"Not that I'm strictly opposed to the concept I would have to look at the numbers there is probably a reason most ship's security favor quality over quantity, but without the customary det-collars or something similar penal troops are just armed disgruntled crewmen. Not hard to acquire in general but not something we have on hand. I had considered asking the mechanus contingent what their capability was outfitting them as servitors but I expect with the losses at out previous port of call they won't have the components necessary for the number of prisoners we have on hand."

Garu's mind, pad and auto-quill were still working on the syphers that were going on as well as cataloguing what he had been able to recover from his investigation of the Aldari.  Dressed back in his usual clothing and accountments as he returned to the bridge and hearing about the psychic conditioning that had been done on individuals he added in to the mix, "When we do any of those in depth vetting by the medicae and telepaths I would like to be present for some of them or read the results and view any pict-vid taken to see if some other...tics...can be found both in noticing them in the future or used to our own advantage."

Shortly after Garu enters, Faith turns up with a dataslate in hand.

"Greetings, ma'am, sirs," she says politely. "Mr. Finnegan asked me and the rest of the astropathic department to help out with the cipher decryption and I believe we've finished our portion. I also couldn't help but hear something about psychic conditioning and vetting of unregistered crew via telepaths... Will there be a lot of people to process?"

To Asgard's question she responds "I haven't decided quite yet, for now contain and store. Some may be awarded as prizes of war, others may be sold or exchanged as needed." she tells the Arms-Master "Is there a request you wish to make of them?"

"Restore them if you can, the penal systems you devise should suffice and is approved I have a feeling we will need combat troops soon."

"Garu you have my blessing to be present at any vetting processes that go forward from these undocumented"

Ravandio was more than a little excited to cross over onto the eldar craft to search for their soul stones. He didn't exactly know what a soul stone was, or what it looked like, but it gave him a chance to see the interior of the alien craft. From the outside they had been impressive vessels, all curves and lethality. Rav still didn't understand how they had flown through the void. They didn't have any sort of drives that his tech-priest had been able to identify. The 'wings' on their sides seemed to be some sort of propulsion system, as when they had been damaged or destroyed the craft had lost it's drive. Or perhaps they were some sort of power plant. It seemed like bad design to make something so crucial to the operation of your vessel so completely vulnerable and frail. They relied too much on speed, hit-and-run.

Bolt pistol in hand, he crossed over into the Eldar vessel and started a systematic sweep alongside the others that had been volunteered as a temporary search party. He didn't find any of their soul stones, somewhat disappointingly he would have to admit later. He'd have liked to have a look at them and try and figure out why they had been so important. Rav did find something else that caught his eye, though. He looked it over carefully, and when he was sure that there were no one around, Rav stuffed it carefully into the pack that he'd brought with him. He continued to search the craft until the search was called off and retreated from the Eldar ship.

It was certainly an experience that would stick in his mind for a while. With no soul stones to report, Rav retired to his own personal quarters. He shrugged off the pack he'd been carrying and set it down on his bunk and pulled out the object. Ravandio didn't dare mess with it, unsure of what it did. It would certainly be worth something if he could find the right buyer. He took the object and stowed it away in his secure footlocker, carefully padding it with some of his old clothes, locking the chest back up when he was sure that it would be safe. He sat down on his bunk and kicked his feet up, leaning back. It had been a long day so far, and some rest would be useful. He cradled the back of his head with his hands, fingers interlocking. Thinking back over the last many hours, the combat out in the void and then the search of the enemy craft, Rav drifted off to sleep. It didn't last long. A couple of hours later, he sits straight up in his bunk, his body drenched in sweat. Hopefully no one had heard him scream.

Garu dipped his head to respect Searlait, "Thank you m'Lady.."

Looking over to Faith he nodded, "If I might?  I need to validate one of my analysts or disprove and start from scratch before I give the decoding spirit to the Master of Vox to illuminate what is being said ahead." he reached his hand out to see the dataslate and what her choir had been able to come up with and compare it to what his own teams had been able to figure out.

While the temples, in particular the now ruined one, are her domain Harmonia's access to the rest of the ship is largely through the conduit of its people rather than paperwork.  To make the best of her limited resources and time she decides upon a clever way to overlap them.  Instead of this seventh day's service in the Hall of St Gothren she schedules an event, identified as a demonstration of faith open to all it's intent is not particularly subtle.  Redirected to the broken temple, and provided with simple easy to use tools, tarps, ropes, and wagons of various shapes and sizes she helps organize a veritable hoard of devoted followers to help with the clean up process of the massive temple turned war zone.  Those with actual skills are put to work doing their specialized tasks but many people are just picking up debris and or dusting off or repositioning the least damaged furniture into some configuration that might be at least moderately functional.

While it may seem window dressing to some the addition of free food and a ready supply of water and healthy high energy drink options is a well coordinated form of magic from the perspective of what is still technically a volunteer workforce, bolstering both their moral and their own assessment of their spiritual devotion.

"Prizes of war is exactly it, ma'am," he says in as dignified a way as possible. "But it is your prerogative to dispose of them as you see fit and I didn't want to assume anything. I was thinking one of each class of weapon, provided it is not too excessive."

Vormav pages through some screens on his data slate and then looks up at Faith "Oh, I'll forward the details to you. There are a fair few. My hope would be that once you identify the effects they will become easier to spot, as Mr. Finnigan implied, but I have no idea if that will be the case."

"I've yet to perform the evaluation. But I expect that if we were to sell the xeno-tech in bulk one or two weapons would not make a notable difference in the equation." Vormav says off-handedly by way of advising the captain.

EDIT:

"Speaking of the xeno-vessel. Would a surface level salvage operation not be appropriate? Obviously the vessel itself will need to be destroyed but there are no doubt other artefacts on board?"
This message was last edited by the player at 13:01, Fri 28 Apr 2023.

 The provision of the Mechanicus for their dead is straightforward - according to expressed preference they go either to the Servitorium or the Plasma conduits, after appropriate mourning and remembrance (during a mandated shift break, the labour must go on, after all) - and barely breaks the massive flow of work that is passing through their particular subculture, teams of tech-priests, adepts and laymen rushing hither and yon in order to bring this or that damaged or faulty system back up to its pre-battle status.

 Jak himself is at the pivotal centre of this effort, rarely seen outside of his work - although he does express the highly orthodox position that while using xenos weaponry when good, Imperial arms are available is borderline heretical at best, but that the Adeptus Mechanicus could care less (within certain understandable limits) what a rich person chooses to hang on their wall or display on a plinth - and his reports are equal parts regular, complete and bafflingly unhelpful since he doesn't quite seem to know how to step down from 'technotheocraticly correct' to 'comprehensible to someone who doesn't have a kilo or two of molecular circuitry serving in place of one of his lobes'.

 His recommendation that the tumbling wreckage be used for gunnery practice remains on the books however... With one notable exception, as he emerges from his symbiosis with the machine-spirit to observe "There is nothing of value to the orthodoxy in Eldar construction or techno-sorcery, but it is possible that they have seized trophies of their own. An expedition would not be inappropriate."

"Extend the time to departure by an hour, bring over search teams and salvage anything of value, or that is human in origin that may be important. Asgard can provide forces, Tesla if you could perhaps detach a tech-priest or two for each search party to ensure no xenos tech-sorcery will infect the Lament." she tells Vormav

Looking to Asgard she says "Eyeing a piece for your wall eh? fine, you can take three weapons, mark them in the ledgers once they are finished and take them then, but remember they may look appealing but nothing beats solid Imperial tech" and with that she pats the Volkite serpenta at her hip.

"Thank you, Ma'am. And of course, you are correct about Imperial tech. Still, it is good to have a physical reminder of the folly of xeno ways." Gregory nods. "I'll let you know the items I'm requesting once we finish a final inventory of everything. Vormav, will a company of breachers be enough for an escort?"

He briefly considers what else they'll need, and then a thought comes to mind.

"Didn't one of our people, Ravandio, I believe, lead an expedition into the xeno vessel before this? Maybe we could consult him on his experiences or enlist him on the expedition if needed."
This message was last edited by the player at 14:31, Sun 30 Apr 2023.

 With the senior crew securing their 'trophies' and a task at hand, Jak considers the problem for several tenths of a second and then chimes in an agreeable fashion "The deployment will be a short one, but it should be possible to detach a flight of Servo-skulls equipped with auspex units and there will be some of the ordained who are willing to risk exposure to Xenotech in order to have the chance of recovering lost artefacts of the Omnissiah. I shall have them dispatched to the hanger bay."

Garu had been looking down at his datapad and quietly speaking to his auto-quill up until a moment ago.  Looking up he offered the datapad to Vormav, "These should be the ciphers for the encrypted communications coming from Gelron thanks to Faith and the Chorus' skill at picking apart important pieces of the planets encryption."  He offered a nod to Faith and seemingly passed along the credit to her and her team without a hitch.

Shifting back to the detailed search of the ship he added as he offered, "Seeing as I went on board to help locate the soulstones and am at least basically familiar with the layout I should be able to help expedite things a little while my teams work on sorting through the communications once they are decoded."

There were certain levels of protocol when it came to the medical care of a Navigator. The nature of their genetic deviations from the norm, the dangers represented by certain aspects of their anatomy, and more beside all ensured that there was a careful vetting process as part of any contract with any of the Houses of the Navis Nobilite. This also meant, as a matter of courtesy, that the Navis Primaris' arrival and needs had been pre-announced to the attendant staff of the Hospice. The question only remained as to how quickly they might attend to her wounds given complicated nature of post combat triage.

Especially when one considered some of the more delicate work that would demand the attention of other departments. After all, the ceramic encasement of her form was not something... typical of the greater breadth of the Imperium and presented a complication all it's own when it came to the task of attending to her medical needs. The thought of it brought with it a deepening of the ever present headache that crawled it's way up through the length of back and neck... and complimented the other agonies that wormed down from shoulders and hips. The wretched treachery of her body every present and ever eager to remind with each step and motion as she and her escort drew upon the beleaguered offices and desk that managed intake.

"I would hope one more patient won't overburden your teams?" the Navigator asked in a voice that remained civil but strained and breathless after the journey. The various numbing agents and medications long since flushed from her system since re-translation and the betrayal. She was eager to be about the matter so she might pay a visit to Master Grund... and then return to what duties there may be for her in the moment.

While a future sortie back into the eldar space craft was being discussed elsewhere, Rav reached over and took hold of some cloth that was just lying around. He bunched it up and wiped it across his forehead and his neck, sopping away the sweat that had drenched him in his sleep. Frustrated, he threw the cloth against the wall of his private quarters and reached for his bottle of amasec. He uncorked the brown bottle and took a nip before replacing it next to his bunk. He leaned forwards, resting his head on his hands as he struggled to get his breathing under control.

Once he had calmed himself, Ravindio pushed himself up from his bunk and slipped back into his boots. He leaned over and laced them up, standing straight and pulling his belt back on across his hips. Out of routine, he checked the magazine in his bolt pistol, ensuring that a round was chambered, and reholstered the pistol. Rav punched the button on to release his door and stepped out into the hall. Maybe he could go to the mess and get something to eat.

Vormav nods, "More than sufficient, this whole endeavor is a bit unorthodox. But I suppose if everything that will be taken will end up as trade goods and the enemy is already dispatched then it should fall to me."

After the Mechanus contingent give their support he says "We will make haste, this is hardly the most important thing that needs doing."

"I'll send one of my boys down to see if the Wing Commander's up for the trip. I assume we'll be entering through the Temple-Shrine again? I can't imagine Miss Wells is going to be too happy about armed men tramping in through her services... Anyway."

The order for 1st Company (the one which went into the auspex fin with Gregory) to suit up and prepare for a boarding action is not met with much enthusiasm (they have, after all, just been through a vertical battlefield), but they know his attitude toward such things - "you don't have to like it, you just have to do it" - and soon close to a hundred men are armed, armored and ready to deploy.

Meanwhile, Gregory sends a vox message over to Ravandio: +Captain wants to sweep the xeno vessel one last time before we push off. Know anything that could help us out?+
This message was last edited by the player at 03:24, Thu 04 May 2023.

While not inherently a happy person Harmonia doesn't seem any worse for wear with the addition of still more armored individuals to the temple.  Today's service, such that it is, seems to be progressing nicely with volunteers from all over the ship working with the uninjured temple staff to clean up after the brute force repair jobs that did little more than repair the structure of the ship's hull.  The only pieces left significantly damaged now are the stained glass windows, which will take a lot more time for the ship's artists to reproduce in the appropriate quality.

Turning away from the organized chaos she has set in motion to address the new mission she asks whoever presents themselves as in charge.  ”Should we prepare for more hostilities in the temple, or are you merely here to pay your respects before passing through?”

The cleaning up and repair to the Temple continue, in place of the two regular seventh day services, the Ship’s Confessor has drafted the congregations from the Hall of St Gothren to help with the effort, of course that may people won’t actually fit into the Temple but they do manage to clear away all the debris for recycling and sweep, clean and dust the rest until the remaining wreckage is spotless. Meanwhile there are still eighty-two bodies lying in the Mortarium so a service of commitment to the Emperor is conducted by one of the lessor clergy.

A looting expedition into the Eldar vestal is conducted and retrieves everything that is not nailed down, plus a few items that are, resulting in just over two tones of Eldar artifacts. Two light boats are found during the search, not easily identified at first as they are integrated into the rest of the ship, these are left intact.

Faith has aided Garu and his team in deciphering the messages from the planet surface and deduced that there is a war going on between two factors, one calling themselves the Northern Alliance the other the Gelron Primacy. The uncoded civic broadcasts contain music, news, drama and chat shows, all heavily laced with propaganda for one side or the other but all containing an appropriate proportion of Empirical Cult content and no suggestion of heresy except for an occasional dig at the opposing side. The encoded military signals revile little without appropriate geographic context as the concern troop movements and logistics on the planetary surface.

With repairs to the Pious Laments hull completed the surviving Eldar, along with the majority of the soul stones, are let on board and permitted to leave in the small craft, they obligingly release their ship from the back of the Lament before doing so and the wrecked Eldar vestal is left floating in space.

Auspex operators report that the Emperor’s Glory has entered the warp but just before doing so let of a huge amount of local defence fire for no apparent reason.

As the time approaches to move in system the crew assembles on the bridge. Accompanied the canticles for safe passage chanted by what is left of the choir, and the blessings of the ship’s confessor the drives come online and the background noises of the Pious Lament take on a deeper rumble that is felt as much as heard. Above the furiously working tech priests the Nixey display shows fourteen hours, twenty-two minutes and fifty-eight, fifty-seven fifty-six seconds as it begins counting down for arrival in orbit.

.

Rav was wandering down a hall, intent on making his way to the mess hall to get something to eat when his personal vox chirps and someone starts talking to him. +There is nothing really to it, sir. I do not know that we left behind any of those soul stones or whatever, if that is what they are concerned about. I can suit up and join you crossing over if you would like.+ Ravandio was really hoping that Asgard would say yes. It was an interesting craft, and there was likely something else he could pick up and stow away for a rainy day if he went over into the Eldar craft one more time. When would he get another chance?

+Join us at the Temple-Shrine, then. We've got the breachers with us so it shouldn't be too dangerous.+

***

Some time later, Gregory arrives at the Temple-Shrine just in time to hear Harmonia's question. He smiles to her and replies, "I do apologize for running the lads through the basilica so often. Rest assured, this will be our last visit here as militants for now, though some of us will continue visitng as part of the faithful."

He glances into the distance, at Slab, the Ogryn bodyguard and Katyusha, his minder. They are currently engaged in clearing the last of the debris, and they have done so while being remarkably unremarkable. Then he looks back at Harmonia and offers her an oblong package wrapped in shiny tan archival plastic.

"A small token of our sincerity," he winks.

Harmonia accepts the package offered her and tucks it away into a pocket of her robe to be opened later.  ”Do not make proclamations you can not keep.  There will come a time when the militant are needed again, and they too will serve in the required capacity.  Your faith is welcome but you must be as mindful of the manner in which you may best use it, not the way in which others do.”

As the vessel gets underway, the massive drives powering to full and the xenos craft tumbles away Searlait realises just how tired she has become, having been awake for the better part of a full day and much of that time spent fighting, both physically and mentally while trying to coordinating the resistance. "Officers of Primus watch, we have all suffered a trying day and should with faith in the God-Emperor and humility in service we have triumphed against our foe as we make way to our target. I now relieve you of your duties for the day. Return to your quarters, spend time with friends and family and enjoy what your fruits have given you, Secundus watch will take your place as we recover."

As the shifts exchange positions she makes her way to first the auspex pits and quickly talks to Paklor Ank "Mister Ank, please have your people continuously scanning both the planet and the area of space our foe has evaded for, with the brief firefight as they left I wonder if there are other hidden threats in system."


Once done in the auspex pit she heads to Vox rostum and tells Mr. Yorick "Mr. Yorick, please have your crews coordinate with the Scarlet and her staff to maintain vigil on the planet, gather as much information as you can. If we get active notifications of our arrival has brought notice have notice brought to my offices, I will look at them in ten hours time and see how we will figure out our response."

Once the crew start shift change Searlait makes her way back to her quarters to spend some much needed time with her family.

 Jak continues to push himself to work to a degree which would seem punishing to a flesh-and-blood individual, his recreational hours spent joining repair teams at the forefront of the effort to restore far-flung parts of the vessel and it's perhaps unsurprising that he's seen only rarely by senior officers during that time, although reports requested of him are promptly and diligently responded to as swiftly as he can be located by Vox.

 His one significant contribution to 'things to worry about' at this juncture is to request that a copy of the sensor logs for the 'inexplicable defensive fire' of the Emperor's Glory be processed by the in-system navigational servitors and officers to see if there's any possibility that they were attempting to bombard something far-off - an effort which soon sees him report to the senior officers "The Emperors Glory launched long-range salvation pods before leaving the system. It also engaged these pods with its point-defence. While they have deactivated their transponders, it is possible that we may be able to acquire them with our auspice by arranging our course to run along the straight-line path from their last position to the inhabited worlds, although without being able to confirm their destination, this is a speculative proposal at best."

 ---

 Although since we're going to be a few weeks in flight, it's safe to assume that he might well attempt to rope folks into the odd hull-delve looking for interesting old compartments.


This message was last edited by the player at 07:46, Sun 07 May 2023.