The Pious Lament exists in real space where a moment earlier it hadn’t. To an outside observer it is a very unremarkable thing, one extra tiny dot amongst millions of others, all of which count as nothing beside the grandeur of the sink hole. On board the transition is marked by a sudden release of the tension that had been building slowly, and mostly unnoticed over almost a month of warp travel. Across the ship a hundred thousand pairs of shoulders drop and relax as their owner’s sigh and smile.

On the bridge the huge, circular display viewer hangs before the command station as the armoured panels still cover the windows, on it the presence of the Sink Hole dominates everything, only part of the arc can be seen from this angle, and that covers more than half of the screen even though the phenomena is several hundred light years away. It appears as if blue and purple gasses are condensing out of space and moving slowly towards the hole in the centre, getting denser, brighter and faster as they seem to roll through to the space beyond. One of the odder things about the Sink Hole is that it always appears as a circle, no matter what direction it is viewed from. Another oddity is that the stars seen through it do not match the stars seen by looking around it, several ships have been through to explore these stars but none had ever returned.

Dominating the floor of the bridge is the great hemisphere of the three-dimensional tactical display, currently showing things at a much-reduced scale. The Sink Hole is still the most prominent thing there, though the mechanisms are having difficulty displaying it’s unique qualities and it appears there to be the size and shape of a donut, made of bruises, near the edge off the port side. The Pious Lament is usually represented in the centre of this display, a tiny dot of light at this scale, identified by it’s floating label. As more data comes in other objects begin to appear, the star ahead, labelled simply as GIL 17/4, this is the destination and as it appears on the screen the nixie display above the mechanicus balcony lights up with it’s red neon glow, four days, seven hours, twenty two minuets and sixteen  .  .  .  fifteen .  .  .  fourteen seconds. Next to it are a series of planets and satellites, most identified by serial numbers but one as 'Gelron?'. The Empire’s Glory comes into view, several hours off the starboard bow, and off the beam on the same side, two more contacts pop into existence,  these closer, perhaps two hours away and marked as ‘unidentified’, all of these three contacts immediately start closing in on the Pious Lament.

Feel free to choose your own location and activity when coming out of warp, you may post about it here, or in the PMs as you see fit.
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 In the cavernous engineering spaces of the Pious Lament, a nightmare-raddled Explorator is lifting his own voice to the ceiling-spaces in praise at the head of three thousand laymen and adepts as the mighty Geller fields complete their duty and carry them through the Immaterium with no more than those nightmares to trouble them - swift and sure, the journey seemed to fall within statistical norms for astral phenomena and pre-emptive euthanasia and so there is much to be thankful for as the all-protecting shields are permitted their rest and shut down across the body of the vessel, to be replaced by the first-stage exciters of the Void screens, which while powered down for the journey now begin to be warmed up so that they can wrap their protection around the vessel at a moments notice.

As they emerge into realspace Searlait rises from her throne "Augurs active, full scan of the area" she orders as she moves to the edge of the command pulpit and watches the display as it staticed at trying to display the display the unreal yet entirely too real psychic maelstrom of the sinkhole.

As the countdown to their destination continues the first thing she notices on the 3D display is the Emperor's Glory, an image that made her grind the rail before her making her knuckles turn white. The second thing she notices were two unknown craft much closer and from the looks of it burning towards them. "I need these targets identified, class, origin, tonnage and anything else. I have a feeling we are about to have unpleasant guests soon."

++Talionis, Asgard, I want the ship buttoned down for combat and boarding, release all armsmen to staging posts, secondary teams as well. All civilians to their quarters and out of open spaces.++

++Zetsa have Umbra flight ready to fly in hour, don't launch yet just be prepared, on the launch cradles for immediate launch, Laurel have the guncutters prepped I may have need to visit another vessel with some friends, failing that we may need additional air support++

++Magos Tesla we may be in combat imminently I request you prepare you combat forces to defend the sacred halls of the mechanicum within the vessel, and potential other sections of the ship if needed. As well damage control teams may need to be activated depending on how this goes.++

++Vanlen, run the guns, full power to all weapons batteries and lance emplacements we might have a little fight coming

Following that she moves towards the exit of the bridge "All hands" she says to those on the bridge "I'll be back shortly, just need my spear" and she moves from the bridge to her quarters which are only partially transferred to the previous Captains chambers and moves to the armoury, one of the first rooms set up and with assistance from the few servants she brought with her disrobes and is fully armoured within the exquisitely wrought armour once belonging to St. Ashildr, plates of consecrated ceramite placed over the sealed grey body glove and less then a half hour from when she left she walks back unto the bridge, witch lance in one hand, storm shield in the other and pistols at each hip, she would be the epitome of Imperial saint or hero if she had but a long flowing cloak and stood on a pile of defeated enemies.

Most of the journey through the Warp was spent on the boring minutiae of listening to after-action reviews and double-checking Penderstaaf's summations and signing off on them. The breachers reported nothing and so did the search teams. Knowing that he couldn't keep his people alert 24/7 Gregory authorized them to stand down, but altered procedures somewhat so nobody ever went unaccompanied and didn't stray too far from the lit passageways.

The translation back to reality was mercifully brief and uneventful. This time, he made sure Scarlet was safe in the Astropath Chambers before assisting Katyusha keeping Slab calm and distracted. Once that was done, however, Gregory was on his feet again almost immediately, checking on all the battalion commanders and making sure their people were ready for battle.

As it turned out, this caution would soon bear fruit...



++Aye ma'am,++ Gregory replies, then opens a channel to the ops room.

++Now hear this; scramble all breachers, man all boarding defense posts. Crew sergeants to inventory all weapons and prepare to distribute. Upgrade REDCON to 2.++

He sends a message to Vormav as well.

++Master Vormav, the Captain's ordered all crewmen to button up and prepare for imminent boarding action. Let me know if you need extra men for anything.++


He changes into a suit of commandeered void armor as well, grabbing grenades and shotgun ammo but keeping his storm bolter in reserve in case he gets to cause havoc on the other guy's ship.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:04, Wed 01 Feb 2023.

Scarlet had gone to her quarters for the remainder of the warp transition, having slept through the transition back with little interruption, her encounter with the hallucinations having exhausted her. So she was understandably pissed off when the alarms started blaring and ruined her beauty sleep, putting a pillow over her head and trying to ignore them before she got a call from Gregory, rubbing her eyes and pulling herself out of bed, glancing down at her comfortable Pjamas, and quickly changing out of them and into the armour hanging neatly in its display stand, grumbling under her breath the whole while.

She arrived quite quickly in the operations room, in full armour with her helmet under her arm, giving a soft growl of annoyance as she approached Gregory, pausing in front of him before sighing softly "I don't need protection, but I appreciate the sentiment" she yawned and rubbed her eyes, deep bags under them from her rude awakening, stretching a bit as she looks around the ops room as people scramble into position "Im almost hoping we do get boarders, it will be good for my blood pressure to make a couple of them pop" She commented, almost entirely numb to how brutal that might sound to others.

The Inquisition team arrive on the bridge, lead by a tall woman in Arbitrator armour, now showing the rank insignia of a Marshal, while the others stay by the rear bulk head she approaches Searlait and throws up a crisp salute, ” permission to observe my lady? We will try to keep out of the way.”

The others are an odd-looking bunch, a wizen, stooped old man with liver spots on his bald head and bright steel on the backs of his hands and fingers, a thin stick of person, anonymous in a silver-grey robe with a face mask to match and an attractive blond in the red robes of Mars with delicate but complex mechadendrite peeping over her shoulder. Three servo skulls in various configurations float behind them.