@High_Adept_Zeth <En Route to Caerne> "As near as I can tell, Purgatory is defined by elegance and restraint. Its war-spirit is a thing of silence and introspection until the time comes to cut down the foe, like an old warrior conserving his strength. Quite the contrast with my Ryugamaru, who is young as I am, fierce and eager for glory. As far as I can tell, Purgatory is constructed according to a single guiding principle - to augment and amplify the wielder's power to incredible heights, with absolutely no wastage, for the sole purpose of destroying his foes. Perhaps the one quirk I can detect in this weapon is its fondness for immolation - it has a significant augmentative effect on psychic powers of an incendiary nature. It may well have additional functionality, but reverence forbids me from peering beneath the casing at this present. That, and dread at meddling with that which I do not fully understand. I will have to do so eventually for reasons of simple maintenance, but I will certainly make my first forays backed by a learned cadre of techsmiths." With that, he lifts the venerable blade overhead and bows to it in reverence before returning it to its scabbard. Spoiler: Sword Image lord-watchman originally linked a picture of the sword, but that link is down, so here is a copy Later on, he listens to Zeth's explanation of the transuranic round's operating principles, replying once the Ranger is done. "So the round is in fact a thermal energy projectile that relies on pyrophoresis to initiate spontaneous deflagration? Would it be correct to say, then, that in the absence of suitable atmosphere or other ambient particles, this process is triggered by impact? A most complex weapon to use, either way - I foresee it would require many compensatory calculations for atmospherics and gravity to accurately land rounds on target." When the talk turns to his own erudition, he says, "You misunderstand, I think, friend Zeth. Polymaths are not an official designation in my Chapter, nor any that I know of. Erudition is prized by the Librarius, is all, and all members of my Chapter are trained in forgecraft, whatever their calling. I was also privileged to have a childhood steeped in practical tech lore - my father was a tinkerman...what you would call an technomat, I suppose. I learned to read circuit diagrams and solder transistors early in life." <On Caerne> "The ones at Armageddon and Cadia were as big, or bigger, but none with such a range of ages, Ranger Zeth," replies Draconion over the vox as he crouches in the shadow of a vent housing at his latest vantage point en route to the main objective, quartering the mission area with his gaze, "As for biological life, I sense a moderate number of what must be small indigenous life-forms, but nothing the size or complexity of a human. That alone means nothing - there are numerous ways to hide from psychic reconnaissace."
Ixtab heard the order as soon as he entered the channel for the squad, but still keeping a private one with his fellow skitarii. It was tradition, once Ixtab had got into an argument on what weapon would suit the need of the mission, with another Alpha. Of course it wasn't a true argument, but numbers, data, kill records, and repair functions were sent back and forth for days strait, during battle and out. Everyday trying to prove the other wrong. While most humans would find it useless, tedious or even monotonous, it was a tradition of the Stygies's Skitarii who were allowed to think for themselves. A rare freedom that Ixtab and the other Alpha enjoyed having. Moving up with his partner, Ixtab observed the graveyard, even pressing his hands on the hull and letting his metal hands pass over the cold scrapmetal. Names, ship types, and damage reports began to be determined by Ixtab, but oddly no designation numbers or names of the ships could be found. Zeth was right though, some of these ships were Mechanicus. In that instance, he noticed that under his feat the large Skull livery of a Adeptus Mechanicus Explorer ship. ++Affirmative. Nothing could survive these conditions, not even I. Inquiry: What was the purpose of these ships and why does their radiation levels imply they were here many years ago?++ Ixtab replied back to Zeth, pulling out his pistol immediately after.
<Planet Team> Edd would manage to go around the column undetected, although it would take him a while to get there since the line was long and to get around it he had to traverse couple of big dunes, going up and down, which did take its toil on time when an Ogryn tried to be sneaky. In any event, he would reach there right when the talks began. Their hosts smiled and led Carlarth and Sigismund deeper back, passing a number of chained humans and alert guards, who all shot them curious glances. They also saw as the big beast lowered itself on the ground and allowed for its passengers to come down, apparently the creature was well trained. Quickly enough, curtains were placed and a makeshift tent emerged in the place where only the sand was before it, couple of servants working as fast as possible to make everything as it should be for their Lord. Number of wide carpets and pillows were placed on the ground, apparently the customary thing for the inhabitants of Ellander. Around dozen guards took place around the tent as Carlarth and Sigismund entered, only to be welcomed by a healthy looking man in his early forties, with a long mustache on his charming face and dressed in elegant robes that covered his wide frame. Despite his robes, on his hip he carried a long sabre, much more decorated than those carried by his guards, although Sigismund could see that this was not some kind of a weapon worn in celebrations by a vainglorious Governor, in fact the material looked quite familiar from this point of view, however without precise inspection he couldn't say if it was what it looked like, and it looked like an adamantium blade. The robed servants who brought the duo here exchanged couple of words with their leader and bowed, taking a position a bit in the back, near the entrance to the tent all the while the Lord nodded but didn't remove his eyes from Carlarth. After the servants left, he finally spoke and much to their surprise, they could understand him. "Welcome Miss Umbra and Mister Karling, have a seat," he spoke in heavily accented Low Gothic, but it was easily understandable, as he pointed them towards couple of pillows next to him, "My servants will bring us some refreshment shortly. But where are my manners? I am Hoga Nar, Jargo of Alexandria and I am quite surprised that you use the ancient tongue of Era. Hopefully you can understand me, for we haven't used that language in quite some time although some of us know it. But that is unimportant, you told me you are a commander of a battle barge and a rogue trader? I apologize, but I don't know what that means? Are you some kind of a merchant dealing in forbidden goods?" While they talked, the rest of the team remained hidden behind the dunes, having an easy overlook on the caravan although not being able to spot Carlarth nor Sigismund any longer, since they were lost in the crowd somewhere back. But what they could so far see is that guards had pretty good semblance of order and tactics, spreading out around and creating a perimeter, preventing those in chains from escaping and both remaining on guard in case somebody comes out from the desert. OOC will post the second team's part shortly.
<<Moon Team>> <Sirius> Apothecary quickly found a crevice wide enough for him to fit in and slowly began his descent. There was no lighting source around him, so he had to use the one on his suit to illuminate the darkness. After around 15 minutes of going down, Sirius finally reached the bottom of the crevice which suddenly narrowed in, leaving him stuck in a place between two sharp rocky walls, with the only choice of going forward (or of course back up the hole) and trying to find the way out of this dark labyrinth. But in order to do so, he had to properly grind through the rocks with whatever tools he had at his disposal because the passage was definitely not something he could fit through while wearing his armor. <Team Signal> There sure were enough wrecked ships that counting them all would take them some time, or at least longer than they actually had before the sun shines on this part of the moon as well. They could see ruination written all over the destroyed husks, whatever got them first wasn't even nearly strong enough as were the merciless elements that have been pounding them ever since. Much to their misfortune, Draconion and Zeth couldn't really make out anything special in this graveyard besides those things that were clear even to them. It was a maze and it was dangerous. When they go to war, Space Marines tend to neglect such mundane things as rust poisoning, ending up in a pitfall of wasted metal and breaking your limbs in the process, part of the ship getting separated from the main bulk and falling atop your head. Of course, chosen warriors of the Emperor had their armor and physique to protect them, but who could say the same for other humans, even those enhanced by faith and Mechanicus logic? Towards the direction of the beeping signal, they could see a number of half-buried ships, to which one exactly did it belong to was anyone's guess although the only thing that caught Draconion's attention was that one of those broken vessels had markings written in runes etched on one of its port hangars (or what it looked like from this distance), the similar script used by the natives of few Imperial words, but the most importantly, Fenris as well. However, if they wanted to get towards that they would first need to traverse past another fallen wreckage, something that looked like an unortodox version of Imperial cruiser, with lots of custom elements on it like added guns, few decks, bigger compartment area and so on. They were lucky that they were able to see all these things since this ship was, for the most of its part, on the surface. Feron and his team were also the ones who saw it, managing to reach it in no time. It blocked their way and they had to go past it. In order to do so there were various options. Finding an opening to enter the ship itself wasn't that hard as it was filled with many holes, some big and some even bigger. Other option was to perhaps go around it, but since the vessel was quite large it would definitely take them 10-12 hours to do so, which would cut the time they had before the flamestorm hits them in half. Final option was to try and go over it, use their mountaineering skills and find the way across it. In any event, it was their choice. As for their surroundings, like before nothing could really be seen, other than this silent grey graveyard they were currently in....
<The Apothecary> 'Should have brought a proper power drill...' He thought to himself as he looked at his Narthecium and sighed softly as he activated it and started to grind the wall in front of him to widen it enough to proceed forward. This would be a loooong excavation. <Renate Walburga Brandt> (@DeranVendar ) "Your plan, Commander Feron?" She inquired while taking a closer look at the vessel, approaching it in order to have a chance of determining it's age and other conditions such as rust, damage by combat, and so on.
Draconion drops to the ground to confer with Feron. "Suggest we surmount the wreck, Commander. You and I both have significant climbing experience, and I have plenty of vertical mobility. I can blaze a trail while you secure the holds for the others, and any other strong climbers can assist those less skilled. The only thing that concerns me..." He sighs and glances at the sky. "Was there climbing gear on the Stormbird? Ropes, at least? If not, we're going to have to cut grips in hull metal and use combat knives as picks."
Instead of joining up with the rest of her squad. After Fenix had disembarked, she decided to do a little scouting of their suroundings. Her helmet was in place, along with her camo-cap with a hood, but now with an ornate Inquisition/Deathwatch clasp now attached to it. Dart was with her, and could see the situation unfolding Further away then even the Abhumans and Tempestus. [Looks like Edd made it to the end of the column undetected. Both Sigismund and the new face have engaged in talks with the leader. Shouldn't you be there as well?] 'They can swim in the politics. I'll save myself one headache, thank you very much. Just let me know if those primitive guards start acting hostile. I bet a flash bang could dissable a few of them. Come here a minute.' Dart complied. Fenix manually popped open his jaw, revealing the storage compartment. It had room for two small items. Deciding on a spare clip of ripper rounds and a flash grenade. 'Now move in closer to Edd and support him. Be discreet. His mind tends to wander if too much is going on around him.' Dart made a nodding motion and floated off. Like a majestic bird, if it was a floating skill and could kill you.
"It is more of a rank and title granted to me by the god emperor as one of his most treasured assasiotes" as she spoke she smiled leting her hood doown revealing her long hair "i came here as i heard rumours of an ainchent device on this planet saught by the thousand sons space marine legion" as she spoke she looked around the room "though may i ask where you are taking these felow humans you have chained together"
<Caerne moon team> ++I theories that 543rd Expedition Fleet probably utilized some Mechanicum ships for explorator works.There must be records of that in Basilikon Astra,thought i cannot access those files now.This unknown artifact...this...'Cry of Helios".It intrigues me.Probably as much as it did our brethren that died here long ago...if they died.Librarian is unable to detect any complex bio-life.Advice:we need more indepth data.I advise investigation of interior of a starship.++ Gazing at the giant ship before him,one cannot but to stop and marvel at the titanic behemoth of metal as it lay on the surface of the moon,as a fish out of water. Zeth voxed: "I advise that we go over it.It may be too dangerous to dwell within the confines of such old vessel."spoke Zeth as he was unwilling to enter into the cramped confines,limiting his combat prowess.
-Volorox Moon team "Seems like a long way across even if we go through the ship it will take us alot of time. Feron I could likely use my jump pack toaid me in climbing over the ship and begin scaling her Alone or if anyone has any jump packs with a few members of the team and scout ahead while others head through the ship or begin climbing. Though I must say heading through that ship is quite a risk Especially with the time we are working with and the likely hood of possibly anything in it or traps or structural damage." Volorox said as he looked began looking upwards with bolt pistol in hand. He began estimating how much Time it would take him to get up the ship with his jump pack and how much time it would take.
