The Pious Lament is again at action stations as it prepares to change orbit and investigate the artificial construct that is casting a  shadow over Gelron and there is a great deal of activity on the bridges below the red neon of the Nixie display as it counts down towards the departure time.
.

Gregory has changed into his armor and is busy assigning men to shuttles as he reads through Tesla's report on the disk.

"So much for vacation time, ladies. Standard boarding procedures; Breacher 1 takes point while a company of armsmen backs them up. We don't anticipate any violent resistance, but if there is, take cover and only fire when explicitly ordered to. That means smoke grenades for everyone!"

The Navigatrix, for her part, was as she always seemed to be. Her true features hidden behind the exquisite mask and every centimeter of her frame obscured in fine garments, behind expertly made xeno-mesh, or yet further beneath anchored dermal carapace of exquisite quality. For all such trappings of power, however, she seemed frail and weak as she leaned on her staff and watched the myriad displays that festooned the navigator's station on the deck. A stubborn, pointed patience apparent as she awaited any and all tasks that might be asked of her... Right alongside a burning curiosity to see this disk and, perhaps, gleam a little wisdom from her own garnered understandings of technology.

Though such was as much through legend and myth as it was through first hand experience.

Sitting on the bridge she taps out a series of commands across her console "As soon as we are within sensor ranges I want complete scans, standard and ethereal of the disk, then find us somewhere to land that seems important. When we have co-ordinates we send shore teams aboard once we know more information." she orders across the room as they get to work.

Faith isn't sure if she's needed for the disk expedition, but she reports to the bridge all the same. Fortunately, the astropath's station at the left of the captain's seat (and beside the Navigatrix's) has been neatly maintained during her absence and she has little to do besides check the logs of received messages.

Gradually, curiosity overcomes her, and she turns to Cennet, regarding her with a curious eye. Unfortunately she has no idea how to strike up a conversation, and so, after some thinking, she asks, "Have you had an apple before, Lady Navigatrix?"

The ponderous bulk of the Pious Lament shudders along its length as the drives begin to slowly push it towards the disk, scanners and optical sensors working overtime and feeding data to banks of cogitators and servitors who compile a composite image for the primary tactical display. The result is surprisingly dull, what the display depicts is just a disk, it is black and composed of million upon million slab like structures each twenty by ten by two meters, featureless on the flat sides but with arrays of leatching points and manoeuvre jets around the edges. A line of these slabs, widely but equally spaced dots its way back to the manufactorum which is calculated to be launching one every 200 minutes, as each approach it veers of towards a location somewhere around the edge of the construct, manoeuvres into position and latches on.

There is very little technical data as active scans are mostly absorbed returning very little information. The one feature that does stand out is the vast size of the thing, although only two meters thick it is around a thousand kilolitres, (600 mils ish) across.

.]
.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:57, Sat 02 Sept 2023.

Cennet Melek Shiraishi was not a creature that could easily be caught of guard but her fixation upon the task given to her by the Lady Captain was enough to draw all the attention she might share between her trio of eyes from her physical surroundings and into the depths of the Endless Sea. It was only fortunate that her wretched, treacherous musculature lacked the true power to have her start in anything more appreciable or rapid than a mere straightening of her back and a slight turn of head towards the woman now beside her.

There was a terrible, unnatural weight to that glance even as her far more natural eyes sharpened and focused on Faith. The survey of the disc and it's peculiar prismatic shielding left for a moment to ponder the question. Even her aide, a dour and focused man in the grey robes of the Administratum was pulled from his studies and notations for just a moment as he quickly banished one data set for another before delving deeper into the many pouches.

"I suspect the word may have a different value or meaning to what... I might know. My kin and I are, as you might imagine, well travelled but we're often only met by the most high aboard our eternally wandering home or in isolated palace estates..." the Navigatrix paused, considering the question and Faith again. "Which... I suppose doesn't quite address the question. I've had things called apples but if you could be more specific, Lady Astropath?"

There was a hint of amusement, polite consternation, and even an impression of divided focus... Which given the circumstance was not so outlandish a thing as her head turned back towards the great disk. A hand falling to the controls of the navigator's terminal to move with deliberate, agonized care as she balanced herself upon the solid moorings of her staff of office. The Lady Captain soon had an in progress report of what could be gleamed through the lens of her third eye and the shimmering field that surrounded the mega-structure.

Faith studies Cennet as she turns to face her, not in the manner of a child gawking at a circus freak, but an impartial observation of a fellow colleague. She understands that Homo navigo is a mutation, but a sanctioned and valued one, and while both she and Cennet deal with the warp, the relative worth of their respective skillsets is about as far apart from each other as ceramite would be over mud bricks.

The truth is, Cennet fascinates her, though she hopes the latter will not mistake her curiosity for mockery...

"I speak of the fruit," Faith whispers, as she produces an apple from a hidden pocket in her sleeve. "A little bird brought me a branch of them when we were returning from Gelron. "I tried one, and it was good; I hope it is to your liking."

The Navigatrix considered the offered fruit and considered the woman, the pause was palpable as the careful mathematics of social evaluation played out. It was, if she had to admit to herself, an utterly baffling set of circumstances. Frankly so far removed from the niceties of social interaction that she was used and the consequent power dynamics that she could help but spare a laugh. The sound pleasant, soft, and cultured as befit one of her breadth of education but strange all the same from a being regarded as so cursed yet so invaluable.

"Of course, whatever else might it've been. You'll, ah, pardon me if I don't partake here and now. The realities of my... conditions make it so that I don't care to eat outside the company of my kinfolk." Cennet said apologetically with a gesture towards her mask. The countenance beneath a vile and sadly persisting wound upon her mind and pride. A badge, if nothing else, of the betrayal she had committed and the imperfections of her own artifice. After all, even her face could not have been spared the insidious wasting cascade failure that was her musculature.

That same hand then extended to accept the fruit with a delicate touch. It, too, was encased in a material not unlike the mask she wore. Fine and black material spreading where exquisitely wrought ceramic plates could not cover regardless of how clever they might be designed.

"Get us to the sun side at a safe distance and lets see if there's any more information to gather from there" she orders the helm before heading to the Astropath and Navigatrix and listens in on the topic of exotic fruits. Not remaining hidden, but listening to the outward thoughts that these two had.

It takes several hours to move the Lament around to get a view of the sunny side of the disk, and once they achieve this, they find it is pretty much the same, a huge, flat plane of black. At first glance this is just disappointing but, on thinking about it, it is quite telling, there are no reflections here, almost all of the sunlight is being absorbed, and yet the temperature remains a constant 20°C, there is a heck of a lot of energy missing from this equation.
.

The proximity of the Lady Captain earned a glance her way, that same palpable weight of the warp eye behind the Navigatrix's exquisite mask felt but... blunted. It was only polite, after all, to maintain awareness of one's peers and acknowledge them if they sought to... inch upon an ongoing conversation. As ever, her body language had a slow and deliberately calculated quality to it as if even such slight movements were exhausting or troublesome.

"If you've had a moment, Lady Captain... There is field of sorts that seems to deflect or otherwise redirect psychic energy on the disk. I'm not certain if it will have a real space effect but given all that's been learned thus far. It's an interesting development though I am most curious as to where this technique or technology may have arisen as it doesn't appear like a gellar field might."

"I felt it too," Faith adds. "The thought occurs to me that it might be a way to obscure warp energies... or to focus it. We would need to sew what was creating it, preferably in the company of the Tech-adepts."

"This is a currious development, do we require a closer look with some of Magos Tesla's subordinates or should we continue to scan from closer orbit until the Magos returns do you think" She asks the two women, their estroic powers beyond her but the sensor readings of a comfortable 20°C while facing the burning orb of the planet was odd in the extreme.

"I believe the Magos is already on the disk, so it might be good to ask him if he is detecting any unusual power draws or machinery similar to aetheric technology like the warp drives or the Gellar Fields. I am not opposed to heading over to the disk as well or to accompany the Lady Navigatrix if she should need my assistance."

 Every 'comm currently linked to the senior crew of the Pious Lament chimes in complex five-part harmony at the same time before Jak - apparently backed by a large chunk of local authority - puts everyone into a shared conversation.

 "Explorator Tesla, Speaking for the Manufactorum Expedition. Successful recovery of command authority has been completed. Successful recovery of high-level records revealing the course of events that have influenced recent Gelron history has been completed. This is not merely not the original sector to which Gelron was assigned, it is also not its original star. In 4.918.99.M40, stellar instabilities were identified in its local star and all local authorities were committed to the constriction of a planetary defence system utilising Pattern 133A 771 STC 33090/b7, a borderline accepted pattern which appeared to includes Empyric circuitry in its construction. Confirmation of this circuitry was to be found when Gelrons local sun indeed underwent catastrophic expansion, causing the shield to activate and displace Gelron and the Manufactorum to this location. Due to the extreme forces this event caused, extensive loss of manufacturing assets including, but not limited to pattern data, construction records, all psychic personnel, many human memories and a statistically significant number of human lives were suffered."

 "The danger is now past. It will be possible to repurpose the Manufactorum and restore Gelron, but to do so will be a non-trivial task. A permanent Grand Magos will be needed to undertake the role. My recommendation is that the current Magos, who has spent significant time operating the station be raised to this position with Arius Draccius as his understudy and aide. My further recommendation is that Confessor Wells collaborate with other human-interface personnel on a broad announcement to local populations of the change in priorities only after a full assessment of what is needed to restore the system has been completed. I am standing by for alternative proposals."
This message was last edited by the player at 05:30, Sat 16 Sept 2023.

"I would not be opposed to accompanying an inspection but it seems that Magos Tesla may have extracted the majority of the desired details of the disk and it's particulars. Though, as before, I remain rather curious as to the exact nature and configuration of these aetheric emanations. If only to ascertain that they are, to borrow an ancient Terran term, Kosher." the Navigatrix offered with notes of curiosity and dutiful inclination in her soft, cordial tones. Her attention splitting now between the sundry details of the report and her own continued visual estimations of the disk. Her attendant, as ever, seeming to capture and record anything and everything around them that might be pertinent to the ongoing records of the Pious Lament and the small contingent of House Shiraishi.

It all made a certain sort of sequential sense as she considered what had been shared. It was the niggling point of it being a borderline accepted pattern that had her wondering as to where deviation may have occurred. She had spent enough time among Tech Priests and Explorators in her own career prior to this assignment to know that there were many daemons to be found in details. There were enough problems, after all, without the necessary considerations of possible... deviancy in matters technical or theological. Something, either way, that many of them had a sensitivity to but Madame Faith and herself more than any other.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:45, Wed 13 Sept 2023.

There is a lot of strange vox com activity this morning from Gelron Prime, an absence of regular civilian programming, long periods of jamming, appeals for calm and lots of stuff in codes.
.

THe mention of coded transmissions intrigues Faith and she decides to bring a copy of the dispatches up to the bridge along with some of the junior astropaths so they may attempt to decipher them under the watchful eye of the Captain...

OOC: Faith will be rolling Scholastic Lore (Cryptology), with 2 helpers and maybe with the Captain's bonus from overseeing them?) Assuming a +20 bonus for having 2 helpers and +10 from the Kaptin's Exceptional Leader...

18:53, Today: Faith rolled 55 -- 2 degrees of success using the Only War system with a target number of 70.  Cryptology.

There are several hundred coded messages and Faith picks two at random.

.

"The Magos is on the Manufactorum" She answers Faith before all the vox casters squeal out and she rips it out, relying on the nearby casters set into a console to relay the Magos' message. Shortly after she gets another private message.

"I think we need to return to the planet for the time being. Send a message back to the Magos, Inform him that Gelron Primary has had a coup d'état and there is a credible threat to the planets launcher system. We are returning at maximum speed to the planet, I want low orbit calculations for fire support plotted, I want all troops on this vesel prepared for oribtal drop into a contested zone and get me a direct line to the Northern Alliance and our agents within Manistee & Volt Mining." She orders across the deck and moves to her strategium getting Asgard to follow her as well as other officers who would be needed.