The scissor gates on the elevator shaft are physically locked and manually operated but it is a simple safety feature, not designed to be challenging and easily overcome. With the gates pushed back the roof of the car can be seen just a few feet below and the problem is obvious, debris built up on this rarely used section of the racks are preventing the pinions from engaging while rotating brushes that should keep the racks clean, have had their bristles entirely worn away, under the overload the breakers have popped. Resetting the breakers and cleaning the teeth on the racks will have the elevator back in action in short order but the brushes will need replacing later, if that state of affairs is to continue.

There is a pile of debris on the car roof, mostly small ‘litter’ items but including two human corpses, one is just bones, gnawed by rodents and scattered, the other intact but mummified.

Although it looks fragile, the staircase should have no trouble taking Arius’ weight, he might have some difficulty negotiating the narrow, partially enclosed spiral in the bulky armour but it could be done.

OOC Fixing the elevator will take 1d10 + 5 minutes, please let me know which method is used to ascend.

The chamber on Deck 9 seems to be the same size and dirt level as that below with identical elevator and stair access, both of which carry on to the floor above. There is no rail track here and the floor carries on level to the far wall where there are two doors, heavy oval things with a central wheel to operate latches all the way round via the exposed push rods. There are similar doors on the forward and aft bulk heads though these just feature the wheel and heavy riveted ribbing as their mechanisms must be on the other sides. The door through the forward bulk head is plastered with an excessive number of seals, prayer scripts, from both the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Adeptus Ministorum, and warning signs not to enter, it has also been welded shut.
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 Tesla reports the failure with a short busy of binary cant and sets about making the necessary repairs - in the short term at least - while two of the attending voidsmen unroll a couple of standard, ship-issue corpse bags into which the remains are respectfully transferred with a brief benediction, after having been searched to make sure that they're not carrying anything which should be recycled.

 Later, they'll go to a plasma tube or local shrine but for now, they'll be left near the train to be picked up later.

 That gives Arius a chance to examine that imposing wall of seals and warning signs first.

Standing in front of the sealed gate Arius pondered why the Enginseer Prime would bother with the trivial task of repairing an elevator himself. Surely his time could be better allotted.

That left the task of examining the sealed entrance to him. And it was well it did for he immediately deduced that it was likely sealed to contain a Moral Threat. Why else would both the holy Mechanicus and misguided Ecclesiarchy apply their seals? He would have expected that the nature of the threat was kept in the ship's logs and be known to the senior staff but with centuries, maybe millenia passing in the interim, the knowledge was lost. It also seemed likely the threat was long gone although one could never be sure with the creatures of the Immaterium. Regardless, if it was still there, it was about time it was purged. Thus he set the work crew to task with the plasma cutters while he awaited for the Enginseer Primus to join him. With a burst of binary he shared his suspicion.

 The answer to the unasked question is an almost trivial aside to the concurrence Tesla answers with, a binary threading of agreement and concern for the possibility of their needing to retreat at haste - making the elevator directly useful - coming with it (and, in the reediest of side-bands, an additional admission of the genuine pleasure to be found in taking a simple fault and completing its repair).

 Shortly thereafter, with the actinic light of cutting tools casting stark shadows in all corners, Tesla joins Dracius at the door and - after cautioning the tech-guards to be wary - proposes "Servo skull assessment seems most appropriate, followed by remote examination of likely data sources."

Task complete the work crew move there equipment out of the way. One of the Cult Guard turns the wheel and pulls open the heavy door while the others cover the opening with their weapons. The passage within is still dimly lit by those flickering lumens that have survived the ages, it wide enough for two people but only one Arius, it stretches on for a hundred yards or so to another door, similar to the first but this one standing open.

Within the second door is a large chamber, two decks tall and mostly filled with a complex and gothic looking piece of machinery that has pipes and cables branching off every which way. There is grided balcony on the level of the deck above and multiple doorways on both levels. There is much dust here but it is a clean grey, not the dirty black associated with the rail lines, there are also tracks in the dust, especially around three particular doors and the bottom of both sets of stairs the lead to the level above. The tracks are hard to identify, just smudges and drag marks for the most part, but accompanied by thousands of tiny ones perhaps made by something akin to a rat.
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There was something alive down here. Possibly some wretches or mutants, such things were not uncommon finds. But Arius wondered how they had gotten in. Because that meant whatever was in here could also get out.

But there were more important matters at hand. The first was identifying the purpose of the ancient machinery this vast hall had been built to house. The Explorator turned his attention fully to mapping its modules and attempting to deduce its purpose..

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OOC: Forbidden Lore: Adeptus Mechanicus or Tech-use test?
This message was last edited by the player at 14:37, Sat 10 Dec 2022.

It takes Arius just moments to confirm that he is looking at the geller field node which is esentual for maintaining the form and strength of the field around this area of the ship. This particular node has not had any attention or prayers for nearly 200 years yet it seems to be functioning perfectly and no calibration is needed at all.

Doors on the forward bulk head are all labelled as leading to the living quarters all bar one are open or ajar, the exception is specifically labelled as 'dinning room'.

Doors on other walls are mostly labelled with code numbers, or routes to code numbers.
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 Four of the voidsmen are assigned to the door that has just been breached - instructed to repair its function properly so that it can be resealed at need - a process which includes replenishing lubrication and properly chanting the canticle of service (and which, incidentally guards it to prevent anything from slipping out undetected) while the remaining four and the four guards accompany Jak up to join Arius, while the four servo-skulls fan out to start mapping the chamber meticulously, scanning the inside of each adjacent chamber (through the doorway) to build up a map.

 As concerned with orthodoxy as function, Jak takes a moment to check over the purity seals and function indicators on the Geller node - correlating whether or not they match (since it is unlikely that a heretec repair would have proper sealing wax and sacred oils for marking the holy machine) while remarking "The section is inhabited but I perceive no signs of damage, praise the Omnissiah."

"Whatever dwells here has no interest in the hallowed machine." Arius agreed.
"The Machine Spirit has surely watched over this vessel, allowing this hallowed node to function without ministration for so long."

The Explorator looked around pensively, looking for further guidance from the Omnissiah on the mystery of this abandoned machine.
"Your predecessor would not have abandoned this node lightly. Failure of this node would potentially open a gap in the Gellar Field leading to the likely demise of this hallowed vessel."

He turned back to the Enginseer Primus.
"We would do well to ascertain why this was done."

The geller field node has been recertified and the door bought back to proper function, though some signs of minor surface corrosion on the inside will need addressing at some stage.
.

 "Indeed we would. The servo-skulls are scanning the adjoining chambers and developing a map. I propose closing and sealing hatches in sequence until one path forward remains then advancing along a secured line of advance toward the most active signs of habitation." Tesla states, while the humming sound of servo-skulls bobbing about continues from around them.

"<Binary burst of Acknowledgement>"

Arius takes up position next to Jak to proceed.

 And that's exactly what Jak does.

 Each room which has an open hatch off the hallway they're in has the other side of it scanned to build up their map and the door is closed - sealed if there's a manual option to do so.

 The ones which have the most sign of transit are, meanwhile watched by the guard team.

 Once they're ready - and have secured their route - the team checks in with the workers on the big, once-sealed hatch, makes sure that they know they're on guard (and cleaning duty) and then presses on through the one remaining path, looking for the ones who made the tracks, servo-skulls continuing to scan the area as they go, adding to their map.

With the exception of the door that is closed, all the doors off of this chamber lead to rooms that have have one or more doors leading off of them, some are linked by doors to each other but further routes lead off in all directions from here and for the most part all these additional doors are ajar. The doors around the first-floor walkway tell much the same story. The drag marks also proceed throughout all of these rooms, some fresher than others none of it particularly dense and none of it particularly recent. The rooms adjacent geller node hall are mostly empty with little indication of their original use, apart from the accommodation rooms where some furniture has been left and a bathroom and mess hall can be identified.

The door that is closed, and doors in adjoining rooms that might lead into the space beyond are all physically bared from the other side, it can be ascertained that a rod, or some other obstruction has simply been pushed through the wheel that operates the lugs all around the door and in all cases, these lugs are on the other side.

OOC I am assuming that so far, you have only explored the rooms directly adjoining the geller node hall, no specific line of advance has become apparent..
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OOC: We used the servo-skulls to scan each open door off this two-level chamber while we were examining the generator. We didn't send them into those rooms, just added them (and their obvious doors) to our map.
 There were three doors which showed signs of being most used, presumably those three are the blocked ones?

The three particular doors were not the closed ones, there are no tracks at all around these.

Tracks within the three particular doors disperse inside those rooms.

Some of the exit doors from those rooms seem to have a concentrate of tracks going through them but there is no discernible pattern to these and there are never tracks around doors that are closed.
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 OOC: There is a long chamber, two levels (I'm imagining a big room in a Fallout vault like: https://cdn.ebaumsworld.com/me.../718392/84811352.jpg)

 Doors lead off of both decks.

 It's dusty (but not very dusty). There are many tracks in the dust. Three doors have a lot of tracks around them. Mostly these tracks are drag marks and rat-like prints.

 The fore bulkhead leads to living quarters and almost all the doors on it are open. One of these doors leads to the dining room, and this is the only one which is closed.

 All other doors leading port, starboard and aft are labelled with code numbers. All of these doors are open and all lead to rooms with other doors, which are mostly open.

 All the doors which are closed (some in other rooms, and the one on the far bulkhead) are barred from the far side in some fashion.

 For the three doors with the most tracks, the tracks disperse in the rooms they enter without seeming to go anywhere.


 Okay!

 Close all of the port, starboard and aft, then dog them from this side.

 Send the servo-skulls to map the rooms beyond the fore hatches while we work on the dogged fore hatch. Off-hand, I'm thinking that we need to dismount it or cut it open.

 Draccius, sound good?

OOC
The door that is closed on the forward bulkhead does not lead to the dining room, that door is open. You do not know what is behind the door that is closed.

Otherwise all is as you say.

Correct in every detail.
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This message was last edited by the GM at 01:18, Sat 17 Dec 2022.

OOC: I 'm good with that. A systematic sweep of whatever is on this deck and mapping it for other exits is foremost on his mind right now.

 With the servo-skulls buzzing about on their anti-grav systems, mapping the immediate vicinity, Jak leads the small voidsman team in carefully dismounting the sealed door - choosing to take a little extra time to do so properly, rather than simply carving it out of the bulkhead, since the simple machine-spirit involved has only served as it was made to.

After some discussion a hole, just large enough to take a servo skill, is cut through the door with the intention of sending through a skull to check the place out before simply reaching in and removing whatever is preventing the latching wheel from rotating. This takes about eight minuets during which time the remaining servo skulls continue to map the nearby rooms which mostly seem to be empty though another cluster of closed doors is discovered, all leading into the same location. Also, a partial skeleton of some bipedal creature probably about three inches tall.

Once the hole is cut the plug of metal is carefully removed and set aside to be welded back into place later, peering through it seems that there were many tables in here but they are currently stacked in a pyramid formation in the far corner of the room, in addition there is a strange and pungent smell emanating from here. The skull that scans this room finds a stack of chairs in the opposite corner that could not be seen from the hole in the door, also other items of furniture that might be expected in a canteen, the dust here has not been disturbed and there are three other doors leading out, all of the doors in here have had their latching wheels wedged by broken off chair legs, it is a simple job to remove the one in this door and, although the wheel is stiff from lack of use, it is soon opened.
.

 The partial skeleton is recovered in a small cannister for subsequent analysis by a qualified Magos Biologis, after which the full team is gathered for the opening of the door, a task accomplished with the application of apologetic oils to the mechanism and a brief cant of promissory-repair.

 Air purity monitors are brought up to analyse the strange aroma when one of the voidsmen comments upon it, and with the four voidsmen who accompanied them before repairing the hatch (and the four who repaired the original hatch now taking their place), Tesla moves on, likely with Draccius accompanying him to examine the three new doors, which are in their turn scanned through and two sealed before the third - whichever seems most likely to lead to interesting regions - selected for progress.

Entering the room, two mummified bodies are discovered, one in the corner behind the pyramid of tables, the other in the opposite corner behind the pyramid of chairs. Further examination reviles that two people had survived for some years in isolation living off of preserved foods they had gathered from elsewhere before locking themselves into a series of about five rooms. They had water and waist facilities which are still operational in the bathroom that they had included in their domain, also waste disposal, bedding, spare cloths and plenty of preserved rations remaining in a room they had used as a store. How they had died and why the bodies were behind such elaborate structures is not clear.

Other locked doors lead to isolated sections that follow the same pattern, in fact five of these isolated couples are discovered throughout the accommodation area, their bodies all behind similar pyramids of furniture, mostly of chairs or tables, one of bed frames but never mixed.

After six hours the team has completely mapped the accommodation area and discovered one operational lateral thruster control room and one defunct atmospheric thermal adjustment plant. Apart from the bodies and the one small partial skeleton, nothing has been discovered that might account for the drag marks in the dust, nor any other sign of tiny bipeds. Of particular note is the lack of any insects or animal droppings, rat droppings and cockroaches in particular would be expected along with a whole host of spiders, flies, worms and Emperor knows what else. There are plenty of small gaps and holes where small bipeds might hide, but removing inspection panels still reviles no sign of them.

Beyond the accommodation area are three further doors, one on deck 10 is welded shut and carries many mechanicus seals, one of the two on deck 9 leads to a 100 foot long passage with a locked door that has been welded shut from the forward side, it can be deducted that this door is known about and is the other end of the sealed up section, the other on deck 9 is locked with a simple padlock and is labled 'waste plant, FP22', along with various reference numbers.
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Thus far the exploration had revealed some ship components of importance that were in dire need of ministration, but it was the odd rooms that pressed on Arius' mind. Multiple rooms. Each two people and pyramids of furniture. It reeked of profane ritual. The absence of vermin apart from mutants was another concern. IT was as if this entire area had been sterilized of life and remained so.

He shared his concern with his colleague.
"The complete absence of any lifeform is concerning. An unknown factor must linger that prevents the return of lesser creatures. I calculate that the highest probable cause is that the moral threat may still be present in some form."

In truth, he could think of little else that might cause such a phenomena other than a complete airtight seal of the environment..
This message was last edited by the player at 23:50, Mon 19 Dec 2022.

 The bodies are subjected to a brief examination and scan that checks for obvious, large-scale trauma, radiation or toxin exposure and any form of identification such as tattoos, badges, sigils or suchlike and then they're bagged for later disposal and lined up in the hall for later disposal.

 The control room is added to the schedule of inspection-tours, the thermal plant to the rota for resanctification and repair at an appropriate point. Which leaves them with three locations to look at. With the second seemingly leading to the other end of the sealed section, Tesla occupies himself for about three minutes with a chain of servo-skulls making sure that the distance-calculations are correct for the spaces involved and then returns Draccius's speculation.

 "The most concerning possibility would be a breach in the Geller field permitting intrusion from the Sea of Souls. This is counterindicated by the functioning generator. Conventional psychological degradation would not account for the section being sealed as it is. My current speculative hypothesis in the absence of evidence is xeno-generated neural compulsion, possibly through sporification but this is purely hypothetical and should not be considered a formal proposal... Regrettably, my biologis training is minimal and I am unqualified to examine the bodies for further evidence. In lieu of which, I propose searching the reclamation area first."