Sea of Stars - IC

[Leon]

Spoiler

Show

Tech use TN 78 (d100)[96]
Err, i will use a FP on that i think ~ RR in OCC

New Roll ~ TN 78 (d100)[59]

After some deliberation and fiddling with settings the Sensor package base station is set up

[Destro_Yersul]

Setting up the base station took longer than anticipated. It had been jostled by the servitors on the way down, and needed a lot of careful adjusting before it would work properly. While Ravia was tinkering with it, Anika considered the mosaic. The easiest way of getting it down would be to take a drill to the structure, and cart it up in chunks, though that risked damaging the fine pieces. The more time-consuming method, but also the one that would give the best result, would involve melting off the thin layer of ice over top, taking a number of pict captures, and then painstakingly removing and labelling each individual tile. It would be laborious work, but this was the sort of thing for which Macharius had employees. A shuttle full of tools and labourers was ordered down, and Pytho was ordered along with it. The astropath was likely to be their best shot at getting anything out of the xenos, though he brought along the ship's interrogator as well.

Anika and Felidae

Felidae ranged ahead a little, and once the men were on the way for the mosaic Anika followed. The large tower was only barely visible as a dark shape looming through the ice, glimpsed ocassionally through windows and doors. In many places the ice was too opaque to see through properly, and the excavation of the city by the xenos seemed to have followed a random meandering route rather than being done with purpose. It also seemed to have been done with fairly crude tools, over a long period of time. Most of the rooms they passed through were small and unadorned, probably individual dwelling spaces, any furnishings long since removed. The first room they came upon that was any different was quite the departure.

It was a massive hall, so long they could barely see the other end, with a high arched ceiling. Ramps of ice led up above, to doorways in the walls. Everything was covered with the sheen of ice; the hall was lined with statues, carved images of ancient xenos wielding spears and shields. They bore some resemblance to the fish-like aliens they had fought all the way down here, but seemed taller, less hunched, with less bulbous eyes and stronger limbs. The vast majority of the statues were damaged, with broken limbs or missing heads. Some were no more than empty pedestals, their stone occupants shattered and cast down. Old bones, rimed with frost, lay scattered over the floor. Felidae found signs of damage on the walls and statues, impact marks and fragments of weaponry. There had been a battle here, once.

Others

At about the same time as Anika and Felidae discovered the hall, the marine officer returned dragging one of the xenos. Its wrists and ankles had been bound, and it was thrashing about trying to get free, the officer struggling to keep hold of it. He dumped it on the floor, a safe distance away from Ravia's sensor arrays. Those had finally started spitting out coordinates, running down the list of optimal placement locations and cross-referencing with soundings to determine which of them were actually open and accessible without further excavation. There were enough to work with, all requiring further travel into the city; their location runes glowed green on Ravia's internal auspex, her mechadendrite's compass adjusting to track the nearest.

[Kaptin Keen]

At the Scholae Tactica Imperialis, Felidae had discovered a strong natural talent for speeding living things along to meet their maker. She'd tried her best, but had never really picked up the same flair for tactics, command and strategy. She realised there'd been fighting here, but she wasn't sure what had taken place.

The crystal weaponry was Yu'Vath based, the others said. Presumably, whatever race built this tower had different weapon types prior to being conquered.

She went around, examining impact holes, trying to decipher what weapons had been used: Projectiles were different from rockets or las blasts, and plasma or melta weapons were hot enough to melt rock. But further than that, she wasn't sure.

At least Macharius should be pleased with the statuary - I'm sure it's only worth more for being broken. Pfft!

Spoiler: OOC

Show

SL Tactics to figure out more about the battle: (1d100)[16] vs 29. Sadly, Felidae isn't any more clever than average. If that.

Edit: Merciful Emprah, would you look at that! =D

[rax]

Kneeling down a safe distance from the struggling xenos, Hannabel tilts her head to one side and eyes it with curiosity. "Hullo fishface, what've you got to tell us about this place then?"

[Haval]

As they moved through the tower Anika is thinking aloud, 'It would probably be hard to excavate everything down here without the right tech, so they're doing the best they can with whatever they have. Unless they're looking for something and it was down here so long ago they aren't sure where it is.' Perhaps the statues showed what they looked like before all this. Can't be living that well in this climate. While Felidae checked the signs of weapon damage, Anika will look at the statues and the bones. Were the statues broken accidentally or on purpose.

Spoiler: ooc

Show

Just for curiosity
Trade (Archaeology) to work out if the statues look like they were destroyed deliberately. Heads and arms taken off with tools etc
vs. Int 53
(1d100)[76]

Trade (Archaeology) on whether the bones look like they're all the same species
vs. Int 53
(1d100)[85]

Scrutiny to notice anything specific about the bones
vs. Per 43
(1d100)[13]

[PotatoGolem]

Macharius eyes the captured xenos with disdain. I don't suppose they understand Gothic, Hannabel. Do you speak our language, beast? He repeats himself in High Gothic, just to be sure.

Well. A language barrier is no issue for a telepath. Pythonissam, see what you can glean from this monster. I want to know why they're here, and what happened to this place.

[Kaptin Keen]

Yea, whatever they're doing, they must be really determined to get it done, Felidae answers Anika, feeling tired just thinking about digging through all that ice.

[Destro_Yersul]

Anika and Felidae

The statues didn't look like they'd been deliberately destroyed, or at least, it hadn't been systematic if they were. The damage seemed random, leaving some of the statues almost untouched while others had been smashed to pieces. The bones were similarily difficult to tell. They all looked similar, but most of them were in fragments and they'd all spent an age buried in ice. Some of them were still encased, lumps of ancient death frozen in time. The weapon impacts told a better story; they were all chips of stone, tiny impacts made by slivers of crystal. Both sides in the conflict had been using the same sorts of weaponry as far as Felidae could tell, and this particular conflict seemed to have been a holding action. There were a lot more impact marks lower down on the statues, as though the shots had been aimed at things sheltering behind them. The number of bodies that must have littered the floor spoke of the death toll. It wasn't obvious which side had won, though. The concentration of remains seemed to be further in towards the center of the city, so presumably it was whichever side had been defending.

Others

The shackled xenos snapped its teeth at Hannabel, earning itself a kick from the Marine officer. It showed no sign of understanding anything Macharius said, and so Pytho stepped up, extending a hand towards it. The air grew colder, the xenos ceasing its struggling and staring up at the astropath with its huge, bulging eyes. A moment later Pytho staggered back, clutching his head. "Its mind is strange, Macharius. I can't see..." he steadied himself with a hand on the wall, the inlaid circuitry under his skin glowing green against pale flesh.

"I... I am fine." Pytho straightened up, looking far from fine in his astropath's robes; the psyker appeared suddenly exhausted, veins pusling at his temples a sure sign of headache to come. "Do you wish for me to try again?"

[rax]

"Didn't think they did, Lord Commander. I was just makin' conversation, iz all," Hannabel replies to Macharius.

"If yer try again, will yer head explode?" she asks the astropath innocently. "Maybe we should call Father Ornstein instead?"

[Leon]

++The Base station is set and now the satellite stations need to be set up and i have a bearing on where to go if you join me++

[Haval]

'Looks like a last stand to me.' Anika wants to see what's at the other end of this hallway, but is mindful that this wasn't the place to be wandering off without a very good reason.

++The Base station is set and now the satellite stations need to be set up and i have a bearing on where to go if you join me++

'Acknowledged. Did you find a prisoner yet?'

[Kaptin Keen]

Maybe I misinterpreted the mosaic. But I don't know anything about these Yu'Vath. Is it possible the fish guys rebelled?

Both sides used the same weapons, right? And all the remains here are fish guy remains. So it was some sort of civil conflict. Since they were using Yu'Vath weaponry, this took place after they'd been conquered. And it looks like the defenders were trying to block an advance - towards that tower.

New theory: The tower is either what summoned the Yu'Vath, or it was a portal that allowed them access to this world. Potentially both.

Does that sound crazy to you?

The fish guys destroyed the tower, casting the Yu'Vath out. Maybe the Yu'Vath had installed some sort of terraforming machinery, which the fish guys didn't understand, or simply couldn't shut down - so it just kept running, turning their planet into an iceball. Felidae's brow wrinkles in concentration, trying to figure all this out, but so much thinking being unfamiliar to her. She mostly likes simple problems with simple solutions.

What poor bloody bastards. But then, why are they trying to reach the tower now? Have they decided things were better with the Yu'Vath, and they want to re-open the portal.

Still thinking, she moves on - towards the tower.

[Destro_Yersul]

Felidae and Anika

A few moments after answering Ravia, Anika noticed that Felidae was no longer in the statue hall. The sound of clanking power armour could be heard a short ways away, through the far exit.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

This is Anika's chance to try and stop Felidae from wandering off alone. While you are free to continue exploring if you like, the content of Haval's last post makes me suspect they'd prefer to keep the whole group together.

Others

"Not likely, no." Pytho said, running a hand through his hair. "It is a strain, but it would not be lethal in any way. Father Ornstein came down with the interrogation team, though, and is welcome to try talking to it."

The Confessor was more than happy to confront the xenos. "Beyond the light of the Emperor, these things," he said. "Their existence is sin, an affront to the master of mankind. Dragging information that benefits the Imperium out of them is... a sort of justice, I think."

He went over to where the xenos was shackled on the floor and started asking it questions, punctuating his words by pointing at things around the chamber. The alien seemed not to want to co-operate at first, but became excited whenever Father Ornstein's gesticulating wound up somewhere near the mosaic, or the tunnels. Its language, such as it was, was burbling and incoherent, guttural rumblings more reminiscent of deep sea animals than of actual words. The alien earned kicks when it didn't give Ornstein what he wanted, and a reprieve when it was more forthcoming. After a time, the confessor returned, a puzzled expression on his face.

"It's hard to make any sense of it, but I've picked up a few things. There's something down here that it's afraid of, and something that it's supposed to be doing. That mosaic up there gets the biggest reaction from it. Very animated, though I'm not sure precisely what it means. There was an event, a long time ago, something happened to change the planet, but we knew that. I.. believe it thinks that keeping the planet this way is very important for some reason."

[rax]

"Hah!" Hannabel crows triumphantly. "I'm two for two! They are protecting this place ´cos there's something nasty down here, and the power grid is what turned this place into a deep freeze!"

[Haval]

Maybe I misinterpreted the mosaic. But I don't know anything about these Yu'Vath. Is it possible the fish guys rebelled?

Following Felidae, Anika tries to resist the temptation to lecture, 'You're from the Heresy War. They're the sort of dangerous species the Emperor and the Legions used to destroy. Only the Great Crusade never made it out this far.'

The portal idea was a nasty theory, 'Maybe some sort of religious schism then, with the Yu'vath cast as the Gods. Regardless, if they were defending something I want to see if it's still around. If it's a backdoor to somewhere else it's probably better that we know about it now. Just be careful where you step.'

Not that she uses her authority that much, but as Anika is command crew she'll ask over the microbead for a for a squad of armsmen to back them up.

[Kaptin Keen]

I hear everyone say the Yu'Vath are extinct. I'm sure the galaxy doesn't miss them - but ... you know, the fish guys don't act like they feel there are no more Yu'Vath to be afraid of. If all the guesswork happens to be correct, that is.

They're propably just superstitious, right? It's fine! Propably.

Felidae checks her supply of grenades and ammo for the stormbolter. 'It's fine' are famous last words.

[rax]

"Hey! Yer ladyship! Bolterface!" Hannabel calls out over the microbead. "Guess what? Ornstein the Ornery is speaking to one of the xenos right now. He says there's something down here that it's afraid of. And it gets in a right state about the mosaic. And it thinks it's really important to keep the planet in deep freeze. So I was right, see? They fought like devils 'cos there's something down here that they don't want getting out, and freezing the planet was deliberate!" she titters, sounding inordinately pleased with herself. "So, have you found anything interesting out there?"

[Kaptin Keen]

Similar conclusion, I guess? There was a battle, fish guys vs. fish guys - all using Yu'Vath weapons tech. It's impossible to tell who won, but ... well, it has to be the fish guys, clearly.

Your fish guy, up there. What's he afraid of - the Yu'Vath returning? Or the Yu'Vath not returning? Figure that one out for me, and I'll ... um ...

Admit she's right? Ponders Felidae, can't have that, I'd never hear the end of it.

Damned if I know. What do you do for laughs? Wrestle?

[Haval]

I hear everyone say the Yu'Vath are extinct.

'There's too much we don't know about them to be certain. All we know is that they didn't counterattack for the Angevin Crusade. Might mean they're all dead, might mean there are survivours out there somewhere. I'm with the Xenos in this case.'

[PotatoGolem]

Macharius looks over at the astropath. Well, if it's just a bit of strain then give it another go. Don't risk any permanent harm to yourself, eh.

He listens to the microbead. That does sound interesting. Hold position, we'll bring our captive to you, see what we can glean from his reaction to all this. We can go from there to set up the beacon.

[Kaptin Keen]

Sheesh, thinks Felidae. Roger that, Commander, she replies out loud, resolving to spend the wait trying to learn more from the room they're in. If she could carbon date the remains, she could determine when this rebellion took place - the scanners of her suit can almost certainly do that, if she can persuade them to work. Which is highly doubtful.

[rax]

Your fish guy, up there. What's he afraid of - the Yu'Vath returning? Or the Yu'Vath not returning? Figure that one out for me, and I'll ... um ...
...

Damned if I know. What do you do for laughs? Wrestle?

"Wrestle? You want to get down and dirty with me? How sweet!" Hannabel giggles. "But no. If you ever end up owing me one, I know exactly what I'm going to do with you - I'm going to turn you into a proper lady! We'll dress you up, hit the town, and take in the best Salubrian opera. And that's just for starters! It'll be so much fun!"

[Kaptin Keen]

Well - it's not like wrestling is the only thing I do for laughs .. just the only thing that's usually non-lethal, Felidae replies with a sardonic smile. I trained with marines. Going out generally involved cheap beer and fist fights.

I've never been to the opera. Is there any shooting involved, by any chance?

[Destro_Yersul]

Pytho nodded, steadying himself against the wall and reaching out again. Eyes closed, face screwed up in concentration. Despite the cold, sweat beaded on his forehead. Once again, the Xenos stopped struggling, staring at Pytho as the astropath reached out for the warp, drawing power to himself. Time ticked by slowly, and Macharius had the sudden impression of this moment, frozen in space, like an oil painting. Then Pytho relaxed, slumping back against the wall.

"I see now," he said. "This one doesn't understand much, this all happened long before it was... born? Hatched? They don't think of things in the same terms as us. The weapons they use, the energy network, they're leftovers. A distant war, on the edge of memory. These are the descendants of the original occupants of the city, I think. They're not adapted well to the climate, which is why they live underground. There's fewer of them every year. Slowly dying out. They've clustered around the cities, the old cities... trying to maintain the generators. Keep the planet frozen. It doesn't know why, it just thinks that very bad things will happen if the ice ever thaws."

They walked as Pytho explained, taking a group of armsmen and Ravia's sensor bundles deeper into the city. Anika and Felidae were waiting in the hall of statues. The armsmen brought the xenos, half marching, half dragging it along in the middle of their group. Ornstein walked alongside it, pointing at things and trying to hold a conversation, though it was faltering and slow and the old Confessor was clearly getting frustrated by the time they reached the hall. The xenos reacted little, waving a clawed hand at the ancient bones and burbling. It had seen all this before.

[Leon]

++Interesting but not overly useful without more data to back it up and illuminate on what would happen if a thaw was to occur ~ planet wise oceans are a valuable resource if they are of the right chemical composition++

[Haval]

Is there any shooting involved, by any chance?

'Not nearly enough in my experience.' Anika replies absently as she watches the xenos prisoner. 'My parents used to force me to go when I was younger.'

In response to what Pytho just told them all, 'So assuming they're right. And I wouldn't want to bet otherwise. The ice is keeping something buried, and 'very bad things' means the possibility of active Yu'vath tech or live Yu'vath.'

'So, can we confirm there's something there without turning off the network?'

++Interesting but not overly useful without more data to back it up and illuminate on what would happen if a thaw was to occur ~ planet wise oceans are a valuable resource if they are of the right chemical composition++

In spite of everything else that was surprising, 'What seriously. The Mechanicus is willing to pay for oceans?'

[Leon]

'What seriously. The Mechanicus is willing to pay for oceans?'

++Forgeworlds need everything in vast quantities and its easier to get liquids from elsewhere instead of manufacturing them in most cases particularly when you need a lot of it, a World that has been in operation for a long time will have used up any natural options and built more infrastructure on the space it once occupied++

[Kaptin Keen]

++Forgeworlds need everything in vast quantities and its easier to get liquids from elsewhere instead of manufacturing them in most cases particularly when you need a lot of it, a World that has been in operation for a long time will have used up any natural options and built more infrastructure on the space it once occupied++

Wait, what? Did circular ressource management go out of fashion while I slept? I mean, it's not like it was easy to achieve, but guys have had ten thousand years to improve on it!"

Spoiler: OOC

Show

I don't know whether the Imperium of Man was ever environment conscious, but I do like the idea, and it's one of the areas where Felidae might actually see the deterioration of the Imperium. So in this case I'm simply going to assume that - at least where Felidae was raised, this was something that was worked on and attempted.

[Leon]

++Circular is a fun theory but has no place in macro scale manufacture++

[Kaptin Keen]

Are you trying to tell me it's more effective to thaw this planet, process it's salt water into fresh, lift it, transport it through the void and feed it to .. say, Scintilla - than it is to clean the existant supply on Scintilla?

Have you all gone mad over the last ten millenia?