Warhammer 40k: Rediscovery

[VinGareth]

Now, this is interesting.

Karzen manages to squeeze in on the side before the sergeant started talking, letting him catch a glance at the face of the dataslate. He recognized the schematic immediately, as he had memorized the layout for this class of ship when he was hired. Couldn't hurt to be prepared, right? Unfortunately, his knowledge only extends to the map in his memory, so he is still fuzzy on specific routes through the ship--especially those not near the mess hall or the living quarters. Karzen has no questions, and stays silent.

[Gorbaz]

Talia couldn't shake the nagging feeling that something hadn't quite gone according to plan during her scrying, but as she made her way through the ship she kept her composure. After all, if one of the others onboard had picked up her probing, then looking guilty wasn't going to help. And, if they had, then at least she had an excuse to get off the ship, so she continued her brisk pace to the bridge.

The door slid open to reveal the hustle and bustle of a ship's crew maintaining all of the systems as well as watching near and far space. Information was being relayed from one person to another swiftly, but probably not as coldly efficient as mono-tasked servitors could. Still, the presence of so many minds in close proximity made her relax slightly in a way that the mechanicum servants never could with their soul-less eyes and blank stares. Making sure that she was presentable as possible, Talis strode forward to stand slightly to the side of Captain Blaque's chair, waiting patiently for the conversation to finish.

"Captain? I know that this is not regular, but I'd like to request permission to descend to the surface once we are in high orbit" she said, trying to keep her tone respectful. "I... sensed something down there that could prove interesting"

[exalted]

Rosette bit her lip and blushed slightly as she felt the tingle of the shock dance across her breasts, causing the skin to prickle and her nipples harden as she pouted and glared at the man.

Letting a huff, she pressed forward, determined to avenge herself. She swung high with several repeated blows, seeking to force him to keep his guard high before feinting high and swinging low between his legs.

[Phoenixcz]

Karzen

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Nobody else interrupts at this point, so the sargeant gestures at the gathered armsmen to come closer and turns the dataslate so everyone can see it. "This shows the route the opposing team will be allowed to take. The captain doesn't want us to disrupt the routine work aboard too much, so he decided he'll limit the area available for excercise. There is also a time limit, but at two hours, it's more than generous. Put together, both of these things give an advantage to you, you won't have to run all around the ship to find your opponents." Looking at the map, you notice that the highlighted route leads from some storeroom near the stern towards one of prow hangars. It's not as straightforward as the sargeant implies, though: there are multiple spots with alternative routes, some actually leading away from the main corridors to other chambers aboard, and there aren't any elevators or access shafts between various levels specifically noted as part of the allowed area, which would mean it would be actually impossible for the opposing team to reach their destination.

Meanwhile, the sargeant continues: "The limits applies to you as well. If you leave the allowed area, you'll be listed as casaulties, so I suggest you'll make damm sure you remember this map, unless you think ten against three is unfair and wish to give them even chance." Few of the men chuckle at this, but all of them seem to take his advice to heart and study the map closely. Even with the limitation, it seems the allowed area is offers enough variability to make the excercise interesting, there are even some corridors long enough to allow for some actual sniping, though there is usualy plenty of possible cover next to the bulkheads.

The sargeant gives you some time to study the map

Rosette

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Raynard seems to give you a small nod when you resume your attack before he prepares to defend himself. After few attacks, you actually have him on the defensive, even forcing him to back away from you slowly. Even though his helmet hides his eyes, it seems he's trying to find an opening to make his counterattack. You think he passed a good opportunity to strike your unprotected head when you overreached after one of his backsteps... a novice's mistake, really..., but you quickly recover and force him to defend himself again. Then, you suddenly see a good opportunity when he keeps his guard just a little bit too high for a moment, and take your chance. He tries not to intercept the blow, but to hit your arm and push it away before your hit can connect, but he's a bit too slow and you've managed to slash the tip of your baton over his codpiece and left thigh, causing a shower of sparks. His attack hits your arm just a moment later and knocks it aside with full strength, but it's just momentum: Reynard groans loudly and doubles over in pain, though he doesn't drop his own weapon.

Talia

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The captain watches you for a moment, thinking, before he speaks. "Something interesting, you say? Well, we've found out something interesting too." He pushes few runes on his command throne... he's not as heavily augmented to be connected with the ship as Navy captains are, so he needs to do it the hard way... and a holomap... a smaller one in front of him instead of the big one at the center of the bridge... displays an image of a planet, the same from your vision: vast blue oceans with few reddish continents scattered around them. The captain gestures towards the image. "This is what the long-range auspex shown us about the planet. We're still too far to get any details, all we've got so far is that there seems to be no voidship activity near the planet, but..." A few more runes pushed, and the image is replaced by another. The planet is similar, the familiar shape of the continents, this time with notes pointing out cities... the largest one, a capital, close to where you think the fortress you've seen in your vision is. But there's a difference, the surface isn't red, like the previous image and what you've seen in your vision, but black, gray and brown.

"This is an archived image of Dolus from before the Warp storm. Seen that red stuff? It wasn't there before. We don't yet know what it is, but an expert." The captain shoots a quick glance at the officer he was talking to earlier "Assured me that there was no terraforming planned, and it would took more resources and time than they've had, and normal vegetation wouldn't have spread across the whole planet in that time. So, is whatever you've sensed somehow related to that?" The captain looks at you expectantly.

[exalted]

Rosette giggled to herself as she saw her blow connect, stepping back to gloat.

"Are you all right, Brother?" She asked, activating the helmet speaker as she twirled the baton around her hands, "Do you wish to continue?"

[Phoenixcz]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

(Technically, it seems helmets come with higher ranks in SoB, unlike SM who throw theirs away when they get promoted )

Reynard stays bent over, but his response is one of praise "I'm fine, novice. Good tactic, using your speed advantage and aiming for vulnerable areas." It may be his helmet's speaker distorting his tone, but he doesn't sound like he's in too much pain. Perhaps it was this that warned you not to let your guard down... or at least too much. Without another warning, Reynard charged you like a raging grox straight from his half-bent position. You've quickly prepared to defend yourself again, but he didn't used his baton, and instead crashed into you with all his weight and strenght, shoving your baton-hand aside before you could hit him. Unbalanced by the impact, both of you fell on the floor, with him lying atop you and keeping your weapon-hand pinned under his bulk. He never went for such tactics before, and the reason is pretty obvious: if he did this while you were unarmored, you would be crushed. Even with your armor protecting you, you feel it's gonna leave few bruises.

But that's not your greatest concern right now, his baton coming closer to your head is. You've managed to grab his wrist with your free hand in time , but even with the servos of your power armor straining loudly, he's slowly winning the contest of strength.

[VinGareth]

Karzen takes a mental note of the long corridors. Those will be useful. He begins to think about his plan.
I'll station up over at that last corridor, closest to their target. I'll try to convince a couple others to join me there. If it's the last hallway and there isn't an ambush, the opposing team will get suspicious but if the last of our team is there, they'll think they're safe afterwards. Then I can hit the target before they even know.

[exalted]

Rosette yelped again as she was bulldozed over the wall of armour and slammed on the ground.

That wasn't fair! she thought, struggling to get her arm free from the press of bodies.

Her eyes latched onto the tip of the baton as sit steadily grew nearer and she began to panic. Near frantic, she rocketed her her hips up into his, trying to bridge up and roll him off so she could be on top.

[Phoenixcz]

Karzen

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

It seems the other armsmen have their own plans already. A discussion starts over the dataslate, with the sargeant letting the men do the talking and just listening to their ideas. One man points at a spot where two different decks overlap. "There is an elevator here, they'll have to use it to continue further and there won't be much cover. I think we should ambush them here, perhaps set up some cover for us, but it should be easy to deal with them here." Another offers his own opinion "This storeroom will be better. It's full of cargo containers, there's plenty of room to hide there and hit them from multiple directions at once." Others offer their own ideas, but it's clear these two plans got the most followers, and the discussion turns towards weighting the advantages and disadvantages of either.

Rosette

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

He's heavy. Very heavy... it feels like he and his armor put together weight twice as much as yours. That, together with the hard shell of your armor doesn't offer you quite as much freedom of movement as you'd have needed to throw him off. But you're making some progress, not enough to clearly win the struggle, but there's another chance. If you can move him just enough, he'll fall on your baton. Your hand, less protected because the gauntlets needs to provide some freedom of movement, would suffer, but...

As you go with the plan, you manage to glance over Reynard's shoulder to notice you're no longer alone. One of the twins, you can't tell which one, stands in the open doorway holding a dataslate. When she notices you see her, she smiles "I'll come back later if you want some privacy...". While Reynard can't see her, he clearly hears her, as immediately stops pushing his baton towards you and turns it off with a flick of hit thumb.

[exalted]

"Now listen here you little sneak..." Rosette stammered as she scrambled out from underneath Reynard, "I don't know what you think you saw but if you taddle I'll tan you hide so hard..."

Rosette crossed her arms over her metallic bust and huffed.

"I wouldn't expect a scribe from your order to understand Ordo Militaria training drills, so why have you bothered us?"

[VinGareth]

Karzen thinks through the two plans, and pitches in his own idea.

"Store room would be our best bet. We would work best if we have good spacing, and it's difficult to defend against what you can't see. Also, without fancy power armor of our own we need a lot of cover for ourselves. My vote's on the store room."

He then proceeds to prep himself for moving out--stretches, gearing up, etc.

[Gorbaz]

Talia watched the pict image appear, and listened intently as Captain Blaque described what she was seeing. She only half-heard some of the words, however, as her memory pulled at her as the red area on the world below came into view. As she watched the world spin, her recollection of the vision matched up.. landmasses... oceans... cities... and then it was gone, replaced with an older static image. Everything was still there, just more natural in colour. Talia's heart skipped a beat as her gaze wandered over to the capitcal city, seeing once again the towering fortress, the ocean of darkness, and the pure inferno at its heart.

She gave a short not, gaze not moving from the image. "Yes, Captain. This is what I saw just as we re-entered realspace. The red land, the locations of the seas, it all matches up. Except..." She pointed to where the capital stood. "... I sensed something here. It was almost like a soul, but much more intense. Almost as bright as the Astronomicon seen from a distance, but I got the impression it was from a single being" Best be conservative with the waves of darkness aspect, until she knew more. The bright flame seemed to suggest a living thing, but the waves? An army on the move? Reactions like that of a death world? Or perhaps something less physical and more insidious? Talia just could not say at this point. "Well, whatever is at that spot, it stood out from everything else on the world, and I just wouldn't feel right knowing that something possibly of great importance is down there, without knowing what it was"