in cover and plink away at the defenders. The las-cannon was their big gun, they don't seem to have another one available.

[DrK]

Crone

Crone nods and looks down the hatch and the narrow emergency access stairs. Taking the hint he begins walking down the stairs feeling keenly the armed men behind him.

Racking his brains he tries to think of what he could manage to do to get the baton from the men behind him as he trots down the stairs.

Using the stairs as cover he strokes his chin, also tapping the microbead to "send only" for the rest of the command crew and speaking loudly to the traitorous Harte.
"You are lucky you got the baton Harte, you'd be dead by now most likely. I have to know, his does one set the wheels in motion on this without old Von Drakkan catching you? You hit that astropath in your pocket?"

[Catarang]

Jag-reg is attempting to pick another target amongst the pirates unfortunate enough to be on his side of the melee when he witnesses Kais take a blow from a pirate's cutlass. Enraged by this offense, Jag-reg wades through the waves of whirling weapons to arrive next to Kais, and scour his opponents from the Materium.


Jag-reg is going to half move towards Kais. It seems to me that you typically only take AOO when leaving combat with an opponent you were already engaged in melee with, not moving through "threatened space", but if I'm wrong then I'll accept any hits and not attempt to dodge them. Jag-reg is too focused at the moment to really notice small arms.

Jag-reg will then attempt to finish off the opponent that Kais is attacking, or if he is dead before Jag-reg arrives, the closest enemy to Lieutenant Seta-Roja and Kais that Jag-reg can reach on a 5m half move.

Weapon Skill test against 76 or 66 (51 + 5 (GQ) + 10 (Hatred (Pirates) + 10 if outnumbering an opponent 2 to 1)
[roll0]
[roll1]

[dojango]

Over the vox channel Crone reports in:

"You are lucky you got the baton Harte, you'd be dead by now most likely. I have to know, his does one set the wheels in motion on this without old Von Drakkan catching you? You hit that astropath in your pocket?"

From a distance, everyone on the channel hears the response, "Ha! Luck has nothing to do with it. Von Drakkan was an idiot. After all, there's nobody as blind as those who will not see." and a pause. "That astropath is going to be in for a surprise, mark my words. Midnight's Lair will open her eyes... one way or another."

Midnight's Lair is a space hulk that's been spotted in the Heathen Stars. Astropathic communication has been cut off from that region. As a matter of fact, the whole reason why von Drakkan and the Media Res was in this benighted system is that he was on his way to investigate the fate of one of his colonies in the Heathen Stars, and had dropped out of the warp to take 'astropathic soundings' before heading deeper into the Heathen Stars. How much your character would know of this is up to you, but certainly Rendara, Xantha and Crone would be up to speed on the whole matter.

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

There was fury in the Priests eyes as he turned his head back to Rendara for a moment.
Harte had instigated this. The first officer had betrayed them, and not only that - the way he spoke about Midnight's Lair showed to be true what he had known all along - that their opponents served the ruinous powers. Whatever horrors waited in the space hulk, Harte had to be stopped.

Father Answin gestured towards his head, then to the stairway, before getting back into position for the ambush.
It was wise to let Commander Crone know of their plan before he set the heretics alight, so he could get out of the way; and it was wiser to do it with Rendara's telepathy than via microbead, with the enemy likely within earshot.

[Lord Raziere]

Astropath Rendara:
That heretic! He was planning to do something to her. Probably make her turn heretic as well. This cannot stand. She may be wanted by Adeptus Arbites, have taken bribes from criminals, and experienced her own share of trauma, but she was still a loyal servant of the God Emperor. She nods back and touches her forehead with her fingers to begin sending her thoughts to Commander Crone:
Commander Crone. This is Astropath Rendara. Father Answin and I are currently waiting to ambush the traitor near the stairway in the astropath chambers. He will use his flamer to attack, and wants you to know the plan so you can get out of the way.
She will include a black and white image of them in their position for clarity of communication, even if it is a bit hazy. Thought Sending could do more than just verbal communication after all.


No focus power test required for Thought Sending.

[dojango]

The Armory
Jag-Reg powers through the melee, knocking past pirates and crewmen alike, to where Kais has just gut-shot the pirate who injured him. Jag-reg steps past him and smashes the pirate attacking Seta-Roja in the back, sending him sprawling to the ground. He doesn't stir. Seta-Roja looks nervously around, clutching a wound on her arm. All around you, the crew and the pirates are struggling. While the crew had an initial advantage thanks to the photon grenade and the fact that Jag-reg had effortlessly killed the officer leading the pirates, the stunned pirates are beginning to recover, and the weight of numbers is beginning to tell. Several more crewmen fall to pirate blades, and they begin to waver. Something will need to be done to turn the tide...

Stairwell Port C3
As Crone heads down the stairwell, he hears Rendara's voice suddenly intrude in his mind. He then turns on the landing, and sees Father Answin crouched in an open hatchway, flamer pointed up the stairs, pilot light on. In just a moment, Harte and the others will turn and see the ambush as well, Crone has a split second to decide what to do... turn back and try and hide behind the stairway, or throw himself forward to the bottom of the stairs and hope that Father Answin lets him past before opening up with his flamer...

Rendara and Father Answin see Crone turn the corner. Right behind him, Commander Harte is there, holding a bolt pistol to Crone's back.

Port Gun-Decks
The gunner's mate salutes, and moves to carry out her orders. She comms over to the Starboard Gun-Decks and gets a response. "Sir! Gunner's Mate Furia Hermina reporting! Starboard gun-decks are secure and ready to fire! Awaiting orders!" A moment later, Subcommander Houlder says, "Xantha. Gunnery command from the bridge has been disabled. If you can make your way to the Gunnery control station at the gun-decks and use your officer's override to activate it, maybe we can open fire on the pirate ships!" Xantha knows that there are maybe a thousand crew manning each of the four batteries. They are badly armed, but fierce defenders of their turf. While opening fire on the pirate ships would help the ship itself escape, four thousand loyal reinforcements might turn the tide against the pirates and the mutineers...

[Catarang]

Jag-reg looks down at Kais and Kami and sees them both bleeding. Incensed by the suffering of his charges, Jag-reg grabs the nearby corpses of both recently deceased pirates and uses them to aggressively beat the ground before flinging both of them into the melee. He then gives a mighty roar, and wades back into the struggling mass.


Jag-reg is going to attempt to stay with-in Guardian range (2m) of Kais and Lieutenant Seta-Roja while approaching the closest pirate. If this strange triangle is impossible to keep then he'll just approach the nearest pirate.

Jag-reg is also going to attempt to get as many pirates to flee the area as possible (up to his Str bonus of 8).
Intimidate Test against a 73 (63 +10 (Skill Mastery) - 10 (But it Dark in Dere!) + 10 (Father Answin's Inspiring Speech)) + 1 Degree of Success from Unnatural Strength
[roll0]

[Celticbear]

Back on the Bridge:
Selrya climbs back up through the vents and climbs back into the bridge. There is some surprise as she vents, but everyone relaxes a little as they recognize their "navigator". The bridge is in far worse shape than it was when she left; there are a few dozen bodies scattered all over, and smoke and sparks fly from damaged consoles. Subcommander Houlder comes over to her. "Your navigator's pod is still functional, and it's got helm control if you need it. Did Crone get killed? We need to break free of the gravity well before we can jump into the warp, and I reckon the other ships'll start firing if we try and make a break for it." He wipes his dirty, blood-stained brow and adds, "Not sure what we should do. Gunnery control is down, but if someone can take charge from the gun decks or emergency command, we should be able to take open fire again."

The Kroot began to prepare herself for entering the Navigator's pod. She was used to human technology by now, but the alien artifices still felt unnatural to her. She listened to Houlder give her a rough description of events as she shook her head, "Crone is most certainly dead by now, we've no time for delays. Do we have comms like our preacher friend? If we do, send the message through the ship to start diverting manpower there. Once the conditions are right, let me know. We're jumping into Warp as soon as possible. Anyone who isn't needed on the bridge should go as well."

Selrya looked at those who viewed her as if she shouldn't have been giving orders due to her species. She snapped, screaming as bloody spittle sprayed from her beak, "You can die here or you can die in the Warp. Both have horrid chances for our survival, but as long as our Gellar Field is still online we will be fine. I cannot save you if you do not move now!"

[Lord Raziere]

Astropath Rendara:
Well, this quite a potentially messy situation wasn't it? Time to act quickly. She points her finger at Harte and opens her mouth in a silent scream reminiscent of the shrieks of long dead xenos of the void once more. If she can stun or distract him from Crone, this can all be done much cleaner, and save a loyal servant of the God-Emperor.


Psychic Scream:
[roll0] (Willpower 81)

Impact Damage with Shocking quality:
[roll1]

Harte takes a -20 to the Toughness test to resist being stunned, if he fails Harte is stunned for two rounds.

[SchwhatNow]

The problem with their situation was exactly what he had expected, they lacked the numbers to stand and fight like this but thankfully their job was finished with the destruction of the heavy weapon. "Officer we should withdraw. The armory is secured and we cannot stand against them. We find a defensible position and hunker down until we can return and arm up." As always he wasn't trying to give her orders, and was open to other suggestions, but he felt it was prudent not to remain here only to die a useless death. As he stated this Kais attempted to find another target in point blank range to fire a shot towards but he was ready to retreat once she gave the word to her crew.


Making a standard shot again and able to perform a full move thanks to Hip Shooting.

Bs vs 54: [roll0]

Damage: [roll1] +2 (Type: E, Pen 4)

[dojango]

On the Bridge:
Selrya snaps orders to the bridge crew. Subcommander Houlder says, "Yes, uh, right away. Uh, can you start getting ready to jump into the warp? We'll try to keep them off us while we get to the translation point. If, uh, Crone is dead, then, uh I guess... Mr. Bonzalez, take the helm." A junior officer runs to the main helm console and begins plotting a course. The Subcommander then orders some of the extraneous officers to take security patrols and force their way to the gun decks. "We'll get the guns firing as soon as we can," he promises.

The ship is currently deep in the gravity well of a massive gas giant. A thin ring of dust circles it at an askew angle, shepherded by a few small moons. In order to translate to the warp, the ship needs to escape the planet's gravity well, which will take several hours. In order to escape combat, the star galleon could try to disengage from the enemies, or try to turn the tables on them and destroy them, but that would take getting the guns active again...

Also the warp is extremely tumultuous around this system. There is a -10 to Navigation (Warp) tests.

[DrK]

Crone

The voice in his thoughts sent a shiver down his spine, then seeing the priests smoking flamer terrified him. Even as he spied them he knew there was little he could do...

"Throne cursed traitor!" Crone bellowed at Harte as he threw himself forward sliding across the floor, his hand raising the pistol to fire at Harte. As he slid along the floor he hoped the priest would keep the flames above floor level!

OOC

Agility test to dive forwards [roll0] TN 52
Dodge if needed [roll1] TN 62

Bolt pistol to Harte! [roll2] TN 61+10 close
-- dam best of[roll3] +5 Pen 4
RF if needed [roll4] TN 71 [roll5] as needed

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

Just a split second after Commander Crone threw himself forwards, Father Answin sent a stream of fire towards the traitor and his henchmen.
As the stream of burning Promethium engulfed the heretics, the black-robed Missionary's voice boomed over the brutal crackling of the flamer. "Feel the Emperor's Wrath!"


Cleanse and Purify

[roll0] pen 2

[jolinaxas]

Xantha Ward

For the first time since everything had gone to the Warp (figuratively - Emperor forbid), Xantha took a moment to breathe, searching her vest for a lho.

A four-thousand-strong army, even as poorly equipped and trained for less mobile actions as they were, might tip the scales. But did that even still matter? There was still a space battle going on, as far as she could tell, and keeping the gunners in line, busy, and doing familiar work likely outweighed trying to play at underdeck warlord.

++This is Organizer Ward, again. Unless I hear different, I'm going to work on re-enabling Gunnery Control and get them back to firing. Better to have them do what they're born to do, right? Once again requesting instructions from Senior Command Staff.++

She angrily stubbed the remainder of the lho against a bulkhead and started heading for the Gunnery controls.

"Fething useless. Probably all got their heads blown off by mutineers. At least the Father's still fighting the good fight, sounds like."

[dojango]

The Armory
Jag-reg roars and flings bodies towards the pirates. They recoil from the Ogryn's savagery and start to fall back. Kais and Seta-Roja get the crewmen to also fall back and disengage. They shout abuse at the pirates, who yell back at them. Kais shoots at one of the pirates, but misses. The pirates are trapped between the Ogryn and the heavy stubbers... they have no way back to their ships...

Port Stairway C3
Crone throws himself forward and twists around, trying to pull out his bolt-gun. Just like Commissar Zane in "The Day of the Beast". But unlike the in the watchvid, Crone's bolt-gun fires wildly, hitting the roof above him. He lands heavily on the floor just as a blast of promethium sears above him. He sees Commander Harte trying to claw his eyes out. Harte laughs and cries, not noticing the searing flames engulfing him... the charred body lands beside Crone with a heavy thump.

Rendara and Answin see one of the other mutineers jerk back behind the stairs, frantically beating out his clothes, while another one draws a naval pistol and fires a grouping of shots at Father Answin, hitting him!

11 damage (Pen 0) to the chest for Father Answin

The Gun Decks
Xantha leaves the gun crews eagerly waiting besides their sacred charges. She climbs a long ladder up to a fortified command post overlooking the gun-decks. Her officer's access easily opens the door, and she sees three frightened midshipmen hiding in a corner. They have their dirks drawn, but they visibly relax when they see Xantha. The oldest, a skinny young girl of about 14, says, "Miss, we locked it up so's nobody could get in." Xantha quickly activates the consoles and the targeting reticules light up. Massive servos within the guns power up as they slowly fall under her control. Xantha reports her success to the Subcommander, who says, "Thank the Emperor, we might just get out of this alive. We'll try and maneuver the ship to get them under the port guns! Fire when you're ready!"

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

The impact of the shot let him stumble backwards, but the Priest quickly regained his footing, to laugh in the mutineer's face with an unhinged glare.

"Look at your leader, cleansed by the God-Emperors Judgement! Repent! For you shall share his fate!"
Again, he brought his flamer forth, to engulf him and any mutineers he could reach in holy fire, while also moving into cover behind the stairwell's railing.
"Sic semper haereticis!"


Cleanse and purify with a[roll0] pen 2, -20% to agility.

[DrK]

Crone

Max breathes heavily as the stream of liquid promethium streams above him. As Harte falls he scurries across the floor and grabs the vital Captains baton.

"Give me cover, I got it" he screams to the priest and the astropath.

[Lord Raziere]

Astropath Rendara:
"They see their leader get killed and still fight on. These heretics truly are idiotic."
She comments. So the Baton has been obtained, Father Answin is burning the other mutineers alive, Crone wants to be covered...Better help crush the pistol-wielding mutineer just to be safe. "The best defense is an unrelenting all purifying offense" as one saint said at some point. She doesn't know which, thats Father Answin's job. Its been ten thousand years, someone had to have said that at some point, right? She raises her hand again and closes it into a fist at the mutineer with a drawn pistol to help finish him off, reaching to try and crush his neck.


Fettered Strength Telekinetic Crush:
[roll0] (Willpower 71)

Impact Damage:
[roll1]

[SchwhatNow]

"Fall back to us!" He shouted to the ogryn. Although it seemed counter-productive he believed they should open an avenue of escape for the pirates, give them a path to flee so that they could slip by and get to the armory themselves. He suggested as much to Seta-Roja while he tucked his knife away, holstered his pistol, and drew his rifle from his shoulder once more. Even though he wanted the bulk of the remaining pirates and mutineers to run away he still wasn't intending to allow them safe passage after all, the wound on his back was testament to the danger they posed even as a disorganized rabble.

So Kais is suggesting that they open a path for the pirates to escape. In the meantime he'll be readying to shoot when/if an enemy does break cover and move into the open.

Bs vs 44 (plus any bonuses for range): [roll0]
Damage: [roll1] +3 (Type E, Pen 4)

[jolinaxas]

Xantha Ward

"And a fine job you've done, not a heretic in sight."

Truth be told, a dry, sarcastic tone undercut most of what Xantha ever deemed to utter, but she honestly felt a pang of admiration for the teenagers who'd stood sentinel at the controls.

"Right. This is Sub-Decks Organizer Xantha Ward. With no firing solutions provided by the main bridge ballistics, I'm entering them in myself."

Making the best use she could of the arcane control panel, she made sure that the guns were at least still pointed in the right direction. Hopefully at vital targets, but Emperor knows what that meant?

"Gunners, prepare for the next volley, and may our guns never tire. FIRING."

OOC:
I assume a BS test? Not sure of modifiers (ship parts, range, etc.) so raw TN is 39.
[roll0]
I'll spend a fate re-rolling if that was a failure.
[roll1]

[Catarang]

Jag-reg wanted to truly route the pirates. Drive them from their barricade, smash a few on the way through it and let the stubbers sort out the rest. But he heard the Lieutenant sound the withdrawal and reigned himself in. Hearing the blue-min call out to him, he took up a position by the front of the group of crewmen and stared menacingly at the pirates, daring them to break cover.

[dojango]

The Armory

Kais and Seta-Roja order the crew to fall back. The dozen or so men still standing slowly back out of the barracks and retreat towards where they came from. Most of them. Some slip down other halls or keep moving. After a minute, Seta-Roja counts eight crew and a midshipman remaining. Jag-Reg and Kais stare down the pirate scum before falling back themselves. After a few moments, the pirates creep out of the barracks themselves. A Kais's shot hits the wall near them, helping convince them to flee the other direction. Seta-Roja leads the group back towards the armory, approaching the field of fire from a slightly different direction. The stubbers point towards her as she emerges, but don't fire. As the group approaches, the sealed blast door opens and some of the ship's armsmen cautiously emerge. They let the group in, where their leader, Sergeant Kastor, gives his report. Nadueshi crew, led by one of the bosun's mates, had approached the armory and requested weapons to help repel boarders. Something had seemed off, and so the officer in charge called in for authorization, and the mutineers attacked. The officer had been killed outright, but the Sergeant and the others manage to kill or drive off the mutineers, and seal the armory and wait for back-up. They'd driven off a heavy pirate attack, loosing a few more men, and were getting ready to hold out to the last when they saw Jag-Reg save them... a few of them go out to retreive the las-cannon. Its barrel has been bent into a V shape. While the crewmates are arming themselves with shotguns and frag grenades, the Sergeant turns to Seta-Roja and Kais. "Orders, sir?"

Port Stairway C3
The mutineer is hit by the blast of Father Answin's flamer. As he tries to scream and run, he grabs his throat an desperately tries to breathe as Rendara crushes his throat. Burning, his body also crumples down. From the stairway above them, they all hear the pounding of feet as the survivors flee back up the stairs. Father Answin checks the fuel gauge on his flamer. Enough for one more good blast, unless he finds an armory to reload. Commander Crone scampers behind cover clutching the baton. He realizes that if he can input the right codes quickly enough, he might be able to trap them in the stairwell.

Rendara releases her telekinetic grip on the dead pirate's throat. To her surprise, she senses psychic communication coming from the fore of the ship. The maddening buzz interfering with astropathic communication is there, but she can detect that it is aimed at one of the pirate ships. It is difficult to grasp, but she gets a sense of man hunting on the open plains, spear in hand. He casts his spear at what he thinks is a wounded animal, only to have the animal burst out of the thicket, enraged...

Commander Crone can do a tech-use test to trap the fleeing survivors if he wants.

Port Gun-Deck
Xantha watches carefully as the ship turns and the pirate ship moves into the firing arcs of the batteries. The other ship also starts moving to try and circle in front of the Media Res, but as soon as it falls under the galleon's guns, she fires. The older midshipman is explaining to the others what's happening. "Look, she's got the firing solutions prepared. She'll have the upper deck fire first, then the lower deck. Look!" The guns begin to fire. The whole ship shakes, first from the guns going off, and then from the retro-thrusters trying to compensate for the recoil. Xantha shoots true at the pirate ship and on the display she can see the enemy vessel start yawing from the impact, before it recovers. Down in the gun decks, the crew starts cheering. Sweating men and women race to the capstan and pull open the huge hatches so that they can start reloading the massive guns. The sound of their shanty can be heard from inside the gun deck.

Subcommander Houlder pings her on comms and says, "Great shooting, miss! They won't be able to launch another wave after this! Uh, we've got teams headed down to take over, but I don't know how long before themy make it. Can you make your way to the starboard gunnery command and make ready to fire them?"

Everyone:
The ship shakes as it fires the guns, and there is a cheer from the crew as they realize they're fighting back. Similarly, there is a groan from the pirates and mutineers as they realize that the ship isn't quite as crippled as they hoped. Minutes tick by, and Subcommander Houlder jubilantly reports over comms. "Hah! They missed! Those bastards can't shoot! We're turning to face the other ship, get to the starboard guns!"

[Celticbear]

Selrya goes to the navigator pod, awaiting the proper time to make the jump to warp.

Got nothin much to do but wait at this point until we're ready to make the jump.

[Lord Raziere]

Astropath Rendara:
She thinks: Clearly this psychic communication has to be a metaphor for the current situation. The hunter is the pirates, the beast is the Medias Res. They thought this ship would be easy, but its not. That much is obvious. The more important part was the fact that this communication was psychic at all.
"Father Answin, I believe I've intercepted one of the pirates psychic communications. Its couched in metaphor but I'm pretty sure its communicating that we're not as easy of a target as they thought. The real interesting part is that this communication is coming from the fore of the ship. There is another psyker working with the pirates aboard. I think it would be good if we eliminated this threat, if they are another astropath who knows what help they could keep calling? Not to mention the usual perils they are capable of...for now I'll simply start jamming their communications."
She will focus on her mind on generating a psychic white noise across a radius of about one void unit of space to block the psyker from making any other communications. After all, they only had one ship, but the pirates had more. the Medias Res didn't need to communicate with any outside forces at this point, but the pirates did, and the Medias Res had the ships comms besides.


Telepathic Jamming, Psyniscience Focus Power Test
[roll0] (Psyniscience 87)

for every degree of success, I generate interference in a radius of 1 VU, should any psyker wish to send or receive astrotelepathic signals they will need to make an opposed willpower test against me.

[DrK]

Crone

Crone breathes a sigh of relief, "Father Answin, Rebdara, Emp's blessing eh. That was a close call. I reckon that bastard Harte was about to try and put me down for good.

With the baton in hand he looks at the others, "We've got the command baton, let's get to the bridge. We can take command back and engage the pirates." He pauses and looks at the priest, "We'll turn them into dust and avenge the Lord Captain."

Crone will run for the bridge with the others

[SchwhatNow]

The news was grim but not unexpected, it lined up with what Kais had seen so far more or less. Still he shook his head in dismay, such acts of treachery would not happen among his own kind but of course these people did not know the Tau'va. "We can't simply remain here, if the fight goes poorly elsewhere in the ship then we will simply be trapped." The rumbling of the ship's guns gave him hope that the batteries were fine, at least for the moment anyway, so he thought about what areas would be focused by the enemy. "I came from the engines originally, they seemed well locked down. Ships guns are firing, where else do we think the enemy would seek to strike? We have proper weapons now, we could send out a suitable team to clear the most important areas while a small force remains to guard the armory just in case they try again."

Logic vs 60 (Best area of the ship to secure first): [roll0]

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

Solemnly, Father Answin lowered his head to a slow nod towards Crone.
"That we shall, Commander Crone, to the Emperor's glory." He started moving as well.

Father Answin's expression darkened though, when Rendara told him what she had seen. "The Psyker must be brought down." he agreed, then he pondered for a moment. "It is a long way to the fore of the ship. It is wise to first use the baton to regain control of the ship at the bridge. I assume you want to stay and take command at the bridge, Commander?" His eyes wandered from Commander Crone to Rendara.
"Once the internal defense system is back online, it will help us to fight our way through to the witch. If we take the way via the main armoury, we can assemble an armed assault team and also stock up ourselves. Lady Rendara, can you track the witch if she moves?"
The priest waited for an answer, then remained silent for but a moment, before activating the ship's vox.

"Let it be known, my brothers and sisters, that the Traitor 'Commander' Harte has just been executed and purified by the God-Emperor's Holy Flame! Praise the Golden Throne! The snake has been cut off by its head, but it will struggle. Oh, will it struggle! And it is on us to make it stop. Organizer Ward, you did well, we all felt that shooting. Continue to bring the Emperor's Wrath to the heretic's ships. Main Armoury, what is your situation?"

[jolinaxas]

Xantha Ward

♪...and its payload gone, we carry on...♪

Caught up in the excitement and incredulous at her success, it takes Xantha a second to register the subcommander's suggestion. Activating her micro-bead, she broadcasts across the comms.

+One side down. Starboard Guns, are you about to let Port have the last word? If those guns aren't ready to fire by the time I get there, Throne give me patience, because if He gives me strength, I'm apt to use it.+

Sliding down the ladder, she headed towards the other side of the gun deck, muttering under her breath.

"If they're anything like us, Harte's snuffing it should provide some choice disarray..."

OOC:
---

[dojango]

The Armory
Kais thinks over the strategic situation. With the castle and enginarium secure, the ship can begin to defend itself again, especially with the insular gun-deck clans retaining control of the weapons. Now that the captain's baton is back in loyalist hands, the mutineers cannot override the ship's security protocols, and areas of the ship can be locked down and cleared out with overwhelming force. However, in order for this to work, they need to take control of the central routes through the ship... two passages that are uninterrupted and allow access to almost every corner of the ship. The first is the ship's spinal railway, running nearly 4 km from the entrance of the Enginarium to the prow-thruster control system. It has been shut down as part of the security override, but determined men can hijack the trains and move along the railway. The second is the 'grand promenade' a broad avenue that runs about 2 km in the center of the ship. It is lined with shops and cafes, offices and apartments for senior staff, and dotted with playgrounds, shrines, and fountains. Iron custom stronger than any law restricts the common crew to the fore third of the promenade, in normal times, but now mutineers and pirates roam freely, smashing and looting what they can.

Jag-Reg on the other hand, is reminded by his stomach that the ship's stores are in the belly of the ship, and if the mutineers can seize or destroy them, hunger will prove to be a far more dangerous foe than these savages...

The Bridge
Crone, Answin and Rendara head to the bridge. Subcommander Houlder gets up and shakes Crone's hand furiously. "Mr. Crone! You're alive!" he says, in some relief, knowing that a senior officer is there to shoulder some of the responsibility. "The nav, uh, the bird said you were dead. She's holed up in the navigator's command at the moment." The subcommander gestures to the hololith displaying the ships. At the moment, the Media Res is trying to twist itself to bring its starboard guns to bear on the damaged vessel.

Father Answin gives his speech to the crew. There are gasps from the officers. Harte had been a stern officer, a figure of rectitude and discipline to them. That he had turned traitor was a shock, indeed... On the other hand, no doubt some of the common crew might be relieved to hear of his death, however. While Harte had not been one of those ruthless flogging captains, issuing out a score of lashes for every infraction, real or imagined, he (or von Drakkan) did insist on exact respect, and any crewman that failed to kowtow to the correct degree would expect a dozen lashes. The Armory reports that they are now clear, and will start bringing loyalists back to be better armed.

Tracking a psyker doesn't rely on the crude mortal senses, and so Rendara is able to pinpoint the enemy psyker to the fore of the ship. Probably deep within the fore-warrens that house about twenty-thousand of the ship's crew. Communication from there has long since gone silent. No doubt the black heart of the muntiny.

Selrya waits in her pod. Given the ship's current path, they will be able to jump to warp in about eight hours. She could wait there, or she could join the crew in their struggles. After all, although she is neccessary to the survival of the ship, if she gets herself killed, it's no longer her problem now, is it?

Gun-Decks
Xantha crawls out a catwalk above the massive space of the gun decks, and then climbs up a hatch into the vents. It is 'only' about 100 meters to the starboard gun decks, but she has to pass by the rear gun-deck station on the spinal railway. Looking down at the station, she sees that a few dozen Nadueshi crewmen are milling around, building up barricades in the station. She also sees about a dozen crewmen tied up in a crude pen near one of the stairways out. She can probably sneak over the bridges and get past them to the other side, or she can backtrack and try and make her way through the maze of offices and apartments above her.

[Lord Raziere]

Astropath Rendara:
"Okay, I can track the psyker, they are in the fore of the ship, deep in the fore-warrens. The part that hasn't been in contact with us. Its probably where the mutiny's core is."
She says
"Meaning this psyker might be of our own. Another traitor..."
She tries to think of any psykers onboard this vessel that aside from herself that could be the mutinous psyker.


Forbidden Lore: Psykers roll
[roll0] (FL: Psykers 51)

[DrK]

Commander Crone

Crone nods hello and greetings to the rest of the bridge crew as he re-enters the bridge, a happy "The rumours of my death were happily overstated my friend" to sub-commander Houlder. He looks about the rest of the bridge, "If I can have the Helm Mr Houlder, contact the gun decks, lets start to mete out some revenge on these bastards eh?"

He sends a vox message to Selrya, "Selrya, you glorious scaled creature, could you please help wish the sensors and targeting" before looking to Rendra and Father Asnwin, "Thanks for timely rescue, a bottle of Amsec will be yours when we get out of this trap. I cannot help track this traitor, I am needed here."

Dropping back into his console and helmsman's chair he surveys the hololith display, "Aye, you swine, choke on this. Warn the Starboard guns, they'll have to fire as we bear." Then he punches the big red button and switches to manual helm control, an ancient looking joystick emerging from the console. "Hell or glory, down their throats!"

OOC

Adjust Heading to turn on the spot essentially to be able to cross the enemy stern so we can broadside them and they can only bring limited guns on us
[roll0] TN 77

[jolinaxas]

Xantha Ward

Xantha resisted the nervous urge to light another lho stick as she considered her options. When she saw the prisoners, her mind was made up. A full squad behind her could make all the difference.

Pulling the hood of her synskin over her head, she crept towards the nearby exit.

OOC:
Going to sneak by. If possible (maybe with high DoS?) going to try to pass by the prisoners to attempt to free them.

AGI 42 + 10 from Synskin = TN 52
[roll0]
Stakes seem kinda high, gonna spend a Fate to reroll if the above fails.
[roll1]

[Catarang]

Jag-reg ignores Kais and Lieutenant Seta-Roja debriefing the Armory Sergeant and looks around the shelves of various arms. Eventually, he settles on the largest, sturdiest slab of metal available and grasps it with his left arm, leaving his bloody warhammer in his right. It was then that his belly audibly growled. Walking back to the crewmembers gathered around the Lieutenant, Jag-reg abruptly interrupts them. "The food. Down below. There pirates there?"

[Celticbear]

Selrya stares at Crone with utter bafflement. He should be dead... her senses had assured her of this future! They were infallible- nay unable to be incorrect. She was almost tempted to step out of her pod and plunge her blade into Crone's skull herself just to ensure the universe didn't erupt. She glared at him when he spoke to her, he shouldn't have even been able to speak. She didn't grace him with a response but wordlessly heeded his commands. A man who was able to circumvent fate itself would need careful study.

Uhhh what kind of roll would the sensors be?

[SchwhatNow]

As he stood there running through his thoughts the ogryn spoke up to interrupt him, mentioning the food stores and the threat that could come from their destruction. "Indeed that would be a terrible loss if the pirates felt so inclined to ensure our demise. The central passages through the ship should also be secured and yet...the grand promenade and the spinal railway won't cause as much harm as the loss of our food. I agree, we should ensure the safety of the crew for after this battle is over first. If there is time after that then I would suggest the promenade second." The railway would prove more difficult for the average pirate to hack into. Not impossible of course but he was of a mind to focus on what was most pressing and likely first. "You don't happen to have any fragmentation grenades down here do you? Could come in handy for clearing rooms and hallways."

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

"Then this is where we need to strike." Father Answin replied to Rendara's report, determined.
First though, he turned to Subcommander Houlder.
"We have the command baton, now let us make use of it. Activate the internal defense systems and trap whatever heretics you can where they can do little harm for now. For later extermination."
He paused, then addressed everyone.
"The way forward is clear. We need to assemble a strike force and cleanse the rotten core of this corruption. If we act fast, this mutiny will crumble."
Personally, he needed some flamer fuel - he waved one of the bridge's midshipmen over and told him to fetch some from the castle armoury - quickly.

[dojango]

Armory Command
The sergeant at the armory nods to Kais and in a few moments, a belt with six frag grenades hooked to it is handed to him. "There's more if'n ya need it, Blue," says the man. Around him, loyalist crewmen are trickling in and being organized into squads under the command of the armmen. "Any o' them ferals try and show their face around here are gonna get a round o' slugshot to the teeth" he adds.

"Try and save a few for questioning" says Seta-Roja. "I'm sure the seneschal's men will want to talk to them. If we still have a seneschal, that is." The last 'official' seneschal had been spaced by von Drakkan about six months ago. Something about excessive embezzlement was the official reason. Since then, there really hadn't been an 'official' seneschal although the internal affairs organization had stumbled along as best it could without a head.

At any rate, Seta-Roja pulls up a display of the ship. The mega-cargo holds are on the bottom of the ship, in the center. At the moment they're filled with supplies and industrial equipment meant for von Drakkan's colony. The store-rooms under the castle, filled with fine food and drink meant for the officers, should be secure. Same with the holds beneath the enginarium, filled with the finest protien paste and nutrient tablets for the mechanicus enclave. The rest of the stores are carried in six bays, four of them aft of the cargo holds. Seta-Roja points at the industrial kitchens just above them. "This is the best access point to the food stores. If they're looting them, they'll have to go through here."

Bridge
Junior Officer Bonzalez scrambles to get out of the way for Crone. Over the next half hour or so, Crone carefully steers a course towards the damaged enemy ship and then turns away from it so that the range of the starboard guns sweep towards the enemy ship. If Xantha or someone can make it to the starboard gunnery contro, they will havea fine shot at the other ship!

Selrya approaches the ship's auspex controls. These, at least, are somewhat intact, and a few crewmen start bringing up the vast amounts of data collected by the auspexes. Sorting through the dross and pulling out useful tidbits of information will require a keen eye and a quick mind...

Scrutiny + 8 to divine useful information about the enemy ships, or Scrutiny + 15 to divine useful information about your spatial surroundings

Meanwhile, the security officers begin organizing under Father Answin's watchful gaze. "Uh, we sent out most of the men we could spare under the, uh, Navigator's orders. Sent them to secure passages to the gun decks and so that we could get some officers there to take control. I, uh, can redirect them to meet you somewhere so you can launch a co-ordinated attack. What route do you want to take?" Subcommander Houlder pulls up a map of the ship, and says, "If you want to move quickly to the fore-warrens, taking a train along the spinal railway would be fastest, unless they've cut the railway somewhere. Otherwise, you could take service vehicles through the grand promenade and then hike the last 100m or so."

One of the senior midshipmen comes back and hands a fresh fuel container to Father Answin. He's got two more slung over his back and is carrying a chainsword from the armory. He salutes and falls in with the rest of the men.

Rendara thinks about where the other psykers could come from. An untrained psyker should've been forwarded to the black ships, but out in the fringes of empire, 'should have' is a lot different than 'was'. That they would be attempting long-range commuincation is... troublesome, surely anyone who gazed too deeply into the warp without the emperor's protection would go mad quickly.

Spinal Railway Station
Xantha picks a moment where the mutineers are distracted. They're wrestling some heavy pieces of furniture down the stairs so that they can set up a crude fortification. Several more are carrying in boxes of bottles and are filling them up with liquid, and stuffing rags down the throats of the bottles. They're all distracted, and so Xantha can approach the edge of the pen. The crewmen's eyes widen as she sneaks up, but nobody speaks or moves. It will take a while to free them all, but she can cut through the edge of the pen with a knife, and perhaps the bonds of the closest man, and then leave them with the knife so they can make their own escape... or she can stay and make sure they all are freed, but at the risk of becoming involved in the necessary fight for their freedom.

[SchwhatNow]

Taking the belt of grenades he nodded his thanks to the sergeant and was content with that number, hopefully he wouldn't need more than six as they went through and carrying more felt like it would be overkill. Kais then proceeded to watch the display as Seta-Roja explained their options and he agreed with her assessment. "Then let us head for the kitchens. Every moment we delay only furthers the advantage of our enemies." Injured, but only somewhat, the Tau was still fully combat capable and was ready to sacrifice his life if need be to ensure the safety of the crew as a whole. Hopefully that would not be necessary of course but he was ready to head out, waiting on the others so that they could move as a unit.

[Catarang]

Jag-reg grunted in agreement, and stood at the front of the group. Eager to leave the even more cramped armory and make it to one of the Food holds, the largest rooms he had personally been in on the Media Res, Jag-reg would stay at the front of the squad all along the route to their destination.

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

"Well, the passages are secure, aren't they? The gunnery crews can look after themselves, and we can lock them down." the priest replied, calmly. He nodded towards the senior midshipman handing him the fuel container. "Very good, child." Father Answin added, looking at the additional containers he carried, and the chainsword, showing the willingness of the man to get into the thick of it.

"They were not planning on us being in possession of the command baton, thus I doubt they have blocked the spinal railway in any meaningful way yet. The promenade will likely only delay us with petty skirmishes. With the Emperor's blessing, we have to take that chance." he told the sub-commander, after pondering their options for a moment.

Father Answin contacted Brother Bartholomew via vox.
"The time has come, Brother Bartholomew. We will eradicate the vile corruption spreading through the Medias Res at its root.
The main priority remains the defence of the cathedral. But I want Zealot Ermengarde's unit to join me in this battle. Send her and her people to meet me en route to the spinal railway."

Of all the zealots, an armed group of fanatics that provided security to the cathedral and followed Father Answin when he regularly cleansed the lower decks of corruption, he knew Ermengarde's group was the one who could fight best alongside the ship's armsmen. While most zealots were capable warriors, and - most important of all - absolutely dedicated to Father Answin's cause - their righteous fury tended to... overwhelm them.

Ermengarde, on the other hand, had been a military officer on her home world before the Medias Res had made an appearance in orbit, and she had made her unit into a disciplined, well-organised force.

Father Answin turned to Rendara. "Will you join us?"

[jolinaxas]

Xantha Ward

Xantha approached the pen, holding a finger to her lips in an effort to not have the loyalists give her away. She reached in and started to free the closest crewman, keeping an eye out for their captors. When the first man was free, she slid the knife in and pointed at the next closest captive.

After a moment's consideration, she unholstered the boltgun from her back and started to feed it through the bars, along with the two spare clips. She made a "rifle aiming" motion and then a thumbs up, trying to discern if any of them had used a boltgun before...

OOC:
Going to stay and help out. Let me know what/if i need to roll.

[Lord Raziere]

Head Astropath Rendara
"Of course, Answin. Just let me do one thing first..."
She contacts Diviner Palaestra over the vox, one of her colleagues in the Scholastica Psykana and apart of her Astropathic Choir-The best thing about being an astropath is that you can stay in contact with all your astropath peers. Rendara had all her astropaths be designated by secondary specialization aside from their astropathic abilities, and Palaestra was most skilled in seeing the future. Recruiting astropaths with different focuses allowed to cover more uses.
"Diviner Palaestra, bring the Choir and our bodyguards. We're joining Father Answin's forces to retake the ship."
There is one astropath to every three bodyguards in her forces. Galeria, Bruttia and Cania are Rendara's bodyguards in particular. She chose them because they like her when she was young once had the foolish unachievable dream of one day becoming an Adepta Sororitas. That dream was crushed long ago when it turned out when she was a psyker, but she still thinks they're badass.

[dojango]

Central Food Processing
The massive industrial kitchens provide cheap and filling food for the lower-deck crew. The mutineers have already passed through here; the staff has fled and most of the prepared food has been destroyed or spoiled, scattered around on the floor. Kais and Jag-Reg lead a small force of well armed loyalists through the kitchens, pulling out crew from their hiding-holes and sending them towards the armory for organization into patrols. Hearing noise from down below, the force heads down to the spirit rooms below. Climbing down a stairwell, Jag-reg and Kais peer out and see that the massive fermentation tanks have been breached, and the entire room is covered in a stinking alcoholic sludge. Further on, a riotous mob of crewmen are drunkenly staggering around the vats where the finished alcohol is stored. There are a few bodies here and there, crewmen fighting with each other, arguing, laughing, ****ing... all order has broken down... for now they don't notice the new guests, and if they did, would they even care?

They don't seem to be Nadueshi or pirates... just common voidsmen out of control and not following orders... you could try to bring them back into order, and send them into the fray, but they may not appreciate it...

Spinal Railway Station
Father Answin and Rendara and a few armsmen head down the lifts. They go down, down, nearly a kilometer, towards the aft terminus of the spinal railway. This station serves the enginarium, and is well guarded by twitchy Skitarii and expressionless battle-servitors. The station master shows up, nearly in tears, weeping over the damage and destruction to his precious trains. By the time Ermengarde and her fanatics arrive (having to climb down nearly 500m from the cathedral to the train station) the station-master has one of his precious trains back on the tracks and pointed fore-wards. The zealots, armed with mono-axes and pistols wave their weapons and shout prayers as they climb aboard the middle three cars of the train. Father Answin and Ermengarde and a few armsmen take the front car, and Rendara and her bodyguards and assistants take the rear car. As the train starts heading out into the dark tunnels, Palaestra says, "Why did you set the immaterium roiling? I sensed when you did it... but not the why of it..."

The train zips forward past the next few stations. Administration... Central Lifts... Promenade... Martial Field... as it approaches Gunner's Crossing, the driver slows the train down. "Fire on the tracks," he says. "Need to be careful..."

Gunner's Crossing
Xantha watches as the prisoners slowly cut through their bonds. One of the crew, an ill-looking brute of a man, picks up the boltgun and nods. He taps his forearm, where there is an unrecognizable tattoo. It probably means something, but now is not the time. However, the inevitable happens. One of the mutineers notices something, and yells out. They draw axes and a few guns and charge towards the prisoners.

They don't see Xantha at the moment, so she can always slink away...

[DrK]

Commander Crone

Crone looks up briefly from the myriad consoles and holo displays, "Good hunting Father. Stay in tough." he says to the venerated priest as he and Rendara head to the transport tubes.

Turning back to the display he bellows into the internal biz systems. "Bridge to starboard gun decks, fire, fire you miserable scum or you'll be sucking vacuum when those pirate bastards start firing back "

Cursing the gun crews he keys the command baton to slave gunnery command to his post. "Throne damn it. I'll do it myself. " Turning the guns to manual he programs the firing solution as they cross the rear of the pirate ship and watches as the macrocannons let loose, hoping the crews will reload the massive beasts

OOC
Fire on nearest pirate ship
[roll0] TN 63 + any other bonuses
Dam [roll1] [roll2][roll3][roll4] -as needed. If 5 DoS then crit [roll5]

[SchwhatNow]

Kais shook his head at the scene of the drunken crew members, the level of unprofessionalism was far too high for his liking but it also wasn't his place to truly try and waste time corralling these individuals in the middle of an open battle. That, plus the fact that most of the people on the crew still didn't really like him per se and the ones in close proximity to him day to day more or less tolerated him for his usefulness rather than anything else. The xenophobia was rather difficult to break most humans out of. "We don't have time for this. We should push on and secure the food stores before it's too late. They can be punished later for their actions."

[Lord Raziere]

Rendara
She considers Palaestra's words
"Roils? But....its the immaterium. Does it not always roil? And even if it doesn't, all I did was kill a few pirate scum and former Officer Harte. Greater amounts of death happen everyday on planetary scales whenever the Imperial Guard are sent to fight something, whats so special about these deaths?"
She will ask while they ride then follow behind Father Answin's forces as they get off.

[jolinaxas]

Xantha Ward

Making a mental note to check out whatever tattoo the voidsman had pointed to, Xantha nodded and made a sign of the aquila, beseeching the Emperor's protection for their escape, before slinking back off into the darkness.

OOC:
Okay, a boltgun should tip the scales. Gonna head out for her original objective, to shoot the other side's guns.

[dojango]

Spirit Room
Kais turns and leaves the riotous voidsmen to their debauchery. It is every voidmans' desire to not die sober, if possible, and they will exhaust themselves before they can be brought back in control. He leads the patrol down further, into the great cavernous holds that store half a megaton of food. The air feels thin and cold in the unheated hold. At the other end of the holds, perhaps 100m away, Kais can see lights and movement. There are a few forklifts and haulers strapped down nearby if Kais wants to take them.

Bridge
Crone moves to what used to be the gunnery control stations. They are a shattered and burning wreck. A few bodies lie ruined beside it. It looks as if someone shot a grenade into it when they attacked the bridge. He tries to figure out how to reactivate them, but cannot. Subcommander Houlder says, "Sir, we've sent teams to the gunnery control stations on the gun decks. They should be there shortly. And crew boss Xantha was also heading there as well."

Gunner's Crossing Rail Station
The train slows down to inspect the fire. To nobody's surprise, there are two score of mutineers there, and they are attacking some loyalist crewmates. Some of the mutineers are getting ready to throw fire bombs into the crew, but when they see the train coming, they turn and prepare to throw their firebombs into the train cars...

[SchwhatNow]

His combat suit helped to stave off some of the chill but Kais still felt the cold all the same as it seeped into his body through the fabric and plate. The hundred meter distance was well within his capability, his pulse rifle sighted for combat at one hundred and fifty, but he still needed to see his targets before engaging just in case they'd prove to be friendly. Gesturing to his group to take cover, or at least to crouch down, Kais lifted his rifle and attempted to sight through the scope to see what they would be dealing with. He had noticed the forklifts and haulers but, well, he couldn't think of any real use for them at this time considering he'd rather have a quieter approach towards their objective.

Awareness vs 59: [roll0]

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

The Priest gnashed his teeth. If they didn't take out the firebombers, their operation would be in dire straits indeed.
His bearded face turned towards Zealot Ermengarde and the armsmen. Ermengarde wore red robes with her armour, decorated with a multitude of purity seals and hanging rolls of parchment bearing Holy Writings.
New initiates of the Zealots were given white robes, which grew more and more red (often in weird and garish patterns) with time and experience, corresponding to the blood spilled in the name of the God- Emperor.
Hers was plain red, and she also wielded better equipment than her underlings - an old chainsword, amongst others.

"Take out those with the firebombs!" he ordered hastily, while bringing forth his own flamer.
"In the Name of the Holy God-Emperor on His Golden Throne, the souls of the Unclean shall be banished into Eternal Damnation! Charge!" Father Answin's voice boomed over the battlefield before he fired his flamer towards the spot in the enemy ranks where he could reach most of the mutineers wielding firebombs. With any luck, the purifying flames would either make the makeshift bombs explode before they could throw them... or would make the mutineers drop them in panic.


Guess what, cleanse and purify!
[roll0] Pen 2

[DrK]

Crone

Looking at the smashed gunnery control station Crone kicked the command chair for that section across the room in frustration and keyed the microbead. "Xantha, this is the Crone. I'm on the bridge but we've lost bridge control of the guns. Houlder said you're down by the guns. Get those throne cursed starboard cannos firing whilst we have a raider in our arc!"

Heading back to the helm he twists the joysticks trying to adjust heading to keep the ancient galleon out of the raider's firing arcs whilst keeping his own guns trained on her.


OOC
Adjust spead and bearing and as requried [roll0] TN 72 +5 Man = 77

[jolinaxas]

Xantha Ward

The pockmarked crew boss shook her head. Finally some communication from the higher-ups and it's to tell her to do what she was already doing.

+Slow going, sir. Currently treading through enemy territory, I was already on my way.+

Where do you think the first salvo came from, you fethin' idiot...

OOC:
Was that train crossing message meant for me? Or did I not get an update yet?

[Catarang]

After entering the food holds, Jag-reg noticeably relaxes. The temperature here always reminded him of the wastes back home, where nights amongst the tox-dunes reached lows not able to be found within the cramped tunnels and machinery of the Media Res. Stretching to his full height, Jag-reg moved with the squad deeper into the holds until Kais motioned for them to stop and take cover. Jag-reg immediately took cover but kept his eyes on Kais.



Untrained Concealment Test against a 20
[roll0]

[dojango]

You are one round before the train's arrival. The mutineers are about to attack the prisoners, one of whom has a boltgun, the others are trying to free themselves. You can take a combat action with your meltagun, or withdraw to make it to the guns sooner... You did notice them carrying in boxes of firebombs.

[jolinaxas]

Xantha Ward

Xantha prepared to stalk off in the direction of the guns, but spying the available opportunity to rob the traitors of their munitions, she paused.

"Here's something to consider..."

The ancient archeotech gun whined with the effort of ionizing before letting out a lance of burning energy.

OOC:
Half-action aiming, half action firing at a nearby box, hopefully one that will interfere with the swarmed prisoners or at least set a whole bunch of traitors ablaze.
TN 49:[roll0]
and just in case of failure, I'll spend fate:[roll1]

[Lord Raziere]

Head Astropath Rendara
She was thinking: should I compel one to drop their firebomb? But that would go against their survival instinct, and thus wouldn't work.
"Everyone, open fire on the firebombers as well."
She was still of course, maintaining the psychic block on messages. She could use another psychic power, but it would be dividing her strength. She wasn't all that good at firing with her pistol though. She takes out her laspistol. She will try anyways, firing upon the pirates with it.


Ballistics Test:
[roll0] (Ballistics 35)

Damage:
[roll1]

[dojango]

Xantha

The prisoners are trying to free themselves, while a few of them try to use the barricades of their prison to hold off the rush of mutineers. The one with the boltgun fires a few shots over the heads of the mutineers. Xantha spots one of the mutineers carrying a box of firebombs. As the incoming train's lights illuminate the station, she recognizes him as Bart "Shotgun" Ozar, a petty agitator and malcontent who's given her headaches in the past. Not surprising that he'd joined the mutiny. He won't bother her any more as her melta gun sets off the box he's carrying, and it bursts into a huge fireball, spraying burning solvent everywhere. The burning man runs and falls onto the track in ball of fire. The incoming train barely notices it as it screeches to a stop.

Xantha slips away into the shadows, heading for the starboard gunnery controls. The prisoners will have to fend for themselves, the safety of the ship is at stake. After a few minutes she finds her way to the control room. Her officer's access lets into the empty room. The room is deserted, although she does notice that someone has been storing contraband here. Was she surprised by it?

Take your shot at the enemy ships...

The Train

As the train's doors open, Father Answin lets loose with a huge gout of flame. Surprised mutineers scream as the flame washes over them. Once the way is clear, the zealots charge out of the train, axes raised high. The trained armsmen fire their autoguns at the firebombers, killing one, and Rendara and her bodyguards manage to kill another. The last one manages to light his firebomb and hurl it at the mob of zealots before being bowled over and cut down. One of them screams as his robes burst into flames and another frantically tries to beat out the burning oil on his arms, but the remainder of them crash into the mutineers, devolving into a bloody brawl. The prisoners manage to finish freeing themselves. The one with the boltgun manages to shoot one of the mutineers in the back, while the others flee into the darkness, some following Xantha, others disappearing into their hiding holes and backways of the ship.

There is a confused melee on the platform of the station. Zealots fighting mutineers. The rest of the team is not engaged, but would have to fire into melee if they want to use ranged weapons

The Food Storage Bays
Kais scans the distance with his scope. He sees a crowd of pirates using forklifts and power loaders to take pallets of food and supplies and load them into the bays of the assault boats that have cut into the loading docks of the massive hold. Meanwhile, Jag-reg and the armsmen creep down one of the corridors between the rows of stacked supplies, getting closer to the thieves.

The Bridge
Crone continues to maneuver the ship to keep the enemy under the guns of the star galleon. Unfortunately, the more agile enemy raiders are able to get their own firing solutions, with their dorsal turrets tracking the galleon's erratic path. The galleon's void shields flare up as they deflect the first salvo of macrocannon hits, but the ship shakes and groans as a second salvo from the other ship punches home. Moments later, the lasers carve deep rents across ship's flanks. Fortunately, the galleon's armor seems to deflect the worst of the damage. Lights all across the ship dim as power is diverted into the shield capacitators are they recharge in preparation for the enemy ship's next attack. Damage reports start popping up on the ship's cogitator arrays. One of the officers on the augur arrays shouts out, "They've launched another wave of assault boats!"

Ouch! All four of the enemy's shots hit, dealing 9 damage, 56/65 hull integrity. They rolled terribly on damage.

[SchwhatNow]

"Thieving gue'la!" Kais cursed beneath his breath. Keying the micro-bead of his helmet he would alert the rest of the armsmen as to what exactly was going on. "Pirates are stealing the supplies. I'll open fire to draw their attention and you engage when they leave themselves exposed." He didn't wait for confirmation since time was of the essence and instead he picked out the most vulnerable target that he could, firing a fully automatic burst of plasma to kick off the engagement.

Full-Auto burst vs 94 (+30 unaware, +20 full auto): [roll0]

Just going to roll all potential damages here just to make things easy.

Damage 1: [roll1]+3 Type: E Pen: 4
Damage 2: [roll2]+3 Type: E Pen: 4
Damage 3: [roll3]+3 Type: E Pen: 4
Damage 4: [roll4]+3 Type: E Pen: 4

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

As the melee ensued, Father Answin let go of his flamer and brought forth his chainsword, holding it in front of himself in a solemn gesture, lowering his head as if in prayer.
"The time of Retribution has come, brothers and sisters! The God- Emperor guides our hands and blades! Let the Reaping commence!"

It let out a vicious metallic scream as he activated it.

The priest joined his followers in the melee, looking to attack the mutineers' leader if he could spot them or, failing that, attacking whomever seemed most opportune. Using the force from the charge, Father Answin brought the gruesome rotating blades down on his opponent with a powerful blow.


Attacking the leader/an opportune mutineer with the chainsword:

[roll0] vs 86 (51 WS + 10 hatred pirates (if applicable) + 5 good quality chainsword + 20 charge)
Damage: highest of [roll1] and [roll2] + 2 (Pen 2)

[jolinaxas]

Xantha Ward

"Tsk tsk, Shotgun. Should've left organization to the professionals."

Xantha watched with barely concealed glee as the rabble rouser erupted into flames along with his traitorous payload. Shaking the steaming pistol, she quickly tucked it back into its holster and stalked off towards the control room, unable to resist the urge to light a lho stick.

"Is there a still in here, or does it just smell like one? For the love of the God Emperor, have a bit of class..."

Clearing her throat, she switched her micro-bead back on as she approached the console.

+Applying targeting data to port side guns. If you lot want to go ahead and say a prayer, I doubt it'll hurt if the Throne guides my hand a bit. At any rate... may our guns never tire!+

Perhaps her aim was guided by providence. The Emperor, it is often said, looks out for fools and drunks, and she was often the former and occasionally the latter. As the other ship came into sight, she pressed the runes that designated each of battery sections in order, the cheap plastic tube of the lho stick creaking as she clenched her teeth.

OOC:
Still don't know exact mods, so the raw BS is 39.
[roll0]
and just in case of failure, I'll spend fate:
[roll1]

[dojango]

Food Storage Bay
Kais fires a burst from his pulse rifle cross the bay, putting two plasma bolts through two pirates each. The others turn and shout in surprise as the ship's armsmen charge the remaining pirates. Then there is a reverberating crash asthe massive power-loader drops the huge pallet of stores it is carrying. It turns towards the oncoming armsmen, its massive claws swinging...

There are perhaps 30 pirates, well, 28 now, but they are using a sentinel walker equipped with a power-loader to load supplies.
SENTINEL WALKER
The Sentinel walker is a bipedal walker used as a scout vehicle by the Imperial
Guard. It can be equipped with a wide variety of weapons or loading claws,
is easy to pilot, and can even be dropped into combat zones via over-sized
grav-chutes, making it a valuable support vehicle to guardsmen in the field.
Type: Walker
Tactical Speed: 8 m
Cruising Speed: 45 kph
Manoeuvrability: +10
Structural Integrity: 16
Size: Hulking
Armour: Front 20, Side 20, Rear 20
Crew: Driver
Carrying Capacity: None/ roughly 1 metric tonne with powerlifter

Weapons
Powerlifter (Facing Front, Melee, 2d10+10, Pen 2, Unwieldy)
Special Rules
Open-topped: Enemies may target the crew and passengers of the vehicle by using a Called Shot Attack Action.
Walker: Walkers are able to ignore penalties for moving through difficult terrain, and negotiate obstacles such as rock slides, tank traps, fallen trees, and shattered buildings without penalty.
Availability: Average


Spinal Railway Station (Gunner's Crossing)
Father Answin falls on one unlucky mutineer in the melee, dealing him a blow with his chainsword. The mutineers, caught, it seems, between two forces, lash back with desperation. Next to Father Answin, one of the zealots falls to a vicious blow with a mono-axe, while the man Father Answin had hit swings back at him, a solid blow to the chest.

The hit deals [roll0] pen 2 damage to the chest

Starboard Gunnery Command
Xantha finishes aiming the guns and they fire. Once again, the ship shudders from the blast of the cannons and the firing of the retro-thrusters. The men and women of the starboard gunnery crews leap into action, silently, naval-style, with grim efficiency. Xantha watches the tracking augur arrays as the shots impact the wounded enemy vessel. Moments later, the doors to the control center open, and an officer looks in, followed by a few armsmen. He salutes Xantha and says, "Reinforcements from the castle. Sent to assist gunnery control. What orders, ma'am?"

The Bridge
The guns fire, and the commanding officers look to the hololith display. The enemy ship appears to flare briefly, and then it slowly starts to drift away from its course. Subcommander Houlder smiles grimly and says, "That ship's orbit has begun to decay. In a week's time it will be too deep within the gas giant to recover. Poor bastards. If there's any left alive."

[DrK]

Crone

The commander grins as he watches the starboard macrocannons unleash fiery fury on the raider, a fist pump as the shells slam into her and she loses power and begins to drift towards the gas giant. "Yes! Good shooting, we';; bring the second one into our sights Xantha, make ready to unleash fury upon her!" he bellows into the vox. Glancing at Houlder he shrugs, "Pirate scum, they can enjoy in fighting for a week before the gravity and atmosphere choke 'em. Falling into the crushing embrace of burning gas is too good for 'em"

As the shields buckle and damage icons flare on the damage control panels he shrugs, he knows that the tough old girl can take a lot of punishment. Pulling himself upright from where the impact had thrown he heads back to his position. Back at the conn he looks to the bridge crew, "Make ready, we are coming about, we'll take the fight to the other one. Make a new heading, right down their bloody throat!"


OoC
Come to new heading to level the guns at close range at the other raider
[roll0] TN 77


EDIt: 7 DoS, she's handling like a fighter jet!

[SchwhatNow]

The loader was clearly not equipped for battle as the claws were made for lifting cargo, however that didn't mean they weren't dangerous all the same and Kais knew that he'd need to focus that target down above all else. That said he was not an epic marksman or sniper despite his training so actually achieving that task would be difficult for him. Nonetheless the loyal crew needed his help and he'd certainly do his best to provide that as he leveled his rifle and took aim towards the pilot of the loader, holding the shot and making the necessary calculations he'd need to hopefully find his mark.

Full Round spent aiming for +20, then on his next turn Kais will spend a Full Round to Called Shot for the pilot at -10 because of Deadeye Shot.

Called Shot against 54: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]+3 Type: E Pen: 4

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin
With a screech, the mutineer's weapon scraped over the Priest's chainsword, nearly finding its mark, only being stopped at the last second.
Somehow, this only seemed to encourage Father Answin, who raised his weapon for another attack, led by great force and unwavering conviction. His wild eyes open wide, he continued to preach at the Zealots, his congregation.
"Cherish the Blood of the Heretics, for it turns Sacred when it is Spilled in the Name of the Emperor!"
The sword only cut the air, as the mutineer nimbly moved out of the way; the priest still spit his Holy words with force in his direction, despite them not being addressed to him.
"Let it be your Holy Anointment! Rejoice, brothers and sisters, you are treading the Path to Salvation!"

Reroll of the parry: [roll0] vs 66
Half action aim, half action attacking the mutineer: [roll1] vs 76

Trying to inspire the zealots:
[roll2] vs 82

[jolinaxas]

Xantha Ward

Examining her handiwork on the viewscreens, Xantha finished the lho and tossed the leftover tube on the ground.

"I need both of the firing stations secured. Since I'm apparently the closest thing to a bridge officer we've got this far down. My codes work, at least. Is the way here clear? I freed some captives from the mutineers - did you pass by that way? Lots of fire, screaming. My boltgun might have stuck out, if nothing else?"

She gave the squad leader a withering look.

OOC:

[dojango]

Food Storage Bay
The loyalist voidsmen approach the pirate band. The pirates charge at them, yelling. Showing superior discipline, the loyalists fire off their shotguns in a great volley right before the pirates get to them, cutting down their numbers. And then the loader comes in, swinging its great claw, effortlessly killing two loyalists. But Kais has been tracking its movement, and as it pauses to bring its claws up for another blow, he easily puts a bolt of plasma through the pilot's chest. He collapses at the controls of the cargo loader. Cheering, the surviving loyalists raise their weapons and jeer as the pirate scum flees for the safety of their landing craft.

Spinal Railway Station
Father Answin effortlessly blocks the mutineer's blow, but is not able to return the favor. Preaching to his loyal choir, they all cheer and raise their weapons in a great shout of loyalty, while the mutineers try and fend them off to get in better position. Father Answin can see some of them grabbing more firebombs from one of the boxes.

Starboard Gunnery Command
The officer says, "We came through the upper auxiliary corridors. It was easy going now that the ship's internal security systems are back in our control. We've pulled defenders out of the castle to secure the gunnery commands and reinforce some of the strongpoints. The other squads should be reaching the portside gunnery command soon. I can take over gunnery command here if you'd like to go back and check on them. You can take the squad, I'll seal myself in here until things are back under control."

The Bridge
Crone can see the other ship try to break away towards its stricken sister. It fires its guns at the Media Res, hoping to drive it away, but Crone maneuvers the great ship so that it's firing arc is firmly to bear on the second ship. The great cannons fire, but the massive shells fall in the wake of the second ship. A young teen's voice breaks over the channel. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she cries. "She made it look so easy! But it's all messed up now! Are we gonna die?"

[SchwhatNow]

The sacrifice of the two loyalists was not in vain as his bolt flew true and eliminated the operator deftly. Kais exhaled the breath he had been holding in relief of his success but the retreat was not good enough for him. "Give them a few parting shots for your fallen allies!" He keyed over his micro-bead and fired one last time at the fleeing pirates, knowing that they'd escape before his group really had a chance to stop them otherwise. Once this last volley was given he intended to move up and regroup to give this place a proper sweep, make sure that no stragglers were left behind to cause further problems.

Full auto against the fleeing pirates.

Ballistic vs 64 (+20 full auto, no penalty for range): [roll0]

Again just rolling all the damages in advance just in case.

Damage 1: [roll1]+3 Type: E Pen: 4
Damage 2: [roll2]+3 Type: E Pen: 4
Damage 3: [roll3]+3 Type: E Pen: 4
Damage 4: [roll4]+3 Type: E Pen: 4

[jolinaxas]

Xantha Ward

Xantha nodded to the officer.

"Fair enough. Happy hunting, I'm off..."

She started heading back towards the other side's controls, pausing when she heard the comms chatter.

+It's all right, dear. We're not going to die. No one else was there, you had your shot and you took it. I'll be there as soon as I can. There are some soldiers coming, let them in when they get there, they're trying to keep it safe.+

OOC:

[Lord Raziere]

(OOC: sorry didn't know what to do then start procrastinating, back now)

Astropath Rendara
She will try to keep firing her lasgun at the foes. She didn't know what else to do in this situation.


Ballistics Test
[roll0] Ballistics 35

[roll1]

[dojango]

Food Storage Bay
Kais's well-placed shots help convince the remaining pirates to make haste for safety. The pirate assault boats barely wait for them to clamber aboard before detaching from the hull and fleeing into the void. Now it is the loyalist's turn to scramble for safety as klaxons wail and a violent wind erupts as the air in the room begins to be sucked out into the endless void. Most of them, experienced voidsmen to the last, grab on to the guy-lines holding the cargo in place, and begin to pull themselves hand over hand towards the distant exit, praying that the automated system will give them time to make it... the Ogryn, Jag-reg, is not so lucky, and is thrown bodily to the ground with a heavy thud.

Kais, give me an AGI test to keep your footing/grip or take 1d10 damage not affected by armor as you slam into something. Then try to think of something to help the crew escape... if you want to.

Spinal Railway Station
Rendara fires her pistol at some of the mutineers, missing. Her bodyguards also cautiously shoot at mutineers, trying not to hit the zealots in the swirling melee. It is a scene of fire and blood and chaos... another firebomb goes off, and then the sprinkler system kicks in, dousing the dead and living in foul-smelling water. There was never any doubt as to how it would end, but the arrival of a veteran squad of armsmen under Xantha's command seals the fate of the mutineers by showing up from the rear and cutting them down from behind. As the zealots go about the fallen making sure that the wounded mutineers are sent to face the emperor's justice, the command squad takes a moment to consider how to proceed. Over the comms, Subcommander Houlder reports in. "We're pushing them back on all fronts. With control over the internal bulkheads, we can cut them off and liquidate each pocket at leisure. We're getting reports that those who still have a path to their boats are retreating, the pirate boats and escape pods are taking off as soon as they can. Of course, if we can destroy the other ship, the only thing they're escaping to is slow death and madness in the endless void..." he chuckles evilly.

Xantha, Father Answin and Rendara are all together now with your loyal squads. You can push further into the ship and try to capture or kill the psyker that Rendara detected, or eliminate the leaders of the mutineers, or you can simply let them escape and let them perish in the depths of space... probably...

[SchwhatNow]

Relatively inexperienced in void combat as he was Kais did not predict the danger that was posed to them now as the atmosphere was being sucked out through the holes left behind by the boarding craft. However his reflexes were as lightning-quick as ever as he managed to mirror the crew members of his fireteam in grabbing a hold of some secured cargo to prevent himself from getting slammed around or worse, sucked into the void itself. Thinking as quickly as he could manage to in these dire straights, Kais got a bold and tricky plan but one that he rushed to try and implement all the same. First he estimated the size of the holes in question then he looked for any cargo or secured machinery that might be large enough to temporarily block said holes. If he could cut a crate or two free he might slow down the pressure loss long enough for them all to rush to the exit and proper safety, assuming that the cargo wouldn't just bash through the holes and enlarge them. To help his chances he'd shout his plan over the micro-bead as well. "Look for pieces large enough to block the holes and cut them loose. If we slow the pressure loss then we may run to the exit!"

[jolinaxas]

Xantha Ward

Xantha's arrival was heralded by several volleys of molten air as her armsmen swarmed the mutineers in the artificial, stinking rain.

"Father. Choir-Mistress. I never thought I'd be this happy to see the command staff..."

She paused to listen to the subcommander's report.

"We've got it handled down here, I think. What were you lot doing down here, anyway?"

OOC:

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

Amidst his Zealots, Father Answin drove his running chainsword into the man before him; little drops of blood sprayed over his robes, his beard, up to his mitre. Wiping the most obvious ones away, the priest stepped toward Xantha and Rendara.
"We are hunting a witch." he replied to Xantha's question.

"If they get away, they may call upon other followers of the ruinous powers for rescue. They have the ability, haven't they?" He glanced over to Rendara. "The witch has to burn."

[DrK]

Crone

As he maneuvres the battle bard around Crone see's the lone raider trying to break free away from the gravity well and the guns of their ship. "Set course to pin that bastard between our guns and the planet. I want him trapped between the fires of our fury and the atmosphere. Then he can choose where to make his grave."

Looking at the charts he works with the two of the navigation crew to plot the course to pin the raider down whilst keeping them in their powerful firing arcs. "Lt, lock sensors ad scanners on their drives, I want 'em crippled and broken then they can fall to their deaths."

OOC
Maneuvre check [roll0] TN 77 to cut them off

Crew Check to lock on sensors to give th gunnery team a bonus to hit [roll1] TN 40

[dojango]

Food Storage Bays
There are a few terrifying minutes as the void calls to the struggling crewmates. A few of them, more courageous than most, climb back down closer to the rents in the hull and manuever debris in place to slow the loss of air. As the howl fades, the crew scrambles towards the exit, past Kais. A few of them nod gratefully as they pass him, happy that he didn't abandon them to their fate. The door closes down after Kais and the loss of air from the ship slows to a halt. Most of the food is sealed and shouldn't be too badly damaged by the vacuum or the cold; at least until repair crews can begin patching up the hull from the cuts cut through them by the pirate boarders.

Spinal Railway Station
As the command staff tries to decide what to do next, the apprentice astropath opens her eyes and points downward towards the fore of the ship. "I felt it! The witch! It's using its power!"

The Bridge
Although the other ship is faster than the star galleon, it clearly has not given up hope that it might rescue some of its comrades. It approaches the other ship with the Media Res on its tail. Crone expertly manuevers the ship's sensors to begin feeding telemetry data to the gunnery consoles. Unfortunately, when the guns fire a few minutes later, the macrocannons fall short of the pirate vessel. There is a string of curses over the comms, and the junior officer says, "Damn these controls! They're just not as good as the ones in the bridge..." Subcommander Houlder quickly snaps back, "Keep the chatter off of comms, Lieutenant!"

[SchwhatNow]

Kais returned the friendly nods and breathed deeply, thankful that the haphazard plan worked and that their mission here had been relatively successful. "I should have thought about the pressure loss, I'm glad we all made it out. There should be four bays in this area yes? We best ensure the others are pirate free before moving on. I am sure that there remains much work to do in order to secure this mighty vessel." Secure these storage bays, then move on. The spinal railway and the main promenade were the other two possible areas that needed securing but that would depend on how well he and the crew here made out while locking down the main food supply. Knowing the fact that the pirates were here suggested that they had planned this all out quite well, he suspected that the railway might be the more important target to secure considering how much of the ship could be accessed through it.

[Lord Raziere]

Astropath Rendara:
"If the witch was sending a message, my suppression would've caught it, what are they up to? We need to get going, father Answin and stop whatever they are doing."
She says as she orders her followers to move out further towards the ship while trying to sense what exactly they are trying to do as she travels closer.


Rolling to figure out what they're doing:
[roll0] (Psyniscience 87)

[dojango]

Rendara is able to pinpoint the location of the psychic disturbance more accurately than her apprentice; the residue taints the walls of the ship like the scent of blood. There is a fortified checkpoint that had been manned by loyalists; a stubber covering a vital intersection from a secure bunker. From the bodies around it, it had been assaulted several times to no avail; but from the bodies in it, it looks like one of the loyalist crewmen turned his weapon on his comrades before being slain, and the chokepoint was taken, allowing a large body of mutineers to pass. The psychic residue leaves a trail, and Rendara leads Father Answin and Xantha towards one of the cargo bays. They carefully peer out into the massive hold; stacked high with construction equipment, chemicals, pallets of rockcrete pallets. Everything a growing colony needs. Inside, the place is swarming with pirates and mutineers, with at least a half dozen assault boats. They appear to be evacuating survivors of the failed assault. From their vantage point, the loyalists can see a large party of mutineers making their way to the assault boats. One of them is the renegade psyker...

You're at the top of a massive cargo-hold. There are catwalks and balconies you can use to fire at the enemy far below, but it would be at long/extreme range. Or you could use elevators to lower yourself down the ~30 meters to the floor, and while you'd have a lot more cover, you'd be open to counter-attack from the enemies.

Kais leads his motley band to the next food storage bay. He finds it empty. A third storage bay is already de-pressurized, the pirates must have breached the hull and fled. Over comms, he gets a report that pirates are trying to flee the ship from the starboard main cargo bay, and that from where he is, it's about a hundred meters. He'll be able to enter from the lowest level on the aft side of the cargo bay.

On the Bridge
Crone watches the holo-display as the enemy ship continues to try and flee. It approaches the wreck of its sister ship, and appears to be trying to collect lifeboats. Crone maneuvers the galleon into a decent firing position and the port-side guns bark out. This time though, the firing solution is perfect, and the galleon's macrocannons tear into the pirate ship. Great rents appear in the hull and explosions ripple all over ship. Bodies and pressurized gas spill into the void. The ship abandons its task and starts trying to limp away into the void.

[DrK]

Crone

Crone grins savagely a shouted "fire as she bears" as he enjoys the auspex screens showing the carnage as the raider is wracked with fire. Effortlessly he holds the galleon in a holding pattern pinning the raider into place between the guns and the gravity well


Maneuvre [roll0] TN 77



As he does thet he keys the vox systems and sends a tight beam transmission to the raider. "Surrender, power down the weapons and lower your shields. Die or prisoners, you can choose but you won't be leaving under your own power on an my Oath to the Throne. "

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

The Priest turns towards Rendara and Xantha.
"I shall lead the Zealots down to shatter them and bring down the witch. Whether you want to support us from here with your men or want to join us, I wish you the Emperor's blessing in doing so."
With these words, he lead his Zealots to the elevator.

[dojango]

On the bridge

Once again, the great guns shake the ship as they fire. The starboard guns take their shot... not quite as accurate as the last volley, but enough to send the enemy ship twisting in the void. Crone hails the enemy ship, and a few moments later, the image of a man flickers on the holo-display. He scowls at Crone, blood streaming down his face. "So, you Imperial dogs offer us our lives for in exchange for our freedom? Pthah, if we die today we die as free men, not Imperial slaves. The Sons of Koronus will have our revenge!" The man appears to punch at some unseen controls. He does it again. Nothing happens. He sighs, and the comms cut off. A moment later, thrusters fire on the ship, sending it into a steep dive towards the depths of the gas giant below.

As Father Answin climbs into the cramped lift with a score of zealots and they head down to the floor of the cargo hold. Pirates and mutineers shout and draw weapons. "Protect the oracle!" someone yells, and an older woman is quickly hustled towards the waiting assault boats. And then a sudden change comes over the enemy. Some of them groan or slump down, but more pull out their weapons and shout out "Kill them all!" and charge towards where Answin is leaving the elevator.

Picture a massive hold filled with shipping containers; there are a few small corridors between them and Father Answin and half his zealots are in an open space at the bottom of the lift. The rest of the zealots will be able to arrive in perhaps 2 minutes. Xantha and Rendara are 30m above them and can fire down at the enemy at a range of about 50m. Kais, should he chose, can emerge from a flank with his crew, and try and attack the assault boats directly, or make their way to where Answin is taking a stand. He's about 100m away.

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

"Behold! The vile horde of wretched slaves of the Ruinous Powers is upon us!" the Priest shouted as they were lowered the last few feet;
"This is the time you have to prove if you are true Instruments of the God-Emperor's Divine Will! Let them Shatter on our Resolve!" he pointed towards the "Oracle" with his outstretched arm, holding the purity-seal-adorned chainsword.
"This is the time of Your Ascension,
my brothers and sisters! Are you true Warriors of the Faith? Lo! Do you feel it? His eyes are upon you!"

"Prove yourselves! Prove yourselves! Steadfast! Greet them with - Fire!" he screamed, with his sombre, dark voice, that echoed through the halls, and as he spoke the word "Fire", the Zealots greeted the advancing pirates with a volley of shots from their various guns.

Father Answin himself brought forth his flamer, and waited until the pirates were close enough so that he could get a great many of them into his cone of fire, before firing a great stream of divine flaming retribution upon the wretched slaves of the Ruinous Powers.

Surprisingly enough, cleanse and purify!
[roll0] Pen 2

Also, inspiring the troops again!
[roll1] vs 82 plus assorted boni.

[SchwhatNow]

Getting the news of the nearby pirates, and knowing that there is nothing more they can do for the food storages, Kais spurs the squad with him into action. He may be a xenos but he was also a xenos who just saved their lives, hopefully that would help ensure they continued to work with him rather than challenge his suggestions. "Come, we must hurry to the main cargo hold before they can escape." One hundred meters wasn't far by any means and he was eager to do everything in his power to ensure that the pirates received justice for their crimes. Not to mention that every dead pirate was one less threat to be concerned with upon the vessel.

[Lord Raziere]

Rendara:
She analyzes the situation. She ends the astropathic suppression. Time to focus on getting rid of that psyker. She orders her men to open fire and back up Father Answin and she focuses on the psyker, trying to get as close as she can to the Oracle from above reaching out with her hand to try and telekinetically crush the Oracle if she can get within range.


If I can get with 40 meters:
Telekinetic Crush:
[roll0] (Willpower 81)

Damage:
[roll1]

[dojango]

It was not the final fight on the ship; over the next few days loyalist crew will slowly reduce the isolated strongholds held by the mutineers. It will be grim work, the mutineers and surviving pirates know that no quarter would be given, and the loyalist crew is in no mood to offer it. But the battle of cargo-bay hold was the last real resistance they could offer. However, Father Answin's flamer in the narrow corridors between the cargo containers combined with Kais's surprise flank attack meant that the battle could only end one way. While Rendara's apprentice distracted the enemy psyker, Rendara was able to locate her and kill her with her own powers... the crude mastery shown by the witch was no match for Rendara's emperor-blessed powers. And as far as the pirate ships were concerned, one had crashed into the depths of the gas giant and been destroyed, while the wreck of the second ship was in a slowly decaying orbit. It too will eventually join its comrade.


*************

The ship's law-scrivner, William Padding, meets the command crew in a richly appointed conference room overlooking the grand promenade. He shuffles a few papers in front of him, and says, "I have here a copy of Master von Drakkan's last will and testament, and the addendums to the dynasty's rules of succession... as you know, Lord von Drakkan's children pre-deceased him, and the lawful heir is Gaius von Drakkan, a young lad of two years. His grandson by way of his third son. Von Drakkan did not want the regency to pass to his cousins, and so he has ordered the regency council to be made of, and I quote, 'My loyal seneschal, my voidmaster, my astropath, my navigator and my high priest; to give them counsel in war I want the best marksman in my service to give them advice and the strongest man on the ship at their side.' You are hearby charged with running the dynasty in the best interest of the heir and to turn it over to him when he reaches the age of 21. In that vein, you are authorized to make binding deals on behalf of the dynasty, to sell and dispose of property as you see fit, to acquire assets to support the dynasty's operations, to pay taxes insofar as they cannot be evaded, and wage war and make peace in the dynasty's name. As far as compensation goes, you are to continue to receive your current salary, however you will receive a percentage of any increase in the dynasty's assets that happen during the regency. You may also take any two items from von Drakkan's treasure vaults here on the ship; as he wants only the finest and best-equipped servants to handle his affairs." The old lawyer puts down the the paper and looks you all in the eye (or blindfold) and says, "It is an extremely broad grant of authority, giving you limitless discretion in how to handle the dynasty's affairs. I am at your disposal, as is everyone else on the ship."

[DrK]

Commander Crone

Crone looks around the bridge a grin on his face as the news of the mutiny being crushed. "Emperor bless you Father" he replies to Father Answin as he hears the good news.

Watching the raider plunge into the embrace of the gas giant he grins widely then looks at the second raider in its decaying orbit.
"Sub commander. Run a full auspex scan of the other raider. I want a report to the senior crew, especially Xantha. Let's see if we'll be getting a salvage crew ready."

To the rest of the bridge he nods, "Stand down from battle stations, secure the guns and maintain orbital station above the wreck."

[Lord Raziere]

Rendara:
After cleaning up the remaining pirates and mutineers she comes to hear the reading. She would blink in bewilderment at the lawyer reading this will out, but she doesn't have eyes. So she settles for scratching her chin and saying.
"So your saying is that we're collectively one-seventh to one-fifth of a regent Rogue trader for 19 years. This is possibly the highest position in the Imperium any of us will ever achieve."
She pauses to process that for a few moments, turn it over in her mind a few times.
".....This could be a great opportunity for us. If we play our cards right we could be set for life by the time our regency is over."

[jolinaxas]

Underdeck Organizer Seneschal Xantha Ward

Xantha arrived at the bridge to receive any of the wide variety of work orders to be doled out to the low decks, but the view of some of her handiwork as the main screen surveyed the damaged had her entranced until the Commander addressed her.

"I'll be making my report to the Senior Crew right away, Commander. Let me just puzzle out who that is - initial damage reports noted major secondary hits to the labor and accounting wings. The Officer's section, at least, I think the junior sub-accountant's data-crypts are so deep in the bowels we'd be rent apart before they even noticed..."

Right - that was another task, one that was relatively easy. Turning to one of the bridge consoles, she inserted her service key and stared at the monochrome screen, hands over the command runes.


+++Proverb of the Day: Blessed is the Mind too Small for Doubt+++

Query? Command_Structure_Lookup

Target/Department? Xantha.Ward/Labor

>NO SUPERIORS FOUND. CONSULT /INTEL and /ECON FOR ALTERNATE POSTING UNTIL COMMAND STRUCTURE RE-ESTABLISHED

Target/Department? Xantha.Ward/Intel OR Econ

>NO SUPERIORS FOUND. CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR BATTLEFIELD PROMOTION, SENESCHAL WARD, AND MAY THE GOD-EMPEROR HOLD AND KEEP THOSE WHO PRECEDED YOU. REPORT TO QUARTERMASTER <PERS_NOT_FOUND> FOR YOUR NEW UNIFORM AND PAY UPGRADE.


While the low-quality screen was obscured, it became obvious to all that her hands were shaking at the console as she considered the readout.

"Uh... a bit more damage to the personnel than we may have thought. No Master of Whispers, no High Factotum. And as a point of fact, strictly speaking you also no longer have an Underdeck Organizer. Until this is cleared up, I'm apparently to receive that report, not give it."

A moment passed before the shock wore off. Surely a lowlife like her would be struck from the regency in any sane universe, there was no time to consider grand dreams when there was barely an intact labor force.

"I'll get some of my lads on it. Calling Foreman Bordeaux, Forewoman Greely, and... Foreman Al-Basra. Got some good news and some bad. In that order - you're promoted, and you've got a ship and a half's worth of work to do. So look lively. I need ready reports to be sent to the following workstation..."

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

As pirates and mutineers dissolved in Fire and Fury, shrieking in great agony and abject fear, Father Answin and his Zealots rejoiced and praised the Golden Throne.
The last enemy resistance was broken when Kais flanked the Mutineers, and of course, it only strengthened Father Answin's cause to see a Xenos acting out the God-Emperor's will.

All that was left in the end, was a gruesome, bloody melee, that was more of a slaughter of those who had turned away from Holy Terra.
Finally, the Priest found the hag already crushed by Rendara's blessed might.

Gathering the Faithful after the fighting was over, he burned the witches' corpse to a litany of hatred and worship.
---‐----‐-----------------------------------------‐---------------------------------------

Later, in the Conference Room

The bearded Priest nodded gravely. "It is a sacred duty, bestowed upon House von Drakkan by the Emperor himself." He fixated every other member of this ruling council with his slightly unhinged stare.
All of them had distinguished themselves during the ship's most dire hour. Some of them he had witnessed personally, some of them he had heard of.
Thus, while this was probably not the group of people the late Captain had envisioned when he had written his will, Father Answin felt, this had to be the Emperor's Will.

Upon her remark, he turned to Rendara, slightly surprised by her first gut reaction. ""I do not disapprove. In His Divine Wisdom, the Emperor has found a way that greed may serve His Cause."
He nodded slightly, more to himself, and his eyes rested on the group as a whole.
"May this Council be blessed by the God-Emperor's Grace, and prove worthy of the trials that await us."

[Lord Raziere]

Rendara:
She decides to correct herself.
"Apologies, Father Answin. It is a bit hard not to think of such matters given the rare position thrusted upon us. I never expected to have access to such power. I do admit I had a bit of a greedy past that landed me in trouble that led to being on this ship in the first place so...I should make sure I don't make that mistake in the future. Serving the Emperor and the Imperium is what is really important, yes, lest unspeakable things come and torment us all."
Best not to give the good Father any reason to suspect she might end up like that witch she just crushed or something. Got to think about her survival here.
"Though lets be honest, Rogue Traders have to be some measure of greedy to be in the position they are, don't they? They don't manage large interstellar dynasties by being charitable."
She begins searching for two things to take for herself

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

The Priest raised his bushy eyebrows, although in a rare good-natured way.

"As I said, in His Divine Wisdom, the God-Emperor found a way that greed may serve His Cause. Indeed, the more profit we make, the better we can expand the Influence of House von Drakkan, and thus, serve the Emperor's Will. For out here, House von Drakkan's influence is the Imperium's influence."
He paused, and his gaze slowly turned towards nothingness.
"Still, we must not submit to the Sinful Temptations that accompany greed, as you may have in the past. It is a trial we all have to face."
Abruptly, Father Answin refocused.

"Captain von Drakkan was a very greedy man, and an unyielding servant of the God-Emperor. I will hold a service in his Honour as soon as the preparations are complete - and for all those loyalists we lost in the fighting."

[SchwhatNow]

Kais reported to the bridge as directed, just like all the other members of this delegation. The last few days had been hard work in cleaning up the remaining pirates but he would not complain about doing what needed to be done. His relatively flat face showed surprise at being included in such important delegations, though he nodded as he considered the implications. "I know that many of the crew are not comfortable in working with me, or any other species for that matter, but if I am to be included within such decisions then I can promise I will give as good of consul as possible to ensure the ship and crew remain safe and prosperous. Greed is unbecoming of me, though I freely admit that I do not hold faith in your emperor either. Perhaps I might be able to perform as a ... gateway for better relations with my people, though I am hardly a diplomat." The opportunity to help further understanding between the crew and the Tau was a promising one but he knew that he needed to remain careful all the same. Kais did not seek power or control over this vessel, only information, and he did not want the others in attendance to feel threatened by his presence or motives.

[DrK]

Commander Crone

Later in the Offices and Officer's Mess

Crone sat down, he had left the scanning of the pirate ship and the evaluation of salvage to the others and was happy to let them get onw ith it. As the will was read he breathed out a sigh and slumped in a chair, summoning and suited servitor and a bottle of amsec. Pulling the cork he slugged from the bottle and looked around. "Well damn." He muttered, "What by the Throne do we do now?" At Rendara's words he tilts the bottle. "Aye Lady Rendara, that sounds good. We've got some 2 decades to find and occupy a nice planet to call our own where we can take over and rule as loyal servants of the house for a long and glorious retirement."

Pacing the room slightly he looks around. "So after the salvage assessment on the trapped raider and assessing our own damage what shall we do? Xantha, do you have any trade contacts that could get us started? Or are there any lost planest anyone is aware of we could claim for the glory of the house?"

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

With a benign, yet slightly unsettling smile, Father Answin regarded the Tau.
"You may feel you have no Faith, but indeed, you and your people already walk the path to salvation, I am sure of it. You have but a diffuse view, a diffuse understanding of the Divine, and you try to grasp it through the abstract, the conceptional. In time though, your sight will clear. You are blessed, Shas'ui. In time, you will know Him."

With his usual solemn voice, the Priest then addressed all of the council, in a reply to Commander Crone's question.
"It would be prudent to first fulfil our current mission." The mission the late Captain von Drakkan had set out on. "We still have the supplies intended for the Houses' newest colony on the ship."
But that was not all that was on his mind. He stared on the table in silence for a moment, before continuing.
"I have been pondering what the mutineers and pirates spoke of during the mutiny. Whatever we set out to do now, we have to be aware that we might not have seen the last of them. Padding, let your scribes pour through the ship's archives, see if they can find any information about the "Sons of Kronus". One of the pirates' leaders had a fairly prominent body artwork of a cutlass with the words "Son of Kronus". It may be a lead."

[SchwhatNow]

Kais didn't fully comprehend what Father Answin was speaking of but he did his best to try and understand. He had no intention of converting his faith but he did welcome more knowledge wherever it came from. If nothing else the priest seemed to like and appreciate him so that was a positive note on the whole. "I would agree that the current mission should be upheld first, though I know not what would come after." He zoned out for a few moments to consider his past and the time spent upon his sept. Tash'var was frequently raided by orks and pirates alike, he had seen much combat in defending the world and although the odds were low of him knowing anything about these "Sons of Kronus" he would share anything that might help the ship and crew moving forward.

Kais is attempting a Common Lore (War or Tau Empire) to see if he has encountered or heard anything about the Sons of Kronus during raids in the past against his sept.

Int vs 50: [roll0]

[dojango]

To Xantha, the law-scrivener sighs and says, "Yes, von Drakkan spaced the last High Factotum a few months ago for excessive embezzlement and hadn't appointed a replacement. As far as the Master of Whispers... well, they've found most of him. If he weren't dead, he should be fired for missing this debacle as well. Funny enough, the law-scrivener is right after you... but this is a young person's game, so I will support you as best I can."

To Kais, he looks over his glasses at the xeno and says, "There is precedent for it... in 40.211 the Qiao dynasty was given over to an Eldar Farseer for seventeen days in return for some sort of favor owed by the dynasty head... and there is also the 'Helios Buddius' doctrine with regards to the warrant of trade. But your main concern now is the success and prosperity of the dynasty, not 'your people'."

Xantha and Crone are given the reports from the ship's crew and the salvage parties. While the Media Res suffered minor damage from the enemy guns, between the mutineers and casualties sustained by the crew, the ship has lost about 17,000 crew. While the crew is upset and angry, this is mostly directed at the mutineers and pirates rather than the regency council. Normally the planet Naduesh would be the best place to replenish the crew, but since all the Nadueshi crew were involved in the mutiny, this may not be the best idea. Von Drakkan also has a colony world deep within the Heathen stars; part of the current mission was to check up on it and deliver vital supplies to expand it. Last census estimated about 150,000 colonists on the planet.

Hull Integrity: 58/65
Crew Rating: 70/100
Crew Morale: 80/100

The salvagers also make their report. Unfortunately the enemy commander was able to destroy the ship's comm logs and rutters. They do note that the ship was heavily modified to carry far more crew and assault boats than a similar sized ship would normally carry. Between the reduced storage space and the lack of a navigator, they estimate that the ship must have come from a base only a few star systems away. As far as survivors are concered there are only a hundred or so. The Media Res's tech priests take them into custody for servitor conversion. While the salvagers have industriously stripped the vessel bare of anything useful, it is so meager as to have little overall effect on the dynasty's bottom line.

Padding smiles at the mention of greed, and simply says, "Is it not written, for the Imperial flag to wave on a million planets, it has to be planted there by men? And why shouldn't we take our reward for doing the Emperor's work?" But when Father Answin mentions 'Sons of Kronus', Padding says he will look into it. Kais unfortunately doesn't recognize this particular human group, at least, the Tau Empire has never dealth with them.

During 'the strangling' when the Koronus Expanse was cut off from the rest of the Imperium, the 'sons of Kronus' was a charity active in the Expanse that tried to provide food relief to starving colonies, but they were not active on Footfall. The charity seems to have disappeared once the passage re-opened.

After spending some time to think about it, Father Answin remembers that the Sons of Kronus were a doomsday cult that popped up during 'the Strangling' when the Koronus Expanse was cut off from the Imperium. Once the warp storms receded and the Ecclesiarchy was back in control, the cult was denounced and suppressed by the Ecclesiarchy. Apparently they were claiming that the Emperor had withdrawn his protection from the Expanse and had no power there.

The other part of the current mission was to take Astropathic soundings to determine the extent of the warp disruption caused by the space hulk Midnight's Lair. This system is at the very edge; no further communication into the heathen stars is possible. Rendara is given a report from Diviner Palaestra; while the ship was fighting the mutineers and pirates, three other distress calls came in from nearby systems. One is from an astropath aboard the freighter Blue Dolphin, she reports that the pirate boarders have seized control of the vessel and are... the message cuts off. The second is from an astropath on the frigate Astral Krait in the service of the Chorda Dynasty. They are also under attack by pirates and mutineers, and the captain is engaging the ship's self destruct mission per dynasty orders. "For Chorda and the Emperor!" is the last message before it cuts off as well. The third message is from the Hermione, the flagship of the Pigot dynasty. The astropath reports that the crew has risen up against ship's officers and slaughtered them to a man, before surrendering to a pirate ship. She says they are headed deeper into the Heathen Stars, past the warp disruption...

[jolinaxas]

Seneschal Xantha Ward

For a moment, Xantha stared at the scrivener like he'd just thrown a grenade into her hands, but quickly collected herself as she lit another lho stick.

"Right, well, I can't do both jobs. I think I'll leave the higher mathematics to those better suited. Easier to train or requisition another High Factotum than finding someone else with my kind of read on the rank and file."

She turned to Crone.

"As for my contacts, Commander, I may have some bridges left unburnt among more economically creative members of the Imperium, if you savvy."

-----

As the reports came in, she read off the macro-scale results, pleasantly surprised at the amount of men and machinery that remained despite the raiders' best efforts.

"These distress calls read like a decapitation. Heavily planned, well-synchronized attacks. Most that went much, much worse than ours. A problem, no doubting it."

[DrK]

Crone

Crone looks to the others and salutes Father Answin and the Tau. "My thanks. It does sound from the Lady's reports that we have been fortunate to survive." Reading the report he grimaces, "Near 20000 dead and missing, a heavy loss. Most of the Nadueshi eh... Best not restock there." As he skims the salavage he whistles, "They stripped her right back, nothing worth stripping her back."

He glances at the Sub commander, "Have a tug accelerate her towards the gas giant, leave nothing for these Sons of Kronus." Then turning back to the others he looks to Rendra, "All things point towards the Heathen Stars. We are ready to make way, I can have enginseers spin up the warp drive if our beaky friend will plot a course in the warp. We can restock at the colony and gather some intel on the area."

[Lord Raziere]

Rendara
She has changed into the Holo Suit. either she looked fabulous or ridiculous in this clown suit, she couldn't tell. Rendara was fully able to see it of course, but her real pleasure was inflicting this sight upon others so that they wish they blind instead. complete with this alien blade, she looked a bit like a swashbuckler. She considers the reports
"Indeed, Xantha. This is very coordinated. At least one won't fall into enemy hands, but two others are a concern. These can't be random attacks, they had to have prior information about all this. Do you think someone leaked these ships routes? Intentionally set up these ambushes? But who could possibly have knowledge of the destinations of ships from three different dynasties and a freighter?"

[SchwhatNow]

Kais thought to correct the scrivener on how his words were meant as a means of trade to better the dynasty rather than focusing upon his people but decided against it. He had decently thick skin but the man had never been one he enjoyed conversing with and thankfully he hadn't had much contact with him before this point. "I have no doubt that all of these attacks were coordinated somehow but I fear we lack enough information to make anything more than wild speculations. All we can hope to do for now is recover and keep on alert. Once news of our survival gets around we can likely expect another attempt upon this vessel. Maybe then we will be able to uncover more details."

They shouldn't stick around here though. They had survived but the ship was wounded and the crew reduced from full capacity. If anyone came checking in upon these pirates...well, their luck would be hard-pressed to hold a second encounter in their current state. For his part Kais had chosen his rewards from the vaults as well; a special power sword with a super heated blade and a refractor field that he had fitted to his combat armor with relative ease. He preferred ranged engagements but wanted to be prepared, wanted a deterrent should melee become unavoidable. Rendara seemed of a similar mind in her choices, though her outfit did seem a bit...gaudy as far as he was concerned.

[jolinaxas]

Seneschal Xantha Ward

At Rendara's line of inquiry, Xantha sighed and considered her options.

"Might that we were back in port, I could cast a wider net. And a wide net they'll need, those who concocted this."

Taking a moment to make a few requests from the ship's stores as directed, she put the datapad down and continued.

"That's where this was hatched, I think. Maybe Port Wander, maybe Footfall. To put your people in so many different places..."


Grabbing
+ Long-Las w/ Red-Dot Sight, Overcharge Pack, Whisper-Bolt Discharger
+ Good Quality MIU

for my items.

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

"It is the Midnight's Lair, I'm sure of it." the black-robed priest suddenly spoke, after having fallen into silent contemplation. "The late Commander Harte spoke of it, did he not?" Father Answin's eyes fixated on Commander Crone. "The Heretic said it would open Lady Rendara's eyes. One way or the other. " His stare moved towards the Astropath.
"Harte was in league with the Ruinous Powers, as were the pirates. This is not a mundane coordination between outlaws. It is the works of Daemons. Their corruption spreads unseen, and spreads quickly, if left unchallenged. We were not vigilant, as is Our God-Emperor's commandment. The Chorda Dynasty was not vigilant. The Pigot Dynasty was not vigilant. Corruption has spread to all of them, and led to their downfall. I believe Midnight's Lair is at the heart of it.
We should see what we can find out about Harte's outside communication. Also..." Father Answin's face darkened even more, if that was even possible.

"How sure are you of the loyalty of your choir, Lady Rendara?"

[Lord Raziere]

Rendara:
She frowns
"Less certain than I was a few moments ago. Since I was the one the pirates were trying to take hostage, I seemed to be their target. Thing is, there is one astropath for every three guards, so that leaves us ten astropaths to investigate. I don't like the thought that my fellow astropaths would betray the Emperor, but I can't dismiss it out of hand."
After all, unless the traitor sent coded messages through one of the astropaths, only they could've sent any messages to coordinate this. She turns to face Answin.
"I can probe their minds to see if they are loyal, but it wouldn't be a..... pleasant process. Especially against other psykers, as they will have greater ability to resist me. A lot of it is mental brute force. If we could narrow it as much as we can, that would be less probing I'd have to do, as it will tire me out if I fail. That and I'd prefer not to potentially mentally break the entire Choir. They are needed for functioning astropathic communication after all."
She just hoped that it wasn't too many traitors.

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

Father Answin nodded, solemnly, after Rendara had finished her statement.
"We shall interrogate them first then, and see if they have been seen with Harte or any of the other mutineers." he agreed.

"It seems we are in agreement, then." The Priest's eyes wandered over the faces of those gathered. "Our first stop is the colony in the Heathen Stars. Still, I am not certain we will find the support we seek there. Remember, all communication to the colony has been lost."
His prayers went out to the Golden Throne that this didn't mean the colony had already been targeted and corrupted by the Ruinous Powers.
"For now, I shall return to my flock. There is a funeral procession to organise, and even though the God-Emperor has granted us victory, there are spiritual wounds to mend."

[DrK]

Crone

Crone looked around the others grinning at Rendara in her multi-hed garb. "The runinous powers eh? Best flush all the tritors out the nearest air lock then, get that trash off the ship so they can't contaminate anything further", glancing at the Father he asks, "Is it worth spreading some of your initiates out amongst the crew a bit to re-instill faith in the Throne?"

As the others seem happy with the plan he nods. "I'll head up to the bridge and head to the warp transit boundary at the edge of the system. Aye, we may be carrying some wounded but the damage is minor and no critical systems are hit." Nodding to the others he bounds up the corridor, floating up the stairs using the strange xeno-tech personal floatation device and bounds onto the bridge. "The council has decided to continue the current quest. We will make best sped for the colony in the Heathen Stars."

SItting in the pilots console he plots a coures to the edge oft he system where a safe warp transit can be made. "Full speed head my lads." he speaks into the vox to the Engineeruiam, "Make best speed to the warp transit point. Spin up the geller field, I want her triple checked and tighter than a Soriatias's Abbesses' chastity belt before we translate to the warp." As the reactors fire and the ship accelerates away from the gas giant on a plume of plasma fire he messages Selrya. "Ah, my beaky friend. We are heading to the edge of the system, are you able to unleash that 3rd eye of your and plot us a warp course?"

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

"I will see to it." was the priest's calm response to Commander Crone.
When he had left, he turned to Rendara, once more.
"I will join you for the interrogation later, Lady Rendara. Maybe until then, you can gain some more information without confronting your choir directly."
Just like the Commander, Father Answin rose from his seat.
"Let us return to our duties, then, to the Emperor's Glory."

__________________________________________________ ____

In Captain von Drakken's vault, a ponderous Father Answin walked through the corridors. There were a plethora of artifacts of great value, some even of great holiness, but once he had spotted it, his choice had been made.

The most honourable Lady Audrey had taken his from him when she had brought him down. Torn it from his broken body, calling him unworthy in her haughtiness and ignorance. Ever since then, he had found himself lacking something. But here it was - a blessed Rosarius. The rightful symbol of his status as Confessor, Missionary, and High Priest of the Media Res. With a reverent, but steady hand, he took it.
His second choice was an Incinerator. A most holy weapon, usually reserved for only the most pure of Astartes, the Grey Knights, and the agents of the Ordo Malleus. This time, Father Answin had to keep his hands from trembling, as he laid them to this precious relic.

It had to be a blessing from the God-Emperor that he would gain access to a glorious weapon like this, but also, as he thought with furrowed brows, a dark sign of the things to come.

__________________________________________________ _______________________________

A funeral procession marched through the grand promenade, through the long dark halls, through high gothic arches, down to the cathedral, along the giant statues of Imperial Saints. Flanked by Father Answin's red-robed zealots carrying lit torches, multiple groups of Female and Male Choirs walked while singing the Emperor's praises.
A grand host of Servo-skulls floated around the procession, each one carrying long parchments of holy writs. In the center of it all an ostentatiously emblazoned coffin carried by six bare-backed men, where the great Captain Tarquin von Drakkan rested, at least the parts of him that could be recovered.
Behind the coffin, Father Answin solemnly walked, clad in black robes and wearing a black mitre, his hands folded in his ornate sleeves.
Around his waist hung, on a golden chain, an amulet in the form of a Red Cross made of adamantium, bearing the sign of the Ecclesiarchy on a winged skull of gold. The amulet seemed to emanate Holiness and authority, and somehow seemed to reinforce the Priest's presence.

Many of the Media Res' crew had gathered, at least those that were not indispensible at their station right now, as this was a special occasion. They had brought their families, their children. They all stood in silence, alongside the route of the procession, and some even had secured a place inside the Cathedral, to bid their Captain Farewell.

As they arrived in the Cathedral, the coffin was placed in front of the Altar, where the Image of the Golden Throne loomed over all.

The servoskulls gathered near the Altar, floating high and low, facing the congregation. The choirs, which had taken their places to the sides of the hall, continued to sing, loudly, clearly, full of worship, until Father Answin opened his arms, when they abruptly stopped.

He began to speak. He spoke of the great, glorious deeds their Captain had achieved during his long career, of Great Sacrifice and Great Victories. He spoke of the Legacy of Captain von Drakkan, and the Legacy of the Medias Res, which they all would carry forth in the late Captain's name, and to the Glory of the God-Emperor. He spoke of the vile treachery that had befallen the ship, and of the Holy War that had brought the Medias Res back from the brink of defeat. He spoke of the Fallen, and of never faltering Faith. He spoke of the Trials ahead, and of Strength of Will and Body, the Willingness to Sacrifice that would see them through, with the Emperor's Blessing.
Finally, he bid Captain von Drakkan Farewell, and commended him to the Grace of the Golden Throne.
Litanies of Praise were sung, Flames were lit, and Holy Scriptures were read, and in the end, the Zealots carried the dead Rogue Trader down into his tomb.

__________________________________________________ ____________

During their travel through the Warp, Father Answin would visit all parts of the ship with a small group of acolytes, speak to the people, preach to them, blessing them, all to raise their morale. They would need it, if his darkest worries would turn out to be true.

Inspiring the masses, restoring morale:[roll0] vs 102: 62 + 20 charm + 10 Rosarius + 10 Peer (Workers, Academics, Military, Ecclesiarchy, Nobility, Xenos) (

[dojango]

The tech priests are able to crack the passwords on Harte's dataslates fairly quickly, and after that, it's just a matter of going through his papers and dataslates. While his personal possessions will be sold to the ship's officers, his well-appointed suite of three rooms on the castle will be turned over to Commander Crone, the new void-master of the ship. After a day or two of going through the papers, some items stand out.

First, of course, is everything related to the Nadueshi. There is a note tucked away in the back of a desk, "Brother Harte, when you call at Naduesh, make sure to speak to Brother Ziav Crow-Tooth; he will make sure that you have a loyal crew." Also in his files are a litany of complaints from various crew-chiefs and foremen; Harte seems to have been granting the Nadueshi access and privileges far beyond their accustomed station.

Second, the void-master rarely has any cause to send astropathic messages himself, but in the past few months there have been a flurry of messages he's had sent and receieved through the astropathic choir. He's been in communications with someone on Footfall named Candace Nawati of the Phoenix Consortium. On the face of it the messages are all talking about her wedding, the last message from her is, "the big wedding will be [date of the mutiny]! Hope to see you there!" , with Harte's response, "I'll drink a toast for you while looking at the star KTHR-278. When I see you next, I will bring a great present!" Oddly enough, Harte waited until Apprentice Astropath Megara was on duty before sending the response. Astropath Megara is the youngest and newest member of the choir; a young girl of maybe seventeen years. When asked about it, she nervously says, "I thought it was against protocol to send it, but he said I shouldn't worry about it? He's the captain, I mean, so I did it! Obviously I should have worried about it, because, you know, he turned out to be a horrible traitor, but it seemed such a little thing at the time!"

Per the orders of Commander Crone, the bodies of the pirates and mutineers are jettisoned into the void, where in a few weeks or months they will be swallowed up by the gas giant's crushing depths, never again to pollute the Emperor's realm. The fallen loyalists, of course, are brought to the tanks, where they will carry out their final duty. While not as grand as the late von Drakkan's service, Father Answin's presence around the ship over the next few days serves to focus the crew's wrath agains the unseen enemy and buoy spirits.

The ship's unique navigator retreats to her nest, and after a few hours gives a destination for the ship to translate to the warp, far from the gravity wells of the star and major planets. The ship's orchestra (which suffered blessedly light casualties; two flautists were killed in battle on the ship's castle, and a cellist and violinist were injured severely and are will take some weeks to recover) strikes up a bold symphony to raise spirits and cover the translation to warp. With a mental shudder that resonates through the ship, it is done.

Father Answin gets 5 DoS, recovering 10 morale. Anyone can make common lore Koronus expanse or commerce tests to see if they can get more information from Harte's papers. Also Navigation (stellar) might help narrow down potential pirate lairs. Or if you have any ideas for how to do more research, let me know.

[jolinaxas]

Seneschal Xantha Ward

The dynasty tech-priest produced a terrifying array of medical mechadendrites to install her Mind Impulse Unit, and Xantha was glad she couldn't see behind her head as the implant was installed into her brain stem. While she sat in recovery, she considered the situation at large, even asking for texts and data-slates to be brought to her bed. Old snatches of memory regarding pirate hangouts and new data regarding Harte's activities swam together in a post-surgical haze.

-----

Xantha surveyed her new office, still unused to being granted any amount of space larger that you could have parked an autocarriage in. The previous Master of Whispers apparently didn't lack for luxury, not that the ease of his life had allowed him the freedom to do his job properly, it seemed.

"Not me. If it comes down to buying better spies or better amasec, I'm content with the coolant moonshine."

Sweeping away a dazzling array of crystal glassware into a spare arms coffer, she had data-looms and paper filing cabinets installed over the linens and tapestries. The harpsichord was sent back down to the orchesta, and the walk-in wardrobe was completely emptied to make space for books and gear.

"Can't be a Mistress of Whispers without whisperers. I wonder how much of this Dynasty scrip I can distribute before someone complains?"

She was just about to get on the inter-department communication lines when the orchestra began, and she braced for the translation before continuing.


Willpower, TN 40 [roll0]
CL:Koronus Expanse, TN 52 [roll1]
Commerce: TN 72 [roll2]

And maybe?
CL:Underworld, TN 52 [roll3]

[SchwhatNow]

For the most part Kais was simply inclined to return to his typical duties. He was concerned about the future just as the other members of the council but his focus was easily narrowed to the here and now, keeping to the tasks necessary for daily operation of the mighty vessel and leaving the worry of future attacks towards the far reaches of his mind. So he fell back in to working upon the engines and ensuring that all the basic mechanical functions of the ship were brought back to full capacity or as close to that as possible. Many of the crew knew about his fighting against the pirates and of course his part of the council that now decided the fate of the dynasty but Kais was not about to allow that to change his attitude or outlook. He'd work with his hands as he had always done, though he was appreciative that many of the crew were now less aloof and suspicious regarding him with all that had happened. It was good to feel more welcome even if that was not necessary for his mission.

[DrK]

Crone

Crone now happily ensconced in his new quarters prowled onto the bridge as they approached the warp transit corridor. He looked about, grinning as he bounced off slightly up and down, the strange xenotech belt around his waist giving him a lighter step and the ability to almost fly. He still marveled at the sophisticated antigravity technology and wondered how Von Drakken had come to possess it.

Arriving on the bridge he voxed Xantha and the Father, "My friends, have you found anymore clues to what may await us at the colony, We are about to enter the warp?" Waiting for the answer he flicked up the hololiths to plan a route when they arrived at the destination and the locations mentioned in Harte's notes.



[roll0] TN 48



As they ready for the translation reality shudders as the warp engines rip a tear into a reality, he inadvertently holds his breath, a shudder of nerves as they entered the warp.

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

"Padding's scribes have yet to discover anything of note, Commander. I have sent a message to Confessor Wulffried, a scholar and old friend. If anyone can tell us more, it is him." Father Answin replied. "It will, however, take some time until I receive a reply. Our new Mistress of Whispers might have been more successful."

__________________________________________________ __________

Shortly before the jump to the warp, Father Answin, Brother Bartholomew, Zealot Ermengarde, the zealots and other faithful that did not currently have duties to attend to gathered in the Cathedral in prayer, accompanied by the ever-present hallowed melody of the orchestra.
They all knelt, in absolute stillness, in prayer and contemplation.

"As we dare this our travel in Your Name, O Emperor, we beseech thee thus:
From the depredation of the Warp, God-Emperor, deliver us.
From the temptation of the Obscure, God-Emperor, deliver us.
From the perturbation of the Distortion, God-Emperor, deliver us.
From the desperation of the Void, God-Emperor, deliver us.

In Devotion, we kneel before Your Golden Throne. We beseech thee, grant us Strength of Mind and Body, so we may fulfil Your Will, whereever our path may lead."

[dojango]

Xantha spends some time going through the ship's records regarding the Phoenix Consortium. It is one of the larger merchant concerns operating out of Footfall buying raw materials coming out of the expanse and feeding them to manufacturers across the empire. Unfortunately, Xantha can't make heads or tails of the late High Factotum's books regarding the dynasty's business with them; presumably because he's been skimming off them somehow and they have more in common with a work of fiction than an accurate set of accounting. Xantha doesn't think she's heard of them dealing with the underworld, but they have their tendrils everywhere, so she can't rule it out.

Commander Crone spends a few hours going over star charts. Given the location of the other distress calls, given the short range of the overladen pirate ships... he tries to pinpoint potential locations of the pirate home base. Unfortunately the star charts are more 'suggestions' rather than hard data, and the locations of the distress calls aren't precisely known. He draws a large sphere containing maybe a score of systems, fairly convinced that there must be a pirate lair somewhere in there. Of course, pirate lairs infest the expanse, so that's not a bad guess for any given sector... but still.

As soon as the ship enters the warp, everyone breathes a cautious sigh of relief. Crone is standing on the bridge in his sharpest uniform, from the command console rather than the helmsman's console. Most of the mess has been cleaned up, and a few work crews are fixing the last few broken or damaged components. As Crone turns, he sees a junior tech-priest hurrying to his master's call. The red-robed priest trips, and a quart of sacred machine oil splashes all over the front of Crone's uniform. The junior magos backs away, apologizing, and as one of the janitors comes over to help clean up, the man trips over his bucket of soapy water, splashing it all over Crone's freshly-polished boots. It's going to be a long trip...

Fortunately, the warp voyage is remarkably calm for the first week. The helmsman takes orders directly from the navigation pod. While the orders make no sense from a regular third-dimensional perspective, no doubt there is good reason for them. The ship's Gellar fields holds the foul warp at bay. However, on the tenth day of the voyage, panicked squawks come from the Navigator's pod. As she bursts out of the pod, klaxons wail and the ship begins to shake violently. The helmsmen on duty quickly begins firing retro-thrusters and grav-stabilizers to bring the ship under control. Damage and injury reports begin to trickle in from the rest of the ship; you are out of the warp... but where?

Temporal hole was the warp encounter rolled and Selrya didn't see it coming... so you're out of the warp somewhere unexpected... you'll need to take your bearings and let the warp engines recharge for a bit. Time to make some augury rolls on the ship's scanners to figure out where you are.

[DrK]

Crone

Crone stalked the bridge in the dim light of the warp running lights. He glanced at the observation port double checking that the cover was attached, he knew sailors who had lost their souls staring into the warp. His next glance was at the Geller field status, thankfully all sectors showed green, all Geller field panels operating at over 89% filed strength.

He had trouble sleeping since moving into Harte's quarters, he didn't know if it was Harte's lingering corruption or just warp jitters but the portents had been bad, a trail of ripped or stained uniforms and minor glitches had made that clear.

His reverie was shattered as the ship shuddered into real space, alarms blaring, the anti gravity plates rippling he was thrown forwards, only his flip belt cushioning the impact as he flew across the bridge.

Looking at Selrya he asked "Selrya what happened? A storm? A tear?" Then more authoritatively barked orders at the helm. "All stop, hold position in realsoace, bearing 00:000:00 relative to now."

Then he hops into the auger pit, "Come on now my friends, let's see where in the Emperor's benevolent realm we are eh?"



Navigate (Stellar) [roll0] TN 48
Auger Sweep [roll1] TN scrutiny 57+10 detection =67

[SchwhatNow]

While Kais preferred to work in the lower decks and remain useful that didn't mean he also wouldn't stay well connected with the council all the same. He fancied himself a more direct link to the heart and soul of the ship and crew, though the truth of that was up for debate.

Hearing the sirens blare he quickly keyed his micro-bead he had reserved for the council's use. "What is the situation? My readouts don't show any major damage but the sirens are not sounding without reason."

Meanwhile he too was picking himself up off the floor, thankful that his armor offered such solid protection from the sudden impact that his body experienced. The others nearby were not all as lucky but at least nobody seemed to have major injuries as far as he could tell for the moment.

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

Only a few minutes after the sirens started, Father Answin entered the bridge, escorted by two Zealots. He kept to the back of the bridge, ascertaining the situation by the doings and hurried conversations of the bridge crew.

"We have been ejected from the Warp unexpectedly, Shas'ui." the priest reported to Kais in a calm, low voice. "We have yet to discover where and why, and whether we are in danger, thus we should remain alert."

[dojango]

It takes the Kroot navigator a few minutes to calm down, but eventually she draws herself up to her full height and says, "As well explain to a fish the trial of climbing a mountain! There is an intrusion of reality into the warp! This whole... island... in the warp has no currents. No way to get back..." she trails off. It's hard to tell what the strange mutant xeno is thinking.

Crone leaves her to her devices while he and a few officers start poring over star-charts and auger data. He's joined by Father Answin and Kais after a few minutes. Because of the incomplete star-charts, Crone's not able to conclusively identify which of the stars they're heading towards, but it's a massive yellow hyper-giant, perhaps fifty times the mass of holy Sol. It's currently flaring off masses from its outer layers, which will render travel to the inner cauldron of the system somewhat risky. Sensors pick up several asteroid clusters and belts scattered around the system, possibly the remnants of planets destroyed by the cruel star. There is one small planet that seems to have survived, slowly making its transit around the star. Trailing behind it are a series of unusual signals. It looks like a debris field to Crone. From ships.

[DrK]

Crone

Crone calls up the auger images and flicks them onto the main view screen. "Interesting I think. Feels like fate" . Awaiting the rest of the council he looks up as Rendara and Father Answin arrives. He nods, "Greetings, we have debris, ships destroyed by something trailing that planet. Any chance we could have an augury to see if its safe?" He grins at Selrya, "Our beaky friend has spoken of a hole in warp space and I'm thinking the fates have dropped us here for something."


As he awaits a possible augury he focuses the augurs on the debris and the planet they trail

Focused Augury [roll0] TN 67

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

"Can you clarify 'no way back', Selrya? Can you tell us how much space this 'island in the Warp' encompasses?" Father Answin asked with a calm, collected voice. This was... disconcerting. As Commander Crone mentioned debris of shattered ships, his gaze turned towards Kais. It may be just the remains of a battle. Or the remains of those who had fallen into this trap before them. The Tau would probably know best how to tactically approach this situation.


Trying to calm Selrya down so she can clarify our situation:
[roll0] vs 92 (62 + 20 + 10 Xeno)

[SchwhatNow]

The father was quick to explain the situation and he appreciated the efficiency. "Thank you for the update. I'll make my way up there shortly then." And with that he began his travel to the bridge, arriving mid-discussion about where they were and what they could see. The warp was foreign to his kind so he could not comment much on that aspect but he shook his head as if to dismiss the ideals of 'fate' while he removed his helmet so the others could see his face. "This is simply an occurrence, whether that be one to bring us misfortune or opportunity. I don't believe in 'fate'. Allow me a look at the scans, we should seek truth rather than speculation." Kais would move to look at the readings while Father Answin worked the augurs. He hoped to pool some insights into the situation all the same and possibly determine whether or not the debris seemed indicative of a trap or if some other misfortune had befallen the area.

Logic test vs 60: [roll0]

[Lord Raziere]

Astropath Rendara
She will come onto the bridge confused. Her mind unfortunately being so caught in warp energies she was sensing around her that she didn't full keep track of everything happening
"Wait what is happening? Stupid Immaterium being so.... noisy...."
She focuses and tries to recall. Oh right. She needed to have a word with Megaira to not break protocol like that again. Maybe keep an eye on her a little more, make sure she does her job right. They had another problem now: apparently they were in some island of the warp? Somewhere dangerous.
"....Perhaps I can get a reading with my abilities...."
She will try and focus her psychic abilities to sense if there is any psychic anomalies or demons in the system.


Psyniscience roll:
[roll0] (Psyniscience 67)

[dojango]

Father Answin manages to calm down the strange Kroot after a few minutes. She picks up one of her strange totems, a few knucklebones tied together. She tosses it away from her and says, "See? It keeps going after it leaves my claw. We kept going until we hit the realspace mountain. Or the floor in this case. Only a parsec or so." She sits down abruptly and lies down. "I've been awake for nearly a week you know."

Crone and the others spend some time poring over the auger data. In time, the heat signatures resolve into a clearer picture. The whole assemblage is following the planet in the trailing L1 point. There is one large assemblage of six ships, each one looking something like the ship below. Two of them are badly damaged, domes exposed to space, central spars warped and broken. The other four have lights shining from the domes, powered by large solar sails spread out from the stern of the ship.

https://cdn-blog.adafruit.com/uploads/2020/05/Screen-Shot-2020-05-12-at-2.19.26-PM.png

There is also a mostly intact merchant transport about a hundred klicks away from the main assemblage. It is on low power mode and drifting through the void. Its transponder identifies it as the New New Carissa, a chartist freighter. Between these two ends of the graveyard there is a debris field of shattered ships and piecemeal debris; the largest piece appears to be the foreward half of an small raider ship, about the same size as one of the ones you so recently faced.

In the words of Commander Farsight, "It's the heat signatures that you don't see that will get you." There's an unknown unknown out there, and you don't like it one bit.

Rendara listens to the xeno's confused explanations. It's the kind of nonsense you'd expect from an untrained xeno that only a fool or a madman would trust to navigate through warp. She spends some time meditating on the nature of the warp in this region. It feels very far away, and reaching out to contact it feels like you have to push your way through a thicket of dense brush to even be able to make contact with the warp. She senses that whatever this is is centered on the planet near the starship graveyard. And this is different than whatever has caused astropathic communication to be cut off in the Heathen Stars; if that is a buzzing interference in the warp that drowns out all attempts at communication, this is an firm barrier between this dimension and the warp.

[SchwhatNow]

Kais shook his head and all but tossed his hands up to signal his frustration. "I can't make any sense of this but the pervasive feeling of trouble remains. Something is very wrong here as far as my instincts are telling me, if we move in or linger then we invite trouble upon us once more. I recommend we move the ship to a low alert at the least, ensure people are at their stations. Beyond that? Well, I would favor caution over risk at this stage but we are a council and thus will weigh every opinion."

Prime opportunity for an ambush as curious or greedy travelers would investigate the remains, though truly he felt that this was more likely connected to this...hole in the warp. Might as well voice that concern even without evidence. "Could be a trap set by pirates but I don't think so, they'd likely rather take what scrap they could and go. I know next to nothing of the warp but I'm worried that this situation and the 'hole' that brought us out could be connected."

[DrK]

Crone

Crone looks about the others and nods at the blue skinned Kais. "Looks to be power on some domes, if we go silent we can approach the Chartist and investigate what happened to them?" he suggests.

Then turning to the bridge a much louder, "Move to alert status, rig the ship for silent running. Quarter speed now, nice and gentle. "

Pilot check [roll0] TN 77

As the ship powers down partially they start to move to the trader and he looks around. "Be a few hours till we reach her. Shall we board her and see if we can find a clue?"

[Lord Raziere]

Rendara:
"The warp....feels strangely distant here. As if some.....wall or something is making it difficult to get to. Strange. Like wherever we are is specially shielded or something. What could possibly be able to even do that?"
She says, shaking her head.
"Admittedly its better than hearing the....constant screams....but its not normal and that is never good. I agree with Kais that we should remain alert. Whatever this place is, something powerful is making it exist."

[jolinaxas]

Seneschal Xantha Ward

In-between attempts to bribe, intimidate, trick, or otherwise recruit informants both in-person and over short-range communication networks, Xantha sent a report describing her findings to her peers in the senior staff. Anyone who actually bothered to read them was greeted by her informal, meandering, profanity-laced speech simply put to page by a cogitator program. A small note at the bottom displayed a short computer address, describing it as the location of the audio that was transcripted, and a suggestion that this might be a better way to digest the information.

-----

The dynasty's newest Seneschal took in the description of their current situation with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, we're not equipped to haul the hulk back for scrap, unless you've been hiding some void chains in the Officer's Lounge cupboard. From a financial perspective, best we can do is scavenge. As a chartist ship, there's like to be something in the cargo holds. Unless it's a trap. Which it is, if anyone else has sorted out the warp-realspace mixup. Forced de-translation, in a fixed location, with little to no warning and a debris field? It's like the Emperor Himself answered a pirate's prayers."


OOC

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

"At least it seems unlikely these are the machinations of the Ruinous Powers. They thrive on the Warp, and would never create a zone shielded from the Warp, trap or not." the priest mused after some silence, stroking his beard deep in thought.
"One must be of vast power to create something like this. I agree, I don't believe just any pirate would have the means of creating such a trap, either. With the exception of Eldar Corsairs, possibly."
He looked at the pictures more closely.
"Do any of you recognise the make of these sunsail vessels? They do not seem to be of Eldar origin." he looked from Kais, who was a Xenos, and thus probably knowledgeable of Xenos vessels, to Commander Crone, who he knew was somewhat of a scholar of Xenos.
"This... 'island', as Selrya put it, could possibly be old, very old. Their star seems to be, at least. If one commands this much power, why use it to create a mere trap for the odd ship passing through? I presume it is more than that. Maybe the former inhabitants created this. A place they deemed secure from the predations of Chaos. Alas, without the Emperor's light, it wasn't, it seems."
He kept silent for a moment.
"Are there any signals coming from the planet's surface? Anything noticeable?"

[SchwhatNow]

Kais didn't have to bother wracking his brain for the answer to Answin's question. "I'm fire caste, not air. My military knowledge pertains to ground engagements, combat at rifle range or closer. I could not tell you one ship from another unless they were Tau vessels...or our auxiliary." It seemed that the group was intent upon searching this place despite his warnings, so be it. He considered it a bad idea indeed but he would do his best to assist nonetheless in boarding the lifeless vessels.

[dojango]

Crone plots an intercept course with the drifting chartist ship. Shutters close over all the ship's view-ports, and by ancient custom the lights go red and voidsmen are expected to talk in whispers, under penalty of the lash. After a few minute course corrections, the great voidship is silently heading towards an intercept. Of course, there is a problem; once you reach the chartist ship, the Media Res will have to initiate a retrograde burn in order to match orbits with the drifting ship, thus lighting up the ship to all that might have eyes to see it... in order to preserve secrecy one option would be to detach a gun cutter as the star galleon approaches the chartist ship. Such a small ship could accelerate and decelerate without attracting notice amidst the debris field. Of course, it would also mean that only a small crew could carry out the infiltration.

The 'sunsail' vessels don't match any Imperial ships, or any of the ships from the Tau federation that Kais recognizes. In fact, none of the veteran voidsmen or officers on the ship recognize them. There are no signls coming from any of the ships or the debris field. The planet appears to be a small one with low gravity. The atmosphere is thin but toxic. There are no technological signals coming from the planet or the small moon that orbits it. It looks as if the outer layers of the planet have been burned away by ejecta from the star. All the astropaths agree that the planet is the center of the disturbance that knocked the vessel out of the warp.

Well. After twelve long hours the time has come... either take a gun-cutter to the chartist ship or make preparations for the retrograde burn to bring you alongside the chartist ship...

[SchwhatNow]

Double checking, and triple checking his equipment Kais nods to the council upon the bridge. "If we truly intend to investigate then we best not put the entire ship in danger. I will go upon the gun-cutter along with whoever else is deemed appropriate. That way if something goes wrong then only a small handful will be in danger; the ship still needs to complete its mission of delivering supplies." He looked around as to gauge who might be joining him, though ultimately he would be quick to add. "Though perhaps no more than half of the council should consider leaving, just in case."

[DrK]

Crone

Crone glances at the intercept course and nods. "Aye, we can take a small craft. I can polite her myself, I don't trust many others to fly through the field." He looks at the council with a grin, "Who fancies a little stretch of the legs eh? Shall we see what befell that poor craft?"" As he makes ready he looks around, "Master Holden, you have the bridge port thrusters only, slow her down as best you can to keep us in easy range of the gun cutter, lay a course to pas allongside if you must. Keep the passive scanners open."

He voxes Xantha as well, "Xantha, fancy a walk? Can you ask for some security to meet us at the Captain's launch? We'll need a few bodies to watch our backs eh."

OOC:

Surely in the best style of startrek, and in the interest of not missing out we'll all go

[dojango]

OOC: Yeah, Star Trek rules. Don't worry, if you die there's someone that can replace you on the council!

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

At first, Father Answin was content to stay at the Media Res, but he then remembered the tale of Saint Ignatius the Saviour, and how he built a congregation of the degenerated descendants of a derelict Imperial ship he happened upon during his travels, and led them to victory over a colony of heretics, taking over the settlement. Today, it was a prosperous world, that brought a good tithe to the Imperium's cause.

The Priest regarded the vessel thoughtfully. Somehow, he felt drawn to it, and he knew better than to ignore such feelings.

"I will join this expedition as well." he stated. Who knew what waited for them on board of that ship. Spiritual guidance could be much needed, he thought.

[jolinaxas]

Seneschal Xantha Ward

"Armsmen will do you one better than my lot. I'll see what I can scrounge up, though."

With a few taps at a cogitator, she summoned a small group of crew she'd deemed effective and ruthless killers with enough loyalty to dynasty and coin that they wouldn't go rabid, bidding them to gather at one of the airlocks while she equipped herself.


OOC

[dojango]

The gun-cutter leaves the Lord-Captain's personal shuttle bay. The interior is richly appointed in wyrwood and mahogany fixtures, the seats of the finest groxhide leather, gold and platinum trim where possible (and some parts where not). As Crone pilots the ship toward the drifting freighter, the others are free to help themselves to the finest liquors the sector has to offer in shifting crystal goblets. Although I guess Crone is also free to help himself too, who's to stop him? Eventually the gun-cutter matches orbit with the drifting freighter and does a slow fly-by. The great engines are silent and cold and the ship's cargo bays and hangars are open to the infinite void. Sensor readings show that most of the ship has some power; auxiliary generators seem to have maintained some heat and atmosphere in the ship. The co-pilot turns and asks, "Where should we land, sir?"

[SchwhatNow]

Aboard the gun-cutter Kais was quiet and certainly did not choose to partake in alcohol before a potentially dangerous mission. He sat with eyes closed and head tilted downward in a sort of meditation, mentally focusing himself for what was to come. Of course, with his helmet on, no one could truly see his face so others might be forgiven for thinking he had fallen asleep instead. That wasn't to say that he'd ignore anyone who chose to speak to him but he thought of the mission first and socialization second.

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

Likewise, Father Answin, accompanied by two of his Zealots, did not partake in any revelry. Not that he hadn't joined the late Captain in this very gun-cutter for a drink or two in the past, but there was a place and time for everything. Stoically, the Priest and his zealous followers awaited their arrival. He left the decision of where to land up to Commander Crone; he was the expert, after all.

[DrK]

Crone

Enjoying the nimble controls of the gun cutter compared to the heavy Star Galleon he looped and twisted across empty void before slowing as he approached the chartist vessel. He paused, a slow circle of the ship, auxiliary lights beaming into the empty cargo hold and hangar as he visually scans the vessel, "Aye my friends, she looks asleep here, but could be a trap."

Awareness or Scrutiny [roll0] TN 57

Once he's completed the slow flyby he nods at Father Answinand flies up to the command portion of the ship scanning the hull for an access panel or an escape hatch where they could make a soft seal or do a short void walk to gain access. "You folk ready for a short void walk if we can't find a passage for a soft seal?"

[SchwhatNow]

"I do not posses protection against the void with my armor. If it comes to that, you may simply have to leave me behind." Kais stated matter-of-factly. He'd certainly prefer to partake in the mission and do his part but he trusted the judgement of his companions enough that if no entry could be found he would not complain.

[dojango]

The guncutter flies alongside the ship. The Tech-priest accompanying the crew points to a spot near the stern of the ship. "There's one of the emergency access points to the Enginarium. I should be able to use the universal access codes to gain entry to the facility. In addition, I suggest we land there since the Tech-priest crew is statistically more likely to survive than those suffering from the burden of flesh." Crone maneuvers the ship towards the indicated spot, and carefully maneuvers towards the docking port. Once the cutter attaches to the freighter, the tech-priest goes to the airlock door and plugs into the dataport. After a few minutes the airlock door starts cycling. "Sensors indicate that there is a 17% oxygen level on the other side. There are rebreathers in the safety lockers if you wish to bring one with you."

The air-lock door opens up and the Tech-Priest shines his light into the darkness. The corridor leads into the darkness. On the floor there is a misshapen lump of something. One of the zealots goes forward and carefully pokes it with her chainsword. In the light you can see the grinning skull of a tech-priest, respirator attached, wires trailing.

[SchwhatNow]

Kais hummed to himself at the news of low oxygen levels, it shouldn't really be a surprise considering the circumstances but he was hopeful otherwise. There wasn't much choice in how to proceed so he carefully broke the seal of his helmet and removed it, hanging it securely from his waist while he moved to grab a respirator and affix it to his face. There was simply no way to wear both at the same time so he'd have to rely on his eyes without the benefits of the sensors embedded within the lenses of his armor, that and he'd have just a touch less protection should anything attack. Again the alternative was to simply not go on the mission and that was unthinkable to him so long as there remained a way for him to contribute.

"I suspect we will find many more corpses like that one aboard this vessel. Hopefully what has befallen them does not repeat upon us. Caution and purpose within this visit. We should move carefully yet not linger longer than necessary. I would suggest pathing to the bridge in order to seek the ships logs. Perhaps they might shed light on the last moments before destruction." The dead did not bother him, though he did not enjoy the way that these so-called 'tech priests' replaced their flesh with metal. The dead could not hurt them but the living were to be concerned about. Whether that meant something aboard this ship still, or hanging around in the void just waiting to spring the trap.

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

Of course, Father Answin and the Zealots took to wearing rebreathers as well.
The Tech-Priest was correct; if there were survivors, his kind were likely to be amongst them. Thus, the discovery of the corpse was not too heartening.
With a slight gesture from Father Answin, the zealot stepped to the side.

"Can you determine the cause of death?" he asked the Tech-Priest, as he himself stepped to the corpse as well. He was not much of a doctor, but he had some knowledge of medicae, so he examined the dead man as well.

Afterwards, he looked around the corridor, searching for any signs of battle, before nodding to Kais in agreement. The bridge was a sensible first stop.


Knowledge Medicae: [roll0] vs 34
Awareness: [roll1] vs 30

[DrK]

Crone

Popping on the rebreather over his face Crone nods to the others grinning as he clutches the bolt pistol in one hand and holds up a glow lab in the other shining the light into the darkness. Seeing the dead body he crouches down, a quick "Poor fellow, I reckon it'll be like this all over the ship" Pausing he glances at the data consoles on the wall, "Aye, the bridge seems wise. Lets check the status of the ship and see what Throne cursed fate has befallen her."

When he finds a console he attempts to access the information for the correct route and the ship's status


Tech use [roll0] base TN 48

[dojango]

The tech-priest pokes at some of the other bones mixed in with the corpse's implants. He picks up some of the bones. They appear to have been smashed. The Tech-priest shrugs and says, "Organic parts are prone to all sorts of failure. See how the immortal machine remains intact where the flesh and bone has decayed? With a little oil and prayer these parts may be reclaimed for future use; and so this man may live on in some way." Father Answin examines the corpse but the bones are far too old and disturbed to tell what caused the death. There are more bodies up in the corridor; like the first one the organic parts have disappeared, the bones are cracked and scattered while the implants are in a heap.

The Tech Priest watches Crone unsuccessfully try and access the nearest console. After a few moments he says, "There are ten of us here, and a long list of tasks that must be accomplished in order to determine what has happened to the ship and prepare it for salvage. I will go to the Enginarium to restore power to the reactors and go to the central cogitator facility to gain access to the ship's systems. Another party should go to the ship's command center in order to download data from the systems there, and repair any breaks in the wiring. We also should go to the life support systems and clear out any blockages in the scrubbers to restore the O2 content to the atmosphere. If we have any emergencies we can meet up in the cafeterium complex just at the base of the castle. Does anyone have any objections?"

[SchwhatNow]

Kais shook his head no at the question of objections but his general skills left him well-suited for more than one location. "We likely shouldn't send anyone alone just in case. I can assist you with the reactor and otherwise provide support unless the group feels my skills would be better suited at the command center or life support. It is unlikely that a hostile remains aboard this vessel but, in such a state of disrepair, accidents can happen nonetheless." They should split into teams to handle the different tasks but he couldn't stress enough his preference that no one walk alone in these unfamiliar halls.

Tech Use to help with the reactor (or wherever he ends up) vs 60: [roll0]

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

Father Answin pondered for a moment. "It is a risk to divide our forces in an unknown ship with an unknown history of what occurred. Then again, there is something to be said for the swift approach. " He looked around the group. There were enough of them that nobody would have to walk alone.
"I will seek out the bridge." he finally stated. "I would need someone with more technical expertise to accompany me there."
His Fanatics would join him as well, but with Xantha's men, there was enough spare muscle available for every group.
"We will find the Truth, in His name. The Emperor protects."

[DrK]

Crone

Pistol in hand and rifle slung across his back nods to the Father. "Aye Answin. I'll come with you, see if we can get the ship's log accessed or the auger controls and see what she has been seeing."

Crone grins, "Keep the torch handy there, my hairs on end, I can feel bad mojo aboard her".

[dojango]

The tech-priest in his red robes turns and leads Kais towards the inner sanctums of the tech-priests. The three crewmates with them cautiously follow, one of them with a bolt-gun, the other two with shotguns. The path they follow is dark, the walls lined with strange shrines to the god of Mars. The floor is littered with tattered red robed-bodies, bones cracked and shattered, only their scattered implants remaining intact. Kais finds the reactor core and begins following the procedures to bring it back up to full operating power. The tech-priest is hovering beside him, torn between stopping the xeno from messing with the sacred mysteries and badly needing the help. He resigns himself to simply saying things like, "Be sure to anoint the controls with the sacred oil first," and "You fool! You need to attach the prayer seal before you remove the control rods!" Nonetheless, Kais manages to restart the reactor relatively smoothly. They watch the power gauges slowly start to turn red, then amber. The tech-priest then says, "You stay here, xeno. I cannot let you into the sacred heart of the ship while I perform the obeisances to sacred spirits of this ship." He turns and lets himself into one of the main control rooms and locks the door behind him.

There is something unnerving about the darkened ship, lit only by their stab-lights. For Crone, the dead silence is the most unsettling; for it means that the ship's plasma heart is stilled and unbeating. Unfortunately, the lifts are not powered. Crone and Answin find themselves one of the vertical access shafts. The ladder disappears into the darkness. They begin to climb. And climb. Fortunately from where they are it is a mere 150m up the top of the access shaft, and they emerge, arms and legs weary from the climb. After a few moments of rest, they push into a large room, and scan it with their lights. Suddenly, they hear the telltale hum of the reactor coming back online, and the lights flicker and then turn on. They are in one of the ship's cafeteriums, and it is littered with bones. Hundreds of skulls, with the tops smashed in are piled haphazardly on one of the walls. Long tables are littered with bones, all broken. One is covered with femurs, another is piled high with ribs. The floor crunches as the group takes a hesitant step forward, boots crushing a carpet of finger-bones and foot-bones. Crone spots a stairway on the other side of the room, and a sign indicates that it is access for bridge-officers only. That must be the way forward.

[SchwhatNow]

Kais did his best to bite his tongue but the demands of the priest were increasingly pointless and frustrating. For the sake of avoiding conflict he would comply, understanding that the humans often revered the most basic of equipment as holy, though this was yet another thing that he just couldn't truly understand. Machines were made to be used, to be operated, not to be prayed to or communed with. Nevertheless, despite all the shouting, they managed to get things operational again before the priest insisted upon doing the last stages alone. Shaking his head and shrugging there was nothing else he could think to do but comply. "If you insist. I'll be here." Holding his rifle casually, he settled in with the other crew members and did his best to remain alert. Dropping his guard in such a place would truly be asking for injury or death.

Awareness vs 59: [roll0]

[Lord Raziere]

Rendara
She is wearing a rebreather and following along the group with Answin and Crone.
"Huh. hundreds of skulls. Reminds of....worse times. Yes. Those times were technically worse than this. Definitely something dangerous here though. Something that went through the trouble of gathering all these bones and smashing them. So whatever is here, didn't just kill what life they came across, but then dragged their remains and did more things to them. Some animal that wanted a pile for its prey? Maybe? Or something more intelligent?"
She says speculating then goes toward bridge officer's stairway.

[DrK]

Crone

Crone pauses, eyes passing over the piles of bones and skills. "Well this doesn't bode well, it would appear we have found many of the crew."

He walks warily towards the pile of skulls, "I wonder what killed you guys" he asks as he looks at the pile and then gestures warily towards the door. "Careful now father, Lady Rendra, time to be wary. Can you,... he pauses unsure how to word it, instead tapping his head, .. See around the corners or look up the stairs?"

He takes the lead pistol clutched tightly in his hand.

[dojango]

Kais looks around the Enginarium. He is rarely invited into the inner sanctum of the Media Res, but he can tell that this ship's facility is a lot more utilitarian and less ornate. The inner workings of it are open and exposed instead of being hidden behind layers of shrines and ritual. He is perhaps distracted by the opportunity to study the inner workings so openly displayed, and after a few minutes he looks around. There are only two crewmates standing with him, instead of three.

Bones crunch under boots as you cross the cafeterium. It is somewhat unnerving, the eye sockets staring at you as you walk past them. Then up the stairs. After a few stories, you reach the door leading to the bridge. Although it's locked, the tech-priest has forwarded the over-ride controls to your dataslate, and so after a moment, the door is unlocked. There is a crude barricade there, but it is easily pushed aside.

Looking over the bridge, there are surprisingly no bodies there. On one of the command consoles, there are three figures. Crone has seen many beauties in the ports of the Calixis sector, and three of the finest are staring back at him, wearing the tattered rags of a ship's uniform. Very tattered. One of them says, "Our savior! Resuced at last!" And starts walking towards him. And then something in the back of Crone's mind notices that they have familiar faces. Wait, didn't you see that one in a cocktail lounge on Port Wander?

Looking over the bridge, there are surprisingly no bodies there. Praying in front of one of the shrines to the emperor, Answin sees three figures. Wearing the very tattered remains of the sacred vestments of the Ecclisiarchy. Barely concealing their figures, truly blessed by the Emperor... One of them says, "Thank the Emperor! We are saved!" and they start walking towards him. But then he notices that their features seem to flicker and blur. He's not able to precisely describe any one of them...

Rendara looks out over the bridge. Surprisingly, there are no bodies there. With her unnatural sight, she can tell there are three figures clustered around a console. She watches as they turn in unison and hold out their strange long arms. "Join us. Please. We're so cold..." She feels nothing, only the strange presence of disordered minds.

[SchwhatNow]

Occupied by viewing the mechanical workings of the room as he was, the truth of the situation didn't settle in immediately even when he brought his eyes around to look over the other crew members in the room. Then, faintly in the back of his mind, he felt like something was out of place and looked again. Nothing seemed to be wrong but the idea lingered so he focused more, perhaps making the individuals uncomfortable from his scrutinizing stare. Then, finally, it clicked and he realized the missing member of the team. All at once his body tensed and he raised his rifle from a resting position to a more combat-ready grip as he prepared himself to have to swivel and track should that be necessary. Quickly he keyed his micro-bead and alerted the entire company to his concern. "We are missing a member in the Enginarium. No blood, no body, yet they are gone. Unless they have wandered off without anyone noticing then we have a hostile presence aboard the vessel." He followed this up by gesturing to the other two remaining individuals, guiding them towards the door to the inner sanctum with the idea of putting their backs against the wall so to speak to hopefully ensure they couldn't get caught off-guard again.

Awareness vs 59: [roll0]
Trying to notice any clues or details of what happened, see if there is any evidence of a conflict or movement that is fresh.

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

At first, Father Answin was elated to find survivors, but just as he was about to greet them, he noticed something... off. His bearded face went grim. "In the Name of the Golden Throne, stop!" he ordered the three figures. "Who are you, and what is this affliction?!"
He brought his Incinerator forth, but did not yet aim at the three.. men?
It did not make sense. The bodies, the bones... they seemed so ancient. Sure, they could be descendants, he had heard tales of something like this, but... what was this flickering?

[DrK]

Crone

Crone looks about, shaking head. "How did you get here? You were in bar, lovely ladies, too expensive for my rates certainly. What are you doing here." Confusion reigning he raises his pistol and holds it steady. "Freeze, don't closer how did a trio of escorts from Port Wander get aboard this Chartists Vessel?"


Ready to shoot if they get antsy

[dojango]

The other crewmates look around uneasily. One says, "Salamo always had sticky fingers, probably jes' lookin' for something to take home. Why else would he volunteer to come to a dead ship?" They watch as Kais starts scanning the facility. "You want us to find him and drag him back?" he asks.

The figures look oddly at you and one says, "It's been so long since we've seen others..." and start walking towards you. One of the zealots walks past Answin towards them saying, "Jamal... is it really you? I've been searching for a decade for you..."

[SchwhatNow]

He shook his head, still finding the whole situation incredibly suspicious. "No. Stay together and form up on this door with me just to be safe. If he returns as you say then it's a false alarm, but if there is a danger then we need to ensure it cannot surprise us and that the tech-priest remains protected as well." There was no evidence that he could see of misconduct so the idea of the other just wandering off was possible, however if that was true then this crew needed many a lesson in discipline. The other problem was that he received no response from the others over his micro-bead. He tried again, pressing it and asking for confirmation of his report, but again his instincts told him that there was danger and he wasn't going to let his guard down again so long as he was aboard this derelict vessel.

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

With the reactions of Commander Crone and Zealot Ibrahim, it finally came together in Father Answin's mind.
"Zealot, fall back in line! Do not be deceived by this vile trickery, brothers and sisters - it shall have no power over the blessed Servants of the Golden Throne!" his voice thundered over the bridge.
"Begone, foul spirits! In the Name of the Emperor, I command thee!"


And with a determined move, the Priest aimed his Incinerator at the two puppets of Chaos, and let consecrated Flames wash over them.

[roll0] vs 102 (62 + 20 + 10 Rosarius + 10 (Ecclesiarchy/Military?)) To have the Zealot/ maybe the others too snap out of it.

Damage: [roll1] Pen 4 (sanctified)

[Lord Raziere]

Lady Rendara

"....I feel nothing from these three and see only three figures with strange long arms, Your right to attack them Father Answin. They are indeed, trying to deceive us."
She will use her telekinesis to slice and dice the nearest of the three figures with her Ghost Sword, using quickness and finesse over power here to attack quickly with precise strikes upon him, her blade deadly dancing in the air.


Fettered Precision Telekinesis:
1d100 (Willpower 71)
Weapon Test Using Willpower
[/roll]1d100[/roll] (Willpower (Weapon) 61)

Ghost Sword Damage:
[roll0] E, Pen 6

[dojango]

Enginarium

Kais and the two guards wait outside the tech-priest's sanctum for a few minutes. Soon the door opens and he steps out. "I have performed the proper rituals of obeisance to the cogitator. We now should be able to have access to the ship's systems. I have begun downloading data from the cogitator systems that will tell us what happened to the ship's systems. We should rendezvous with the others now. The central lifts should be functional."

Bridge
The zealot pauses as Father Answin shouts out his warning. She takes a step back, Father Answin's certainty overruling her deceived senses. The flames surge over two of the survivors, and one of them starts flailing as its flesh catches alight. The other zealot shouts out, "Sir! They're civilians!". Rendara, meanwhile, uses her powers to send her sword flying at one of the creatures. Perhaps it's because of the flames, but she's not able to hit the figure, despite her considerable power.

Two of the figures then spring forward, inhumanly fast at Father Answin. At that point, Father Answin and Crone's senses snap into focus, seeing past the strange illusion. The figures are long, thin creatures with mottled gray and purple skin, a mouth full of far too many teeth, and with long arms that end in vicious claws. One of them tries to rake Answin with its claws, while the other tries to bite him in the shoulder. There is a sudden flash as his blessed Rosarius flickers to life, and the thing recoils.

Since you've seen through their illusions we can drop the spoilers, damn, the Good Father Answin is built like a tank. Even if the force field hadn't triggered, it wouldn't get past your armor... for now...

[SchwhatNow]

When the door opened it was simultaneously a relief to him and a worry as she snapped his head to regard the tech-priest; to ensure that it was indeed who he thought it was. The voice gave it away before his unassisted eyes could adjust focus and he exhaled slowly to calm his heart rate. "I have attempted to contact them via micro-bead but they have not replied. Furthermore one of the crew assigned here has disappeared. I believe we have a hostile presence aboard the vessel. Attempting to find the others is perhaps the best course of action. However, if we cannot locate them, then we may have to gather what data we can from the bridge and retreat." He wasn't suggesting that lightly of course and as he readied himself to continue he added shortly. "Let us hope that is not the case." For now they would head to the bridge and attempt to pick up the trail of their lost comrades. They could do little for Salamo at this point, he would have returned by now.

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

"Witness the Might of the Golden Throne!" the Priest spoke, spreading his arms, rejoicing as the Holy Forcefield projected from his Rosarius made the wicked beasts recoil in terror.

Father Answin let his Incinerator hang down his shoulder and drew his chainsword, hacking away at the beast that had tried to bite him with Righteous Fury.

Aim and hack at the creature:
Attack: [roll0] vs 61 (51+10 aim)
Dmg (tearing): [roll1] or [roll2] Pen 2


While fighting,he opened a vox link to the others.
"All teams, do not trust survivors! There are vile creatures daring to deceive His Servants with illusions!" The background sound of a roaring chainsword, coupled with bolter shots and shrieking made it fairly obvious they were in a combat situation.

[DrK]

Crone

The commanders snaps to an alert state as the beasts surge forward and their true forms are revealed, a brief moment to curse as he sees the vile xeno forms.

Frorbidden lore (xeno) [roll0] TN 48

As flames, psychic floating swords and chainsaws engage he raises the bolt pistol and unloads a semi automatic burst straight into the nearest one, the recoil jerking his arm and sound booming in the confined space.


Aim and semi auto burst
[roll1] TN 81 (61 base+10 aim+10 close)
81 - [roll2] best one +5 PEN4
61- [roll3] best one +5 PEN4

Using organgrinders so if hurt T test with -10 per dam or take additional [roll4] dam on each hit (no mod for T or AP)

Dodge if needed [roll5] TN 82

[dojango]

Kais and his crew get ready to head out when a message goes out over the vox. "All teams, do not trust survivors! There are vile creatures daring to deceive His Servants with illusions!" The guards get their weapons readied. As the group pushes forwards towards the main elevators, one of the guards suddenly says, "Salamo! There you are! What did you find?" And turns and walks down a side corridor.

Father Answin takes a swing at one of the beasts, his chainsword scoring a deep wound on its arm. Ichor flies from the blade's teeth. A moment later, before the beast has time to react, it is hit in the leg by one of Crone's shots. It shrieks in pain as the vicious rounds tear through its unnatural flesh. One of the beasts tries to claw vicously at Father Answin, but it can't grab a hold of him, while the one that was on fire manages to put itself out and then leap towards Crone and latch onto him with its teeth, but it falls short. The injured one hisses and backs away from Father Answin, dripping a trail of ichor, dragging its leg.

Crone has traveled the void for many years. Decades. Whatever. He's not seen anything like this personally in his travels, but he's heard many a tale of strange and fearsome xenos and mutants that often infest the bowels of less reputable vessels, scavengers and killers. One tale seems the most familiar; a drinking companion told him about a mutant that had stalked the underdecks of his ship. It was very resilient, and he said it almost seemed to regenerate as it ate the flesh of its kills... they'd managed to kill it and threw the body in an incinerator. But it had killed a dozen crew before they'd put it down.

[SchwhatNow]

Kais hand snapped to his micro bead as the message came over it. He was ready to jump on the channel himself to clarify why they hadn't responded earlier but he was brought to pause as one of the crew with him ducked off down a side hall towards Salamo. "Come back! If that's truly Salamo then he can come to us! We need to re-group with the others at the bridge!" He shouted with as much authority as he could muster but these were not his people and he lacked the true finesse that made a great officer when it came to humans which didn't understand the greater good and all that it implied. It was all he could do though, hope that he could shake the man to his senses, otherwise they were likely about to lose another man to whatever creatures Father Answin referred to.

Command Test vs 34: [roll0]

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

"See how the beast cowers in fear from the blessed blades and bolts of the Righteous!" Father Answin spoke to the zealots, pointing, for a short second, his running chainsword at the hissing creature backing away. "Zealots! To His everlasting Glory, attack!"
Just in that moment, he drew the chainsword back, driving it towards the body of the beast in reach with a quick, precise movement.
Unfortunately, the vicious teeth of the sword only scraped over the sickly grey-purple skin of the creature, and the Priest couldn't be sure whether he had caused any noticeable damage.
He shot a quick glance over his shoulder at Commander Crone and Lady Rendara. Crone had to deal with the singed one, but for now, the situation seemed well under control.


Aim and hack at the creature:
Attack: [roll0] vs 61 (51+10 aim)
Dmg (tearing): [roll1]+2 or [roll2]+2 Pen 2
:smallsigh: So 5 + 2 pen.

[roll3] vs 102 (62 + 20 + 10 Rosarius + 10 (Ecclesiarchy/Military?)) Inspiring the Zealots again :smallbiggrin:

[DrK]

Crone

Crone leaps back, "throne's ball's, gun 'em down, don't let these xeno filth eat you", he steps back, levelling his gun at the nearest creature's head and fires a single shot aiming for its eyesocket


Aim and called shot to the head
1d100 TN 81 -
[roll0] best one +5 PEN4

Using organgrinders so if hurt T test with -10 per dam or take additional [roll1] dam on each hit (no mod for T or AP)

Dodge if needed [roll2] TN 82

[dojango]

The crewmate just looks at Kais and says, "It's Salamo. He says he's found some good stuff," and he heads down the corridor. The Tech-Priest snorts dismissively and just shakes his head and heads for the elevator to the bridge. After a few moments, it arrives. The Tech-Priest beckons Kais and the other guard over.

Answin's sword skitters of the creature's tough hide. Beside him, the other two zealots hack away at its flesh wounding it slightly. Meanwhile, Crone's shot hits the beast in the head, but its strange xeno anatomy seems to keep it from serious harm. One of the creatures tries and fails to sink its teeth into Answin, while the other manages to grab onto and bite into the shoulder of one of the zealots. She screams and flails, while the creature seems... invigorated. The last of the beasts limps over to a grating at the end of the bridge and lifts it up with one long claw.

[SchwhatNow]

Kais just shook his head. He felt the gap between them as individuals and it was unlikely that he could convince the man to pull away from the illusion, or so he assumed that's what it was. "Father Answin has sent me a message warning of foul beasts that show illusions to lure in victims. If you walk down that hall then you likely go to your demise. That decision is upon you, but we cannot leave the others to their fates upon the bridge. I've said what I can to convince you, I can do nothing more." With that Kais followed the tech priest towards the elevator. He hated the thought that the other guard was going to be killed but he had to act for the greater good, he had to join with the others even if that meant leaving others behind. The mission as a whole came before any one person, including himself.

[Lord Athos]

Father Answin

Irritated, the Priest spit out. Vile regenerating monsters.
"May her Blessed Blood melt your foul intestines!" he barked at the creature biting the Zealot.

He himself brought his roaring chainsword down on his opponent in a powerful strike - still, despite his holy focus, his erraticly moving eyes saw the heavily injured one trying to escape from the corner of his eyesight.

"Take it, Crone! By the Emperor, do not let it escape!"


Aim and hack at the creature:
Attack: [roll0] vs 61 (51+10 aim)
Dmg (tearing): [roll1] or [roll2] Pen 2

[DrK]

Crone

Crone can barely watch the ensuing chaos, his gaze distracted by the beast eating one of the Father's zealots. At Asnwin's words he snaps out it and levels his pistol at the one trying to escape, grabbing the pistol in both hands he mutters a "Not so fast..." and depresses the trigger, a stream of rounds ripping free from the heavy pistol trailing smoke




Semi-auto attack attack at the creature [roll0] TN 81 (base 61 +10 Semi auto, +10 close)
81: [roll1] best one +5 PEN4 -- RF for an extra 13 damage, for 28 DAM PEN 5, plus the penalty on the T test or take the additional organ grinder damage as well. Hoping this puts it down
61: [roll2] best one +5 PEN4
41: [roll3] best one +5 PEN4

Using organgrinders so if hurt T test with -10 per dam or take additional [roll4] dam on each hit (no mod for T or AP)

2 /8 rounds left in the clip

Dodge if needed [roll5] TN 82

[dojango]

Something of what Kais is saying seems to get through to the man. He pauses and shouts something down the hallway. As Kais leads the others away, he runs back after them. "Wait for me," he shouts as they step into the lift.

Meanwhile, on the bridge, Father Answin manages to hit one of the beasts and draws some ichor from its thick hide. Crone, on the other hand, very coolly draws a bead on the fleeing monster and puts two of the cruel and twisted bolts through it. The thing seems to dissolve, strange body parts flinging everywhere. The beast swings its claws wildly back at Father Answin, but fails to connect. Beside them, the other beast manages to latch on again to the badly injured zealot. With a sudden jerk of its head, it pulls a huge gobbet of flesh from the zealot and scarfs it down, its skin rippling with unnatural vitality. It hisses in pain though as the other surviving zealot screams incoherently and begins hacking away at the beast with his chainsword.

[SchwhatNow]

Stepping into the elevator and turning to see the man change his mind was a welcome sight and Kais nodded his approval. "Tech Priest, take us to the bridge." There was no time to waste and he could but hope that they'd not arrive too late to assist, if such assistance was truly necessary that is. His rifle weighed heavy in his hands despite the ease in which he carried it otherwise. The burden of uncertainty gnawed at him and he was ready to know the truth, one way or another.

[Lord Raziere]

Rendara decides she has had enough of these beasts attacking and just decides to crush them with pure mental power of the warp, reaching out her hand again to clench it and crush the one that just that just same of the flesh of the zealot.
"Die you wretched beast!"


[roll0] (Willpower 81)

[roll1] Impact damage on the beast

[DrK]

Crone

Crone smiles as the creature disintegrates under the horrific fragmenting organ grinder rounds. Seeing one still attacking Father Answin he drops to a knee and carefully aims a singe shot at the creature's skull seeking to blow its tiny brains over the wall. "Answin, get down!" he bellows, warning the priest as he pulls the heavy trigger.



AIm and shoot at the head [roll0] TN 81 (base 61 +10 aim, +10 close)

Damage [roll1] best one +5 PEN4
Using organgrinders so if hurt T test with -10 per dam or take additional [roll2] dam on each hit (no mod for T or AP)

1 /8 rounds left in the clip

Dodge if needed [roll3] TN 82