Sea of Stars - IC

[rax]

"Well, you still need to see whatever it is if you're going to shoot it. Instead of speculating on who or what might be out there, perhaps you could put that auspex you just mentioned to good use and scan the area for movement and life signs? And Magos, perhaps you could do the same?"

[Kaptin Keen]

Felidae rolls her eyes toward the stormy skies, thinking realls? Didn't I just say I don't know how to use it?

Outloud, she says:

Suit, scan for any mobile energy emissions within a range of 500 meters.

++ QUERY INCOMPLETE: PLEASE SPECIFY WAVELENGTH ++

Uh, ok. Visible light. Wavelength from 400-700 nm.

++ QUERY INCOMPLETE: PLEASE SPECIFY RATE OF MOVEMENT ++

Grrr .. between 1 and 100 kmph relative to planets surface.

++ QUERY COMPLETE - SCANNING ++

I'm totally convinced the Mars guys could have made a more intuitive user interface, but didn't .. on purpose.

++ TERM: #MARS GUYS# NOT IN DATABASE ++

Voice input off, suit.

++ VOICE INPUT DEACTIVATED ++

Somehow the artificial voice of the suit manages to sound smug.

[rax]

Hannabel grins manically behind the visor of her helmet. "You were telling the truth?!! You really don't know how to use the fancy systems in that fancy armour? Oh, this is rich! And here I thought you was just pulling our legs!" Unable to contain her mirth any longer, she breaks out into a snorting guffaw. "Well..." - she pauses to catch her breath - "I sure hope the ancients at least saw fit to teach you how to use those fancy weapons you're parading around!"

[Haval]

Anika briefly facepalms. No point in worrying about that now. To Felidae, 'We could probably take a look at that for you.' Meaning her or Ravia. She'd be quite happy to tinker with a millenia old suit of power armour if she had the chance, although now hardly seemed the time to try it.

'Unless we're going to camp here, we could always go take a look at those ruins. I'm sure if there's anything hostile out there it's going to let us know regardless of what we're doing.'

[Kaptin Keen]

.. they gave me the fancy armor when I was assigned to the fancy admiral. But I'm not a techie, never was. I get all the basic stuff - night vision, expanded vision range, motion sensors, flare compensation, Friend/Foe Identification, and so on. But it's all set to standard settings, and tuning it to focus on some specific details is just ... I swear to you, I feel the suit is programmed to work against me.

But you needn't worry about the fancy weapons. I'm more than capable. I'll be happy to give you a demonstration, once we get to the Extreme Prejudice part.

[Destro_Yersul]

According to the sensors aboard Felidae's armour and Ravia's mechadendrite, the wind had started to pick up. It was hard to tell without the mechanical aid, one howling wind sounding much like another, but with the increase in speed came a decrease in temperature. The already bad weather looked on the verge of getting worse, and it was rather exposed, up here amidst the spires. The Aquila would be safer, but it was possible that going downhill, away from the spires funneling the wind, would also help.

The ruins Anika had mentioned were not far away. Ravia had a compass, and the Aquila's transponder was still working so they'd at least be able to find it again if needed. It would still be a bit of a walk, though...

Spoiler: OOC

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Anyone who wants to go to the ruins, make a Toughness test. The weather is rather hostile. I'm assuming you all brought cold-weather gear, which means you can have +20 on the test. Felidae, who is presently encased in sealed armour, does not need to roll. I don't think Ravia has the Machine trait, but if she does she also does not need to roll. Failure on the test results in gaining one level of fatigue.

[PotatoGolem]

Well then! Let us get off this blasted field. No sense sitting around in the cold while we wait to be ambushed. Magos, were you able to repair our comms relay? Can we link our comm-beads to the shuttle to communicate with the Sting? Tell the Sting to monitor this position and send down servitor-crewed reinforcement shuttles in an hour if they don't hear from us. We don't want to gallivant off and have our only way off this place destroyed by hostile xenos.

[Haval]

Whether or not there was anything out there this wasn't the ideal weather to be wandering off alone. Still, while they were here. 'Hostile xenos or not I'd hate to waste the opportunity. I admit it's a little chilly, but if any of you would like to accompany me I believe I'll take a closer look at those ruins before the storm gets any worse.'

Spoiler: ooc

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Anika is curious, but not to the extent that she'll go over there alone if there's something else around. Rolls are conditional on someone going with her.

Toughness
vs. 28 (+20 for a big coat)
(1d100)[95]

Awareness
vs. Per 43 (+20 Preysense Googles to see anything in the storm)
(1d100)[26]

[Kaptin Keen]

The weather is nothing to me - I'll come. But I do wonder ... how often do you figure these ice spires fall over in hard weather?

[rax]

"She was, sir," Hannabel replies to Macharius' question about the comms relay. "I wouldn't mind roof over me head either. Lead the way, yer ladyship," she nods to Anika.

[PotatoGolem]

Splendid. Murphy, vox the Sting and tell them to send three shuttles of marines to this location if they don't hear from us in a standard hour. Almagor, take this extra power sword in case we end up in a dust-up. Off we go, then! Macharius hands his old power sword to the Praetorian and strides off with Anika, bodyguards in tow.

Spoiler: OOC

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Toughness Tests
Macharius (1d100)[19] vs 62
Murphy (1d100)[65] vs 70
Almagor (1d100)[75] vs 70

Also, two of the five Praetorians now have names. It's a big day for them. I suppose the other three will get them as needed when they come on missions.

[Destro_Yersul]

The walk down to the ruins wasn't pleasant, except for Felidae. For her, the power armour served to keep the worst of the weather way. She didn't feel the biting cold and stinging winds that swirled around the others, the knee-deep snow that made every step a slog. It was ferociously cold, and though the wind was slower away from the spires, it was ceaseless. It whirled and howled and danced, sweeping their footprints away only minutes after they were made. In their wake, it was as though no-one had passed at all. Fortunately, the Aquila's beacon held strong, and the wind and interference wasn't strong enough to disrupt the craft's powerful signal. The whole journey down, Anika kept her eyes open, peering through the goggles for traces of movement in the snow. Once or twice, she saw something, the barest splash of red on the thermals, some sign of movement. It was always gone when she tried to get a closer look, though, and Ravia's auspex came up with naught but sensor ghosts. Flickering in and out, never enough for a positive reading.

The ruins were at the base of the hills, where a flat plain of ice stretched out endlessly towards the horizon. In the distance, there were a few mountains visible, and behind them were the cliffs they had landed near. Down here in the open, though, there was nothing. Or, almost nothing. Dimly visible below the ice was a city, spires reaching up from the depths to end in shattered roofs somewhere below their feet. It was huge, and must have stretched across much of the frozen basin they were standing in, though only the parts closest to the surface of the ice were visible now. One spire actually breached the surface, the part of it that was still attached to the base rising a few meters. The rest lay in a heap nearby, cracked and broken, the windward side piled high with snow. It was made of some sort of stone, worn smooth by time.

[rax]

"Would you look at that..." Hannabel whispers into her micro-bead, awestruck at the sight of the city beneath them. "I wonder what happened to them? Wouldn't it be wonderful if there was still someone down there?"

"But first we have to get in there, I suppose," she speaks up, snapping out of her reverie. "Maybe there's a door or something in this spire?" she says, and begins feeling her way around the intact spire.

[Kaptin Keen]

If anyone was to ask me ... and I can't think of a single reason why they would ... but if they did, I'd say that weird xenos structure back there is actively terraforming this planet. Causing an artificial cooling. So, war by terraforming.

Wouldn't it be fairly simple to use the sensors of the Sting and calculate whether this planet should have this climate based on atmospheric composition, distance from the star, and ... so on?

No one would accuse Felidae of being a deeply emotional person, but the thought of millions of settlers slowly freezing to death - maybe with no idea why - left her ... chilly.

[Leon]

++Well built machinery can keep doing what it was made to do well after the builders cease so not necessarily war by terraforming but the end result of a machine doing what it was instructed and not having a regulatory control applied to stop it++

[Kaptin Keen]

I did say I couldn't think of any reason why anyone would ask me, right? It's just in my nature to expect foul play from alien scum.

But ... if those are humans ruins, and that was a xenos .. 'thing' .. then I feel looking for peaceful explanation is folly.

[Haval]

Although she tries not to show it the cold is getting to Anika. Perhaps she is a little too preoccupied with looking into the storm to focus on keeping herself warm. 'I see signs of heat now. There's definitely something out there. '

The sight of the ruins makes her forget the weather for a moment. The notion of terraforming made a lot of sense. 'The ancients supposedly tried something like that on Mars once. The amount of effort it must have taken is unbelievable.'

++Well built machinery can keep doing what it was made to do well after the builders cease so not necessarily war by terraforming but the end result of a machine doing what it was instructed and not having a regulatory control applied to stop it++

'So perhaps the builders preferred the cold but it's gotten a little out of hand without anyone around to control it? Even if it was broken or sabotaged I would hope that anyone living down there had a chance to evacuate before the ice. How fast does a glacier move anyway?'

She will join Hannabel in examining the spire. Maybe there wasn't a door but it might be hollow enough that they could get in there with the right tools. 'If this was a regular city what would be the tallest building? Maybe a noble's palace or a hive spire. Maybe a place of worship. Even when there's no one living there people still have to keep everything running smoothly. We get inside and there might be a way down.'

Spoiler: ooc

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As with Rax, what ever's more appropriate of Scrutiny or Search. The +20 Per for Preysense googles may or may not be relevant. Looking for a way in or any sign that it's hollow

Search
vs. Per 43 / 2 - TN 22 (-10 Fatigue)
(1d100)[17]

Scrutiny
vs. Per 43 (-10 Fatigue)
[roll]1d100[/roll

Trade (Archaeologist) to know if this weather seems normal given the details of the planet
vs. Int 53 (-10 Fatigue)
(1d100)[74]

Forbidden Lore (Xenos) to see if anything about the city seems familier
vs. Int 53 (-10 Fatigue)
(1d100)[72]

[PotatoGolem]

Capital stuff, I say! Fascinating. Doctor Vanhal, can you make out anything of use? You're quite the wiz in archaeology, right? I do tend to agree with Felidae that we don't want to discount xenos perfidy at this stage yet, however. As Saint Cognomaticus the Hateful instructs, betrayal and slaughter come as natural to the xenos as breathing does to a man.

[Destro_Yersul]

Anika and Hannabel circled the downed spire, looking for ways inside - they weren't hard to find, once you scraped back the snowdrifts a little. There were no doors on the section that remained upright, but there were plenty of windows. Climbing up a little and looking down into the standing section revealed that it was filled with ice, at a level higher than that of the ground outside. There didn't seem to have been any stairs in the place, and the fallen section was devoid of them as well. There were regular-looking holes in what was left of the floors. It had to mean something.

Anika tried to think over the chattering of her teeth. The windows on the spire didn't have any sign of having had glass in them. There were no shards, nothing worn down. No visible way to mount a pane. Instead, there was what looked like some sort of filmy residue - frozen solid, but different from the stone of the spire. It was undoubtedly an alien edifice, but not one that either Hannabel nor Anika recognised. Hannabel was fairly certain she'd never heard stories of anything like this, either, but that wasn't impossible. A non-spacefaring alien race that had apparently died out long before the Imperium ever found them would hardly have made the record books, and it was looking increasingly like that was what they were dealing with here.

Exploring the collapsed tower got them out of the wind, but turned up very little. It looked like this had been some sort of shrine, a place of worship. There was what could have been an altar, hewn from dark stone, and a number of shattered fragments that might once have been devotional icons. They were of a strange pearlescent material, shimmering and elaborately carved. Quite beautiful, despite their origin. Near to those was a small box, of what looked like ivory. In here, it had been shielded from the wind and the elements, and on its surface could still be seen a spiderweb of scrimshaw carvings, swirls and waves. It was shut, the lid unbroken by the fall from its original resting place, and stuck fast in the ice that covered the ground.

[Leon]

++Anyone have a Melta charge, that would make going down this thing a breeze++

[PotatoGolem]

Macharius launches into a righteous explanation. Xenos, undone by their own foul machinations. Thus is the fate of all Xenos, as the Blessed Ecclesiarchy teaches. Don't touch any of the trinkets- we don't know yet if they're warp-tainted.

He speaks into the vox-line. Sting, this is your Lord-Captain. Send down Astropath Pythonissam or a Navigator immediately. And have them bring a marine contingent.

[Haval]

Anika will add a request for a flask of recaff to Macharius' order. Then will think for a moment and ask the Sting for an assessment of the planet's weather. If this climate was artificial she'd like to see some supporting evidence.

She will continue to think out loud. 'So, likely to be xenos architecture. Can't see even ancient humans building something that looks like that.' She wasn't sure what to make of the holes in the tower floors. Was it simply for the accoustics? Or had part of the building rotted away since the ice had covered the city. 'With the right tools we could try and melt some of the ice blocking the spire. I have no idea how far down the blockage goes though.'

In response to Macharius' question, 'Maybe, although you can never be entirely certain with these things. And with xenos we don't neccesarily even have any shared frame of reference. That box was probably valauble to someone though, even if it's just someone's equivalent of a Saint's bones.' She will avoid touching the box as Macharius had asked, but will stare hard at the carvings on the outside to try to determine any sort of pattern.

Spoiler: ooc

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Forbidden Lore (Heresy) just in case Macharius has a point
vs. Int 53 (-10 Fatigue)
(1d100)[94]

Trade (Archaeology) on the purpose of the holes in the floors
vs. Int 53 (-10 Fatigue)
(1d100)[63]

Scrutiny on the box
vs. Per 43 (-10 Fatigue)
(1d100)[25]

[Destro_Yersul]

There was some static on the reply; relaying through microbeads to the Aquila, and from there up to the Sting, did nothing to improve the quality of the channel.

"Yes sir. We'll have a shuttle prepared, send the Talon's Navigator Secundus. Weather's pretty bad, though. Looks like the wind has picked up since you went down." There was a long pause, while the crew checked the Auspex readouts and referenced charts and the distance to the system's star. "You might be on to something about the patterns being artificial. It shouldn't be that cold, this planet's within a livable range. You see any..." whatever the crewman said next was obliterated by a burst of static. "...tell where it's coming from."

Spoiler: Anika Only

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Anika was able to get a closer look at the box without touching it easily enough. The carvings reminded her of things from her past, mostly. Ripples in the sand on Scintillan beaches. Looking down from the hive spires towards the ocean. There was something else about it, though. Something she couldn't quite put her finger on. Of all the things they'd seen on the planet so far, the box stuck out. It seemed familiar, though she couldn't be sure why.

[Haval]

After staring at the box for a few moments, 'Why does this seems familiar. Did I read about it somewhere? And does that mean it's not from around here originally?' Anika does not sound certain of anything. 'Might only know for sure once we get it open.'

You see any..." whatever the crewman said next was obliterated by a burst of static. "...tell where it's coming from."

'Acknowledged...barely. If you can hear me pass on anything of interest to the shuttle crew.'

To the others, 'There's some corroboration for the terraforming theory anyway. If the monolith is responsible for all this weather it can probably reverse it. Maybe you'd get the same effect from destroying enough of the network, but I can see there being side effects from messing with a whole planet's weather.'

[rax]

"Tell you where what is coming from? Sting, we lost you there at the end. If you can hear us, please repeat the last thing you said."

"You feeling alright, yer ladyship?" she asks Anika. "Yer looking a bit worse for wear. I've got some uppers in me suit if you need one - should help you stay focused."

Spoiler: OOC

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Hannabel has some Wideawake with her. Ruleswise, it lets you ignore one level of Fatigue for 1d5 hours, but its described as being used to help the user stay awake, so might not be useful in this situation.

[Haval]

[COLOR="#008080"]
"You feeling alright, yer ladyship?" she asks Anika. "Yer looking a bit worse for wear. I've got some uppers in me suit if you need one - should help you stay focused."

Anika will take a pill and add it to a speciman bag in one of her pockets. 'I'll save that for emergencies. I took some of those before an exam once and I slept for a whole day afterwards. Don't want to have to be carried around again.'

Spoiler: ooc

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Whether it's useful or not against the cold, I won't take it yet because Anika has Toughness 28 and I don't want to add more fatigue unless I have to.

Will roll Scholastic Lore (Legend) on why the box seems familiar
vs. Int 53 (-10)
(1d100)[48]

[Leon]

++A Lascutter could do the trick as well, i don't know if we have any of those, it would take a while but it would assured of clearing a accessible path down++

[Destro_Yersul]

Spoiler: Anika Only

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Anika tried to think back, to remember what the carvings reminded her of. She had the vague idea that it was somehow important, but couldn't quite get a handle on why. She didn't think it was anything she'd read about, or seen in a book. Something she'd worked on, maybe, back when she was doing research for the Lexis. She felt certain she'd know, if only she could stop her teeth from chattering for long enough to focus.

"Sorry," came the response. "It's ... storm. Think there's something else ... with you. ... on the way." The vox was cutting in and out, the weather making it worse with them so far from the Aquila. It sounded like the shuttle was on the way, though.

Not much later, those suspicions were proven correct. They heard the shuttle before they saw it, the lighter's engines audible even over the wind. It broke from the cloud cover high above them, dropping fast towards the ground. Hannabel could tell something was wrong - one of the engines was trailing smoke. It screamed overhead, descending fast, and vanished into the storm. Moments later, the ground trembled, the ice beneath their feet shaking from the distant impact.

[Kaptin Keen]

... that went well, remarks Felidae, as the tremors subside.

There's something else down there with you. More or less what we already suspected. I don't suppose we have a bunch of flares, so we could light up a circle around us? Maybe get into that building quickly, set up some hard cover?

How about we see how well a few frags work?

Felidae proceeds to ready three frag grenades - she will also look around for anything that could be helped turn it into an improvised shaped charge. A dustbin cover would work, but it doesn't seem likely there's one lying about for no reason.

[Leon]

++Sigh++
++I expect that there will be a lot less of that one than the Aquilla++
++What were they bringing down of note?++

Ravia has been focused on the tower and surrounds more than what has been going on between ship and ground party till the crash and considering how to get down through the ice.