With a second excursion into the eldar star vessel under his belt, Ravandio was reminded that he'd been interrupted in his hunt for sustenance. After completing any sort of reports after the trip between ships, the grizzly looking space pilot started to make his way back towards his personal quarters. Through his feet he felt the start of a familiar vibration as it moved throughout the ship, an indication that they were under way again. He was pleased that they would be resuming their mission once more, but the Eldar had been an interesting distraction.

After stripping out of his expeditionary gear, Rav holstered his pistol and made his way towards the mess. A massive migraine was starting to throb behind his right eye. Grinding the knuckle of his middle finger against his temple eased the growing pain marginally. Food and companionship should solve the matter though. Ravandio advanced into the mess hall, looking for his wingmates.

Paklor Ank reports no further activity from the Emperor’s Glory’ mandeville point.

He publishes his auspex findings for all officers to see and reports some localised combat taking place in two locations on the planet and the launch of a single, large missile or pod from the planet’s equator, aimed towards the manufactorum and traveling at relatively low speed. The launch process is of interest as it uses a huge static electromagnetic rail built into the landscape for initial acceleration then simple rocket motor to take the missile into orbit. The manufactorum is in radio silence but it is now apparent that they are launching small, flat objects at a rate of about two a week, these are drifting in a line towards a large, black object that sits between the star and the planet and is assumed to be an accumulation of many thousand of the smaller objects.

Scans of the planetary surface show it to be slightly smaller than Terra but considerably denser, it has a breathable atmosphere with some industrial pollutants that make filtering advisable. There is one ocien, long and narrow it covers about twenty percent of the surface and stretches from the equator almost to the north pole. The land is quite flat across most of the planet's surface but there is an extensive mountain range over the south pole and much of the southern hemisphere. There is one hive city on the equator and seven conventional cities scattered around, all surrounded by extensive manufacturing facilities and all linked by rail.

There is no indication that anyone on the planet is aware of the Pious Lament, and the nixie clocks have counted down to four hours, twenty-seven minuets and twenty-five . . . twenty-six . . .  twenty-seven seconds.
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"Auspex, find out what those objects being launched are, have the flight crew adjust should you need a better view, full authority to re-direct us towards it to get a better view"

"Vox, keep picking up their signals and if anything changes let me know"

***Nearing Orbit***

As the Pious Lament moves towards orbit of Gelron, with at least an few hours to go she calls a meeting in the central strategium for all major section heads, senior officers, (all PC and MNPC), and Tenvar under guard to attend to a meeting about the potential actions to be taken soon.

(OOC: Feel free to show up, I'll add more when I get a few more minutes.)

As usual Gregory is one of the first to arrive, with status reports of the ship's fighting strength ready. He seems quite eager to make planetfall, though he might not be aware of the extent of their mission...
This message was last edited by the player at 09:34, Sat 20 May 2023.

The circumstances of her physicality almost ensured that Navigator Cennet Melek Shiraishi wasn't first to any meeting, merely punctually present as good manners and etiquette dictated. It was obvious that she had taken great pains to change and render herself presentable once more despite her injuries but it was also, abundantly, clear that the armoured shell that she'd ensconced herself in was still in the process of being repaired. Such careful and exquisite cybernetic systems, after all, were rarely so easily mended as the flesh... Even flesh as disagreeable as that of a Navigator.

Regardless, she was ever resplendent in robes of the hue of her house that seemed as much maps of the void as any chart she might reference. The staff of her office held tightly and leaned upon to ease the many pains that tore through up through treacherous muscles and deep into neck and mind beyond. The distraction held at bay by the formidable will that had witnessed and suffered far worse though was still not unscarred by the blows to pride and vanity. As ever, her face remained hidden behind and exquisite mask but one could not ignore that palpable weight of the terrible organ that made the woman and her ilk indispensable to the Imperium.

As ever, one of her attendants was near at hand with data slate at hand. Of course, this time it was no one recognizable as she'd ensured Grund would have all the time he might need to recuperate. A pittance for the service he had done beyond the expectations of his duty.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:23, Sat 20 May 2023.

Dressed in her formal, but not fancy, robes of office Harmonia arrives with a minimal amount of fanfare.

Taking stock of the other early arrivals she offers a polite nod to each before assuming her customary place for the strategy meeting.

One of the many duties of a Astropath Secundus is to hold down a place for the Choirmaster, a task that Faith is all too willing to handle. She has a small velvet box with no label under her dataslate as she presents herself for the meeting, giving the impression that she's ready to take notes at any moment.

Vormav reports to the strategium as requested. He was still dressed in his usual heavy long coat over his silk slacks, vest, and cravat. As usual he was armed, heavily. Given the recent troubles there was exactly one person on board that could tell him to do otherwise. His hellgun was more of a decorative piece anyway, he liked it, and it really brought the outfit together.

Conference room (deck 3)

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.

Those who first enter find tech priests and some of Garu’s operatives finishing off a thorough inspection for ‘bugging’ devices.

.

 Jak of course, argued for the implementation of St Faraday's Pattern, but tearing out the entire conference room and taking several months to produce and inlay sufficient glyph-worked wire to blanket the entire structure and then install the necessary power units and secure terminals inside it simply isn't something that they've the time for just now, and so the great has not been permitted to become the enemy of the good - although he still requires a full report of the busy inspection be delivered by the mostly red-robed nomadic Transmechanic and the mute tech-priest of the Aspectum Cohortis working with them.

 Seemingly pleased with what he 'hears' in the short binary streams they're exchanging, he moves to take his assigned seating and - Yasha hovering at his shoulder - continues to work on repair rotas and department reports while waiting for everyone else to arrive.

An Eldar enters the room, his hands are shackled and he is accompanied by two men from the honour guard in their dress uniforms, they move quietly to the side of the room. The Eldar seems composed though his eyes flick constantly between those at the table, while the guards stand of to either side, eyes fixed on the exenos weapons across their chests and looking decidedly edgy.

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Once the last of the officers arrive and the Xenos is brought she orders the doors shut and begins the meeting. "Greetings all, as you are all aware we are getting close to Gelron, the Emperor's Glory has retreated and there appears to have been a combat near their mandeville point, Tenvar I can assume that is the work of your people?" She says part question part statement, leaving enough of a pause for an answer should he choose to give one.

"As we get closer we have had no contact with the planet as of yet and I believe that may lack the means to detect us as we approach and while we are sensing launches into the manufactorum, we haven't seen any shuttles launching into orbit that I can tell but there appears to be a conflict between two to three major factions. I intend to make orbit over a border or neutral territory and attempt to initiate communications with the leadership of each faction, inform them of the mission we have received from the High Lords of Terra that we are here to reaffirm the Dominion of the God-Emperor on this world. Do any of you have any comments, recommendations or concerns you would like to add?"

”My Lady, I am certain that there are no other Eldari ships in this system,” the Eldar looks puzzled as he responds to the Captain’s question.

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Completely forgetting that she had yet to inform the senior officers she adds "Addendum. Tenvar and a few of his associates will be staying aboard to maintain a bargain that will see several of the soul stones remain aboard this ship to assure the Aeldari will not attack us again. Tenvar, these are the senior officers of the Pious Lament, officers, Tenvar."

"As for further Aeldari ships we had auspex reports of local defence fire as they were transiting to the warp, you can confirm that was not your people?"

Tenvar looks around the people at the table on being introduced, whith a little nod and murmered greeting for any who catch his eye, then returns his attention to the Captain when she asks here question.

"Definatly not 'my people' Lady Saoirse,"
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Gregory is mildly surprised as to why the Captain is on a first-name basis with the xeno, but then again he's addressing her with the proper respect and she IS the Lady-Captain after all. He nods with deference to the man's rank, but his attention remains focused on the Captain.

As for the L-C's plan... well, this is why his people have been compiling stats. He slides his dataslate over to the Lady-Captain.

"This is our current order of battle, Ma'am. I would recommend we secure orbital fire superiority if we are to undertake any direct action, because our ability to move men is fairly limited."

Ravandio was still sitting in the mess around a table with his squadmates, enjoying a drink and a spirited game of cards. He was enjoying himself. He was loosing money to the others gathered around the table, but he was glad to be out of his bunk and to be doing something. He tossed a couple of losing cards out onto the table, and suddenly his comlink chirped, indicating that someone was trying to reach him. He excused himself from the table and answered the call.

---

Ravandio opened the door to the conference room he'd been instructed to attend. He looked over the rest of the people that had been assembled and eased himself into a seat about halfway down the table. The Interceptor pilot from Umbra Wing paused in this movement when he saw the xenos that was present. He eyed the creature for several seconds before finally slipping into his chair. "Wing Commander Laurel regrets to inform you that he won't be able to attend as he is overseeing the repairs being done to the ships gun cutters."

Harmonia waits patiently for the meeting to start, and introductions to pass before she asks a question about their situation as much as about the plan.

”If the planet is divided into multiple waring factions that are unable to detect a ship of this size is it possible that they also lack the ability to communicate with us from orbit?  If that is the case we might need to arrange multiple simultaneous landing parties.

If the people on the planet are not yet hostile I recommend we be careful to not frighten them more than absolutely required. ”

"It seems we might be able to play each side against each other," Faith notes. "Though I am sure Mr. Vormav and Mr. Finnegan would know how to do that best. In any case, we are in a position to play kingmaker here, unless, of course, the Emperor's Glory is involved in this. "

The arrival of the Aeldari and the beginning of discussions in full was enough to pull the Navigatrix's attention away from some of the stellar cartography that adorned the chamber. The presence of such maps of the most holy of systems a curiosity all it's own that warranted some attention later but for now... there was the complex feeling she held for one of the architects of her present state of being and the consideration of the planet's divided factions.

"There's also the consideration of what may have transpired since the planet's original disappearance. Such warp disruptions as exist in this stretch of void are not kind to any material they can drag into their vortices. Has there been any detectable vox signals that we might tap into under contained and quarantined parameters to better ascertain their temperaments and, shall we say, stability?" the Navigatrix asked after some consideration between the various thoughts already presented.

"The drive plume of The Pious Lament will have been visible for the entire course of our journey. There will be little or no question on the planet that we are inbound. If they have made no effort to contact us, this may represent a lack of ability or will upon their part, not one of awareness." Jak reports, without touching upon other matters for the time being - his remit begins and ends with matters of technotheology, not politics or diplomacy.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:24, Fri 26 May 2023.

"Once we reach orbit I intend to send vox communiques, as well as tight beam lasers and if need be astropathic communication to what appears to be a capital of each nation. Should all else fail then we will need to descent and do it in person." she tells the  assembled command crew.

"Tenvar, did Vexel give you any information about this system and what he planned here?"

“Right then ladies and gentlemen, in spite of the best efforts of Galvin Vexel and his Eldar allies, we have arrived at our destinate and are just entering orbit around Gelron. This planet used to orbit a star in the Fordoom Sector, way over in Segmentum Tempestus, it was thought lost over twelve hundred years ago when its star went Nova but just over a year ago it emerged from the 'Sinc Hole' and drifted into a stable orbit around the only star in this vicinity where we find it now.”

“How that happened is not our problem, our job is to see what conditions are like here after so long in the warp and reclaim it for the Empire.”

Searlait pauses to look around the assembled faces.

“This planet used to be a highly productive manufacturing world with enough agriculture to feed its own people. The reason for this is that much of its output was created in a vast, orbital, manufactorum which we find is still in orbit and still operating, but I’ll come back to that.”

“The surface still seems to be habitable and populated but, the people here are fighting eachother in some sort of civil war. Since emerging from the warp they have not made astropathic contact with anyone and not responded to attempts to contact them by that means. They do have vox coms which we have been monitoring, so we know that they don’t seem to be aware of our presence here, and that might have something to do with the war that’s going on. It seems that there are two main factions with a third, smaller group looking on and they are fighting over food resources.”

“Even though fighting, all sides are still cooperating in the manufacturing process and there seems to be regular deliveries from the planets surface to the orbiting manufactorum using a mag rail to launch rocket assisted pods. The manufactorum is also operating, it is producing thousands of,   things, we are not sure what, but they are being launched into space where they join together and have created a large flat object that’s just hanging in space, its function is unclear at the moment but its effect is to cast a large and permanent shadow on the face of the planet.”

“One very important thing that our monitoring of the vox coms has revealed is that the Emperors word still rules here, there is no hint of corruption in any of the broadcasts, everybody signs off with an appropriate supplication and the Ecclesiarchy broadcast services regularly.”

Searlait pauses to let this sink in, “before I get into any details about the war, does any one have any thoughts or comments?”

Either lost in thought, or focused on some part of the information other than the reactions it causes, Harmonia takes a moment to return her focus to the Captain after the briefing is over.

”If they have indeed evaded corruption then it is possible the planet experienced very little or no time within the warp itself, and the food riots are a result of having abandoned their original orbital farm, what we see now may be how they plan to replace it.

In any case it is likely that whatever they are building is of immense importance to all three factions and having control of it before we engage them will focus their attention on what we have to say.”