Rogue Trader - The Passage

[Malachi]

"Someone help me with this!"

Malachi retrieves a portable void suit from a compartment upon his person, and hurriedly puts it on.

Unless I need to wait for instruction, I'll go ahead and exit through the nearest airlock and make my way to the array.

[Montresor]

The enginseer - Atanitus - who accompanied Malachi to the Auger Array assists his brother with putting on the void-suit. The two tech-priests leave the comms network tower and travel a short distance to one of the airlocks on the command section.

'Praises of the Omnissiah with you, brother,' Atanitus intones, sealing Malachi within the void chamber of the air lock. The airlock stabilises while Malachi hooks his suit to a service cable. If he be knocked free, the cable should prevent him from flying into the Warp.

The exterior void-door opens and Malachi feels the pull of the Void, preserved within the safety of the Geller Fields. Exiting onto the hull, Malachi beholds the awe-inspiring horror of the Immaterium, muted though it is through the fields.

Though his eyes are shielded by the sanctity of the fields, the knowledge that, beyond this last sliver of reality the hungry might of timeless corruption lurks, is enough to place great strain on the Explorator's mind.

[Success in a tough Willpower test. Malachi is able to hold his concentration together for now]

Malachi sees the summit of the Auger Array, standing as he is, upon the Port side of Invictus. The central spire has clearly ruptured loose, but is being held in place by a tangle of cables. As the storm buffets the ship, the spire waves from side to side, sometimes straying too close to damaging other spires, sometimes straying close enough to just scratch the Geller Fields. A faint purplish tinge tops the spire.

[fourteen minutes have passed since you departed the bridge. Pulling the spire back to the Invictus looks like it will be a serious challenge. Not only do you doubt you could do it on your own, you wonder if the spire might be hazardous to approach as it is. There is little time to lose, and you must think quickly]

[Malachi]

Malachi makes his way towards the array. After about a minute and a half, he comes to a stop, resting on his knee. The shoulder-mounted bolter swivels to face the cables keeping the array tethered to the ship. He studies the sway to try and get an idea of how to best lead its movements.

A few heartbeats later, and the bolter fires a single round....

Malachi is firing a single shot after spending a full round Aiming (+20 BS bonus). If the shot fails, spend a fate point to re-roll the shot.

[Montresor]

The bolter fires, its familiar roar soundless in this bubble of Void. The bolt impacts with the knot of cable; splinters of wire fling like shrapnel, harmlessly skittling across the nearby spires of the Array. The cable yanks savagely, the loose spire knocking from side to side in the storm, impacting with the other structures nearby.

His heart sinking, Malachi watches in horror as the spire is flung back towards him. In an instant, the spire crashes beside the Explorator, who does not manage to move away in time. He feels the edge of the spire crash against his mechadendrite. Though his augmented third limb holds under the impact, Malachi is pulled up with the recoil.

The Invictus falls from under the exalted tech priest as he is flung halfway to the summit of the Auger Array. The cable tethering him to the frigate goes taut, and is hooked in the loose spire. The spire itself looks set to tear free from the wires holding it. Malachi is being cast about dangerously with the spire. He has moments in which to act.

[you got some amazingly poor luck there, and things are precarious to say the least. You had to use that Fate Point for the test. Let's hope you won't need to burn one...]

[Montresor]

On the bridge a blast of static from the comms section sends half of the staff plugging their ears in agony. Warning lights blink upon all comms stations, before a dull whirring noise kicks in.

Vehle barks something into the Vox, but noone hears her. Moments later she curses, yelling at the top of her voice: 'ALL COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS ARE DOWN!'

[Important note - for now ALL COMMS systems are inoperable. This means that people will have to shout very loudly on the bridge - especially Praetus. No vox systems are functioning at all, at the present. It is essential that all players keep this in mind]

[Injerian Praetus II]

Navigator Praetus had been completely focused on the task at hand; navigating the Invictus Aeterna through the storm. Every part of his being was devoted to the Astronomicon. Despite the storm, it shone through. For him, it was like a lifeline - a drug. Its very light succoured him, soothed him.

Until now.

Communication had shut down over the ship, because the tower had been damaged. Praetus was not sure why. Nonetheless, it filled him with dread. A dread that gnawed into his brain and sent hot tendrils into his heart and down his shuddering limbs.

Nothing was supposed to go wrong.

Not now. Never.

[Malachi]

Malachi hurriedly pulls himself towards the Invictus. With each grab and release of the tethering cable, he yanks hard to build up momentum and make his way towards where the cable is caught in the spire. It's a long shot, but he hopes that he'll be able to untangle himself from the spire before it breaks free.

[Garrius Amphael]

"Grox's breath!"

Garrius got up and strode down from his podium. "You!" He yelled, pointing towards a member of his service staff standing to one side of the bridge, beckoning him to come nearer." Go down to the lower levels immediately. I want you to gather up many of the young and have them posted at every major service junction and lift. They are to act as messengers, passing on all orders and messages along the ship, to best keep us in the know. Arrange a shift system between them and make sure they are treated well, with food and drink given to them as well as treats for their service to the ship. Inform Andrea and have her see to it that they are well cared for.

If anyone takes poorly to us acquisitioning their child let them know it is a direct order from me. Here," Garrius turned and ushered Drak Kung into the conversation. " Kung here shall go with you and see that all know it was a direct order. Also, have several of my personal service staff sent to the bridge. After this is all set up Drak, I want you to go about the ship, talk to the people. Let them know we are OK, the Emperor smiles warmly upon them and we are to soon be in the clear. Tell them the issue with communications is minor and we shall soon have it fixed. Hearts and minds and all that. Do it for the next few hours and then return here at shift change. Then we shall do a walk around together."

As the two rushed off to see to his orders, Garrius turned to coms officer Vehle. Walking up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, knowing his touch was not the most welcome aboard this ship.

"And for you, Vehle." Garrius could not help but smile. "Seeing as your coms are broken, and you are seemingly redundant to this ship, you can act as my personal messenger to the stations here in the bridge. Shouting is so.... uncivilized don't you agree?"

[OOC] When the service staff arrive Garrius will spread them out amongst the stations on the bridge, to relay messages and orders back and forth. As soon as the messengers are in place, He will have a runner sent to the Coms center to see what happened and why the coms died.[/OOC]

[Montresor]

The cable yanks with every movement of the spire which, with its tether to the ship loosening with every second, flails more wilidly. Malachi tries to pull himself along the cable, focussing upon the cable itself, rather than the hull of the Invictus which seems to dart from beneath him.

[Agility is not Malachi's strong suit, but at least he cannot fall from the cable at the moment. Of five tests to make his way along the cable, Malachi passed only two. Luckily, both of these were major successes]

Malachi twists and turns, whipping with the cable dangerously close to the other spires. He almost loses his grip several times. Sweat wreathes the inside of his void-suit, and his tongue dries in fear. The spire tears free and rips at the cable tethering Malachi. Although the spire, crowned in a roiling purple mass, goes tumbling into the Immaterium, Malachi remains floating in the comparative safety of the Void. For how long will only be decided by whether he can climb to the ship's hull before his own cable severs, or whether he is able to grab on to another spire in time.

[Malachi]

With the threat of breaking free from the ship lessening, Malachi continues to draw himself back to the ship. He pulls himself using the tethering line, holding on tightly, and drawing himself slowly with each pull, so as not to put undue stress on the weakened parts of the line.

When Malachi makes his way past the torn sections of the line, he will quicken his pace to make it back to the airlock door (please let me know if I've misinterpreted any of your responses so I may edit accordingly).

[Drak-Kung]

Nodding sharply, the Chief of Security walks off the bridge, adopting a casual pace, a relaxed attitude in every line of his body. Smiling slightly, offering a jest or light comment to leaders of various sections as he passes. Letting his serene presence clearly show the crew the truth of his words, that there is truly no real cause for worry.

[Andrea Chan-Gauthier]

Andrea stood on the walkway above the Librarium, next to the distractingly graceful navigator. Below them, in the main area, one of the Tech-priests was leading them all in prayers to strengthen the ships spirit. They were in the hands of their leaders on the bridge now, who were themselves at the mercy of the ancient ship's great strength.

The ship's emergency alarm lights were still on, casting a strange reddish-orange hue across everything, though the normal lights were also on. The emergency klaxons were also blaring, with the occassional announcement being made through the Vox-comms. And then, the klaxons and the voices went silent. The ship had been shuddering off and on for hours now, but no particular lurch seemed to be connected to the sudden change in sound.

Except for the tech-priests, well experienced with not losing their focus in the midst of distracting situations, everyone fell silent for a moment. One voice could be heard saying "Emperor preserve us." from a corner of the room. But the lead Tech-priest began pounding his hand together to the tempo of his chants. This sounded more like someone striking a heavy wrench against a large piece of machinery; the tech-priest, while not the oldest one on the ship, was still more metal than flesh these days. The odd sound caught everyone's attention, and they all resumed their chanting, with somewhat more fervor than before.

Andrea glanced at the Navigator standing next to her. Julient's eyes were closed again in concentration, and she didn't want to intrude. Remembering her comment from before, she closed her own eyes to find out if she could really feel the approach of the chaos around them.

Is this it? The beginning of the end? Will I know when maddening doom is racing the hallways towards us, or will it happen instantly?

If my life must end,
Let it end with my last breath
Singing praise to you.

She didn't feel anything about the chaos that might be approaching. Maybe a feeling of unease in the back of her head, but that could easily be the terror they'd all been feeling these past hours.

Maybe that's what it is? All the terror of the world, made manifest. My every childhood nightmare given form and sent to shred my last waking moments as they'd done to my nights all those years ago.

She opened her eyes then, and saw that Julient was looking at her. To fill the silence between them, she said with a chuckle "All this waiting isn't good for me. I'm starting to ponder the meaning of life and other such trifles."

Julient made no response, instead turning to glance down at the Tech-priest leading the flock in prayer. They stayed like that for perhaps another 10 minutes. If felt like hours. During that time, she imagined every form that the chaos could take before it devoured them all. At one point, she amused herself by imagining hordes of plush children's toys racing the halls and harmlessly throwing themselves at all the people in a shower of little squeeks. But even then, the people would die from the attacks, their minds (or their souls, she wasn't exactly clear on the difference) ripped apart just from contact.

Spending hours inventing new and more creative forms for the enemy to use against you is just foolish. Stop it. Find something constructive to do. At least find something NOT dangerous to do.

Just then, the door at the top of the staircase slid open. All chanting stopped. Most just stared at the Captain's staffer, who took two steps into the room before noticing all the attention on hiim. Ioan raised the Hellpistol at the man, unsure if the forces of chaos would choose to manifest as a normal looking ship's officer. Andrea heard the sound, and said clearly "At ease, Ioan. This is no attack by monsters from the Immeterium." She walked over to the man and gestured him inside the room, reaching past him to close the door again.

"Come in... Samuels, is it?" At the man's nod, she continued. "What can we do for you?"

"Captain's sent me with a task for you, miss. Vox are down, shipwide. He's said to collect up all the ship's children and stand them in the hallways to pass messages. Says I'm to organize them in shifts, and to otherwise treat them well with food and suchlike. He said I was to involve you, miss."

"Yes, we noticed the Vox going down. I'm glad it wasn't the first sign of the end. In fact, I was just saying to Navigator Julient here that I would rather have something constructive to do than staying here waiting for the end. And, I will choose to interpret it as a sign of the Emperor's continued favor upon this ship that He has granted me this prayer. If He is granting me such a small thing as this, surely He cannot mean for the ship to end in this storm."

Andrea turned and removed the battery pack and Hellrifle, and handed them to Julient. "Navigator, please make sure gets to someone who will treat it well and live up to it's history. Yourself or one of these other fine officers."

With that, she followed Samuels back out the door into the hallway. "Let's proceed to the crew quarters. The ratings and their children are likely collected in the common area, offering prayers to the ship's spirit and the Emperor, just as we had been doing in the Librarium. Let's go together and give them the news. I imagine they'll resist the idea from just one person."

Andrea and Samuels move on towards the bowels of the ship, discussing where the children will need to be placed, how many there will need to be, and the other logistics of the situation.

[Montresor]

With the threat of breaking free from the ship lessening, Malachi continues to draw himself back to the ship. He pulls himself using the tethering line, holding on tightly, and drawing himself slowly with each pull, so as not to put undue stress on the weakened parts of the line.

Making his figurative descent to the hull of the Invictus, Malachi resists the temptation to simply rush along the cable as quickly as possible. To have done so would have been as good as suicide. Shortly after Malachi reaches the comparative safety of the hull, the cable tears in half and whips away. It hangs like a tail from the Explorator's void-suit, before he unfastens it and lets it drift into the howling maelstrom beyond the fields.

Now the tech priest hears the dull throb of the storm, as much in his mind as it is battering at the walls of reality. He keeps his calm and re-enters the Invictus Aeterna.

Inside, Malachi is greeted by a clearly agitated Atanitus. 'What happened out there, brother? The spire broke free and now the entire vox system on the ship is down. This will cause a panic'.

[Atanitus informs you of the situation. Scans of the damaged Auger Array are now impossible, so rigging the system from the tower cannot be done. The only conceivable way to fix the Array would be for a team of tech-priests to work on the exterior of the vessel and make manual repairs. Atanitus has no idea how easy this would be, nor how long it would take. The storm will make this highly dangerous work. Loss of life is not only possible, but likely. However, if you instituted safety measures, the risk might be diminished. It is likely the work would take hours - even a day or more. It could probably be done relatively easily after the storm, though escaping the storm with a functioning Auger Array would certainly be easier]

[Malachi]

Inside, Malachi is greeted by a clearly agitated Atanitus. 'What happened out there, brother? The spire broke free and now the entire vox system on the ship is down. This will cause a panic'.

Malachi begins a series of binary clicks in response to Atanitus' question.

[Montresor]

Atanitus responds in binary, and the two tech priests spend a few moments conferring. Atanitus departs for the Comms Tower, while Malchi waits for his next course of action to be clear.

.... .... .... ....

Some five minutes later, a young female comms officer dashes into the command bridge and requests a moment of Garrius's time. In a hushed tone she informs him of the situation with the Auger Array:

'My Lord-Captain,' the woman pants a little from the exertion of running to the bridge, 'the central spire on the Array broke loose and is lost to the Warp. The explorator found it necessary to sever the spire, before it tore into the hull and compromised the Invictus. Also...there was a high probability of Immaterial taint. The tech priests think that they may have a chance to repair the Auger Array, but it's a question of if you want this done before we escape the storm, or if you feel the Array can stay down until after we're in the clear. This is extremely hazardous work, sir...they just need your permission...and your judgement'.

[Garrius's answer will be relayed to Malachi with haste, who may then act upon it as directed. I will update all other threads of this encounter later tonight]

[Garrius Amphael]

Garrius thought to himself for a moment. He needed, The Invictus needed, the comms to be working. Without the comms they were so much more likely to succumb to the storm.

"Have them do it. Whilst doing so now may be of great risk to the few who attempt the repair, such is preferable to the risk of the ship that is deaf and mute. We could be in this storm for days and I will not go the entire time without those comms. Tell that tech priest that he may choose who commits the repair and takes the risk, but he is to fix those comms as soon as possible. Go, make it so." Garrius dismissed the officer.

Speaking of the communications reminded Garrius of the comms officer who fell to his death earlier. He didn't know the man, nor had ever exchanged words with him. He wondered briefly if he had been a good comms officer, but such thoughts thoughts were only fleeting. He turned to a member of the service staff. "Have someone find that man who fell from the bridge earlier. Collect the body and put it somewhere safe. We will have it returned to the appropriate parties once this little matter of the storm is resolved."

[Montresor]

As the maelstrom of Empryean terror tears and corrupts everything that passes through it, the Invictus Aeterna responds with disturbing familiarity. The ancient vessel seems to find the currents in the Warp which pull it faster, keeper it beyond the true destructive power of the tempest.

.... .... .... ....

Navigator Praetus and Helmsman Tyor make the best of a terrible situation, using service men as runners to relay coordinates between one another. Although the situation is far from ideal, they are at least spared from having to find less useful measures. Praetus keeps the Astronomicon fixed in his concentration, all the while finding the currents which are best suited to escaping the Warp storm. Helmsman Tyor steers the ship by Praetus's instructions, sometimes having to run the vessel straight into the storm so as not to lose momentum.

The ship is buffeted savagely, and there has not been a single moment in the last few hours where the crew have not had to steady their feet.

[Praetus and Tyor are doing well, though the storm is savage and has the Invictus in its clutches. Despite some noteworthy successes, Praetus and Tyor have been unable to escape the storm - merely preventing the frigate from slipping any further into the tempest]

While the Invictus is hurled piteously amidst angry ripples of dark majesty, Malachi and a crew of a dozen tech priests risk their lives trying to repair the Auger Array. The going is slow and arduous; it takes Malachi almost an hour to locate all of the most damaged points on the remaining comms needles.

Repairs begin upon the Array, however, the work is incredibly slow. The constant shaking of the frigate in the storm means that numerous mistakes have to be repaired, along with the damage already present.

[Based off Malachi's performance in the first three hours of work, it is likely going to take fifteen to twenty hours to fix the Array. Void suits have oxygen for about ten hours...fatigue will last even less]

Drak-Kung follows the Rogue Trader's instructions, walking amongst the ratings and informing various sections of the ship that everything is fine and will soon be under control. The crew respond to Drak-Kung. Having known him for some years, and been aware of his nature, many are comforted to be told that the storm can be escaped. Yet, most are used to the Arch-militant as a man of deeds, more than words. Drak-Kung, untrained in the fineries of charm and persuasion, often finds he meets with less success than otherwise.

[Drak-Kung is rather bad at Charm tests, however, a really good streak of luck meant that you passed three out of five tests. Drak-Kung has managed to keep morale from plummeting in the areas he has seen (mostly in the central hab decks), though he is sure that either he could use a different tact, or that the areas would be better served by a more diplomatic presence]

Andrea and Samuels do their best to move throughout the central habitation decks, seeking out parents, children's creches, and any stray void-children they encounter. Their efforts to recruit the children for the messenger system meet with enthusiasm from most children, and extreme reluctance from many of the adult ratings. Both Andrea and Samuels are forced to spend an inordinate amount of time persuading the crew that the measure is necessary. Reluctantly, the crew agree, and around a hundred children are gathered for the task.

[There was some mixed success in Andrea's efforts here, which I interpreted as her having to stop being so diplomatic and simply pull rank and inform ratings of the captain's orders. Though this means Garrius gets his messengers, there will doubtless be some loss of morale]

Lt. Commander Zarkov re-enters the bridge, his sleep having been constantly disturbed by both the tremours in the ship, and a sense of something shaking his mind. The First Officer releives Lord-Captain Garrius Amphael of his station, allowing the Rogue Trader time to perform other tasks, or to rest. Other crew men shortly arrive to relieve most of the officers on the bridge. Tyor refuses to stand down from his shift, stating that he will not have the Invictus steered by a second-class helmsman until they are free of the storm.

[Zarkov - refer to PM.

Fatigue is starting to take its toll on those who have been working the longest. Every PC except Zarkov, Andrea, and Drak-Kung have suffered one level of fatigue. This translates to a -10 penalty to all tests, until the fatigue has been rested off.

Navigator Karis has arrived to relieve Praetus, should he wish to get some rest.

Since the storm began, eight hours have passed]

[Andrea Chan-Gauthier]

Andrea will remain in the hab decks and continue to talk to the ratings. She'll either try to smooth over the ruffled feathers from the unhappy parents, or she'll bolster morale in general (backing up what Drag-Kung had been attempting earlier).

Drak, I want you to go about the ship, talk to the people. Let them know we are OK, the Emperor smiles warmly upon them and we are to soon be in the clear. Tell them the issue with communications is minor and we shall soon have it fixed. Hearts and minds and all that. Do it for the next few hours and then return here at shift change. Then we shall do a walk around together."

(OOC) - If it's reasonable for Andrea to know the above (bolded) information, she would send a message to the Captain via one of the newly recruited children (written on paper, so the kid doesn't know what she says) suggesting that the crew would probably feel better knowing that the Captain was on the bridge handling things, and volunteering to stay down here calming the ratings in his stead. If you need me to write this out, let me know. (/OOC)

[Montresor]

(OOC) - If it's reasonable for Andrea to know the above (bolded) information, she would send a message to the Captain via one of the newly recruited children (written on paper, so the kid doesn't know what she says) suggesting that the crew would probably feel better knowing that the Captain was on the bridge handling things, and volunteering to stay down here calming the ratings in his stead. If you need me to write this out, let me know. (/OOC)

[Yes, it's totally reasonable. This new communication system is not perfect, however, so there was a chance Garrius would have missed the message before he departed the bridge. As it turns out, the message you send arrives just in time - however, Zarkov has arrived to assume command for the next shift, Garrius is a little fatigued, and he is just about to set off on his rounds. I will leave it up to Garrius to react to this]

[Andrea Chan-Gauthier]

A small boy, we'll call him Timmy, runs to the Bridge and hands Garrius a note, folded in thirds.

To: Lord-Captain Garrius Amphael
From: Andrea Chan-Gauthier

Lord-Captain,

Your man Samuels mentioned that you were planning on taking a prominade through the ratings later, once we had collected up the children for the message system, to ease the crew's hearts. As I am already amongst them now, might I suggest that your time is more valuable, and could be better spent on the Bridge or resting before returning to the Bridge. It is my opinion that, while the storm rages around us, the crew draws strength from knowing that our newly arrived Lord-Captain is in charge of events and managing them himself. Were you to be down among the ratings, it might give the appearence that you weren't focused on the important tasks at hand.

I speak, of course, only of appearences. Lt. Commander Zarkov is a capable commander in a crisis, but there is a certain indisputable strength to knowing that our own heriditary Lord is at the helm protecting us.

With your permission, I would like to stay here in the hab areas, to continue putting the ratings' minds at ease.