'We live, as we dream — alone ...' [In Character]

[Illiterate Scribe]

Boreale

Spoiler

Show

Spoiler

Show

You don't sense anyone there, but, more disturbingly, your power extends to near its full arc behind you. In the 170 metres directly out of the door that you just left, there is less than one metre of solid wall.

In response, Master Indrick flips a switch next to him, booting up a remote communication panel. His fingers patter across the controls for a short while.

I shawl leave anohther to explain - thihs shawl require my fuhll concentration. All so, bohth grouhps of survivors shuld hear this.

On the display, the whirl of static pixels deforms a little, then disappears, to be replaced by a pair of scenes. One, the larger, depicts the marines you arrived with, donning their helmets and sealing their suits. The smaller shows a grey-armoured marine - a Relictor, Lucius ever-tolerant gaze will be happy to behold - together with a stern looking black priest, and, peeking over his shoulder, a nervous-looking Sister Dialogous.

Gentlemen?

Fire Control

Spoiler

Show

The display, so late the happy seat of the red pie, flickers back into life as a surge of emergency power runs back through your part of the ship. Only it lights, however, and not very brightly at that - someone's directing power directly to it.

A pair of scenes slowly materialise on it.. One, the larger, depicts the marines you arrived with - Lucius is hazed with the after-energy of a sustained psychic action, Boreale rests behind him in an enormous psychic-hood like consturct, and Mercut looks around anxiously. The smaller shows a grey-armoured marine - a Relictor, together with a stern looking black priest, and, peeking over his shoulder, a nervous-looking Sister Dialogous.

Gentlemen?

Both speakers

Spoiler

Show

I'm sorry for these circumstances; I realise that many of you will suspect treachery. Foresight may often seem that way. As you know, the hull's just been compromised. Boreale spoke to me just before we left - if the instructions you have received then have seemed odd, it's because we needed a conceivable justification to get you up to the top of that ship. My crew and I are aboard our ship, but as far as I can tell, your group is the only part that ... well, you may wish to look out of one of the periscopic vision slits.

[crazedloon]

Brother Librarian Lucius Egar

Boreale you best not be lying because should I find you are I will not hesitate to kill you where you stand.

Lucius heads down the hall which brought him to this place at a quick pace concentrating on the signs of life anywhere within the arc of his power. His eyes spark and he wonders what the chapter master meant by survivors.

crunch:

Spoiler

Show

run action down the hall moving 18 meters this round (if we are not going by rounds I will be running that way until I find something to stop me or I find a sign of life if that takes more than 10 rounds note it so I can re check my power to see if I lose it)

[Illiterate Scribe]

Spoiler

Show

Ten meters down the corridor lies a large blast door. Its pressure seals have locked, but they don't seem to have locked onto anything in any satisfactory sense of the word, and, as such, you easily shoulder it aside. Beyond it, you see the rest of the corridor.

It's floating approximately a half-mile away from you.

The break between the ship's conning tower and its body is clean and neat, but around the scored path of the rupture, molten adamantine has welled up like blood from a wound, and, in the vacuum of space, radiates heat in delicate, supervisual spectra.

Spoiler

Show

I hope you've got your helmet on.

Anyway, could I have an agility test, with a +30 modifier what with being void born and everything.

[crazedloon]

Brother Librarian Lucius Egar

Lucius gasps as the air is forced from his lungs and his trachea seals shut and than his suit kicks in and pumps oxygen into his blood stream. He feels the slight fuzzy feeling as the layer of mucus secreted from his Mucranoid reacts to the vacuum. He looks out into the vast vacuum and his mouth moves as he mouths a curse. This was not his day.

crunch

Spoiler

Show

He doesn't have a helmet with him.... But the Mucranoid is designed for this sort of situation.
agility test (32+30) = 62
(1d100)[96]

[Illiterate Scribe]

Spoiler

Show

Not his day at all, I'm afraid. Worse luck than Mira!

Stunned momentarily by facing cold vacuum, Lucius loses his footing, and, ever so slowly, begins to drift away from the ship. There's a rogue piece of glowing metal by his head, that he could grab onto and pull himself back - but just how hot is it?

Alternatively, he could go for a wild grab, or even 'swim', over to the door, where the two marines are anxiously waiting, Boreale, even in his half-tranced state mustering some level of psychic energy.

[Verruckt]

Gevurah moves quickly to the exterior hallway and peeks out of one of the armor plas ports along one side of the corridor. The sight that greets him is the second thing in as many moments that has made his hearts skip. The vastness of the rest of the vessel, simply falling away... He rushes back inside to confront the screens.

+I will be concise, what happened, how many did we just lose, and is the Relictor's vessel accessible from here?+

[DarkNewton]

"Great, if this is what the system considers a good day-" Novare sneers through his helm at the console before briefly nodding to the Chaplin, shoving the console briefly as it flickers off briefly flicking his blue haloed gaze to Gevurah as he scans the screen plates trying to determine what and where the breech may be "Brother Chaplin, I am never one to hesitate in the face of conflict, I'd like nothing more then to put this machine to the blade and turn to the face the real enemy.. but we were given orders, and if this is the first breaching of man-" his comment cut off as the systems come back online, an a snort at the Relictor's comments, before shifting to get a view of what the Relictor is indicating. The temperature in the room suddenly drops as the knight reaching out with his mind as he tries to determine if what and where there might be hostiles.

Spoiler

Show

Threshold 7, might be a risk but I'm going for range with this:
SensePresense - (3d10+3)[5][2][6](16)

[crazedloon]

Brother Librarian Lucius Egar

Spoiler

Show

he is not on fire yet

Lucius feels his feet detach from the floor and he would have groaned if it wasn't for the lack of air. His body begins to drift and he looks around for the best place to land. Seeing that it would be best to go back to the place he came from he hefted his legs up to spin himself and allowed a quick burst from his exhaust ports on his suits pack. As his body begins to slide back to the destroyed ship he focuses his mind and lets go of the psychic power infused in his eyes. The warp lightning climbs down his body to his feet and begin to play around his boots.

crunch

Spoiler

Show

I am assuming the suits automatic systems such as exhaust can be adjusted mentally by the marine through the black carapace.
half action to manifest wall walk to gain footing even if I hit the ship at an odd angle.
(1d10+6)[13]

[Illiterate Scribe]

The Relictor

Spoiler

Show

I am sorry to say ... we've lost at least five hundred marines in this attack. Perhaps that many again unaccounted for? The beam - it just went straight through, ruptured a fuel line inside the ship, flash-burning them all. Maybe some progenoid can be recovered, but not lives.

He wistfully looks down. It takes one mighty, sobbing draw on his cigar to calm down.

Anyway, to ... to business.

My ship ... well, the Thunder Child was heavily damaged in the burn, but saved us - she's still in dock, but I don't know how much I could manouever her out to get you. I'll give it my best shot. I can, however, give you yet more information - such is our genetic wont, I'm afraid. The beam, you may be surprised, didn't emanate from the mirrors, or anywhere near them. It came out of the planet's own surface; you know those ruins I was telling you about earlier? Smart money's on more of them. It gets worse. Something down there activated just mid-way through that bastard Cadma's speech - when he said the words 'fire control'. I don't like that - I get the feeling that something is actively listening to us down there. Boreale's devoting a significant portion of what lies under that shining forehead to blocking it, but I don't know how long he can last, especially with ... well, with his other plan. I don't know about boarders - I suspect none - but check the arms locker off the server array you're in right now.

And finally, I have to warn you that you are not currently in a stable orbit. That chunk you're on is going to make atmospheric-re-entry in approximately ten hours.

Spoiler

Show

Novare senses nothing. Barring the growing wind, and your own movements, the ship itself is silent.

Lucius

Spoiler

Show

You succeed in grappling on. It's hard walking on twisted metal, but certainly manageable.

[crazedloon]

Brother Librarian Lucius Egar

Lucius walks through the remains of the ship to the point he left the ship and he concentrates as he shifts his body onto "flat" ground. When he is on the ship deck he walks to Boreale. The air in the ship is leaving the ship in a great maelstrom and it causes Lucius's robe to swing wildly in the wind. When he reaches the chapter master he glares before saying.

You could have warned me you fool. Now what is this second plan.

His voice is strained and barely audible over the rushing wind but Lucius was glad to be breathing the little oxygen that remained in the ship.

[DarkNewton]

Novare shakes his head as he comes away from the screen, the metallic copper taste to the room slowly fading as he stops focusing his mind, "The Emperor protects.." gritting his teeth this is the life, the burden of a soldier, "If the source of that blast is from below, then our answer lies on getting to the surface and finding what did this, and either turning it on the approaching force" a glance to the Chaplin before looking to the screen, "Or destroying it lest it falls into the enemies hands.. " now looking to the coms screen, "Mind giving us a lift? I doubt this will be any more then a metal casket if we wait ten hours.. That is if our friends out there want to wait that long, they'll probably be accelerating their plans because of this. For the Emperor, the throne, and our fallen brethern lets not waste any time"

[Krrth]

Constantine

As the gauges in his suit indicate the presence of vacuum, Constantine turns and heads towards the arms locker. Using local com, he speaks.

Does this section have a drop pod? I'm thinking we need to get to the surface as soon as possible.

[Warpix]

Faust

Standing there as the ship separated, time slowed down, he saw small pieces of debris float through what used to be precious air before he had realized what had happened, the ship was torn asunder. His head locked onto the sight of the ship separating, he brought his helmet up to his head and shoved it on, giving a left and right twisting motion at the end. The helmet of the Errant armor hissed as it connected with the miscellaneous tubes and wiring of the neck piece. Faust gave his own helmet a pat on the back to ensure that it was securely on. With that, few words escaped his mouth, being slightly muffled by his helmet's comm systems.

"Well, this is bloody great..."

Faust walked up to the edge of the section of the ship that he was in and thought about making the jump to the other side of the ship, he held onto the girders that used to run along the inside of the ship as he started to position himself for the jump of his life.

Crunch

Spoiler

Show

I may be wrong here, but...
Agility of 41 +15 Agi from armor should be 56 total to pass (or lower)
Jump! - (1d100)[33]

[Illiterate Scribe]

This is Ground Control to Major Lucius

Spoiler

Show

I ... ahm sohrry, I did nort forsee you ruhnning oat like that. I behlieve thaht there ahre sorme reserve helmets in the lorcker room where yoar friehnds are now. You shuld have enough air to make it there.

Up at the arms locker

Spoiler

Show

Very well, Novare and everyone else, I'm coming over to get you. Bear with us - we're on our way. Mr Mercali, spin up the warp jump drive, if you will.

Anyone with a view down to the drifting forward section will see a sleek vessel that gleams the colour of upainted adamantium detach itself from the side of the launch bays, and, with a complicated maneuver of thrusts and tiny spins, reorientates itself on a course to the SS Minnow. It gets about halfway before, for a split second, it is illuminated by a heavenly radiance. A radiance that then tears open an engine, ruining the pure light around with an ugly brown explosion.

FRAK IT! Damn, we're coming in too hard - and what, we lost maneuvering power? Damn dam damn damn. Gevurah, and you in there? I won't be able to dock with your ship without smashing and blowing up the entire thing. I'm so, so, sorry. Mercali, set everything you've to getting us out of here, and jump as soon as the engine's fully ready. If we can't rescue, we can at least bring help. Jumpig away in five, four, three - by the throne, behind the mirrors - there are ... parts -

There's an ugly tearing pop as the Thunder Child is wrenched out of realspace. With its gellar fields sparking the way they were just before it left, it's not certain it will survive the jump.

[crazedloon]

Brother Librarian Lucius Egar

I have air enough to survive this encounter now tell me what you secondary plan is quick so that you can get back to maintaining the psychic static.

Lucius is not pleased and a slight tick in his right cheek reveals this fact.

Spoiler

Show

I can survive 7 days on the oxygen in my suit and as long as I don't go to hard vacuum to long I can even stay mobile for a few hours I would say. A helmet is overrated

[Verruckt]

Gevurah had been trained to become Humanity's greatest defender. He had stared down berserkers of the Ruinous Powers, trod upon Tyranids, gutted Eldar and slain Orks by the bushel. He had looked things in the face that would turn a lesser being's mind into maggots with but a thought. Despite all of this, he felt an unfamiliar sensation: helplessness. The best arms, armor and training in the galaxy mattered none to something as simple as gravity and a decaying orbit.

He coughs, the noise weirdly distorted by his voxamps, and regains his composure.

+Novare, see if you can find any maps of this section, looking for any sort of drop pods or thunderhawks or anything atmo capable. I'll go to the arms locker and retrieve anything useful, I may need an extra pair of hands. I concur with your assessment of the situation, we need to arm up and get to the surface, preferably not as blobs of melting flesh and ceramite.+

[DarkNewton]

Scowling at the display, Novare states simply at the now vanished image of the Relictor's ship, "Go with the emporer.. " Sacantus seems undaunted by the hopelessness of the situation, simply just another problem to be solved. Of course having a mind that is burned into the shape the knighthood wanted, and trained to be isolated and battle alone in all or nothing situations probably helps some.

Wasting little time the knight bends to the task of finding means off or out of the minnow, trying to bring up a layout of the section, he states to his still living brethren over the coms, "A droppod, or thunderhawk would be useful, I hope one of you know hows to fly.. altho with the hit the Thunder Child took, I'm not sure that is the best means to make planetfall" not like their current means is all that spiffy either, regardless he continues to look for any type of hanger, or storage section that may contain any form of ship, when an idea occurs to him.

"Or better yet, a Teleport chamber.." the knight comments as he continues his search. "I just hope we have enough power to engage it's targetting scanners.."

[Illiterate Scribe]

Boreale

Spoiler

Show

I ahm indeed afraid thaht my sehconderry plan is a vehry final worne. I ahm cawling in the Imperium. If the Thunder Child fehled to escape ... thehn it is my duty to Chapter and Emperor to stop whart I behlieve is there, by warning the Battlefleet Calixis. I am sorry, I world nort have you see me after my warning is over. Your behst chance of survival lies with the other survivors uhp above - although ehven then, the future is dark.

Slowly, you can see the systems of Boreale's armour begin to power down, as his trance deepens.

Through the Fire Control and Flames

Spoiler

Show

The SS Minnow, comprising as it did the communications and cogitator arrays of the Redemptoris Missio, is ill-equipped with emergency descent gear. There is a single drop pod, but it lacks power, and its massive ceramite door would require plasma cutters to breach, thus compromising its defence.

The arms locker, however, is a different story. Bisected by the beam from the planet, it's a veritable cornucopia of armaments. Many crates have slipped the surly bonds of grav-plating, but a fair few still remain, pregnant with stored potential and chemical energy, just waiting for the spark or 'give' to let it kicking and screaming upon the world. There are also ten much larger crates, labelled

Orlan

Manned Maneuvering Vehicle

in the corner.

[Krrth]

Constantine


Heading towards the armory, Constantine stops when he sees the interior.


Well Brothers, the Emperor provides! Gather your gear and get over here.

[DarkNewton]

Shifting from the console, Novare opens comms to the rest of the marines, "Enroute." he responds to Constantine's call.

"Interestingly enough I've found something, it's not much, but it looks like there's a single drop pod that is completely offline." he quickly relays the drop pod location before leaving Fire control and heading to the armory.

[Krrth]

Constantine


Really? Hmmm....anyway we could launch that pod? If these boxes contain what they say they contain, we might not need it. The extra target could be helpful.

[DarkNewton]

"I don't know if we would be able to launch it, I have not been indoctrinated in ship operations, but I don't believe I've ever seen them completely powered down outside of long term storage.." Novare responds as he enters the Armory, pausing briefly at the entrance the Grey knight scans the half of the armory that remains, his gaze lingering on the floating crate, stuck in a slowly falling piece of shrapnel with additional resources just out of reach, these thoughts quickly are squashed as he turns to bring his attention on his fellow marines and on what they've found.

Reaching over his shoulder Sacantus draws out his halberd "Well now that is certainly seems to be good news, lets pop the tops"

Imperceptibly the knight glances at the blade of this halberd, the years of work that goes into finding and perfecting the make and metal of the psycoactive alloy that is turned and hardened time and again, years are spent incrafting a single weapon, and further then months of training and attuning are used to align and link the weapon and the knight it is given. Daily rituals, and blessings are used to keep the weapon purified and keen for it's task, mowing down the enemies of the emperor, the reaping of demons, casting them back into the depths of the warp.. or as a big can-opener to leverage open crates. The knight makes a mental note to do some penance if he survives this action.

Moving through along the formerly orderly row of crates, he makes his way towards Constantine, "Lead the way Brother, where shall we begin?"

[Illiterate Scribe]

A Call To Arms Control

Spoiler

Show

A holy relic. A fractal blade of near-infinite subtlety and polish, which, down to a molecular level, coheres to planes and geometries found nowhere in nature.

Yeah, it makes a pretty cool crowbar.

Between the efforts of the two marines, the first 'Orlan' box is opened. Within is something that is to power armour as the skeleton is to the human body. Horribly ungainly, it is more a mass of struts and welded support assemblies than 'armour', although its dorsal tangle bears a bulky structure resembling an enormous, squat meltagun, its muzzle flattened out much more than any similar weaponised equivalent. Tiny runic devices adorning key joins project, even in their dormant state, a thin film that reflects the light around it, as if the suit was viewed through an enormous bubble of heat shimmer. The binder accompanying the suit has come apart, and pages litter the bottom. The one page remaining is its contents page:

Calixis Enterprises 'Orlan' Type Manned Maneuvering Vehicle

1. Welcome to Calixis - making your crusade functional! p6.
2. Calibration, p7.
3. Training (this section should be copied onto a secondary dataslate for all users of this technology, and kept at all times, to avoid risk of accidental death) p 21.
4. Use in the field, p35.
5. Maintenance, p55.
6. Repair p59.
7. Edicts of use, p67.

Appendix 1 - alternative proscribed/unproscribed applications.
i. Unfeasibility of use as a weapon, p277.
ii. Underwater use; hazards of compressed steam, p280.
iii. Atmospheric use; praxic implications of plasma torch usage with regard to reentry. p284.

A heavy flamer drifts past.

[crazedloon]

Brother Librarian Lucius Egar


Fool

With those words the librarian turns heel and walks the other direction towards the armory. As he does so he refocuses his power to sense for life forms on the way.

crunch

Spoiler

Show

sense presence threshhold 7
(1d10+6)[7]
(1d10+6)[10]
(1d10+6)[11]
(1d10+6)[8]
(1d10+6)[8]
(to maintain it for however long it takes me to get there)

[Verruckt]

Gevurah drifts into the room, the semblance of gravity gone. He snatches the heavy flamer out of the air and tosses it towards Constantine, using the imparted momentum to reach the boxes. He floats over to the opened crate and collects the fallen leaves of paper and begins sorting through them. His voice crackles over the inter-suit vox

+Page 284? I wonder if we can use these things to get down to the surface?+

He begins to rifle more rapidly when the scholar in him spots something.

+That's interesting, These pages are written in a rarer dialect of Low Gothic, one used almost exclusively on Forge World Arbre. Just an odd side note really, could one of you help me look for this section on reentry? Maybe you could find an intact binder in one of the other crates.+

[DarkNewton]

"Well This certainly gives us options.." Novare shifts his gaze from the E.V.A. suit to Gevurah nodding as he moves to open another of the crates in an effort to find an intact manual "Check for operations section, we may want to verify that these things were packed with fuel.." The knight sets about cracking another crate open.

[Illiterate Scribe]

Lucius

Spoiler

Show

The structural damage wrought by the attack, together with the lack of structure, have confused the corridors of the SS Minnow, but Lucius' psychic senses guide him pretty effectively towards the big, bold warp shapes of his fellow space marines. His oxygen feels a little stretched though - little, entirely biological signals keep playing around the edge of his pyniscient warp-sight. Exerting this many psychic powers without any oxygen to speak of is beginning to take its toll ...

Eventually, he reaches the armoury. Within, a large number of marines are floating about, opening a set of crates, and rifling through their contents.

Faust

Spoiler

Show

In a desperate attempt to reach the Thunder Child, the intrepid tactical marine only gets close enough to see it jump, breaking apart as it does. Stunned momentarily by the sudden blast of warp-radiation, upon recovery, Silvanus finds himself in a loose cloud of debris that didn't make it. Most of it is structural plating, but one bit catches the eye - a tiny, beeping, dome-like structure. It's just out of reach ...

Spoiler

Show

Routine (+10) agility test to grab it. Sorry I missed your post earlier ...

Turn the Page

Spoiler

Show

Good news, bad news. Which do you want first?

Good news.

Spoiler

Show

The fuel gauges on the Orlans are at their maximum, a fact attested to by the reassuring weight of their tanks.

Furthermore, the 'bubble' that you saw blocked your first attempt to even touch the Orlan. It took a slow, steady movement to penetrate them, whereupon they flowed away like water. Put simply, each suit incorporates a powerful refractor field - and those are seldom unwanted.

The bad news.

Spoiler

Show

You find page 284. Unlike the rest of the manual, it's handwritten, and very short:

If you're still reading this far, then we boys at the lab are sorry to say we haven't a clue as to how this might work in the atmosphere. The plasma torch should still work in it, but some of us think it might have an ugly aurora-esque reaction with the ionosphere. Frakked if we know. If you do get a chance to test this, we'd be really happy if you can give some form of after-action report - tell us how it goes, and all.

Thanks, and hope you enjoy the Orlans!

Lab B, Calixis Enterprises.

Someone has drawn a small smiley face under the sign-off.

[Krrth]

Constantine


Absently catching the heavy flamer, Constantine reads the manual.

They don't know what it will do? Great.

So....just how high can our armor drop without serious impairment? Does this thing have an emergency release? I really don't want to be lighting up the sky while whatever it is down there takes shots at us.

[Verruckt]

Gevurah flicks through and reaches the pertinent page, his massive pauldrons sink noticeably.

+Right... seems that getting the drop pod active is our best bet, these things will have to be our last resort if all other methods for not dying upon reentry are exhausted. Before we do that however, let's scour this armory for anything Astartes-portable, specialty ammunition, grenades, heavy weapons and the like, we may need the firepower on the surface.+

The chaplain kicks off towards the unmarked crates and begins to open them by neatly smacking the locks off with his Crozius. He mutters something like "Emperor forgive me for the desecration of this most sacred icon" and gets to work.

[crazedloon]

Brother Librarian Lucius Egar

Lucius drifts into the room with his battle brothers and makes a small clank as his boots contact the floor and the lightning arcs from his eyes to his feet. He draws slow hard breaths as the winds leaves the room. He looks around to see the marines opening the crates before he speaks up in a horse whisper in the thin air.

Boys I may need a helmet for the time being I do not enjoy one as it lessens my emperor given senses but our current situation may be one which I can not endure without one.

As he begin to look around the room for a helmet able to fit his old suit addresses the men still floating in the room.

Also you will have to show me to this drop bod you have been talking about. I may be of some assistance with it.