Rogue Trader: The Hand of Fortune

[frigidmagi]

Volran closed his eyes and set his jaw... Horror crept up and down his spine but he would not show weakness. The men depended on him, if he wavered, they would surely break. A deep breath. Another. Emperor be with him.

"Cut the child down men. I think the poor soul deserves that much from us at least. The rest of you, fall back to the door and stand fast." He said in a quiet voice pitch to carry. One must project calm or panic will take hold. He keyed the vox.

"Captain, this is Volran in the main chapel. I've found the remains of the children and mothers in the crew. It's... Lord Captain, it would be best to keep most of the men out of the chapel, most would not do well upon seeing this. I am... I am proceeding to check the side rooms. I will report upon completion of the search."

The men had found 2 side rooms, Volran decided it would likely be best to enter them, himself. He kept his weapons ready and went in.

[Cynical Cat]

The rooms were untouched. One room stored liturgical items and supplies while the other lead to a spartan office and connected quarters for the priest. Nothing was out of place. Even the bed was made.

[Hotfoot]

"Understood Volran, I trust you to care for the dead as best you can. When you finish with your investigation, cleanse the chapel and mark it as unclean." Ravion sent a reminder to all crew to only inspect areas that had been cleared by the command staff for entry.

[frigidmagi]

"This makes no sense... Why?" Volran asked himself... Did the priest fall? Why wouldn't the monsters come in here they had violated the chapel itself without fear...

He would have to make a search. He would start with the office.

[Cynical Cat]

Everything was in place. There was a silver aquila icon on the ebony desk, a wall of degrees and accolades, a book shelf, and a totally empty weapon rack. A hagiography of Saint Drusas lies on the desk.

[frigidmagi]

"Nothing." Volran said. He didn't think the horrors of the warp, the mutated daemons who defied the Emperor would spend much time in here as there were no victims... But... It appeared they didn't even set foot (claw?) in the rooms. It was... odd. But there was nothing to find.

He shook himself mentally. The chapel would need an extreme cleansing. He would have to say rites for all the poor fallen within it. And keep the rest of the crew out of the chapel. It would be best to get started on that.

He exited the rooms, closing the doors behind him and looked over the scene of utter horror. There was no way to deal with these bodies expect burning...

"I'm going to need a flamer. Everyone else out of the chapel." He said coming back towards the altar. They had cut the child down and laid it out. Volran looked down on the defiled corpse and suddenly felt intensely old and weak. He didn't even know their names.

"I am sorry, child. This is the best I can do for you. May the Emperor protect your soul in the next life and may you swiftly forget this one." He whispered.

Drawing himself up straight he spoke the final rites of the dead, entreating the Emperor's protection on these his fallen followers. He poured himself into that prayer, as a protection against the remains of hell he had seen. The men with the flamers waited until he finished.

"Burn them all. It's all we can do for them at this place and get out." Volran said heading to door, after they were finished he would mark the chapel as unclean. He triggered the vox.

"My Lord Captain, we are about finished here. Should I take my party and link up with yours or do you have a task in mind?" He asked.

[Hotfoot]

"Link up with the others investigating near the bridge. When I get to engineering I want everyone to be ready for when the main power turns on. I don't want anyone off alone when it happens."

[frigidmagi]

"Understood, moving out." Volran replied gathering his men and departing the chapel and the fires devouring the ruined bodies of the poor souls who had been preyed on by pure evil.

[Cynical Cat]

Ravion's crew began to assemble in the colossal chamber housing the main plasma reactor. The cathedral to the Omnissiah was eerily silent. There was no hum of containtment fields or clank of servitors. The catwalks were empty, the control panels dark and unattended. A few flickering lights, powered by batteries, gave dim readouts.

[Cpl Kendall]

Steel let out a sigh of frustration, "nothing here but a lot of money glued to the walls" he mumbles to himself.

Tuning his vox to the parties general channel he addressed his master, "mi'lord, the Navigators abode seems to be empty, save for decorations. I shall meet the Priest unless you have a task for me."

Leaving the channel open, Steel exits the Navigators realm bound for the Priest and the rest of the party on the upper levels.

[Vehrec]

Vir moved quickly from dimly lit panel to unlit one, reading labels and readouts and muttering to himself. This could be safely cut out of the start up loop, that would need to be watched. Slowly, a plan was forming, as he considered each aspect of the problem, his limited resources, and the crew he had to work with. The rites to wake these reactors were time tested and largely fixed affairs, but he had enough experience to know to plan for disaster. The sabotage that had been done on the bridge would have to be undone, and he had a few plans for how to do that. Mostly, however, he just wanted to nurse the ship back to health right now.

[Cynical Cat]

The mighty ship's plasma reactors were dormant, but in order. All equipment read and registered in the normal range and all safety checks came back positive. If the captain and enginseer so willed, it should be responsible to restore main power within half an hour.

[frigidmagi]

Volran arrived at the bridge and quickly linked up with the groups around the location.

He rallied up the men and started looking for the officer in charge.

[Hotfoot]

Ravion looked upon the great chamber of the ship's reactor and looked around. "Engineers, start on reviving the heart of this glorious beast. Armsmen, set a perimeter and watch for anything you do not know. If it does not respond, you are to report it in and kill it."

"All hands, secure yourselves in the lighter bay, the bridge, or engineering until further notice. Anything attempting to enter those locations after they have been declared secure is to be shot without question."

[Cynical Cat]

Buttons were pushed, levers pulled, and dials carefully consulted. Ritual chants and prayers, accompanied by consultation of the instruments and the appropriate acknowledgments filled the Enginarium. Fuel lines opened. Ignition. Reaction. Power.

The lights overhead turned on, turning the Enginarium from a cavernous tech mausoleum to a cathedral of the Machine God. Power flowed. Lights flickered on all over the ship and the machine spirits of cogitators and logic engines were roused towards wakefullness. Power levels increased.

Environmental systems switched on and the grav field began to power up. Heaters were turned up full blast as the ship responded to readings that it had become an icy tomb and oxygen generators began to cycle.

The ship lived.

[frigidmagi]

Volran looked about the bridge as the lights came on and he could hear the rumbling of machinery.

"Captain, this is the bridge... The lights are on my lord." He reported over the Vox.

[Cynical Cat]

Along the length of the ship lights flickered on and gravity returned. Frozen bodies slammed into the deck and lay among crystal shards of icy gore. Gases puffed into depressurized decks and damage control sensors noted both the lack of atmosphere and hull breeches. Alarms began to hoot.

On the bridge lights flickered and then danced as a score of holodisplays returned to life. The security and damage control stations winked urgently and displayed schematics of the ship, coloured to show depressurized areas with glowing points representing hull breaches.

[Hotfoot]

Ravion smiled inside his helmet. "Command staff, check in. Once you have reported, organize the teams to get main systems back online. Volran, once you are secure up there, see if you can take a team to open the Captain's Quarters. Everyone else, let's start getting the worst breaches sealed and mapped out. I want a full account of the damage this ship has taken, what is working, what is not, and what we can do to fix the latter."

[Cynical Cat]

On the bridge of the Ascendency hololithic controls surged into life, projecting streams of data into the air. Several displays indicated urgent information in flashing red runes and glyphs.

[Marcao]

He had spent most of the time following Ravion for a spectacularly simple reason. He had wanted to make certain the Rogue Trader stayed alive and the best way to assure that in his mind had been to keep an eye on him. He had followed the noble alongside the corridors and passage ways of the ship, his men orbiting him nearby like satellites surrounding their home planet. He had watched silently as Ravion took stock of the situation and did what fate demanded of him. He commanded admirably and as such, his doubts were quickly washing away.

Ravion's request to check in was almost comical to him considering that the Rogue Trader was within line of sight of him at that particular moment. Still, it quickly became apparent to him that staying near the rogue trader would no longer be the most appealing course of action. He and his men would be of more use to Ravion splitting away from him and gathering a core of individuals that could begin to deal with some of the damage the ship around them had sustained in its wait for their arrival.

"Atellus here. I will take my men and see where we can link up with a repair team." He replied. His eyes rested on Ravion for a few seconds more before his left hand left the familiar weight of his heavy bolter and offered a signal to his men. Within the span of seven breaths he had lost sight of Ravion as he moved along with his men towards the nearest repair team the comm traffic of the team had identified. He would take charge of that team and guide them to a location within the vessel demanding their immediate attention.

[Cynical Cat]

"Sir, I'm getting auspex readings from-"

A burst of high caliber slugger fire cut off the young corporal's voice. The bullets chewed through the ceramite reinforced flak armour and tore open his torso. He fell in a pool of his own blood.

Long automatic bursts raked the rest of the squad as half of their killers loped forward as quick as cats and as murderous as wolverines. The rest of the boarding party in the landing bay scrambled for defensive positions.

Three killers moved in first. High energy ruby las beams flashed from the twin linked mount that was the leader's right arm. Stubber fire flashed from the other two as they acted to suppress the bay. The killer constructs were lean, skull faced automatons of steel and ceramite and they moved with none of the slowness that was common among servitors. The thought engrams of enraged predators had been imprinted on the organic portions of their brains and their only thought was to kill.

"Captain, we're under attack by murder-servitors!" a desperate young NCO shouted into the vox. "Astropath Goodwinne is down!"

[frigidmagi]

Emperor Protect!

"Armsmen to the entrances! Secure all exits from the bridge at once!" Volran ordered on hearing the report.

"Somebody get into the system and find if the Servitors have any links to the ship's systems, NOW!" He roared.

[rhoenix]

His eyebrows furrowing as he heard (and felt) the panicked reports from over the ship, Magnus activated his comm-link with a cold, purposeful tone. "Captain, unless you have greater need of me elsewhere, I go now to open the servitors' minds to Oblivion."

With that, he swept into the halls of the great ship, making his way quickly and purposefully toward where the auspex readings had shown the murder-servitors.

[Hotfoot]

"The hangar is under attack. Volran, Magnus, keep that bridge secure and keep me updated. Atellus, everyone else, let's go. Sergeant, keep the techs here safe, let me know if they can figure out where these blasted servitors are coming from." He drew his plasma pistol with one hand and his power sword with the other. Any servitor that got close enough would taste one or other. He could feel the excitement as he started his way towards the hangar through the now-mapped tenebro-maze.

[rhoenix]

"Acknowledged, Captain - I will keep the bridge untainted," Magnus said simply, going about the task his words foreshadowed. There would be no further disruptions in the area under his watch that would not be mercilessly dealt with.