Vormav received the transmission from Mr. Asgard from his office he had been managing some minor clerical work at the time of the translation back to real space. Naturally he had been warned moments before by the 'blaring' alarm in his office that started going off when the bridge had increased the threat level. Fortunately one of the smartest things his predecessor had done was shove a pair of old socks into the horn of the alarm. So the blare was more of a dull groan accompanied by a flashing light.

++Aye, Mr. Asgard the crew will stay out of your elbow room. Will you be levying the militia?++

Vormav doesn't wait for a response to start issuing orders for all shipboard commerce to halt and all civilian crews to return to quarters. They knew what to do and the security forces would maintain order.

He on the other hand had no intention of being remanded to quarters. He hadn't left his quarters without his hellgun since he had been told of the alien on board. While it was murder on his back to walk around with the thing. There was a no replacement for ordinance when it came to peace of mind. He headed to the bridge. His post there was practically ceremonial but with the vessel potentially in the thick of things and his staff remanded to quarters there wasn't really anywhere else for him to be.

With the Pious Lament settled into the rigid confines of true reality once more, the Navis Primaris allowed herself to relax once more back into the Navigator's Throne. A soft breath drawn in and released as her hands moved with that strange sensation of infinite distance over the controls embedded into the arms of the Throne, softly whispered prayers directed once more to both He on Terra and the Machine God both as the rituals of decoupling were enacted. The steady melodies of the arcane instrumentations that surrounded falling silent with each step as she distanced herself from the enormity of being that was the Pious Lament and once more settled into the wasting, broken body that was her own. The perfections of the Machine left behind for the failings of the Flesh as the Priests of Mars might suggest in their more poetic moments.

It was always a moment of melancholy when she found herself fully disconnected, her purpose fulfilled for the moment and her duty seen to. The lingering effects of the various chymical cocktails continued to leave her feeling disconnected from her body as she awkwardly but painlessly maneuvered the Navis Prima and thumbed the gene-lock to activate it once more. With care, she began the final and arguably most sacred of her duties as a Navigator; the penning of a new chart.

It was a task that could take hours but the journey, as it was, burned clearly in her memory and so it's recording into a form digestible for others of her house came with surprising ease. The endless stream of calculations, considerations, observations, and notations coalescing into a detailed accounting that proved, if not the perfection of her genes, her talent to her peers... And for those who cared little of such things as trans-dimensional navigation... There was the fact the journey had been one free of complication beyond those uncomfortable moments where the boundaries between the Endless Sea and Realspace were transgressed.

Only when this was done, did Cennet allow herself to be eased from the throne upon legs that still did not register as her own to her cultivated brain but bore her weight with only the dullest echoes of protest that was so common to her withered and wretched limbs. It was by then the klaxons had begun to sound and so she guided those tasked with her care post translation to see her to the bridge. If only so she might know fully what was coming to pass and the real space hazards at hand.

Clad in the full regalia and leaning now upon both her staff of office and a grey robbed attendant, the Navigatrix emerged from between the armored blast doors and onto the bridge proper at the Navigator's station. Her gaze drawn towards the terrifying prominence of the Sink Hole and dissecting it within the privacy of her own mind. The impassive mask that hid her features giving away nothing of her thoughts but the tilt of her head betraying what demanded her attention in the instant.

It really took only a glance, and a moment to note the klaxons cadence properly, to note the shift to battle footing. A sensation of helpless anxiety churning in her stomach for an instant as while she might be all too capable of defending herself, she was useless in matters of a naval engagement despite an academic understanding of said. Her mind turned then with care to the notion of boarders and the protocols of the house guard that accompanied she and her three kinfolk. They would no doubt be at full alert since the initial translation and an altercation so soon after would do nothing to dampen that attention or the shift rotations.

"One would have hoped the greeting would be a more friendly one." the Navigatrix offered with no particular audience in mind and a certain mildness that expressed her lack of faith in any such thing given the circumstances of this initial venture. Her attention now turned in full to the hololithic display of the present tactical situation.

++Captain hasn't ordered it yet and it doesn't look like we'll need to enact LS protocols either. We'll try to contain any boarders with armsmen only. Keep your lads safe, keep the crew safe. Throne willing, I'll see you in the Conquest after this.++

Gregory is conducting another conversation at the same time, of course, gesturing to his team about their readiness and receiving soundless affirmatives in turn. He orders the vox-ops to begin a mike check from all defensive positions and mark them on the Big Map that is mirrored over to the bridge. Currently, the active battalions are in standard defense positions while the Breachers and Assaulters are in central response positions to plug any gaps in the various defense lines which have been drawn up throughout the vessel. The honor guard is concentrated around the bridge to defend the Captain and the bridge staff, while the reserves are watching over the crew quarters.

Green lights star to wink on across the boards as stations report their readiness, the macro batteries reach 65% very quickly but then progress begins to slow and grind to a halt at 82%. The flight wing reports all craft ready and standing by and the flight deck now in vacuum, though the ‘Grey Pilgrim’ is not on the list.

The two unknown vestals are identified as Eldar but no more detail is available for the moment, one of these vestals abruptly vanishes, the other continues to approach at astounding speed.

.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:53, Tue 07 Feb 2023.

As the last few stations report in, their respective indicators turn green on the tactical map. Gregory nods, and then voxes the Captain.

++All defense positions manned, ma'am. Defense lines established. We're as ready as we'll ever be.++

Scarlet gave a grunt of annoyance and turned to Gregory "I felt it again, the Eldar signature, right when that ship disappeared from the Auspex... either they gave up and slipped back to whatever emperor forsaken hole they crawled up from... or we have company" She said and rubbed her temple, slipping on her helmet and putting down the faceplate,  her blind, left eye starting to glow dimly as she prepared to channel the warp "I think its best we don't rely too heavily on existing chokepoints, I think it's likely that if they are inside the ship, they have ways to bypass our defenses entirely" She comments as she stood beside him, not nervous, simply standing ready for a fight at a moments notice.

"Throne blind it," Gregory mutters in annoyance. Those damn xenos would have to pull something like that right after he gave the Lady-Captain his word. Then again...

"No. 47: Don't expect the enemy to cooperate in the creation of your dream engagement. Suppose I should have expected that. I'll send out a general order to call sightings in immediately before engaging. If what you're saying is right, they won't want to engage us directly, seeing how they can bypass us. That suggests they're good at stealth or evasion, so we're better off negating that advantage if we can."

++Small addendum, ma'am. Might want to keep the honor guard close on the bridge. According to the Choirmistress, our xeno intruders from before might still be around, and they might have some way to bypass conventional defenses. I'll redeploy Major Lindsey and his assaulters to the bridge just in case.++

Explorator Draccius had not bothered to leave his laboratories for the emergence from the Warp. Such a routine activity hardly needed his presence. He had momentarily seized working as to not allow the discomfort of translation to disturb his work, but then resumed as if nothing happened.

The general alarm sounding a few moments later did make him interrupt his work. Really, did this ship have to fly into trouble so often? Still, he would be expected on the bridge so he stopped his activities for now, took up his axe-crutch and lumbered outside, and took the short route to the bridge.

Upon entering he found it in some turmoil as it appeared the ship was readying itself for possible combat. The Explorator noted the presence of the Inquisitor's entourage. His pallid eyes gave off no sign of emotion. He had worked with them more than most. Their presence did not unsettle him.

He took up his previous position near the Enginarium stations, peering over the data flowing across its terminals to understand better what the ship was doing. He had no official role in shipboard activities, the hallowed duty of ministrations to his ship falling to the Enginseer Primus in the Enginarium. The tech-adepts looked up briefly to see who had approached them but upon recognising him and his superior rank within the Adeptus Mechanicus went on with their work without further comment.

Upon turning to the Auspex he found the identity of what beset them. Eldar. A xenos species who used advanced but inherently heretical technologies. As all Xenos were enemies of the Imperium there was little surprise they had chosen to attack. Of more interest was the singularity and the satellites in the system. Perhaps there was a Mechanicus research device among them? Finding a free console he began the invocation of connectivity to find out, the approaching battle ignored as being inconsequential to his hallowed mission of discovery..

 With the command coming down from the bridge, the great bells of the Engineerium toll in urgent clamour, while countless vox-casts and vocaster announcements ring out across the length and breadth of the vessel as loyal Tech-adepts, laymen and dutiful soldiers of the Omnissiah rush to their stations - most don't arm themselves yet of course (the lockers in which weapons are stored are keyed to their shift-bosses and foremen) but the soldiery do, and the elites see to their armouring before turning their attention to the tending of their servitor forces.

 Tesla meanwhile, busies himself with the duties of bringing the ship to full war-readiness, completing the spin-down of the Geller fields to make more power available to the Void screens then ensuring and overseeing the charging of the capacitor banks for the lances, ensuring that none of the great reservoirs of power are tasked past their limit while still holding every last possible erg of energy in readiness for battle.

 As he does so, servitors despatched to the duty bring the panels of ceramite and adamant that make up his battle-armour from their mounting plates in his office and extend them to him so that he can - entirely without noticing as his focus of attention is elsewhere - be dressed and armed for battle.

As the Inquisitorial agents walked unto the bridge and requested permission to observe and she responds "Of course, but be aware the Xenos still have not been apprehended and one of the two unknown vessels has disappeared from augur, should you have any estroic method of tracking it I would be grateful"

++Acknowledged Asgard, can you authorise half of the tertiary troops to be equipped for roving patrols of the civilian decks and to prepare them potential boarders.++

++Etherics, can you tighten up the resolutions?++


OOC: Anyone wanna do an active augury?

++Will do, ma'am,++ Gregory replies. ++In case of boarders, everyone will still arm up, but I'll switch Reserve Battalion 2 from garrison to patrol status.++

With that, he turns back to the vox operator cluster.

"Small change of plans, ladies and gents. Cap'n wants roving patrols of the crew areas. That means mobilizing one reserve battalion and having them walk their beats right now, even though we're already at REDCON 2. If we do get boarders, they join up with and listen to the nearest primary detachment."

Normally, a ship at Readiness Condition Two (REDCON) doesn't run patrols, but in this case, Gregory sees the value in having reserves already in motion rather than having to figure where exactly to deploy them. The primary forces, in this case, would be the already-entrenched active battalion. Secondary forces would be his breachers, who are intended to serve as a quick response force to plug gaps. Tertiary would be the ones reinforcing Vormav's people in guarding the crew quarters, and himself and Scarlet. He has the feeling trouble's going to find his way to them soon enough, though...

"Also, we still have the gas grenades and riot foam from Vormav's boys, right? Get me one squad kitted for nonlethal and save me one extra grenade launcher with foam and gas rounds."
This message was last edited by the player at 00:50, Wed 08 Feb 2023.

Alexei had spend most of her time during the Warp travel trying to rest as best she could, even taking to the extreme to let the ships Chirurgeon just knock her out flat with sedatives for one evening of something resembling actual sleep. Her waking hours are mostly spent with the flight crews in the simulators, as it was a skill she wanted to keep honing and it simply helped her relax during a otherwise tense Warp trip.

When the alarm rang to prepare for imminent Warp translation she just rolled out of bed and braced herself as she was partially dressed to avoid being thrown about her quarters. Once the they found themselves safely within realspace again she got herself dressed and headed out to the bridge a lit Iho-stick in her mouth and a mug or recaf in hand that she downed quickly before stepping onto the bridge. As she settled into her position on the bridge she turned the mug into a impromptu ashtray. "Want me to aid in the hunt for the Xenos boarders Captain? I've got some experience in dealing with them."

"Take what you need to find it, alive if possible dead if not, assume there is more than one, if encountered report immediately" she tells the XO "But if we get into a battle here report back to the Bridge"

Staring into the occulus she felt excited to terminate these abominations and apostates.

The Emperor’s Glory is off the port bow, (front left), range 40 VUs and heading directly towards the Pious Lament. There are now about twenty Eldar ships 10 VUs of the starboard beam, (rightish), and they have deployed several hundred fighters. The fighters are closing but the ships are maintaining distance, jinking and turning in perfect unison which indicates that all but one of them must be holographic projections.

The Pious lament is traveling at speed 5 and heading towards the planet some thousand or so  VUs ahead

I have put a simple map in the ‘Game Map’, each square in the grid is 1 VU, the blue arrow represents the Pious Lament, the red arrow represents the Emperor’s Glory and the green arrow represents the Eldar ship that is still visible.
.

As much as he wanted nothing more than to grab his weapons and go hunting for a fight, his place was where the wounded would be. So while he did put on his armour, just to be on the safe side of things, and he did grab some of his weapons up, he stayed in the Hospice area to try and keep up morale and help with any issues or injuries that arose.

But he kept an eye out for anything unusual or any danger. He wouldn't hesitate to help put down any boarders.

Vormav continues his trek to the bridge. The ordered chaos of combat readiness swirled around him. Occasionally he would address a query from his staff through his vox bead. He kept an eye out. It was impossibly unlikely that one of the xenos boarders would wander into the hall in front of him. But is was technically possible.

Watching as the display showed nearly two dozen capital ships and hundreds of fighter craft. Moving to the augury station she asks the augury chief "Can someone focus the augurs on the Drukhari ships, they can't all be active ships moving in that fashion."

"Sorry ma'am, this xeno trickery has our instruments fooled, there is only one real ship and about twenty fighters," the man has not looked up and continues to concentrate on the dials and knobs he is constantly fussing with.

"If I may ma'am, our best guess, based on observation and human intuition is this one," as he speaks on of the many ships on the display glows a little brighter than the rest.

"We have a lot of resources trying to track down the missing ship ma'am, but links to the auspex fin keep going down and we are having to re-route our connections."
.

++Vormax to bridge. Given the abnormalities of the recent trip the reporting priority is a little messy. I've found smoke emitting from a ventilation duct. Not to be alarmist but I expect the undiscovered incendiaries have been deployed. Security and Engineerium to coordinate a response I expect. The thermal event seems to have gone unreported so far. I might suggest any teams have live vox or rapid check in's incase the the saboteurs target the first responders.

I was on my way up to you to see what the fuss was all about but if it's all the same to you I might check and see if anything important is on fire.++

Vormav is rather blasé about the whole situation. Weather the man is cool under pressure, unwavering in his faith that the Emperor will protect them, quite mad, or otherwise remains unclear.

++Summon a damage control team to root it out, perhaps use a servo-skull with a small extinguisher to map the ventilation shafts nearby++ she voxes back to Vormav as she makes her way back to her throne.

++Magos Tesla, I am getting reports of an auspex fin having errors, can you send a servitor repair team to diagnose an issue?++

Reports are coming into the bridge about fires in several locations but the damage team are on top of things at the moment and it's little more than an inconvenience.

Of more concern is the links to the auspex devices which are becoming more frequent and interfering with the ships ability to observer it's surroundings. Such deceives are spread all across the ships hull but the main concentration of the larger and more important sensors are in the Auspex Fin that hangs below the ship and it is these that seem to be most affected.

The ship's 'Detection' is reduced to +5 at the moment.

.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:57, Thu 09 Feb 2023.

There was no shortage of things to consider in the moment as the situation evolved but the Navigator's eyes never seemed to stray from the Hololithic display above her. Her pale mask catching the sickly green glow as she noted the relative positions of the Emperor's Glory, the Pious Lament, and the suspected positions of the Aeldari vessel that seemed eager to engage. The quiet regret burning in the back of her mind that she lacked a more studied understanding of the xenos species beyond it's reputation for deception, duplicity, and psychic gifts but such alone raised the concern of what angle the other vanished Aeldari vessel might pursue in the engagement, the rudimentary logic suggesting it might sneak into their uncovered flanks to nip at their drives.

She drew another breath then and closed her mortal eyes as she turned her head then towards the voice. The wretched muscles of her withered frame protesting at even so slight motion as she opened her third eye. It was, perhaps, an incautious action but the exquisite mask that hid her shameful countenance also spared any who might glance her way the baleful weight of her unlidded eye. She focused then on the subtle rise and fall of her breath and forced her attention to wander beyond the mortal frame and into the Void beyond. Her sixth senses worked desperately to sort the background noise of their recent translation, from the sleek and aggressive approach of the Aeldari, from the constant shriek of the Sink hole that was close enough to touch by celestial reckonings.

It was a task that proved beyond her in the moment and Cennet felt the familiar stirrings of rage and disappointment in herself at this momentary failing. A younger version of herself might have been incensed in the moment but that had been when she had arrogantly believed in the perfection of her genetics. Now, she was a more tempered creature... wounded... but focused all the same.

"There's a great deal of interference, metaphysically speaking. I can't quite pin down the immaterial shadows of our present company but will continue to try, Lady Captain."


Unfortunately, no success in taking the Scanning the Aether action for this round (PG 91 of Navis Primer.)

17:54, Today: Cennet Melek Shiraishi rolled 4 using 1d10.  Charmed roll (Regain used fate on a 9 or 10).

17:54, Today: Cennet Melek Shiraishi rolled 63 -- a simple failure using the Warhammer Test system with a target number of 55.  Fate point reroll.

17:53, Today: Cennet Melek Shiraishi rolled 74 -- 1 degree of failure using the Warhammer Test system with a target number of 55.  Scanning the Aether - Psynicience at -10.

 An alarm sounds on the bridge indicating the confirmed presence of enemy combatants in the blessed engineering-spaces, the specific pattern of chimes and sirens localising the violation to the auspex fin - it's by no means the only part of the ship with sensors, but it's by far and away the largest and most sensitive array of such things mounted on the hull of the Pious Lament and is usually considered particularly consecrated because of it.

 Which is probably why Jak himself indicates that he's redeploying from the Engineerium to meet with a small group of Cult Guard personnel drawn from the Aspectum Cohortis and determine the extent of the intrusion.

 Others are, needless to say invited to lend a hand (or mechandrite) should they so choose.

++Fire in the auspex fin... Yeah, I'll head on down.++

Gregory looks up at the rest of his team . They know from the look on his face what he has in mind. He then turns to Virk, his second in command.

"You have the con for now, V. Let me know if anything happens. Have capture squad meet up with us at the elevator with that launcher I asked for; we're heading down to the auspex fin to see if we can catch any rats."

On their way there, he tells Katyusha (the command squad's sniper/scout) to keep her eyes, ears and auspex alert.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:11, Sat 11 Feb 2023.

Scarlet gives a small nod of affirmative at Gregory's look and rolled her shoulder, grabbing her shock staff and snub-pistol from their place on the armoury wall and followed him down, checking the sealing on her suit as she engaged the life support systems, keeping herself isolated from the air inside the ship, in case a fire or other hazard had made the atmosphere inside the auspex array uninhabitable.

A few moments after her suit engaged its seal, the small vox caster on the front of her faceplate crackled to life, projecting her voice outside the suit. "Wonder how many of them are in there... I've heard some interesting things about the Dark Eldar... bedtime stories to keep children in line really, of the filthy Xenos who will steal you away and inflict unbearable torture, but It makes me think about how much of it was true" she shivers slightly, but steels herself, swallowing hard as they approach the entrance of the auspex fin.