The Pious Lament was originally built as an Overlord class Battle Cruiser in the Cupri Mundi shipyards in Segmentum Obscurus and launched in 454.M30 with the name Unitas Pugna. She served with distinction in the great crusade and in defence of terra during the Horus Heresy. She continued service in the imperial navy under several different names until 605.M39 when she was decommissioned and gifted to Admiral Gabriel Velspar along with Traders Charter in recognition of his services in the Imperial Navy during the The Ophidian Campaign.

The decommissioning involved a refit at St Jowens dock that lasted thirty years and resulted in the configuration you find today, more or less. Sadly Lord Gabriel died in 632.M39 and never got to fly in her, however his dynasty has continued and flourished and always maintained close ties with the Empire and the Navy.

The Pious Lament weighs 29.7 megatons,  is 5.07km long, 0.8km wide and 1.9km tall, she has 23 main decks and carries around 100,000 crew, (32,248 tech priests and engineers), supported about as many servitors in various configurations.

She is armed with a prow mounted Star Flare Lance, two Sun Hammer Lance Batteries mounted in dorsal turrets and two Mars pattern Macrocannon Broadsides.

Auxiliary craft and vehicles include on the hanger deck are three Gun Cutters, five Imperial Fury interceptors and six Halo barges, also a Land raider and two Land Speeders in the red and white colours of the Sons of Orar, two Rhinos, five Chimera, twenty Motorcycles, assorted ground cars, four Eight wheeled hybrid cargo transporters and twelve jump packs.

In separate hanger there is an Aquila for the Lord Captain’s personal use.

Additional facilities include a Temple Shrine and an Observation Dome.

The Pious Lament is fitted with Jovanian-pattern Warcruiser drives, Sterlov 2 warp drives, Mark-201.b Auger Array, Repulsor shield array, emergency Geller field, Vitae pattern life sustainers, voidsman crew quarters and a Shipmaster bridge.

Performance wise she is pretty much a standard Cruiser, but this is after she has lost some of her ‘edge’ over time.






Crew 100,000 (Competent)
Accl 2.4 g
Speed 5
Manoeuvrability +10
Detection +10
Hull Integrity 70
Armour 20
Turret rating 2
Spaces 77
SP 61 (63)
Weapon Capacity Prow 1, Port 2, Starboard 2.

On the hanger deck are
Three Gun Cutters,
Five imperial fury interceptors
Six Halo barges

Land raider and two Land Speeders in the red and white colours of the Sons of Orar
Two Rhinos
Five Chimera
Twenty Motorcycles,
Assorted Ground cars
Four Eight wheeled hybrid cargo transporters
Twelve jump packs

In separate hanger
One Aquila, Lord Captain’s use.

Other facilities
Temple Shrine
Observation Dome

Pictures of the 'Pious Lament' can be found in the game map. Please note that the Nova cannon in the prow has since been replaced by a star flare lance.
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This message was last edited by the GM at 12:59, Sat 30 Mar.

Rank 1
   Lord Captain, Searlait Saoirse

Rank 2
   First Officer
   (Piloting, navigating and fighting)

Rank 3
    Choir Master Telepathica, Scarlet
   Master at Arms, Gregory Asgard
   Master Helmsman, Eawynn Ligashar ex Hespex
   Master of Etherics, (Auspex control), Paklor Ank
   Master of Ordinance, Roscar Vanlen
   Wing commander, Simian Laurel.

Rank 4
   Umbra flight commander, Ravandio Rathnyr
   Carto-Artifex, Cadfiel 112, (Tech priest on loan)
   Chief Bosun,
   Infernus master, (fire prevention and damage control), Vernous Nox
   Master of the Vox, Gregor Yorick
   Flight Boss
   Astropath transendant, Faith

Rank 2
   High Factotum, Vormav
   Trade, supply, welfare and administration

Rank 3
   Chief Chirurgen, Hadrian Kennek
   Master of Whispers, Garu Finnigan
   Ship’s Confessor, Hormonia Wells (normally rank 4)
   Security Officer

Rank 4
   Archivist, Richard Manymump
   Purser,
   Ship’s steward,
   Twistcatcher, Johnathon Church
   Office manager, Holt Emerson

Rank 2
    Warp Guide, Cennet Melek Shiraishi

Rank 2
   Enginseer Prime, Jak Tesler
   Maintenance, repair and fabrication

Rank 3/4
   Omnissianic Congregator,
   (There are 32,244aditional tech priests and engineers in this division)

(Names and posts in blue area Player Characters.)

As this is a fighting ship, about 10% of the crew, (10,000 men approx.), are given over to combat and security. Not all of these are combat troops; the number includes dedicated support staff, also the pilots and drivers for the various vehicles and space craft. In addition to this there are an almost equal number of servitors, including heavy weapon and close combat versions, and many dedicated to guard duties, like the three that killed Lord Harington.

Of these troops, there are two hundred in an honour guard, always smartly turned out, well equipped and uniformed they stand guard duties on the officers decks, (one and two), the bridge, the temple and the Captains quarters and also provide a contingent to receive important guests who arrive on the hanger deck. If the Captain needs an official escort when she goes shore-side you will usually send twenty to a hundred honour guards, (depending on the occasion).

Two thousand men are ‘regulars’ who man the security facilities and mount guards and patrols throughout the ship as a full-time job.

The remainder of the troops are split into four self-contained units who have other jobs within the ship. They rotate on a fortnightly basis between assisting the regulars, military training and two periods when they do their ship jobs. Those on the military training phase are also on immediate stand by.
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This message was last edited by the GM at 11:01, Wed 27 Dec 2023.

The Pious Lament weighs 29.7 megatons, is 5.07km long, 0.8km wide and 1.9km tall, she has 23 main decks and carries around 100,000 crew, (including 32,248 tech priests and enginseer), and supported about as many servitors in various configurations.

General layout
In general, the rear quarter of the ship, is given over drives, Warp engines Geller field Generators, life support and much of the other machinery that makes the magic happen. The front half of the ship is mostly armaments and magazines while the bit in between houses all the interesting stuff.
The decks are numbered from the top with the bridge spanning 1 and 2. Among the rest of the facilities here are officers quarter on decks 2 to 5 with the Lord Captains quarters and some key offices at the top with direct access to the bridge. The Navigation Suit and Chancel of the choir are on deck 3, the Hospice is on deck 7 and the security office is on deck 18 overlooking the hanger which stretches down to deck 22. Below this is a large, relatively narrow fin that houses much of the auspex gear and other sensor equipment.

Crewing and responsibilities
The crew is divided into three roughly equal parts, each headed up by one of the Rank 2 officers. The Military aspect, under the 1st Officer, covers for all things military, including flying the ship, gunnery, the fighting troops and air wing. The Civilian aspect, under the High Factotum, covers trade, supply, welfare, security and administration. The Engineering aspect, under the Enginseer Prime, is a law unto themselves and beyond the understanding of mortal man, but basically keep the whole thing working. There is a certain amount of cross over is some aspects, the honour guard have sentries on the bridge and officers mess, while the policing and security of the rest of the ship is the responsibility of the High Factotem, except for those areas where the mechanicus feel they need to mount their own guard and patrols.

Getting around
Horizontal travel may be had via a series of transit cars that run in dedicated passages on most decks, or walking. Vertical travel is usually via elevators or stairways that are liberally scattered everywhere. There is one passage that slopes quite steeply and carries moving walkways, this leads from the officer’s deck towards the rear of deck five, down to the hanger with openings on each deck, this actually coincides with the forward bulkheads of the Machine Cult workshops and offices on decks six, seven and eight.
Running most of the length of the ship and spanning decks 17 and 18 is a long, very wide passage that allows large objects and very heavy machinery to be moved around internally and facilitates mas movements of personnel within the ship. Small vehicles, scooters and bicycles are used to facilitate movement here, as well as dedicated load carrying equipment. Over the centuries various private enterprises have been allowed to set up there and it has become known as Gabriel Street after the dynasties founder. At battle stations it is sectioned off by heavy bulk head doors.

Accommodation
Officer accommodation is partially dependant on ship board rank, on deck 1 with direct access the command pulpit on the bridge is the captain’s suit. On deck two are four suits for Rank 2 officers along with two for visiting dignitaries. The majority of the other officers have suits, or rooms on decks three, four and five though hubs of similar accommodation may be found throughout the ship. Deck 3 also houses shared offices for use by junior officers, the officers mess, dining hall, kitchens, gym, library and a small chapel.

Rank two officer suits are spacious affairs against the outer hull, there will be a large reception room with a tall, gothic window and access to salvation pod, an office, two bedrooms a bathroom and a small kitchenet. Rank three officers get smaller quarters, not necessarily against the outer hull and if so, just a large round porthole affords a view outside. There will be a small office, a spacious bedroom, a comfortable bathroom and a small kitchenette. Rank four quarters are never against the outer hull, they will have a spacious reception room which includes an office area and a has a kitchenette in one corner, a moderate sized bedroom and a small bathroom. Junior officers and ratings usually have a single room that also serves as the office with bathroom facilities nearby while the vast majority of Voidsmen, surfs and troopers live in shared barrack rooms with common bathroom facilities

Married couples share the facility provided by the more senior ranking partner or that awarded to the next higher rank if that in not sufficient space. There are also some specialist accommodations for larger families among the ratings.

Whether in the officer’s quarter or elsewhere in the ship, each accommodation hub has an associated dining hall, recreation room, laundry service and chapel.

Accommodation for the Mechanicus is dealt with separately and beyond the ken of mortal man.

Shipboard routines
The Pious Lament runs on ‘Ship Time’ for day-to-day convenience, this is 7 days in a week, twenty-four hours in a day, sixty minuets in an hour, etc, as is the tradition bought out from Terra. The work schedule for essential crew members follows four or two hour ‘watches’ as explained elsewhere while non-essential staff generally work from eight hundred to eighteen hundred hours, six days a week, with the seventh day set aside for rest and worship of the God Emperor, to which end crew who are not on duty are expected to attend one of two mass services on that day, held in the Hall of St Gothren.

For longer time periods and official time keeping such as the ship’s log, the empirical calendar is adhered to which breaks each year down into 1,000 segments of 8 3//4 hours, (near as dam it).

Uniform and behaviourr

The majority of the people aboard the Pious Lament do not wear uniform but clothing and PPE appropriate to their position.

Officers, military personnel and those servants who work on the officer's decks and bridge do wear a variety of uniforms appropriate to their station. The Velspar colours of midnight blue with royal blue trim.
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More detail will be added as it becomes apparent, there are pictures on the game map, diagram of the principle deck plan.
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This message was last edited by the GM at 12:56, Tue 20 Dec 2022.

A series of close set, armourglass windows wrap around the front part of the bridge, they are each about one-hundred-foot-tall and curve inward towards the top in graceful arc, the whole thing giving the impression of a bird cage. Within this cage is a brightly lit, golden bird, a vast, three dimensional aquila with a scroll across its chest and another at it’s feet.

The first scroll bears the legend ‘Unitas Pugna’, the original name of this ship, and forms the front of a balcony where the helmsmen are stationed. The legend on the lower scroll is ‘The Unity of the Battle’, the low gothic translation of the name above and it is here that the Navigators are stationed, dwarfed by the immensity of the construct behind them.

High above, the twin heads of the aquila serve as the command pulpit, where the lord captain and his aides have an unrestricted view of the whole bridge and space beyond the window.

The sculpted wings of the aquila angle back towards the interior of the ship and house on the port side the communications station with gunnery to starboard. A sweeping stair case follows the bottom of each wing, connecting the top of the bridge to the floor level and the balconies in-between, while a number of doors are discreetly hidden behind the ends of the feathers.

Against the outside walls on either side, supported by ornate, cast-iron brackets, are two separate balconies. That on the starboard side is covered by hundreds of prayer-scrolls and purity seals and is the domain of the Ecclesiarch. Facing it is a much larger balcony bearing a single Cog Mechanicum, with many others scattered throughout the dense spread of complex controls and equipment that cover every surface. A line of five-foot-high nixie tubes are mounted above the scurrying tech priests, when in use each displays a number in the soft red glow on neon, which together give a visible display of whatever count down is most relevant at the time.

In the centre of the room at the foot of the aquila is the forty-foot hemisphere of the tactical auspex display, surrounded by its operators, many of whom are dedicated servitors hard wired into their stations. Similar stations are arrayed all around the front of the bridge beneath the windows while dozens of additional crew and servitors scurry between them, probably just for dramatic effect.

Guards in smart but functional carapace armour stand in pairs at key points throughout the bridge while others watch from observation points discreetly hidden amongst the décor.

From within the bridge the crowning glory is the huge, illuminated ceiling rose, an image of the emperor handing wisdom down to mankind on a forty-foot disk of coloured glass. This decoration is actually on the back side of the primary visual auspex display, in times of battle, when great armoured shutters close off the windows, this is lowered from hinges at the front to present screen where views from optical cameras around the ship may be viewed.
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The navigator has a suite of rooms in the officers’ quarters near the bridge including a bedroom, sitting room, bathroom, an office and two other rooms for her use. Adjoining this are three smaller suites for junior navigators and a set of shared facilities including a lounge, a small meeting room, an office for the Navigator's PA and sectary and a library, there are also several serfs in attendance.

From the back of the navigator’s suite an ornate spiral staircase wrapped around a small cylindrical elevator, rises up eighty feet or so to an anti-chamber and continues on to the immaterial observatory at the top of the ship. The anti-chamber contains a small table and easy chairs, a shrine to the God Emperor to the rear, a bathroom through a door on the starboard side and a door on the port side that leads on to a dimly lit corridor that descends at a steep angle to the left. To the front of the chamber an ornate armoured blast door leads out to the navigator's station on the bridge.

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This message was last edited by the GM at 21:57, Thu 15 Dec 2022.

The chancel is a large, vaulted hall on deck 3, decorated in purple and black it has many tall windows on the walls and ceiling giving a view out onto the stars above and reducing any ‘interference’ that might be caused by being in an enclosed space. Around the periphery of the hall are a series of doors, one leads out to the rest of the ship, three lead to the various Astropath’s quarters, another to quarters for the servants of the astropaths, one to the recreation rooms, one to the dining room, one to a small ‘oriental’ pebble garden and of course one the quarters and offices allocated to the Choir-Master Telepathica, very much a Rank 2 living space while the juniors are effectively Rank 3 with windows. They do spoil the Astropaths on this ship.
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The bottom floor of the admin office, (on floor 14), is vast, sports field sized space divided into individual cubicles by carved, dark wood panelling, here, hundreds of people shuffle the paperwork that makes the ship tick. Each cubical has a desk and each desk is loaded with typewriters, mechanical calculators with a handle on the side, arching desk lamps with green shades, black bakerite telephones, staplers, blotting pads, in trays, out trays, piles of lose paperwork and an interface for the pneumatic tube transport system that whisks documents away when sealed in glass cylinders. One end of the hall is dominated by a high rostrum bearing an ornate desk where the overseer hold court as he surveys his domain.

The space here goes up two floors and at the level of deck 13 there is a an ornate, cast iron balcony that runs around all four wall, it is supported on brackets of the same material and accessed by strategically spaced spiral stair cases that are equally ornate. This balcony gives access to the sixty or so sub department offices, arrayed all the way round, except at one end, above the rostrum, where the whole wall is devoted to the office of the High Factotum.

The Factotum’s office suite consists of an outer chamber, where eight desks accommodate the his imitate staff, a large, well equipped main office with a long window overlooking the hall below, three smaller private offices, for assistants and a small sitting room with an adjoining bathroom.
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The main hospice is a large, well-equipped facility on deck 7, adjacent to the diagonal access shaft so that it can be easily reached from all parts of the ship. Under normal circumstances it runs about a hundred beds in various wards, along with four operating theatres and an extensive range of additional facilities to aid recovery or help with diagnostics.

In times of battle, additional areas are bought into service and a large number of personnel whose ordinary jobs are not required in times of combat have been medically trained to boost the numbers, in this way the hospice can quickly expand to ten times its normal capacity, experience has shown that this is never enough.

In addition, there are seven other clinics scattered throughout the ship which are used as triage points in battle.

There are about three hundred medical staff under normal circumstances but they do stand watches.

The Hospice Servitorium is the workshop where servitors are created and existing ones maintained, modified and salvaged at the end of their useful life. This is not a fully-fledged’ Crew Reclamation Facility’, but a moderately sized laboratory workshop.

The main room is around eighty feet square with an elaborate ceiling sported on elegantly curves cast iron trusses. Operating tables and work benches are neatly laid out with ample lighting and lots of space between. Thirty or so humanoid servitor stand in three neat ranks along one wall, all linked to the wall by tubes and cables, servo skulls are arraigned neatly in a rack and most of another wall comprises of a rail fence that encloses a small Cherubim Averie.

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This message was last edited by the GM at 00:47, Wed 21 Dec 2022.

The officer's mess is on deck 4 beneath the conference room, it is a large, sprawling place, divided by panelled walls into various rooms and alcoves and has a low ceiling, warm lighting and plush carpets, except in the restaurant and dance areas, to give an air of cosiness and intimacy. All the furniture in the officer’s mess is antique, but maintained and kept in good repair by the craftsmen in the artisan workshops.

The 'Captain's Table', is a restaurant where officers go if they want something a bit special and don't mind paying for it, here the floor is polished parquet in geometric patterns.

There are three bars here, the Traders bar is the largest and serves as a general facility for the whole place, it features auto dispensers at one end and is mostly staffed by servitors.

The Explorer's bar is situated in the dance area, sonically screened from the rest of the facility, this place has a suspended, hard wood floor and a variety music is played here, mostly classical, waltz and foxtrot are popular, but interspersed with the occasional hymn, just to keep people grounded. On this dance floor and the couches and tables around it, officers can let their hair down a bit, though there is usually a member of the ecclesiarch stationed here to keep an eye on things.

At the far end of the facility is the Conquest bar. Staffed by people and serving a better quality of liquor, this area is reserved for the senior officers by an unspoken rule.

There is a nixie display above all three bars whose glowing numbers match those on a similar but larger display on the bridge.
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This message was last edited by the GM at 10:25, Wed 03 Jan.

On the inter deck ramp, at decks eleven, twelve and thirteen is the ‘Hall of St Gothren’, a central meeting place where the crew may be gathered and addressed, where the ships ‘occasions’ are celebrated, grand masses held and training or education on a large scale may be carried out. A central area, 200 meters by 180 meters is surrounded on all four sides by enough tired seating to accommodate 30,000 people at once. The centre of one long side, (port), is dominated by a towering statue of the Emperor while opposite a great golden aquila decorates the front of a balcony where the senior officers or instructors can address a crowd or watch an event in the field below. The spaces behind these longer sides and below the seating are given over mostly to salvation capsules and this is the main muster point if an ‘abandon ship’ is ordered. The forward end of the hall, beneath a statue of St Gothren, opens directly out to the inter deck ramp, mainly on deck 13 but with secondary access from the tiers on decks 11 and 12. Adjacent to these exits, on the ground floor of the hall, the seating givers way to a chapel or mortarium, bodies are kept here, in transparent cylinders so they may be viewed by loved ones and family while waiting for the funeral service which is part of the main worship event on the 7th day of every week. The tiers at the rearward end of the hall can be reconfigured for different uses and secondary access here is into the main crew accommodation areas. (OOC, in effect this is a 30,000 seat football stadium, with a crematorium in the corner.)
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Observation lounge, Deck 4
The Observation lounge is situated on deck four behind the Officers Mess and Temple Shrine and measures some three hundred feet long and eighty wide with a high, steeply pithed ceiling which like three of the walls is composed entirely of tall, delicate, gothic style windows with clear armour glass glazing. In the centre is a platform, raised some twenty feet on more gothic ironwork, accessed by two ornate spiral stair cases and a small elevator. All of the ships crew have access to this place and there are about thirty or so people from various occupations, sitting on the benches here, or leaning on the hand rails, only the officers are allowed on the platform, and here there are just two people, siting in the upholstered chairs and conversing quietly.

Black cells, Deck 20 (bow)
In the bows of the ship, as far away from the main living and working places as possible are the black cells, here are kept any unsanctioned psykers the twist catcher comes across in the course of his duties. They are kept here usually under sedation, for transport ashore on the next imperial planet where they then await the call of black ships.

Gabriel street, Deck 17 & 18
Running most of the length of the ship and spanning decks 17 and 18 is a long, very wide passage that allows large objects and very heavy machinery to be moved around internally and facilitates mass movements of personnel within the ship. Small vehicles, scooters and bicycles are used to facilitate movement here, as well as dedicated load carrying equipment. Over the centuries various private enterprises have been allowed to set up there and it has become known as Gabriel Street after the dynasties founder. At battle stations it is sectioned off by heavy bulk head doors.

The ship gains a modest income from renting out shop premises on Gabriel St. and a small mark up on goods and materials ordered in for these shops, (it all has to go through the admin office). The major benefit though is to crew moral, having somewhere you can shop for clothes or go out to dinner or the theatre, as well as having somewhere that will sell your artistic creations or where you can ply your trades as a seamstress or chief is immense. Gabriel street is frequented by all classes and ranks and is much like a busy highstreets at some times of day. Shop owners and their staff are all licenced, many are run by people in there down time, often job sharing with people from different watches, some are wives or children, aboard as a concession but without their own jobs on the ship, some are beyond working age or medically exempt from service but quite a few are independent traders who pay for their food and logins in addition to the privilege of running a business here.
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This message was last edited by the GM at 09:41, Wed 12 Apr 2023.

The vast towering temple stretches out four hundred meters over the stern of the vestal and throbs with raw power from the mighty engines below it. Around three sides the stained-glass windows reach sixty feet up to the ornate gothic arches of the ceiling. Behind the windows the heavy armour plating of the hull is brightly lit and painted to give extra dimensions of colour and vibrancy to the glorious scenes depicted in the glass. The air hear is rich with incense and full of the bright, choral sounds from the many cherubim that circle the rafters and the deep, sonorous, tones from the large choir of Ecclesiastical Adepts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwKHbMxBzPY
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This message was last edited by the GM at 13:47, Tue 20 Dec 2022.

Meeting room three has the word ‘Loris’ on the door for no reason that any one knows, and like the other meeting rooms is practical, rather than decorative. The room is square with mid blue carpet, light blue walls and a white ceiling. There is circular, polished wood table in the centre, large enough to seat six in comfortable chairs. Built into the centre of the table is sonic damping field generator, but even when this is off sound in here is muffled by the acoustic absorbing materials in the walls and ceiling and the plush, but not exotic carpet on the floor. Daylight coloured lumens near the corners of the ceiling throw a bright even light over proceedings, though less so from one of these that seems as if it might be failing, and shows off the colours on the odd mix of pictures around the room, one portrait, two landscapes, two spacescapes one still life and two abstracts, one of which, though pleasant is almost certainly of exenos origin.

The meeting has been assigned to the familiar surroundings of Meeting Room Three although since Searlait's last visit the pictures have all been removed, there are Mechanicus seals on all of the lumen and other fittings and an additional device sits on the table with a green tell tail that indicates the clear of any unexplained micro signals.

As before all sound becomes muffled when the sonic isolator is activated.
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This message was last edited by the GM at 09:03, Wed 21 Dec 2022.

Flight wing

Aquilla Shuttle (Into the storm p180) Crew 1, (pilot) Capacity (12)
Grey Pilgrim

Gun Cutters Into the storm p181) Crew 4, (pilot, co-pilot, Forward gunner, Tech priest.) Capacity 30 people or 30 metric tons
Incarnadine Drake
Autumn’s Fall
Ferrum Aeternum

Fury Interceptor, Umbra Squadron (Into the storm p181) Crew 4, (pilot, co-pilot, Forward gunner, Turret gunner, Tech priest.)
Umbra One
Umbra Two
Umbra Three
Umbra Four
Umbra Five

Halo Barges (Into the storm p181) Crew 2, (pilot, co-pilot), Capacity 40 people or 40 metric tons)
Onager
Ram
Aurochs
Grox
Ambull
Mukaali

Ground staff, two for each vestal, those for the Aquilla are included but separate.

Pilots and co-pilots 30, gunners 13, tech priests 9, ground staff 30, Admin 2, (adjutant sectary)
Note that one of the pilots is the wing commander, another is the Umbra flight commander, both Rank 3.
Note that the captain’s Aquila is usually piloted by one of the bodyguards.
Note that if everything is in the air there are two spare pilots.

Pilots rotate duties between all types of craft.
When in peaceful orbit exercises are practiced, otherwise craft can be rigged into ‘stimulator’ mode, this takes an hour or so to prep and reverse so only a few craft are used at a time and not if there is any chance that they might be needed. In addition, the entire wing attends several hours of class each day.

Although not part of the Flight Wing, the helmsmen and any others aboard who wish to hone their skills are invited to take part in most of the classroom and simulator training and flight exercises when they are taking place.

Flight deck operations
The comings and goings of smaller craft on the Lament, and in the space around it are the duty of Flight Opps, (Rank 3), assisted by a team of flight controllers who have an office integrated into the security office overlooking the flight deck. Responsibility for what happens on the flight deck falls to the Flight Boss, (Rank 3), and his team while the Load master, (Rank 4), is responsible for loading and unloading cargo and personnel if moving in bulk.

When in peaceful orbit the flight deck operates in a vacuum with one door permanently open, there are three pressure coupled loading doors for the loading and unloading of cargo, and a pressurised walk way for the movement of personnel to and from a gun cutter, otherwise people work in vac suits. It takes about an hour to reclaim the air from the hanger though, if necessary, the air may be lost to space in just a few moments. It only takes a few moments to re-pressurise the hanger by letting in the air from the rest of the ship and high-pressure storage containers.

Grey dove description
The cabin of the Grey Dove is surprisingly unitarian for a Rogue Traders private transport, there are two lines of six high backed seats upholstered in a comfortable soft grey leather, mounted on swivels that could be locked to face any direction but could also be configured as beds or, when flat, dropped out of the way into compartments in the hard, non-slip, industrial plastic flooring. The walls and ceiling are also clad in soft grey leather but there is no ornamentation at all here.
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This message was last edited by the GM at 11:25, Mon 26 Dec 2022.

There is a large, dedicated military operations room on deck 10, well protected in the centre of the ship and adjacent to the inter deck ramp, also on this deck are accommodation for a thousand military officers and soldiers from the regular battalion, a chapel, a triage centre, an armoury, a gym, a canteen, map and planning rooms, several conference and training rooms and other facilities. A similar habitation and facilities are located at the forward end of deck 10 for the remainder of the regular battalion.

There is an operations desk on the bridge, up top, behind where the captain sits.
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Temple of the Machine God almost fills the entire rear quarter of the Pious Lament.

Set between the towering bulk of the two main plasma drives, a cathedral like space is set aside for worship of the machine god, the vast floor area can accommodate several thousand people, or be used to strip down larger items of machinery. The buttressed walls are the ornate casings of the plasma drives, laced with gantries and decorated with prayers, sacred diagrams and Adeptus Mechanicus iconography, every rived inscribed with its own tiny prayer. The ceiling, nearly a kilometre high, a web of ornate crane booms and I beam dolly tracking.

The forward bulk head caries a huge cog mechanicus, with a balcony in front of it where a priest may stand a hundred meters above the ground back lit in red and in the glare of many spotlights, yet still be dwarfed by his surroundings.
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Just aft of the flight deck, just below the ceiling with an unrestricted view of the comings and goings, sits the security office, a large unitarian place where a hundred or so officers monitor activity throughout the ship via a vast network of image relays. From here the force of fifteen hundred security guards can be controlled and dispatched, in some cases through dedicated security corridors. It is here that access codes are issued and remote access granted to high security doors at key points within the ship. Behind the Security office is an elaborate suite of cells and interview rooms, offices, canteen, barracks receptions and even a court room.

There is are three interrogation rooms incorporated into the security suite

The first is a small, ‘neutral’ room, decorated in pale grey with soft lighting. There is a table here and several chairs, a camera in each corner of the ceiling and just one door for access. The wall opposite the door is transparent from the outside but that is not apparent from within.

The next, slightly larger than the first is designed to disorient the subject, it is the same size as the first room and the layout looks similar at first glance however, the décor is polished stainless steel that reflects the harsh blue lighting, the floor slopes slightly, as do the walls and ceiling so that there are no right angles here, the subject’s chair and table are also stainless steel and fixed in place, the chair being a little to low, a little to far away and sloping slightly to the front left so that effort is needed to stay  put, also the slippery surface is peppered with tiny holes through which lubricant or other liquids may be introduced or syringes may administer a variety of drugs. Speakers can be used to introduce white noise, hymns of praise or a variety of sonic disruptions and the one-way mirror is obvious from within. The interrogator’s chairs are not fixed, quite comfortable and designed to compensate for the sloping floor. The wall behind the interrogator’s chairs is segmented and can be opened to reveal room three, and just doing so is often enough to break the resolve of even the toughest cases.

Around the walls of room three are all manner of torture devices, ranging from the simple hot irons and electric shocks, to the most elaborate of racks, iron maidens and crushing devices, although they are all functional their presence is more cosmetic than practical as dominating the centre of the room is an excrutiator of huge proportions, a device that can replicate the purpose of all the other machines at once, for weeks on end, without letting the subject die, or even lose consciousness.
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The long grey table that dominates the centre of this room could easily seat sixty people and like most things in the senior officer’s area, was ancient but well cared for and still fully functional. The room itself has a high ceiling painted with trompe l’oeil clouds against a pail blue sky that can been seen through the grey marbled arches that support it. The walls are clad in abstract tapestry with a muted repeating pattern in blue, grey and white that seems to suggest the taming of the warp and the chairs and other upholstery are covered to match. Doors, frames, skirting and the table and chairs themselves are all made from a rich and highly polished exotic grey coloured wood. The whole effect is tranquil. Electronics in here, including privacy devices, are accessed via local interfaces built into the table at each station.
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