Gregory is quick to follow, staying a respectful distance behind her while making sure his bolt pistols and storm bolters are on display. His armor isn't as fancy as Searlait's, but its wear hints at the many battles he and the honor guard around him have been through.

He sends a vox message to Ravandio, or whoever's still on the vessel and thus has a better view of the situation. ++Keep your eyes open for any signs of an ambush.++

”Sir Norman Cecil,” the leader says, stepping forward from his entourage and offering a hand and a smile, ” first minister of the Northern alliance. You certainly took your time but now you are here, you are most welcome.” The rest of the entourage all bow and fall in behind as the First Minister leads off towards the buildings.

”We have set up some impromptu conference facilities here, not much I’m afraid but these are difficult times for us, will you join us and I’ll make some formal introductions,” the last remark is perhaps to appease his own people but he leads into the void port facilities where two guards on the door present arms smartly.

There are plenty of guards in evidence, all dressed like the two on the door, in combat fatigues and apart from these two, all facing outwards, a guard to protect the dignitaries, rather than welcome them.
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Vormav as always is dressed smartly and is styled to be roguishly charming. He follows along with the captain's entourage. He thinks to himself They are at a full military posture if they wanted to ambush us we would be squarely on top of their bait. He supposed that's why the captain had skilled subordinates. He had seen Gregory in action at a minimum and and had heard of the captain and her body guard's exploits. If it came to fighting their way back to the landing craft and leaving then the condition of the craft was probably a less certain variable than their individual capabilities.

He watched this "First Minister" every planet had it's own way of organizing their government so this man could be their head of state or the minister of the first district of the city. He really should have paid more attention in that briefing. For that matter he could have been a body double, like they should have been using for the captain, he thought in hind sight.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:22, Thu 13 July 2023.

"Searlait Saorise, Captain of the Pious Lament, Rogue Trader of the Saoirse Dynasty; and yes, we were attacked when we made out jump in from the mandeville point and as we settled into a geosynchronous we had to ensure no threats were laying in wait" she responds "And we thank your timely and warmer reception then some of the other occupants of this world." she adds following the way indicated path inside to the conference hall.

As she walks she sends an encrypted vox signal 

As they got to their seats she stands just in front to see what protocol this planet had for seating.

The assaulters are assisting and escorting the voidsmen in unloading the gifts from the Lament, and with an encrypted vox-order, Gregory shifts their force disposition toward Searlait and the rest of the delegation, the intention being to not reveal their intentions too obviously, but to place them in a better position to rush to Searlait's rescue in case something happened.

The guncutters' weapons are also manned, though not active, but with a similar intention; they don't want to project hostility, but they do want to be ready to fight in case the worst happens.

In reply to Gregory Asgard (msg # 31):

Remaining aboard the craft, Ravandio receives a message from the delegation. He leaned forward on the console and toggled the vox. ++I'm on it. Keeping an eye on anything that the Pilgrim's sensors can see.++ He flipped the switch back so that it wasn't broadcasting his own words, returning his attention to what he could see and any information relayed to him from either the crew of the Grey Pilgrim or the other craft.

The first minster gives Searlait a sideways look, ”I am sorry for your troubles Captain, but it has been over a hundred and fifty years since the Empire has taken any notice of the problems we are having here.”

The room chosen for this meeting is large, clean, has a long table running down the middle and smells faintly of fresh paint. A painting of the emperor hangs on one end wall opposite a framed document, there is no other decoration. Searlait is conducted to a chair in the middle of the long side of the table, there are chairs either side of her for other members of the party, Sir Norman Cecil sits opposite with his entourage and a lexicarnum takes up station at the end of the table.

Carafes of water have been provided at each place, non the less Sir Norman Cecil begins by offering refreshments, ”can we get you anything before we start, wine perhaps, or there is a rather pleasant tea we drink on Gelron.”

Outside all seems well, no threats are perceived, birds circle in the clear blue sky and a soft but slightly chill breeze blows a trace of ozone in from the sea. To the south, beyond the horizon where the land rises up in low hills there is a darkness though, the shadow cast by the disk in space lends an eery light in that direction.
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Faith has been quiet all this time, playing up the image of a meek, docile scribe taking notes as she follows behind the others. Her efforts have been focused on sweeping the locals for any traces of psychic activity, as well as occasionally switching to her familiar Nevermore's perspective to monitor their surroundings.

She glances up at the First Minister as he sits opposite them, while pulling out her autoquill and dataslate in preparation to take notes.

Vormav sits to the captain's left and graciously accepts tea. Could it be poisoned? Yes. But if it was something fast acting then everyone else could avenge him and if it was slow then he was probably valuable enough that no expenses would be spared for his medical attention.

He looks up at the painting of the Emperor. Looking for anything odd about it. They very well could have just pulled it out of storage as opposed to giving it the honor it was due.

"I'm afraid your information doesn't align with that of the wider galaxy First Minister, this wasn't a simple disconnect with the greater Imperium. Your planet has not been visited because your planet is no longer where it was. It has been over a millennia since it was declared lost, you are no longer in the Segmentum Tempestus. Your world is now in the Segmentum Obscurus, crossed half the galaxy and has recently be found in the periphery of a stellar anomaly that has previously destroyed fleets searching the area." she says, standing behind the chair and staring at the Minister as her entourage take their seats and watches to see how the news would affect the planetsiders, taking a seat if they do, remaining standing if they do.

There is a moments stunned silence, and then uproar amongst the first minister’s retinue, most seemed shocked by this new and they all seem to talk at once, some throwing questions at Searlait with no thought for protocol or decorum, others protesting, some arguing or discussing with each other, and not a few ’I told you sos’ amongst them.

The first minister, and the man next to him in military uniform maintain their composure, Sir Norman Cecil frowning in deep thought, the other shouting out a command in a loud parade ground voice, ”SILENCE!. Remember where you are.”

”Please forgive us Captain, this news is a bit of a shock,” the first minister says once order is restored, ”we were al aware that something was amiss but this is beyond our wildest speculations. Our planet is currently in a state of aggression bordering on civil war bests of the great black disk in the sky, can you tell us anything about that, it is our most immediate concern.”
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As the meeting devolves into an uproar of voices from the opposite side, Searlait finally takes her seat, expecting this to go on for a few minutes before the First Minister could corral his subordinates in to control, taking a sip of water.

Once order is restored she responds with "Understandable after the news you were given, it isn't everyday your world view is quiet so shaken and thrown about. We have been aware of your planets tenuous peace since we got within sensor range of the planet. The Disk is a manufactorum that I have dispatched some of our Adeptus Mechanicus crew to investigate and as soon as I have answers I will be more then happy to share them, I felt is was imperative to secure open and peaceful relations as quickly as possible so we could move forward."

”I think then that we had better explain our situation here then,” the first minister says, glancing up and down the table for approval from the others on his side.

”About two hundred years ago, no one can be very precise about the date, this planet suffered what we now refer to as ‘the event’, what went on before the event nobody knows, those who survived it, and there are still a few around, describe it as waking from a long dream, and like a dream, passed memories had all faded away, people still retained whatever skills they had and knew their names, where they lived. Most, but not all remembered their families and loved ones, where they lived and worked, practical things for everyday living, but know nothing ‘historical’, they didn’t know how they met their wife, how long they’d been together or how old their children were. ”

”I was quickly discovered that cogitators, memory crystals and even the written word had all been corrupted in some way, birth certificate had blurred ink where the dates had been, calendars were a gobbledygook of mixed numbers and letters, and even dates carved in stone on monuments and statues were ‘weathered’ beyond reading. A new dating system was quickly established, starting with the time of the ‘event’ but, it was about sixty years before it properly stabilised, people could not agree on how much time was passing and things written down quickly became confused, not only on the paper, but also in the minds of the very people who had written them.”

”One thing everybody knew for certain was that the planet was in great danger and it was imperative that the manufactorum that orbits our planet be properly supplied so everyone got to work, it was difficult at first, without cogitators, but things quickly got back to an approximation of normal.”

The first minister pauses for a sip of water.
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Faith quirks up an eyebrow and brgins scribbling rapidly on her dataslate. MEanwhile, she has Nevermore fly a small circuit of the area to spy out what's going on.

Vormav waits patiently for the minister to continue. No sense in probing now, let them spill whatever information they will give willingly he would try to maneuver them from there if he could get one or two alone.

Rav monitors any vox traffic that they might be able to intercept from the Captain's shuttle craft, keeping everything running on low power so that it would be more easily used should the ship be needed in an emergency. He watched as the small bird lighted upon his computer console and pecked out a few letters. He was familiar with the bird, there was not much else like it aboard the Pious Lament. He chuckled when it finished it's hunt-and-peck method on the keyboard and shoo'd it away with a brush of his arm.

Searlait listens to the tales of woe that has befallen these poor unfortunates. "I see. Well whatever warp rift dragged your planet here could account for all of the psykers being killed as well as corrupting records, the whims of the Immaterium are beyond the kin of sane mortals. I'll have information on major changes within the wider Imperium compiled and direct it towards your offices." She says to the first part of his comment.

For the latter she leans onto the table and asks "What was the manufactorum supposed to be making, what resources did you need to go up and how do you send things up, we haven't seen any sub-orbital craft I believe."

The first minister considers Searlait’s question before going on, ”we really don’t know what the manufactorum is making, with records destroyed and memory being lost we can only guess, and current thoughts are that it is something to prevent the ‘disk’ which casts such a shadow on our lands. We were however left with an overwhelming sense of urgency, we all knew that the fate of the planet depended on our success.”

”The infrastructure remained in place, crops continued to be harvested, mines continued to be mined and the raw materials continued to be processed or loaded into the orbital capsules being produced. The laded capsules are launched in to orbit by a maglev rail gun situated on the equator and synchronised to the orbit of the manufactorum.”

”In spite of our efforts the disk grew rapidly and began to cast its shadow, as it increased crops began to fail, this just effected the equatorial regions initially but the shadow has grown now to cover the majority of the planet's fertile land, Demands from central government for supplies of foods and other cultivated materials has grown until we could no longer be met and the government has threatened totally unreasonable sanctions, and we have had to declare autonomy to protect ourselves. We still maintain production of food and materials as best we can, the food we divide evenly, our own people are heavily rationed. The government is not content and raids our warehouses and caravans whenever it can, we seek to defend them.”
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It had taken some time to secure the requisite readings for the Inquisitional team and with such in hand and already disseminated to their august personages, there seemed no harm in sharing such with the other landing parties. Especially as such data was clearly under no particular burden of secrecy or censure according to her house, and her own, complicated relationship with the Holy Ordos. Her voice, as ever, was composed and soft with the distinct crackle of the vox distorting it as it seemed to do for nearly every soul who used such devices.

++Lady Captain, my fellow officers, while calendar data and other associated record keeping appears to be dreadful, the planet is in line with chronometric data pulled from the Astronomicon's light. An oddity, given it's lengthy disappearance.++

While there was nothing of... earth shattering information in such a simple transmission. The Navigatrix had still taken the due to care to work with the bridge teams handling such communications to ensure sound protection against malicious machine sprites and other such actors that might seek to intercept or disrupt. The necessary rites observed with the particular care of one used to the eccentricities of tech lore, at least in a laymen's sense.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:46, Fri 28 July 2023.

Searlait nods as the Minister talks, mentally tracking some of the various points. "This disk,  are you aware if it is super-orbital or sub-orbital?" she asks "We have seen it from a distance so far, I decided it was more important to establish contact first before exploring every facet of the System."

When the mention of sedition of the Northern Alliance she keeps her tongue on how the Imperium normally deals with it because the Alliance has kept up what could be considered the tithe and attempted to remain civil with their neighbours "What is the population of the Northern Alliance? I may be able to see if we can provide anything to assist matters regarding food and failing that we may be able to coordinate intelligence to counter raids, preferably peacefully"

Listening as Cennet voxes in She raises a hand an says ++Confirmed, thank you Navigatrix++

”We have a population of just under two point two billion,” the First Minister says, glancing left and right to get confirmation from his team.

Sorry, I’m not sure what you mean by super-orbital and sub-orbital, but Searlait would already know that the disk is in an orbit that keeps it between the planet and the system’s star so that it always casts a shadow, (probably not actually achievable in RL but I’m guessing it is quite high).

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"Well our supplies wouldn't make much of dent into that unfortunately. However, once we sort out things here we can take the Pious Lament to investigate what the disk to determine what the disk is, I would accept a small delegation from your staff should you wish to have a liaison onboard, while we attempt to sort out planetary division then investigate the disk"
This message was last edited by the player at 17:35, Sun 30 July 2023.

Vormav inserts taps the table in thought and then chimes in. "Our supplies may not have a notable effect but the supplies here might be more efficiently distributed using our orbital resources. An army marches on it's stomach or something like that, what can you tell us about the ongoing conflict? Perhaps having orbital superiority could ease the strain on your supply lines?"

"What are you peoples military position in relation to that of the Gelron Primary? Manpower, vehicles, reserves, munitions, transportation, My Master of Arms will require a full breakdown and we will need to know if you possess any direct contact with any senior members of their leadership?"

Gregory does his best to look like he wasn't on the verge of falling asleep just now and adds with a smile, "Now of course, the best battle is one you don't have to fight, but optimism hasn't gotten us anywhere, no? That being the case, if we cannot convince them to make peace with words, we shall have to settle for the peace of the sword. Or the macrocannon battery, as it were. To that end, I'm interested in knowing about any airbases or artillery emplacements they might have so we can keep an eye on them."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:51, Sun 06 Aug 2023.