From the Pious Lament in its close orbit around the planet, the Manufactorum is just one star against a backdrop of millions, a bright star, when it catches the light, and one that visibly moves if watched for any length of time, but just another dot of light for all that.

On the auspex screens however, it is a vast and complex wheel, its top surfaces encrusted with towering cubes and cylinders swamped by a bewildering tangle of cables and pipes, some of which could accommodate the Lament herself. Slender pyramids and block like structure rise above the uneven ‘surface’, and these structures cover the tops of all four spokes and become larger, higher and denser at the hub.

Behind the complexity of the Manufactorum is a huge, flat black object, invisible, even on the auspex, but obvious and well defined by its silhouette, this object is large enough and so positioned that it causes a permeant shadow on the planet below and has become known as the ‘screen’.  Once every eighteen hours or so, a tiny sparkle can be see in the auspex view and zooming in on this will reveal another black object being launched towards the ‘screen’. A chain of these house sized slabs stiches its way through space and on arrival each will manoeuvre a little and lock into place on the screen’s edge, making it ever bigger.
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 The Gun Cutter Jak has requisitioned for the operation is capable of carrying some thirty souls in addition to its crew - if they don't mind being rather close - and after consultation with Harmonia, Jak makes his selection of personnel according to the likely needs of the mission.

 Two tall, looming Classiarii form his personal guard, the void-resistant, engineered Skitarii drawn from the tiny number of their ilk aboard the Pious Lament, each a red-robed examplar of the power and technosorcery of the Ommnissiah, heavily armoured and equipped with numerous weapon implants. Supporting them are a squad of ten of the Hypaspists, flak-armoured and bearing lasguns (save for the holy Melta and cherished flamer which round out their squad).

 They're escorting two adepts, one a fabrication specialist of the Drive-room and one a life-systems expert of the Auspex temple, each with three attendants (apprentices, in the case of the latter) who are dressed in their finest robes and armed (of course) with rune-wrought hellpistols and hellguns, according to the weight of whatever else they bear.

 This - naturally - leaves nine slots for Harmonia to fill, eight including herself and Jak is quite content to offer her security drawn from the Hypaspists if she should wish them, according to her preferences.

Meeting up with Jak outside the smaller ship Harmonia pauses to allow the many people cramming into it the freedom to load up in whatever way suits them.

For her own part she has changed into an obviously armored robe, included an attached laser pistol and mono sword that she doesn't so much as fidget with while waiting.

After a few minutes she asks Jak.”Do you really expect to need all of this?
We are effectively a diplomatic mission.”

 "It is unlikely that these individuals represent sufficient firepower to extract us from any peril into which we shall fall and indeed, their primary responsibility shall be to secure our transport. Their secondary responsibility is to add authority to our arrival, demonstrating by their presence that we are to be treated with respect." Tesla explains as the groups convene, the tech-guard squad exchanging light conversation and inspecting one another's gear carefully, the Skitarii standing impassive off to one side and the tech adepts communing - one group in binaric, the other in handsign.

 "When can we expect the arrival of your contingent?" he goes on to ask, plainly ready for then to depart.

Taking another look at the group of men accompanying Jak Harmonia shakes her head.”I think your group should do well enough, Think of me more as an observer or some kind of quality control.”

 Men, women and Skitarii (frankly, at their level of augmentation gender becomes largely inapplicable), all of whom look to be preparing for their duties as Jak tilts his head and considers Harmonia for a moment as he processes her statement, then observes "I council against this course of action. You are Ordained of the Omnissiah-Emperor, Confessor of the Pious Lament. Whatever your preferences, you should - at a minimum - be attended by a small staff to emphasise the dignity of your station."

Harmonia considers the situation for a few moments but decides to stick with her initial impression of the situation.  ”If they do not understand the dignity of my position, or the combined threat and respect I offer them by showing up alone then no amount of emphasis from staff would change anything, let alone a small one.

If any serious conflict arises it will be The Pious Lament that offers real protection, and they will only see additional people as additional hostages.  Obviously we need to be able to negotiate from a position of strength on site, but you have more than accounted for that already.”

Although the doors to space are closed and the industrial lumens shine brightly, the hanger is in a vacuum with a sealed walkway connecting the gun cutter to the rest of the ship. A figure in a distinctive orange and black void suit makes his way through the bustle of workers and vehicles towards the nose of the gun cutter and makes a signal to the pilot, in response one of the crew, the gunner, leaves their station and moves to close the door. Just before he does so, two late commers enter the cabin, both well-armed, one with clerical vestments worn over his vac suit, the other, carrying a huge power hammer, has his void suit heavily emblazoned with clerical iconography.

As these two find seats the gunner closes and dogs the door. There is a faint noise of the clamps releasing as the access tube is with drawn and then just the internal noises of the gun cutter, the whisper of the circulating air, the murmur of the crew running through the endless check lists, the tinny voice of flight control.

The engines wine into life and the lights outside dim quickly to emergency red, then go out altogether as the huge hanger door slide ponderously open. Beyond are millions of bright shining stars forming drifts and clouds by their sheer number. As the gun cutter moves slowly out into space the effect is spoiled by the glowing arc of the planet on one side and the vast, domineering  mass of the sink hole on the other. The cloudy drifts of fainter stars fades to a few thousand brilliant pin points with the added light and the gun cutter accelerates smoothly towards them.

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 "It is not a lack of understanding that concerns me, but a lack of belief. A priest of your standing possesses a retinue, therefore if you lack a retinue, you are not a priest of your standing." Jak points out, but ultimately does concede that it is for Harmonia to set her own staff and - since he did not bring more personnel - the cutter heads out light on personnel, with Jak manfully reciting binary paeans of veneration of the machine rather than doing what he wants to do, which is to utilise his cybernetic implants to link with the machine-spirit of the cutter so that he can kibitz while perfectly competent and qualified pilots do their jobs.

 As they head across the void, more or less the entire Mechanicus contingent - including Jak - sit strapped to their seats like mannequins, something that's likely to be wearying for the priestess, but if you want conversation you probably shouldn't hang out with the cogboys.

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OOC: It would seem to be selling them short to describe the Ecclesiarchy as 'high church' but I'm guessing Anyone who is Anyone has a mob of retainers and incense-wavers and floaty cherubs and other nonsense so everyone knows that they're important. On the other mechandrite, the only thing consistent across the Imperium is variation so Harmonia's humility thing is completely legit, it's just probably going to generate a lot of 'what, really? Her? from folks. ^_^

Harmonia barely even glances at the two missionaries as they come aboard, but sighs and settles back into her seat as the ship at last gets under way.

As the ship settles into its path she almost seems to fall asleep, but it quickly becomes obvious that she is lost in her own thoughts and no doubt prayers for their success.

At the front of the cabin is a small doorway that leads through to the cockpit, it is set to the left of centre on the bulkhead to the right is a large view screen which now lights up with an image of the manufactorum. It’s some distance away but the lights, venting gasses and the occasional spout of flame leave no doubt that it is alive and active.

”Commander Heskith, your pilot here Sirs, ETA about five minutes. There are a lot of empty hanger bays standing open on this thing, should I land in one of those or would you like to board via EVA hearer to the centre.”

As she speaks the image on the screen zooms in on some of the landing bays, there are hundreds of these things, each about the right size for a Gun Cutter, about eighty percent stand open and empty, about ten percent of these are in darkness, the majority are lit bright and inviting.

”We have room on the bridge for one more person , if someone want to take a proper look.”
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It takes Harmonia a moments thought, perhaps two, but no more, to sort out a response to new information.  ”If they are polite enough to leave the front door open we should be polite enough to walk through it.
As far as determining which one is the primary I will leave that up to you, but I recommend one of the centrally located ones with signs of frequent use.”

 Jak has little need to utilise anything as crude as his eyesight to make the connection with the sensors of the Gun Cutter, and utilises them - and the vox unit in the cockpit - to announce "I concur with Confessor Wells. Please bring us to the selected bay.", which is where he flags one of the central, lit sections for the pilot team while going on to announce "I will be utilising the communication system, please hold." as he starts sweeping frequencies for any indication of local, short-range com-bead use, seconding his results to the comm' officer.

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Not sure if it's tech-use or not, or just 'yes you can' but Jak's looking for local coms.