Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby ChristianC » Fri Mar 04, 2011 8:30 am

Vipsanius would have grinned if he truly had all his remaining faculties for such an act, but instead his carapace-like face remained as emotionless as always, the sinister orange glow from his two perfectly round lenses observing the crowd before them and he chittered in amusement to one of the other adepts... the young fleshling seemed... slightly less amused by the Explorator's joke, but gave a polite 'ha ha' before he glanced nervously at Rajender and then grew silent, staring down in the floor.

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby Kelne » Thu Mar 10, 2011 6:09 am

The response to Rajender's question was swift in coming, once again issuing from the platform commander, who seemed to have appointed himself spokesman, "Sir, we will serve to the best of our ability. Our lives are yours, and your cause is our cause. Emperor willing, we shall not be found wanting. As to the hardships, they are worth the gain. The crew, I am confident, will understand the benefits of returning to the Imperium, both to their immortal souls and to the betterment of their lives."

The man seemed sincere, and it didn't look as if any of his fellows were plotting betrayal, though one could never be sure how they might react once the boot was removed from their collective necks.

(I'll leave you to devise any means of securing your hold over the Glory, if any. Otherwise, moving on whenever you're ready.)

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby Jak Snide » Mon Mar 14, 2011 6:59 am

Rajender displayed genuine joy at the platform commander's answer, welcoming the man and his fellows into the dynasty as if he were a father celebrating the return of a prodigal son. Once the display had concluded, and the rational part of his brain begun working again, he set about selecting some of his best officers and armsmen to transfer over to the Glory. The ex-pirates would need to be educated in the ways of the dynasty of course, and there was the lesser concern of watching them for betrayal. Not a word was said to Dauphin; he wouldn't insult the man by reminding him to perform his duty. He had no doubt that Vipsanius was keen to examine their enginarium as well, the machines there being the exclusive domain of the machine cult. Father Licaon could be trusted to ensure that the men received the spiritual attention they desperately required, a task he knew the man would relish.

The delicate matter of the ship's astropaths and navigators was more troublesome. He hoped their own sentiments fell in line with that of their crew. If not or, and he dreaded to contemplate this, if they proved heretical he'd descend into the lower decks to commune with the cult that lurked there. A sacrament of psyker and mutant blood should appear to them, or he dearly hoped it would. He was never entirely sure that he'd return from such visits but he trusted the Emperor to watch over him. If that nasty business proved necessary he'd just have to see about petitioning some of his own psykers and mutants to go aboard the raider.

The platform was another matter. Their penance would begin in a simple act of charity; helping restore the transport vessel their kin had crippled. They were unlikely to have all the artisans and materials required for such work, of course. That's why he'd had an astropathic message sent to the battlefleet back in Port Wander, informing them of the situation, the existence of the platform and how it was now serving penance while flying the Hakon colours. The good men of the station would be informed of this, of course, so there would be no fear or confusion when a navy patrol moved within gunnery range of them.

Once all of their preparations were complete he'd have the Glory fall in behind the Satisfaction and follow them into the warp, praying that neither ship would lose the other in the tides of the immaterium.

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby Capntastic » Tue Mar 29, 2011 4:32 am

Dauphin tolerated the rituals of trial and terror as well as could be possible, his glossy black shades giving him the minimum required level of sternness. Of course, he had a concoction in hand through most of it. He had nothing to add, and any work he had to do for the House was out of his hands. He'd sent his feelers out onto the conquered ship, both to gauge 'morale', and to alter it as much as could be done. It was interesting, he felt, that this showy display of simple negative reinforcement- like smacking a beast on the snout- was the fashionable thing to do. His own methods, which required a more intimate insertion of manpower, a more empathic exchange, were something Dauphin knew could be infinitely more effective. But he knew that some beasts simply would not respond to anything more refined than a smack. But he felt his agents would prove a suitable leash.

Content in that notion, he mixed himself a further drink, and made to retire to his quarters as the ship entered the warp.

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby ChristianC » Tue Mar 29, 2011 3:24 pm

Vipsanius withdrew too to his quarters, rubbing his hands at the prospects of the work awaiting him. The captain would be properly interrogated before the man's end came, the ship would be cleansed of the foul teachings of these hereteks and charlatans.

He'd already ordered for every techpriest, adept and whoever else had been servicing the spirit of the captured ship to attend to a special lecture he would be giving them aboard the Glory before they would be allowed to return to their work... those too unruly, or incapable of receiving the explorator's forgiveness carefully transferred to the holding cells in waiting for Vipsanius to attend them and make sure to give them duties befit of their sins...

Sometimes he forgot to do this.

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby Kelne » Sun Apr 17, 2011 6:02 am

((Apologies for the lengthy delay. I'll strive to have more timely updates in future.))

A lack of astropaths aboard Glory reduced Rajender's worries in one respect. Where there were no astropaths, there was no chance of their corruption. While all ships traversing the Maw of necessity had a navigator aboard, astropaths were optional, and as such were not always found on smaller ships, or those lacking a well-connected master. The single aged navigator likewise remained free of corruption, though he cut a less than imposing figure, lacking the servants and colleagues to be found aboard Satisfaction. He claimed the lineage of House Cierl, not one which any among the crew were familiar with, and his loyalty was purportedly to the Glory, an arrangement which meant he was unlikely to challenge whoever sat atop the Captain's throne.

That worthy was one Avram Bair, formerly in command of the torpedo platform and selected as a man both capable and hopefully unlikely to incur their new master's wrath. Scuttlebutt as reported by Dauphin's agents was that he was ex-navy, and not a native of Glory. As one of the outcasts' number, Bair would not incur the veiled hostility of an appointed outsider, while his lack of ties to the old captain gave him a certain freedom to make changes. Bair was, moreover, popular with the crew for having stood up to that fething lunatic commander who'd nearly gotten them all killed. Which wasn't to say he'd have an easy time of it. Inevitably, the influx of officers and crew from Satisfaction would displace people used to being at the top of the heap.

Vipsanius' subordinates, by contrast, were not so much integrating into the command structure as they were replacing it wholesale. The Mechanicus, it seemed, had not survived the original mutiny, leaving laymen to keep Glory functioning. It was a testament to the ship's holy mechanisms that they had not seized up down through the years. Given proper training and time, some among the technicians might well prove worthy of induction into the mysteries of the Omnissiah. For now, they would be observed at their duties while the true tech-adepts went about correcting the effects of decades of ignorance and ineptitude. Magos Scauth, as senior adept, was simultaneously scathing in her criticism of the existing state of affairs and optimistic that the bones of the ship were solid and matters could be set right. As a born perfectionist, it might be years before Scauth pronounced herself satisfied, but Glory's mechanisms would be in good hands in the interim.

During the two days spent waiting for the roiling warp to subside, a substantial transfer of crew took place, both steady officers and enlisted personnel, no doubt liberally sprinkled with adherents of the death cult, though of course Rajender was given no names as to who these individuals might be. Whether the cult would ultimately take root aboard Glory was an open question, but for now, Rajender had suitably loyal and ruthless agents aboard.

An astropathic dispatch to Port Wander was acknowledged in short order. A repair barge would be dispatched under escort by two destroyers of Battlefleet Calixis. Depending on what the Fleet found, there might well be consequences to Traveler's owners for wasting His Navy's Most Valuable Time by braving the Koronus Passage unprepared. If the transport could not be fixed, it was unlikely the pilgrims would reach Footfall. The navy was not in the business of charity, and few would be able to pay for passage a second time.

Satisfaction and Glory made the warp transit early in alpha shift of the third day, the smaller ship settling into the light cruiser's wake. Aside from a single night of unsettling dreams of something large and unnatural gliding alongside the ship, which in turn stirred up certain flighty members of the crew, the transit was uneventful, culminating in a brief drop into real space well outside the Furibundus system to check bearings and make whatever esoteric peparations the navigators deemed necessary for their voyage to the pulsar designated Magoros. Now clear of the Maw, the crew's mood lifted somewhat. Although no warp transit was routine or pleasant, the worst was surely behind them. Glory remained in formation, and according to the navigators, they would surely notice and be able to track her were she to fall away.

Some two weeks after departing the Battleground, the two ships dropped out of the warp some ten AUs from Magoros. From the bridge, the explorers observed as their crew undertook an augur survey of the system. This was interrupted around ten minutes in by a sleet of radiation, which thoroughly degraded augur returns and caused the void shields to flare with shed energy. An unshielded hull might block out the pulsar's deadly radiation, but it would be best not to put that to the test. At any rate, both ships had weathered the burst well enough, and another hundred odd minutes should pass before the next struck. Time enough for a decent augur return.

With time, three worlds revealed themselves to the augurs. Closest to Magoros was a blasted, tidally locked cinder of a world, most likely scoured clean of all life by the sleeting radiation. Further out, in what might charitably be termed the habitable zone, hung a globe of dust grey. Against all odds, augurs registered an oxygen-nitrogen spectral return, suggesting the presence of at least some life. Orbiting further out again was a world with an atmosphere more fluid than gaseous, frozen well beyond human tolerances, but still within the limits of the ship's void suits. Finally, encircling the system well beyond Satisfaction's orbit, drifted chunks of ice and rock, forming a vast dispersed halo of material.

These were the points of interest in the Magoros system, any one of which might be the final resting place of the Righteous Path.

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby Jak Snide » Sun Apr 17, 2011 2:16 pm

Rajender stared out into the void, as if his eyes could spot their prize at such astronomical distances. The past two weeks had left him in good spirits and he'd often commented to his closest aides how pleased he was that the newest members of the dynasty were proving worthy of his trust. He'd ordered a fraction of the Satisfaction's astropaths aboard the Glory all the same. Vox-casts could be jammed and muddled but the arts of astrotelepahty, while theoretically capable of being impeded, transcended the physical realm. Any mutiny wouldn't last long without the benefit of surprise. Fel was a different matter. He'd ordered the augurs to search for a trace of his ship's passing. The man had made an attempt on his life and sought to steal his birthright. They were a long way from Malfi, but he'd deemed that adhering to the rules of vendetta was appropriate. Besides, what would it say about him if he let the man live? Such a black mark on the dynasty's history would simply not do. No, Fel would have to die.

Well, at some point at least. He wasn't about to lose sight of why they'd journeyed all the way here to begin with. To that end he'd summoned Dauphin and Vipsanius to the bridge to scrutinise the augur returns with him. He expected the explorator's vast stores of knowledge to be of use and Dauphin, while a far cry from the loremasters other dynasties employed, had a knack for surprising him.

"The Righteous Path is hidden out there, gentlemen. Where oh where could such a fine ship be concealed?"

(Scholastic Lore (Astromancy) check, specifically focused on any astral phenomena that might be able to conceal the presence of a voidship.)
Last edited by Jak Snide on Mon Apr 18, 2011 10:43 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby Kelne » Mon Apr 18, 2011 6:24 am

(Just a quick note, as I may have been unclear, that the second, dust-grey globe is a planet like the others.)

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby ChristianC » Mon Apr 18, 2011 6:39 am

(I loved that big post of yours, oh beloved GM)

Vipsanius had, ages ago, during his time as a Lector Magistratus, tutored Scauth, then a mere adept of no rank, and while heated debated often arose between the two, now as well as then, he respected her hard work and dedicated spirit, but loathed her inability to think outside the dogma of the cowards who never looked to the stars and wondered, but merely plowed on, day after day, until at last the Omnissiah took them. And then, in their final moments, weakness was revealed; through dabbling with heretech, or forbidden experimentation, or worst of all, a completely plain and boring life. Why bottle your curiosity up when you could unleash doses of it every day?

She had not found his ideology to mesh with hers, and they had left it at that. Now he left her to the Glory entirely, it was her task to oversee the repairs and modifications, and he knew she would see it as a great honor. Vipsanius himself would devote time to probing and poking the ex-captain when alone, and work together with captain Rajender in the open to finding The Righteous Path.

While certainly not an astropath, Vipsanius had the amazing gift of Logic at his disposal, and studying charts and theorizing, he presented his own ideas to the young but courageous Rajender.

"We will find it, I assure you. A ship that size will appear, whether it like it or not, in due time."

(I'm trying to use Logic or any other skill available to me to help Rajender out. I doubt what I do have can find it out alone of course.)

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby Kelne » Mon Apr 18, 2011 7:19 pm

Scholastic Lore (Astromancy): Even for a ship the size of the Righteous Path, there are any number of possible hiding places. A powered-down ship, cold and drifting against the void, would take a close-range augur sweep to spot. Even vessels underway can be difficult to spot if you don't know where to look. They are, after all, smaller than planets by several orders of magnitude. An augur sweep from orbit would easily pick up a planetside wreck the size of the Righteous Path, so investigating each planet in turn would soon eliminate them from the search. The halo of rock and ice is another matter. Dispersed or not, picking out a ship within that vast ring would be close to impossible without some idea of where to begin.

Logic: A perusal of the system map initially fails to net any insights. The four potential hiding places remain the same, with no easy way of eliminating them from the search save by investigating each in turn. Except... There is a fifth point of interest in the Magoros system - the pulsar itself. Those regular, predictable blasts of radiation will strike anything in their path. Strike, and be reflected. By tuning the augurs to detect these smaller spikes of reflected radiation, you should be able to spot and, given time, pinpoint any free-floating objects such as ships. While searching the Halo, this method ought to extend the effective range of the augurs somewhat, though given the amount of debris contributing to returns, it's no magic bullet.

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby ChristianC » Thu Apr 28, 2011 9:22 am

Vipsanius wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth and setting up a system to keep watch and register any blips or blops that would show up (naturally while showing the proper respect to the ancient machinery, lauding it in praise and ungents) he presented his findings to the captain Rajender, leaning slightly on his staff and chuckling darkly.

"It is not perfect, but things rarely are. Eh heh, and when they appear to be, one begins to question the definition of the word, do you not agree? An interesting aspect of our nature, that desire for perfection... or the delusion that we have reached it."

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby Jak Snide » Sun May 01, 2011 7:16 pm

Rajender suppressed at scowl, upset at not having been delivered the answers he desired. Composure, he reminded himself, was paramount.

"Then we shall search where we can. Helmsman, set a course for the frozen world. Orbital auspex sweeps will confirm if the Righteous Path has been planet-bound for all these years."

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby Kelne » Sun May 29, 2011 6:35 am

Imaging radar swept across the icy planetary surface as Satisfaction hung in orbit. Almost immediately, a strong return registered, a solid mass of metal located in an impact crater on the planet's night side. Optical scopes revealed a jagged peak of corroded metal rising up out of a peak of liquid gases. All about the surrounding landscape were growths reminiscent of foliage, some doubtless malign form of xenos life having clearly established itself despite conditions which would kill any organism born of Holy Terra.

No identifying marks could be distinguished on the ship, nor would any machine spirit respond to transmitted queries. The ship was cold as the lake in which it rested, and had presumably been dead for some time. Certainly it was no grand cruiser, being closer in size to Glory than satisfaction, but there might be something to be learned from it nonetheless. If a mission were to be launched, the party would have some seven hours before the pulsar rose above the horizon and washed the surface in its deadly radiation.

Meanwhile, Vipsanius' efforts had yielded results. A series of returns from the inner system indicated a free-floating object between the orbits of the first and second planets. Cogitators were still nailing down a precise orbit, but it was small, with a hard return, suggesting a ship or other artificial structure, and an intercept course could certainly be refined in flight.

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby Jak Snide » Sun May 29, 2011 1:50 pm

Rajender was ecstatic when the first returns came in. His excitement was quickly curbed by the news that it was not the Righteous Path. Still, it was something. Even if it turned out to be a dead end it might contain plunder of its own and, at the very least, would get him off the ship. He loved the Satisfaction, but after weeks in the warp he was itching to set foot ashore. Particularly on virgin soil. Or ice, as the case may be.

He ordered for an away team to be prepared, trusting in others to handle the details, and ready to lead it down to the frozen world.

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby ChristianC » Wed Jun 22, 2011 4:12 pm

"Lord Captain, congratulations on your find..." Vipsanius remarked as he joined the captain on the bridge, the aged mechanicus resting on his staff and looking into the void from the viewport.

"My fellow priests and I have found another object floating between the second and third worlds... probably nothing of immediate value but, aha... perhaps interesting none the less." he turned to press a few buttons and a monitor displayed the information they'd uncovered. "I suggest... you leave for the planet and the crashed ship, and I will maintain vigil here on the Satisfaction, scooping out that little prize while waiting for you, hm?"

((Terribly sorry for the lack of posts... ugh))

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby Kelne » Sun Jun 26, 2011 8:11 pm

With the decision made, no time was wasted in prepping a lander and departing for the surface. In the absense of an appreciable atmosphere, the lander's engines strained to shed a fearsome orbital velocity, finally bringing them in to circle the wreck, allowing the passengers to take in the sight as revealed by the lander's floodlights. The prow was lost to them, its no doubt mangled condition concealed by the lake in which it was submerged. The rest of the ship rose more or less vertically, as if it had rammed the planet and lost. Its construction was crude by Imperial standards, great plates of metal seemingly riveted into place forming the hull, with protruding towers stretching from the upper decks and massive engine cones emerging from the stern. Even a short visual inspection was sufficient to allow one to guess at the builders - Orks.

Still, xenos-built or not, the ship was unquestionably dead. And surely even orks could not survive in such a hostile environment without some form of power to warm and supply them with breathable air. Few landing sites presented themselves, with any boat decks closed and inaccessible, but there was a flat area formed at the juncture of some bracing struts with the hull, not far above the lake's surface. Airlocks ought to provide entrance to the upper decks, or perhaps one of the intact towers. Certainly those crewmen accompanying Rajender, Dauphin and Race could be relied upon to force an entry.

(With Vipsanius remaining aboard ship, Christian will be running Race for the mission.)

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby Capntastic » Mon Jun 27, 2011 3:39 am

Decked in what could be described as his 'war outfit', the Dauphin found his way to the lander. Black jodhpurs, tucked into marvelously reflective white platform boots. A stiff black vest with gold piping and buttons covered his chest, and was worn over silvery gossamer xeno-mesh. A shaggy black and white fur mantle was pinned about his shoulders- the hide of some near extinct xenobeast. The inner side of the mantle was lined with cameleoline, and the interplay of its special light-distorting properties and the proximity to the xeno-mesh granted an almost ethereal quality when he spread his arms. Those who knew Dauphin for any basic amount of time knew he would be aware of this and abusing it. Underneath the mantle was his weapon's battery pack. A thick and curiously unadorned black cable connected it to his hellgun, which was brass plated to match his inferno pistol, still belted at his hip in its slick pearlescent holster. His silver and gold chronos were worn, as always, though the delicate faces had been covered with small metallic discs to protect them from scuffs. His black hair was knotted back into a ponytail. He had donned a peaked cap, gleaming white, with a gold braid of rope across the visor, in the military fashion. Affixed to the front was a gold pin of the aquila, the eyehole being visible on the head of the eagle to the right. An amusingly subtle heresy. White streaks of paint were dabbed across each cheek in a painstakingly 'rough' manner. The look was completed with his opaque white shades. And his smirk.

That smirk was directed at Race now, with sly glances jabbed at Rajender occasionally. He clicked his alternating white and black fingernails on the stock of his hellgun.

"I won't have to be reminding you or the men what the punishment for cowardice on the battlefield is, eh?"

He did not wait for a response before tapping the contents of a small gold salt-shaker-looking device onto his extended tongue.

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby Jak Snide » Mon Jun 27, 2011 6:37 pm

Rajender's armour, exquisitely wrought as it was, was fully enveloped beneath the voluminous cloak that he wore over it. He didn't care to remember the exact breed of beast that had lost its life in the process of making such a fine garment. For now it was simply enough that it would protect him from the lethal temperatures beyond the hull of their lander. His mind drifted back to the time of his transfiguration, when plasma cores had burned themselves out and he'd been left stranded in the cold, dark hull of a ruined voidship. He imagined that the experience within the wreck would be similar, albeit with the addition of murderous xenos. They were just simple brutes, of course, and little threat to a well armed team of dynasty armsmen. Of this he was certain, in the way only a man who had never fought greenskins in his life could be.

"No man of the dynasty has ever fled from a foe." he announced, turning back to face Dauphin and the men. The next sentence took a moment to emerge, the other man's indulgence taking him back to another part of his past, one he remembered far less fondly than that trial of faith. "Let alone one as wretched as the orkoid menace. I know that every one of you will give it your all in there. A sacred vessel is at stake here, a ship which brought about the birth of the Calixis Sector. While these greenskins are of limited intellect at best they may hold some clue which could point us towards its location or, worse, holy relics stolen from its hallowed holds."

He looked to Race, entrusting the master-at-arms with the direct command of the men and the breaching of the wreck.

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby ChristianC » Tue Jun 28, 2011 5:06 pm

"Orks..." Race had muttered to himself on the way down and a slight smile had crept on his scarred face as they made to land. He, unlike the others, had opted to remain in the enforcer-grade carapace armor he wore on deck, albeit of course with the addition of seals and apparatuses to keep him alive should he be exposed to the harshness of the void, or the lack of a breathable atmosphere. His rugged appearance had not changed remarkably, but the two bolt-pistols, each in a large holster, and the power-sword strapped to his back spoke lengths about what he was expecting. The armor looked utterly uncomfortable to wear, bits and pieces strapped on as if to add protection to certain areas, but for those who had been in a fight with him on their side, there was no denying that he was a monster on the battlefield.

His sullen look remained as he checked his weapons an additional couple of times before he sent the coded signal, three short taps, one long burst and an additional two taps, to the men waiting to get into the fray. Once he got confirmations from each group leader, he stood up in the shuttle, turning to them.

"You all know I'm not a man prone to long speeches, so I'll make this the usual. We might be going head to head with greenskins in a few moment. Not much to know except the golden rules." He took out a cigar and bit off the end, lighting it while he kept talking. "Shoot them hard, shoot them fast. Anyone that's down, you shoot again for good measure. They might not stay down anyway, which is why ideally you'd bring some flamers with you. We don't have those, but we don't plan on sticking around any longer than necessary. If the orks want this piece of rock, they can have it."

He turned to the Dauphin and scoffed, "I've killed more of those greenskins than you have men under your command, the day you see me turn tail against one of them is the day you're free to shoot me in the neck... sir."

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby Kelne » Wed Jun 29, 2011 7:33 am

(Just a quick note that we're dealing with an airless environment here, so it's void suits for all. The lack of atmosphere is the main reason you can be... well, sort of certain the orks are dead.)

Outside the lander, the stars shone down, hard and unchanging in the absens of an atmosphere to scatter their light. Here and there on the wreck's corroded hull, some of the alien vegetation stubbornly clung, eking out a precarious existence. An existence abruptly ended as the merest touch shattered them, fronds falling to litter the hull.

Being typically orkoid constructs, the airlocks were unsophisticated, responding to a brute force approach. It took time to unjam the long-frozen doors, but the only concession to safety was that the doors opened inward, meaning they would (theoretically) be impossible to force open if there was any appreciable pressure differential. As it turned out, there wasn't. The interior was as airless and silent as the exterior. The ship's orientation was going to make exploration inconvenient, fore-aft passageways becoming seemingly bottomless shafts, but the expedition had brought plenty of rope, and lift shafts ought to double as corridors. Thus far, no orks, alive or dead, had presented themselves.

With some five hours safe margin remaining for exploration, the question was whether the explorers would start with the ship's towers or try to penetrate deeper into the hull.

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby Jak Snide » Thu Jun 30, 2011 7:34 am

(Is armour being void-sealed a possibility, or is that something we'll need to look into acquiring later on?)

It didn't take Rajender long to decide on their destination. The central mass of the wreck was a likely to be a sprawling mess, full of empty spaces, ruined pipework and dead orks. The spires were a finite environment that could well be the home of vital subsystems or the quarters of high ranking orks. As it was, with the clock ticking and all, the choice was hardly one at all.

"To the spires, Master Loken." he voxed, trusting the others to handle the minutiae of searching those areas. With luck and the Emperor's guidance they'd find something useful or, failing that, something interesting.

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby Kelne » Sat Jul 02, 2011 7:21 am

(Armour with void suits is certainly possible, though characters will still be more vulnerable than they would otherwise be. Any tear in a void suit has consequences, after all.)

Passage towards the top of the tower was facilitated by an elevator shaft, which the explorers were able to march along, making good time. Here and there, they passed landings opening onto other decks, seemingly unguarded by any door. Yet another indicator of a certain lack of safety-consciousness on the orks' parts. Here and there, wreckage littered the shaft, including a thoroughly mangled lift platform, with several mummified greenskin corpses trapped in its embrace.

Mindful of their orders, none stopped to investigate, trooping on to the very apex of the lift shaft. The landing on this level was beneath their feet, opening onto a wide, dark expanse of a room. Their lights revealed numerous crude-looking mechanisms still bolted to the floor (some less than securely), and a few expanses of ripped-up plating where the machinery had proven too heavy to stay put. Somewhere, below and to port, shone a faint blue light, sufficient to stand out against the blackness, but not to illuminate the room.

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby Jak Snide » Wed Jul 06, 2011 5:42 am

Rajender signalled Race and his men forward to investigate the light. Throne alone knew what it was and, of all of those present, Race was the least likely to lose his head while investigating it.

"What do you make of all this, Dauphin? A mockery of a bridge, or something else?"

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby Capntastic » Wed Jul 06, 2011 5:59 am

Dauphin had threaded his hellgun's cable through a port in his voidsuit, and donned the bulky thing over his outfit. Only after double-checking all of the locks on it, and tampering with his microbead's frequency, was he content to carry on as usual.

Kicking at an ork's corpse feebly, Dauphin looked up to examine what Rajender was directing him at.

"I won't be making any assumptions in this situation, without more context. A bridge is possible, but the source of that light bears investigation- a power source for such a thing surviving in this environment for such a period of time could be a tasty piece of tech, or..."

He trailed off, glancing down at his voidsuit's boots, and paused to wipe it on the floor for a moment.

"There's no question that we need to check it out."

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby ChristianC » Fri Jul 08, 2011 7:03 am

Race gave a curt nod and, with trained hand-motions, ordered for a sizeable group of soldiers to follow him, their steps echoing down the corridor as they hurried towards the source of the light.

(This is assuming we have to lower ourselves to the light, otherwise it will be editted accordingly)

The men fastened their grappling-gear at the edge of the chasm and began to lower themselves slowly, Race the first one down. With one hand controlling the rope, his other was free to aim a bolt-pistol down the path. In the vox his gruff voice reported whatever he was seeing.

"No signs of life yet... think we- no you idiot, don't even touch the bodies, their spores can still be alive..."

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby Kelne » Sat Jul 09, 2011 6:45 am

The descent brought Race and the armsmen to the far wall, hardened steel interspersed with portholes and, thankfully out of the way, an empty expanse which had no doubt once contained transparisteel but now opened over the lake far below. Falling through that hole would be a bad idea indeed.

Moving towards the blue glow, they halted well short, taking in the source. The light seemed to emanate from the air itself within a small radius. Contained within the sphere of light were two orks, one on the large side and the other simply massive. The pair appeared to be frozen in mid-squabble, faces contorted in anger. The larger one brandished an oversized two-handed hammer, while the smaller gestured angrily with a wrench. Both wore crude void armour, surmounted by clear bubble helmets which left their features exposed and visible. The smaller ork also had a multi-barreled monster of a gun slung across his back. The object of the argument seemed to be a decent-sized machine of some kind propped against the wall (or the floor as the case might be) inside the sphere's bounds.

Each of the three explorers recognised the effect as a stasis field. Used throughout the Imperium to preserve holy artifacts or important individuals from the ravages of time, it seemed the orks had used one to escape the slow heat-death of their ship. Judging by the three mummified corpses, still sealed in their own void suits outside the sphere's bounds, there hadn't been room for everybody.

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby Jak Snide » Mon Jul 11, 2011 5:20 am

Having joined Race and his men, Rajender regarded the frozen orks with intense interest. He'd expected his first encounter with the greenskin menace to be in the midsts of battle. Instead he'd been gifted with a living still life, their brutish faces frozen mid-contortion for him to study. Their appearance as almost comical, their bodies misshapen and their expressions enraged, though the sheer size of the creatures kept him from forgetting the threat they'd pose if released.

"How long do you suppose that they've been here?" he wondered aloud as he circled the stasis field. "Centuries? Millennia? Did they too seek the Righteous Path, or are they simply castaways?"

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby ChristianC » Tue Jul 12, 2011 5:04 pm

"Hard to say, captain, sir..." Race chewed his lip thoughtfully as he levelled his bolter at the two orks, just as a precaution. "To me, it looks like they're scavengers going after the wrong pray... I'm curious why the have this piece of archeotech, however... perhaps a price claimed from the Righteous Path..."

He moved to light a lho-stick, but remembered he was in an airless environment and grumbled. "Going to be hard to move them if we want... it'd be better just to kill them while they're frozen, not sure what happens if you fire a bolter-round into a field like that though."

"We could just get one of the tech-priests here and hope they can figure it out. I'm sure old Rook wouldn't mind tinkering with this."

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby Jak Snide » Wed Jul 13, 2011 10:29 am

Rajender's eyes lit up as Race spoke. Of course! How couldn't he have seen it immediately? The greenskins had located the Rightous path and taken the stasis device from it. It was the only possible explanation.

"I don't suppose that anyone here speaks ork, hmm?" He paused, looking to each of the men expectantly. "No matter. See that Explorator Rook makes his way down here in good order." He was sure the good man would have some way of extracting information from the greenskins.

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby Capntastic » Wed Jul 13, 2011 11:43 pm

Dauphin was circling the device, and its scene, slowly.

His voice rang out sweetly over the comms system, as he swaggered about, surveying all.

"Race, I will need your men to gather as much metal cabling as possible. Split open conduits if need be, but I'll be requiring as much wire as possible. The finer, the better, obviously. Secondly, have them gather whatever debris they can- plates of metal, loose machinery- all of that. Pile it up chest high some distance away from the field. Nothing so organized as a fighting position- we want it to look like natural wreckage. We have some time before we'll need to extract ourselves; I'll say one hour and a half. So let's not be too hasty. Rajender, I believe one of your crewmen is carrying a portable power generator. Be a love and bring it over here? I believe we can pass the time by finding something to plug it into. I'm certain something will light up."

He glanced towards the Lord Captain and his Armsman and the assembled crewmen, from his perch near the field. It would've been impossible to not imagine the grin through his voidsuit's darkened visor.

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby Kelne » Thu Jul 14, 2011 12:10 am

Still keeping a wary eye on the orks, the men of the detail hopped to it to to carry out Dauphin's commands. It would take about an hour for Vipsanius to arrive on site, leaving Dauphin with plenty of time to set things up, or perhaps to go ahead and carry out his plan without the tech-adept. In the meantime, there were a few potential mechanisms to power up. A large chair suspended above them had the look of a command throne, and might well give them access to information. Alternatively, there were a couple of machines with no readily identifiable function, along with... Could it be a holo-tank? The lens array looked about right, if, naturally, rather crude.

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby Jak Snide » Thu Jul 14, 2011 6:32 am

Rajender ordered the man with the generator over to what he hoped was indeed a holo tank, all while watching whatever scheme Dauphin had come up with unfold. He could have asked the man what he intended, of course, but there was no fun to be had in ruining a good surprise. Well, unless he was planning distasteful or untoward, but what were the chances of that being the case?

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby ChristianC » Thu Jul 21, 2011 5:16 pm

Race gave a nod to Dauphin and motioned for the men under his command to do as the seneschal had requested, activating the long-range vox strapped to a man's back and sending a request for Vipsanius to come down to the surface.

Race stood back as Rajender and Dauphin went to inspect the wreckage, his eyes narrowed behind the protective shell around his face. He would've rather left the orks here, nothing good came out of the greenskins, but he wasn't going to tell the captain what to do, not when it was just two of the bastards anyway.

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby Capntastic » Tue Jul 26, 2011 5:55 am

Dauphin began fiddling with the equipment, gracefully threading cables into sockets and caressing toggle-runes to more optimum positions, working on coaxing the holotank to life.

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby Kelne » Sat Aug 13, 2011 7:40 am

Dauphin's efforts soon bore fruit, cabling awkwardly mating with the ork-tech and transferring power to the aged mechanisms. Start-up time was longer than in an Imperial device, and it seemed to be drawing more power than it really should, but on the other hand it was reasonably foolproof (it was after all designed to be used by orks).

Reading the star-chart which flickered into being above the holo-tank was awkward, oriented as it was at right angles to gravity, but it looked to be a real-space map of the Koronus Expanse, some stars appended with orkish glyphs, others not. At the centre of a display, a patch of green-infused space spread, and here and there other colours demarked... Territories? Warp storms? It was impossible to tell.

Four prominent icons presented themselves above a large, glyph-crowded keyboard - a galaxy, a ship (of orkish make, naturally), a firearm and a wrench. Tapping the ship icon brought up a schematic of the ship,in see-through, red wireframe form. More unreadable glyphs were scattered throughout the ship. Tapping the firearm gave an ork bashing madly at something with a wrench. Tapping the wrench icon led to a tank crowded with various tiny holographic mechanisms, some clearly weapons, others vehicles, a couple full-fledged voidships, and the rest of frankly indecipherable purpose. Tapping the galaxy icon brought Dauphin back to the star-map.

Alas, try as he might, Dauphin couldn't figure out how to manipulate any of the displays. There was the input keyboard, which caused matching glyphs to impose themselves atop the display (aside from the firearm, which continued to show only the bludgeoning ork regardless), but without some idea of what he was actually writing, no combination seemed to elicit a response.

Little had changed by the time Vipsanius arrived on the scene, to find Dauphin patiently trying to tease more information from some heathen orkish holo-tank, while the armsmen, having gathered up a decent amount of metal wiring and stripped it of its insulation with clumsy gloved fingers, were now coiling it about Dauphin in accordance with his instructions. Given the available data, Vipsanius was unable to infer why this action might be taking place.

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby Jak Snide » Sun Aug 14, 2011 7:02 pm

"Ah, Master Vipsanius." Rajender tilted his head to the tech-priest in greeting. "I believe that Dauphin has a plan that he requires your assistance with. I can't say that I'm quite sure what yet, but I'm sure he's got it all planned out."

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby Capntastic » Mon Aug 15, 2011 7:53 am

Dauphin stood with his legs and arms spread as two of the landing party wrapped his voidsuit in the looted wiring. It was looped about him evenly, enveloping him in a gleaming web. Slowly it took shape, as the strands were bunched up along his back and entwined with a thicker cable. This cable was spooled up in a messy coil to the side near the piles of broken machinery he'd ordered stacked.

"Vispanius, so glad to see you've arrived safely. As you can plainly see, I've worked out an elegant enough solution to this chronundrum. Of course, there is a task of the utmost importance that remains to be carried out- and I feel your technical aptitude will come quite in handy. That cable, attached to the apparatus I've just now designed and had constructed, will need to be grounded. If you would be so kind as to stand over there and hold it, I would be honored."

He indicated the debris pile, leaving Vispanius to his exquisite work, and then turned to Race and his men.

"Race, your men are to take position behind the barricade and be prepare to fire upon the orks as soon as they notice the field has dissipated. They seem to be engaged in a discussion, and it would be rude to interrupt so abruptly. Further, it will give me time to get out of the direct line of fire."

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby ChristianC » Fri Aug 19, 2011 9:09 am

Vipsanius glared at Dauphin and then glanced as the others present before tap-tapping his staff in the floor with a harumph.

"I was called from my most important work to hold a cable? Captain Rajender," his eyes fell upon the Trader's, or at least his orange optics did, "I am insulted. And dabbling with the crude and heathen technology of the orks?" He walked over to Dauphin and glanced at the cables. "Shoddy work from a shoddy technician. You're not fit to conduct the sacred duty of the Adeptus Mechanicus, but I would expect nothing more from a man of your... persuasion." He looked the cables over and then snapped for one of his retinue to rush up and hold the cable.

"Now, if there is nothing more, I will make my return to ship and leave you to deal with your greenskins."

---

Race nodded to Rajender and quickly gave his men the same order through a glance and a nod, all of them taking up positions.

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby Capntastic » Fri Aug 19, 2011 11:42 am

"I was hoping your expertise with both theoretical and applied sciences would assist in massaging all of the currents that will indeed be flowing through the cable. This is a job for the Dynasty's future that requires nothing less than perfection, as the energies within the bubble of chrono-force generated by this machine, though perhaps of orkish make, are under an undoubtedly ghastly amount of pressure. Should something go off half-cocked as I penetrate it... well, let's not worry our Lord-Captain with that possible outcome. But if you truly feel that your underling is the best person for the job, I understand if you wish to retreat from field work."

Dauphin wagged the cable.

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Re: Rogue Trader - Greed is Eternal

Unread postby ChristianC » Fri Aug 19, 2011 11:50 am

"Intolerable wretch!" Vips turned to face Dauphin again and he looked for a moment like he'd attack him.

But then he merely cackled and shook his head slowly, drawing back his hood and revealing a shaven scalp save for two braids going down it, countless machinery connected to it, including the large opticals and something erupting from where his skull and neck connected, going down it like a second set of backbones.

"Fine, I will remain behind if something goes wrong, but my expertise has already shown me it won't."

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