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01:56, 22nd May 2024 (GMT+0)

Chapter 4, Shadow of the Sink Hole.

Posted by alphapredFor group 0
Jak Tesla
player, 179 posts
I have loved the stars
So do not fear the night.
Wed 12 Apr 2023
at 23:22
  • msg #4

Chapter 4, Shadow of the Sink Hole


 Jak takes some modest amount of time to secure the Eldar cutting device that's mounted on the floor of the Temple-chamber - sealing fluid is used to impede its process and demolition charges are attached to it to ensure that it can be 'deactivated' in a heartbeat, after which a team of tech-savants with a range of auspexes are deployed to gather information on the filthy xenotech and its operation, as well as determine how it may be safely deactivated.

 The Explorator meanwhile, sweeps from job to job until most of the emergencies and fires have been put out, then devotes himself to arranging for a means to address their ship problem. Now that there's time, he has several grav-lifters fitted to a selection of hull plating in the temple-chamber, positioned so that they can rapidly clamp over the hole should decompression occur (with redundancy of course), after which he authorises a handful of voidsmen to leave the ship to acquire pict-images of the Eldar vessel from the outside, hopefully letting them see how the cursed thing is actually attached and to provide insight as to how they're going to pry it off.

It's during this process that he first gets made aware of energy build-up in the hull of the Eldar vessel, something which he orders re-examined since it is well known that the perfidious Eldar do not use technologies of the sort most commonly associated with those energies, but in due course he brings his findings and recommendations before the Captain "The Xeno vessel appears to be gathering power in a fashion most commonly associated with the opening of a breach into the Immaterium. This is not consistent with known patterns of Eldar activity, but my knowledge of Xeno technology is minimal at best and I am not able to provide informed recommendations at this time."
This message was last edited by the player at 23:58, Thu 13 Apr 2023.
Hadrian Kennek
player, 51 posts
For the God-Emperor!
Purge! Cleanse! Uh..heal!
Thu 13 Apr 2023
at 04:06
  • msg #5

Chapter 4, Shadow of the Sink Hole

Hadrian had been very busy since the Eldar attack. Many people had been injured, some minor but many not so minor. There had been a backlog of patients from a couple of the hotspots and it taken a while to make sure the staff had been both adequately stationed and spread out, but also supported and not driven to the point of making mistakes due to exhaustion and stress. It was a very fine line to walk really.

Then he tried to make sure people were rotated out as frequently as he could to get everyone on his staff back up to full strength and effectiveness.

He had made sure, at one point, to send a report up the chain of command of his findings. The bodies of the people. The Eldar weaponry. The remains of the Gate. He wanted to make sure everything was dealt with properly.

Then he had collapsed in to about a full day of sleep to recover his own strength.
Holt Emerson
player, 3 posts
Office Manager/Seneschal
8/8 3/3
Fri 14 Apr 2023
at 00:00
  • msg #6

Chapter 4, Shadow of the Sink Hole

“Inventory everything!” Holt directed the factors as they moved about their assigned sectors. “I want the dust from the sanitation servitors analyzed for chemical composition. Recycle the machine oil from the vats. The debris from the oil can be baked into the adhesives used to repair microscopic hull fissures and other support maintenance protocols.”

Holt thought he heard someone snicker as they shuffled by, but he did not lash out in anger. Let them think whatever they wanted so long as they produced the results he wanted. “Profit is not a word around here as much as a divine calling. Every Throne that gets added to the pile is going to end up in someone’s pension packet. Work like your life depends on it because at some point, it always does.”

That was enough of the motivational rhetoric. Holt shifted to checking his data feeds. The information that was flowing through the ether-sphere would prove valuable in their entire mission regarding Gelron and the Sink Hole. Materials were drifting through that torus in both directions and for Holt that meant profit both coming and going. He paused to make a note to check with his black market contact and cycled through his audio comm channels to catch the latest mining and shuttle reports.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:08, Fri 14 Apr 2023.
Searlait Saoirse
player, 182 posts
Banshee
8/8 3/3
Fri 14 Apr 2023
at 01:46
  • msg #7

Chapter 4, Shadow of the Sink Hole

The Captain stood in the centre of the flurry of activity, watching the senior officers do their job with her need to directly input her will. The Tech-Priest gave his debrief then she nodded "Do you believe we can use the guncutters to launch sufficient ordinance to cripple the Xeno's vessels propulsion. I wish to cripple them then openly threaten to dive into the warp and shear away their boarding tube. I have heard they are even more afraid of the Immaterium then even we are and wish to used that to our advantage."
Harmonia Wells
player, 18 posts
Fri 14 Apr 2023
at 17:03
  • msg #8

Chapter 4, Shadow of the Sink Hole

Returning to the war zone that was once a beautiful temple Harmonia is in much the same condition.  While unhurt she is covered in a thick layer of fine ash, some of which is still falling from her informal robes as she rushes up to the Captain's side to take advantage of the clear space and better vantage point where she can survey the damages.  Catching the tail end of Jak's explanation but not any of its context it still doesn't take long for her to put it together with the big hole in the ceiling that leads her gaze up past what should be the hull of the ship.

”As brilliant as that plan is it doesn't seem like they are likely to communicate or wait long enough for it to unfold, we should close the breach in the hull as quickly as we can, and do it in a violent enough way to get that thing away from the temple before it explodes or rips a hole in reality or whatever it is trying to do.”
Searlait Saoirse
player, 187 posts
Banshee
8/8 3/3
Sat 15 Apr 2023
at 03:20
  • msg #9

Chapter 4, Shadow of the Sink Hole

Searlait nods at the Confessor's suggestion and says "Yes that contraption needs to be removed before we run out of sealant for it to atomise. Try to safely deactivate it, failing that, try to launch it up their boarding tube into their vessel." she tells the tech-priest before moving off and calling over a mobile vox-operator. Taking the vox-horn she tells the woman to connect her to Wing commander Simian Laurel ++Wing commander come in, how are your birds faring?++ as she receives the response she takes it in then asks ++Is it possible for you to strike the xenos' vessels? return to the launch bay if you need to rearm, refuel, and repair.++ waiting for further response before departing and making her way to the bridge again.

Once on the bridge she heads for the communications pulpit and the Commander Mr. Yorick "I need you to send a focused vox blert, try to work with the Mechanicus to override their voxnet to play across as many of their voxes as possible. Record the following "Crew of the Emperor’s Glory, your Captain has led you far from His guiding light. He consorts with Xenos slavers to destroy his Imperium, and once just retribution is brought upon him he will turn on you, his crew, selling you to the xenos in exchange to save his own perfidious hide. Rise up and seek redemption! Overthrow the traitorous scum and I will ensure redemption for all, In the name of the God-Emperor! you know what must be done for your souls"

Once that message is done she gets him to do another lower powered transmission directed at The xenos craft to play 1 hour after the bombardment of the crafts engines "Surrender and tell us the plans that Galvin Vexel had. She will leave their vessel where it is and call off her fighter craft. Should they refuse, she will prepare the Pious Lament to jump into the warp in such close proximity to the vessel as to draw it in, but outside of the protective gellar field, opening you to the raw immaterium. You have 20 minutes to reply"
alphapred
GM, 303 posts
Listen to the fear,
it could be your friend.
Sat 15 Apr 2023
at 14:04
  • msg #10

Chapter 4, Shadow of the Sink Hole


Gregoire’s perimeter is established with well-armed fresh troops in defended positions while the remainder of the forces withdraw to rest and re-arm so as to be ready for whatever happens next.

Meanwhile mechanicus personal swarm through the vast, now ruined building in numbers not seen since the last refit and quickly  secure unstable masonry, repair fractured pipes and splice in new sections of cable, one team is dedicated to the alien device while other start shipping in large panels of armour plating  on grave lifters and begin fabricating a ‘patch’ for the hole in the roof.

Hormonia returns to her beloved temple to survey the devastation wrought by the invaders.

++ All fighters and gunships are intact Ma’am, only minor damage sustained, ++ the reply comes back to teh Lady Captain from the Wing Commander, ++ I’m not sure about taking out their engines though, you’d better hear Cpt Rathnyr’s report regarding that ++

OOC Just to make it clear, the device in the back of the temple that is trying to cut through the floor into the Engineerium has nothing to do with the build-up of energy in the Eldar ship, they are two totally different and unconnected things.
.
alphapred
GM, 304 posts
Listen to the fear,
it could be your friend.
Sat 15 Apr 2023
at 14:24
  • msg #11

Chapter 4, Shadow of the Sink Hole


On the bridge Cennet conducts her head count and is satisfied, Grund and herself were the only ones to take damage and Grund is now in capable hands at the Hospice.

Searlait enters the bridge and passes her orders to the Master od the Vox, who replies eagerly to her first instruction but doubt creeps over his face on hearing the second.

”I’ll try my Lady, but I don’t think the Eldar use the same communications technology so I can’t guarantee that they will receive it.”

.
Tungsten
NPC, 3 posts
Sat 15 Apr 2023
at 14:43
  • msg #12

Chapter 4, Shadow of the Sink Hole

The tall figure of Tungsten steps up beside the Lady Captain from where she had been standing at the back of the bridge.
”I’m afraid Mr Yorick is correct my Lady, communication by vox caster will not be possible.”

”I am not a xeno-psychologist but do have access to information not usually available to the general public," she nods towards the frail form of Obsidian who nods back in return, ”and we have delt with this race before. My concern is that they are defeated now, and the survivors will not want to fall into human hands so, as they have nothing to lose they may attempt to take this ship down with them.”

”I understand that there is a build-up of energy within that ship and, with your permission I’d like to take my team aboard to see what’s going on and what might be done about it.”
This message was last edited by the player at 07:09, Sun 16 Apr 2023.
Cennet Melek Shiraishi
player, 129 posts
Sisters, Pride and Vanity
W: 7/14 FP: 2/4
Sat 15 Apr 2023
at 14:54
  • msg #13

Chapter 4, Shadow of the Sink Hole

Whilst her attention was upon the reality distortion that dominated the void before them, Cennet wasn't unaware of the conversations. It was again a matter of, well, expertise that made her slow to contribute commentary. That and despite the certainty that she would live breathing remained a notably and unwelcomely painful affair as she shifted in her seat to glance back towards the lady captain and her intended threat. Such dives into the Endless Sea without all due respect and calculation was a recipe that had played out far too many times in the history of warp navigation... To do so whilst also attempting to calibrate or modify the Gellar Field Array and the dimensions of the projected bubble were perhaps even more alarming.

"I would hope you don't intend to go through with that threat?" the Navigator asked of the Lady Captain. Her voice carefully coached with due respect and an affectation of professional concern. "A less... dangerous option might be to gravity sling shot them into the Sinkhole. Without propulsion they wouldn't be able to decelerate and one would presume, a dangerous thing I suppose regarding the Aeldari, that without said they would also not be able to escape the drifting tomb of their ship once we break whatever is holding their vessel to the Pious Lament."
Gregory Asgard
player, 256 posts
Archmilitant
8/11W 3/4FP
Sat 15 Apr 2023
at 16:01
  • msg #14

Chapter 4, Shadow of the Sink Hole

Almost as though on cue, Gregory sends a vox message.

++Ma'am, I've got my breachers ready in case you feel the need to take the fight to the xenos. Standing by in the cathedral beside the perimeter.++
Jak Tesla
player, 182 posts
I have loved the stars
So do not fear the night.
Sat 15 Apr 2023
at 16:25
  • msg #15

Chapter 4, Shadow of the Sink Hole

 "I do not believe that it is practical to attempt to cripple the mobility of the Xenos vessel alone, not without significant risk of its destruction. Eldar spacefaring technology appears to combine heretical gravitic systems and a sophisticated, but theologically unsound application of the solar sail principle. Both these systems are more widely distributed than plasma engines." Jak answers, after several moments of furious cogitation.

 "The cutting device is being analysed. When analysis is complete, it will be safely disabled." it's all he has to say with regards to the Xenos thing in the shrine - apparently it's a low priority for him right now, despite the fact that it's been trying to cut a way into the engineerium.

 Which leaves only the statement by the Inquisitorial acolyte to process, one which makes Jak thoughtfully observe "If their fear drives them, an announcement at maximum volume through the Temple-shrine that they will be owned to leave would reach them, but the opportunity to destroy a Xenos raider should not be passed up. I recommend entry through the hull however, rather than via their own, no doubt by now heavily defended access passage."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:20, Sun 16 Apr 2023.
Harmonia Wells
player, 19 posts
Sat 15 Apr 2023
at 17:08
  • msg #16

Chapter 4, Shadow of the Sink Hole

Leaving the tech priest to his technology, and the soldiers to their preparations Harmonia hurries herself over to one badly damaged stained glass window, flagging down a helper drone or two on her way.

When she gets there her expression seems to confirmed suspicion, not a sudden realization.  Directing the helper drone to help like a third hand she lifts up a single delicate piece of stained glass from the wreckage and gently tugs it free of the last stands holding up what turns out to be the Face of the Emperor, now preserved alone of all the other sections in that window.
Ravandio Rathnyr
player, 10 posts
W 13/13 F 2/2
Umbra WC, Umbra 1
Sun 16 Apr 2023
at 03:35
  • msg #17

Chapter 4, Shadow of the Sink Hole

Rathnyr opens up his vox with a flip of a switch on the control panel of his Fury Interceptor. ++ Umbra One. If this ship is built like their fighters, I'd wager that their wings are their form of propulsion. It's sustained enough damage that I don't think it's going anywhere under its own power. It's missing one wing, and the second is just barely hanging on. If we can cut it free, I think it would be stuck adrift. ++ Umbra One slowly circled around the damaged Eldar vessel, leading the rest of Umbra Wing in a steady patrol.
Searlait Saoirse
player, 188 posts
Banshee
8/8 3/3
Sun 16 Apr 2023
at 03:45
  • msg #18

Chapter 4, Shadow of the Sink Hole

"Do what you can Mr. Yorick, I just expect your honest attempt, that's all you can do." she says before Tungsten approaches informs her that the vox broadcast wasn't possible she belayed that order and proceeds to her strategium indicating for her to follow. "If you would like to take a team aboard that is your perogative and I will not stop you but if that vessel intends to attack us or rig itself to blow us up I will have to distance us and potentially destroy it at range. If you accept the risk and wish to partake in the mission I will offer you troops should you wish."

++Acknowledged, standby. potential mission is under consideration++ she responds to Asgard.

To Cennet she answers "The less they know about what we can do the better, If I can scare them into submission I will, and I think the thought of falling into the warp unprotected would convince them. I will think of it as a last result, otherwise I can order its destruction in the classic means."

To Jak she says "I am not fully aware of their abilities, or really many of their abilities. Please determine that mining device's real purpose and shut it down if you can. The Inquisitorial staff wish to take a look at that abomination and I'll let them, but I'll take your advisement, can you have your staff prepare boarding equipment for the guncutters and perhaps some defensive servitors that are void safe to rear-guard the team"
Tungsten
NPC, 4 posts
Sun 16 Apr 2023
at 07:09
  • msg #19

Chapter 4, Shadow of the Sink Hole

”Thank you my lady, perhaps a team of breachers on stand by and a gun cutter in readiness in case we are set adrift,” Tungsten bows and backs away a few paces before turning and leaving the bridge. The rest of the team also bow and follow her.
alphapred
GM, 305 posts
Listen to the fear,
it could be your friend.
Sun 16 Apr 2023
at 07:26
  • msg #20

Chapter 4, Shadow of the Sink Hole


On the bridge the three-dimensional tactical display of planets and space ships has been replaced by an image of the Pious Lament, with the Eldar craft latched on to its back, it doesn’t sit square but at an angle of about thirty degrees and the damage that Cpt Rathnyr mentioned can be clearly seen along with other scars, burn marks and several quite large holes. The back of the vestal tapers to an elegant point with no sign of any thrust tubes or devices of that nature.

A short tube protrudes from the bottom of the ship and although it looks ridge it conforms to the curve of the Lament's hull, side by side, all around the bottom of the tube, heart shaped claws dig into the armoured plating clamping the two ships together, the seal is not total however and here and there between these claws, jets of escaping gas are visible, though not enough to cause concern.
.
Jak Tesla
player, 184 posts
I have loved the stars
So do not fear the night.
Mon 17 Apr 2023
at 04:11
  • msg #21

Chapter 4, Shadow of the Sink Hole


 "It is likely that the gravitic system resides in the wings of the vessel, I was not aware that their existing damage was so extensive. Immobilising them and then releasing the docking tube begins to seem far more practical, perhaps using extensive melta-charges emplaced around their boarding tube." Jak states as further Auspex information starts to come in, adding as he does so "The mining device is neutralised for the moment and there is no barrier to permitting Inquisitorial analysis run in tandem with our own."
Garu Finnigan
player, 3 posts
Master of Whispers
11/11 W 3/3 FP
Mon 17 Apr 2023
at 11:57
  • msg #22

Chapter 4, Shadow of the Sink Hole

While the rest of the senior staff dealt with the Elder ship directly Garu was setting his own operatives in motion.  These Xenos were known for their deception so he tasked his men to split into a few squads and head to locations on the ship that were out of the way and where an enemy could infiltrate unnoticed in the short term.  He would be more than happy if they came back with finding nothing but better safe than sorry.
alphapred
GM, 307 posts
Listen to the fear,
it could be your friend.
Mon 17 Apr 2023
at 12:46
  • msg #23

Chapter 4, Shadow of the Sink Hole


While Obsidian takes up station in the temple, the rest of the inquisition team, and one of the servo skulls, utilise one of Jak’s grave lifters to rise up into the Eldar ship, as they neer the hole a black clad figure joins them on the platform from a hiding place high up in the ruined stone work. Within a moment they are lost to sight within the xenos vestal.
.
Faith
player, 3 posts
Astropath
13/13 W 4/4 FP
Mon 17 Apr 2023
at 14:17
  • msg #24

Chapter 4, Shadow of the Sink Hole

Despite being cooped up in the Choir-chancel for the most part, Faith attempts to keep abreast of developments on the ship through Nevermore and reports from sympathetic voidsmen. However, the sight of the damage to the Temple-Shrine dismays her, and after instructing the rest of the choir to stay put, she changes into a sensible voidsuit and heads down to see how bad it is.

In a word, yes. The xenos were thorough in their desecration and the ship's defenders were more concerned with cleansing and purifying their taint as opposed to preserving the decorations. Faith puts her hands together and offers a quiet prayer to one of the few intact bas-reliefs honoring St Rybel Gorth, the Watcher in the Dark.

Even without her powers, she can sense the void-armored breacher behind her. He seems to be giving her time to finish her prayer, however, for which she is grateful. Once she finishes, she turns to face him, and he salutes upon seeing her Chorister Secundus badge.

"Uh, Ma'am, you shouldn't be here," he says. "Commander Asgard says we might be mobilized soon and there'll be fighting."

Faith nods.

"Very well. Thank you for giving me time for my communion, at least."

"Uh, you're welcome, ma'am," he says, and Faith leaves the Temple-Shrine so as not to distress the young man further. Still... what can she do to help? According to the breacher, they might be mobilized soon... which means an impending attack. Would it not be better if she could consult the Emperor's Tarot for insight? But then who can she speak to about the matter... probably Scarlet, yes. Anyone else would be overstepping her bounds.
Cennet Melek Shiraishi
player, 132 posts
Sisters, Pride and Vanity
W: 7/14 FP: 2/4
Tue 18 Apr 2023
at 23:33
  • msg #25

Re: Chapter 4, Shadow of the Sink Hole

The Navis Primaris was, perhaps, not fully pacified by the Lady Captain's assurances but it was enough for her to drop the matter for the moment with a polite bow of head and thanks for the assurances. Silently, Cennet began to make the necessary calculations regarding what she knew of the Pious Laments Gellar field dimensions and what of the immediate stellar phenomenon might impact such a translation. With the shutters in place, there was no other way to do it then stare through the lens of her third eye. The crew spares the worst of it by the exquisite mask that hid her withered visage from the crew. Still, one could sense that the eye was open in that pervasive and perverse sixth sense for the unnatural that any void farer possessed.

It was all she could do in the moment barring more warp devilry the Aeldari might draw upon. A fact that chafed at her already wounded ego but at least there was solace in the certainty of mathematical ritual albeit applied to the impossibilities of the Endless Sea
alphapred
GM, 308 posts
Listen to the fear,
it could be your friend.
Wed 19 Apr 2023
at 06:49
  • msg #26

Re: Chapter 4, Shadow of the Sink Hole


Some hour pass as people busy themselves with the recovery, Jak’s ‘plug’ for the hole is ready in it’s most basic of forms and is now being refined and improved. The energy build up in the rear of the Eldar ship has stabilised but there is enough energy there to vaporise the rear half of the Pious Lament.

It's a bit quiet right now so I'm just moving things along.
.
Tungsten
NPC, 5 posts
Wed 19 Apr 2023
at 06:50
  • msg #27

Re: Chapter 4, Shadow of the Sink Hole

Searlait receives a message. ++My Lady, we have discovered three survivors on the ship and they wish to negotiate.++
Searlait Saoirse
player, 190 posts
Banshee
8/8 3/3
Fri 21 Apr 2023
at 02:41
  • msg #28

Re: Chapter 4, Shadow of the Sink Hole

++If you can please take them aboard, through their boarding tunnel if possible, ship if not, I will have troops standing by to assist++ She voxes back to the Inquisitorial agent.
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