Sea of Stars - IC

[Leon]

++Waste of good water letting a urban center use it, there are many things the Mechcanicus can do with a good supply of water++

[Kaptin Keen]

I'm sure even the mechanicus don't slake their thirst on lubricant. I'm even more certain the many things the mechanicus produces need men and women to buy and use them - and they, too, need drinking water.

[Leon]

++We do make use of it for hydration purposes but its much better that we use it for its full potential beyond mere drinking fluid, supplying nourishment to the masses not in Mechcanicus employ is not a concern of ours++

[Kaptin Keen]

How deliberately obtuse, short-sighted and narrow-minded - do you imagine the mechanicus could exist without the imperium? Actually, don't answer that, we should propably concentrate on the matter at hand.

Spoiler: OOC

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While an interesting discussion, in-character, it's not actually bringing the game anywhere =)

[Leon]

++Obtuse, narrow minded and shortsighted is what the ecclesiarchy is. Most certainly for its is the Imperium that can not exist without us++
++The matter at hand has yet to be reached in location and is safely being transported till then++

Spoiler

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Then other people need to add to it ~ i left it open for a day till see if someone else would pitch in

[Haval]

Wait, what? Did circular ressource management go out of fashion while I slept? I mean, it's not like it was easy to achieve, but guys have had ten thousand years to improve on it!"

'A lot of the Mechanicus are not much for innovation, and there's a lot we're managed to forget how to do. I imagine it's like the decline from the Dark Age of Technology was in your day. We really ought to get you to write some of this down.'

[rax]

"This is all very fascinating, but how does it help us find out what in the Emperor's name is going on with this place?" Hannabel cuts in. "Could we please focus on the task at hand? It's bloody freezing down here."

[Destro_Yersul]

Seeing as the Xenos had little to no reaction to the statue hall, and after searching Anika couldn't find any further information from the room, the group pressed on towards the next of Ravia's sensor sites. Many of the corridors and buildings here had been carved out, as though by a systematic effort not quite sure what it was looking for. Pytho confirmed that the caves had all been hollowed out over a very long period of time, that slowly the Xenos had been working on getting the entire city uncovered. Their captive thought the reason was reclamation, and rememberance, since the work had continued even after they got to the generator.

Ravia's next site turned out to be in a sort of courtyard, a circular arrangement of stones surrounded by odd sculptures. There were no benches, but benches wouldn't have made sense for an aquatic race. There was a building nearby, though, its entrance flanked by intricately carven pillars. The inside was dark, the door frozen barely ajar. Shining a light through, they got glimpses of what looked like the same coral stone as formed the monoliths on the surface, and walls lined with ovoid depressions.

[Kaptin Keen]

So .. if this guy doesn't know why they were digging - who does? Who gave the orders?

[Haval]

So .. if this guy doesn't know why they were digging - who does? Who gave the orders?

'If someone was in charge maybe they were killed in the fighting. Unless they all got the idea from somewhere else.' Without waiting for Pytho, Anika will use her servo skull to try and ask the xenos directly. 'Why do you dig?'

She will get closer to the sculptures and the pillars outside the building. 'What's the betting that some of this is the control centre? Magos, can the auspex make anything out.'

Spoiler

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Speak Language (any) as basic to see if she can talk to the xenos
vs. Int 53 / 2
(1d100)[100]

Scrutiny on the sculptures
vs. Per 43
(1d100)[20]

And the carvings on the pillars
vs. Per 43
(1d100)[24]

Trade (Archaeology) for any insight
vs. Int 53
(1d100)[53]

[Kaptin Keen]

Ask him if any of the command structure remains - we'd be better off talking to an officer than a grunt. Also, the brass generally stays far enough from the real fighting to be among the last to bite it. Present company excluded, she adds, with what might just be a slight hint of respect.

[rax]

"You want to go find a chief or something to chat with?" Hannabel asks Felidae. "What makes you think they'd talk to us after we just killed most of their tribe? Would you? I reckon we'll have to make do with what we've got."

"So, which one of you big, strong men want to help poor little me break down that door?" she asks with a playful smile at the marines protecting them.

[Kaptin Keen]

"You want to go find a chief or something to chat with?" Hannabel asks Felidae. "What makes you think they'd talk to us after we just killed most of their tribe? Would you? I reckon we'll have to make do with what we've got."

"So, which one of you big, strong men want to help poor little me break down that door?" she asks with a playful smile at the marines protecting them.

We have a psyker - we don't have to concern ourselves with their willingness to chat with us. Maybe Pytho should take a nap first though, he's looking slightly pale.

Since the call was for big, strong men, Felidae looks by idly in her power armor, which makes her strong enough to tow a rhino.

[Leon]

++This will be a few minutes to set up and calibrate++

[PotatoGolem]

Macharius has been lost in thought, tallying the worth of a civilization's worth of xeno goods. He looks back at his crew. Ah, good. You're all done bickering. Jolly good. Yes, we ought to find an officer, or a chief, or a noble, whatever they had. Only learn so much from common rabble, what? Lieutenant, see if the men can find one that seems more important. Although Felidae isn't wrong, Pythonissam. Have a bit of a lie down while you wait.

[Destro_Yersul]

"We'll try, sir," the Officer said, "though I can't say how successful they'll be. It was an effort to capture this one, and to tell the truth they all look more or less the same."

He departed, heading back towards the city entrance, while Ravia calibrated the sensor. There was some difficulty getting it to talk to the base unit through all the intervening ice, and so Anika had time to inspect the carvings. Knowing that this whole place used to be underwater helped somewhat, as did the discovery that upon close inspection all the sculptures were worn smooth. They had probably been designed to direct water currents flowing in and around them, creating a 'living' artwork through the interaction of stone and water; the currents shifting and changing around the odd protrusions and ovoid holes in the sculpture.

The carvings on the pillars, in a similar vein, appeared to be largely decorative. There was a repeating pattern to them, swirls and waves running up and down. There was a similarity to the box from the tower, but these appeared to be older, with less outside influence in the work; the shades of Kadath were there, but it was muted reference, less obvious unless you knew what to look for. The combination of age and artistic influence led Anika to believe that this part of the city was somehow isolated from the Yu'Vath influence, either by time or by active attempts to keep it at bay. The door would be very difficult to force by strength alone, unfortunately...

[Kaptin Keen]

Felidae gives the door a critical look. It's very much frozen, and doesn't look like it's going anywhere anytime soon. Not one to pass on a challenge, she still decides to give it a try. She calls the two largest marines the can find over, places herself for optimal leverage, and heaves with all her might. Servos whining, muscles straining and face contorting - all makes no impression on the door, which remains stolidly and firmly ajar.

Shrugging, Felidae says: Suit, please analyze optimal wavelength for a laser to melt the ice.

Not expecting results, she instead considers where a frag might be placed for optimal results.

[rax]

"Lasers could work, I suppose," Hannabel opines. "But wouldn't it be easier to get some of the marines and their flamers in here? Yer want to melt something, promethium generally gets the job done. We just have to hustle anyone without protective gear out of here first - those Nightfires have some nasty toxic sludge mixed in 'em."

[Kaptin Keen]

Well - flamers run out of fuel. Flamers are also more critical in the event of some unforseen counter attack, reinforcements from elsewhere on the planet perhaps.

A continuous, wide beam laser of the right wave length might be better. Perhaps. It'd really take a tech priest to say anything about that for sure. I just ... guess it might.

Spoiler: OOC

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I'm pretty sure a laser could be rigged - with the right wavelength - to expend all it's energy in the ice. Such agitation should yield impressive results, but only because DH trivialises the amount a weapons grade laser requires =)

I think. I'm not an engineer =)

[Destro_Yersul]

The door looked very solid - too solid, really, for antipersonnel grenades to get anything done. Flamers might work to melt the ice, but of course it was still a very large stone structure, mounted on Emperor only knew what sort of hinges and probably designed with extra bouyancy from being underwater in mind. Krak grenades would work a lot better than frags, and quite a lot better than lasguns would. Small lasers on any wavelength would take a very long time to do much of anything to something this size.

Spoiler: OOC

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Melting the ice with flamers will allow you to try another Strength test to open the door, this time at only -20. I forgot to mention in the OOC thread, but you do get assistance bonuses from up to two people for this, so the two marines helping out are worth +20. Doesn't much matter for your first test, but would help here.

[Haval]

As she had no chance of helping to open the door Anika is taking pictures of the artwork. She had the odd urge to talk to an art historian. Muttering, 'Some of the client races would have rebelled if they could. Maybe even if it was hopeless. Humans would in their place.'

Not for the first time she felt under equipped for being in this place. 'One of these days I'm going to go shopping for a melta just to open doors with.'

[Leon]

++Station set and transmitting++
++Notation set: Remind crew at next purchase post to acquire door breaching ordnance++

[Destro_Yersul]

Flamers were brought in by the crew, everyone standing well back of the wash as they fired. The heat of blessed Prometheum bathed the ancient stone, sending ice hissing into vapour in great billowing clouds. Firing in bursts to conserve fuel, the weapon specialists set about thawing the door, mainly focusing on the hinges. When they had finished Felidae, protected from any residual toxins by her armour, stepped up and heaved, bracing her shoulder against the door. Muscles straining, servos hissing, the armour whining in protest the whole time, she forced the door open. It was massively heavy, balanced for use underwater. The grinding of stone against stone left marks on the floor, throwing up chips of ice from the ground.

At last, without even any help, Felidae had forced the door wide enough to allow access. The interior of the building was covered in ice. Minimal excavation seemed to have happened in here, probably as a result of access being so difficult. Armed with modern tools, carving through the thicker areas wouldn't be too challenging, but there had been a small amount of tunneling done even here. Presumably there was another entrance somewhere. While there was a lot of machinery, or what looked like it passed for machinery in terms of the Xenos, it was all focused around the odd depressions in the walls. Some of these, dimly visible under thick layers of ice, appeared to be covered by bulging membranes. Others were empty, frozen scraps of organic material clinging to their edges.

[Leon]

++Wide spectrum Augur scan Initiated++

Spoiler

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Auspex looking for Energy signatures (TN 78) (d100)[67]

[Haval]

To Felidae, 'I'm still getting that melta but I'm very glad you have that armour.'

Occasionally pulling down her goggles to see what they told her, Anika is going to get a closer look inside the room. 'So how do you work?'

Spoiler: ooc

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While I don't want to accidentally switch anything off or on, I want to know what this is.


Scrutiny to see if I can find heat and thus a power source
vs. Per 43 (+20 for the goggles)

Forbidden Lore (Xenos)
vs. Int 53

See ooc for the dice code I meant to type here. Xenos was successful.

[Kaptin Keen]

Me? I mostly just shoot things.

[Leon]

++Yes, you are something of a machine++

[Kaptin Keen]

I am what machines aspire to become, techpriest, replies Felidae - with a disarming smile, seeing that this quite likely isn't what Ravia meant.

[Destro_Yersul]

Anika's looking around for thermal signatures didn't turn up anything - everything in here was cold and dead, at least as far as heat was concerned. Ravia's auspex scan turned up a number of low-grade energy signatures, some of which were clearly background noise but a few of which bore further investigation. A few of the central banks of coral structure were active, still holding an electrical charge. There wasn't any heat generation, which suggested very high conductivity within the coral itself. The largest and most active signature belonged to a coral pillar near the center of the building. None of the pods had any energy signatures, though a handful of the sealed ones pinged on organic material. Nothing whatsoever happened when Anika prodded these with her bolter; they were frozen quite solid, only the dimmest outline of alien shapes within hinting at their contents.

The most immediate thought that sprang to mind was 'medical facility.' The xenos didn't have any common symbolism with the Imperium in regards to medicine, but there was a certain commonality to be found in rows of machinery, pods full of organic goo, and cold stone slabs with anchor points for straps on the sides. While the pods might have been intended for reproduction, the large size suggested they held adult specimens. Anika knew that the birthing of full-size organisms was not unheard of - the Tyranids in particular were known for it - but there had been enough variation in the xenos that they had encountered here to suggest aging, and the fact that the species had persisted long past the freezing demise of this place as an active facility meant that they must possess some other means of producing offspring.

[Leon]

++Machines that aspire to become are Abominable Intellects, that lesson was learned long ago even before your time++
++I remember GS#175QRT-234/HB had a rictus grin due from when it was converted, that is about as close as i have seen a machine enjoying its allotted task++
++You would have enjoyed its company++

++We should try to keep the charge intact on those tanks till they can be extracted easily and put in secure storage on the ship for study++