Satoshi raised his hand. He actually didn't know most of the people that shared the room with him, only greeting the knight, a few Salamanders and winking at Regina when he walked in (she of course, had no idea he did this, since he forgot he had his helmet on). Before the Chaplain even called on him, the Ronin stood up and said, "Yeah just one boss man. How are you stirring this thing?" He looked around the interior of the room, indicating he meant the Space Hulk. Then he also addressed everyone in the room with a wave, "Hello room full of strangers and battle brothers." He thought for a moment, then with a nod to Regina, added, "And sisters of course. Just want to say one thing before we head out: Dibs on the Planet Team. I love sightseeing and tech support down by the forge couldn't make a new bird suit fast enough for Talon," he shrugged his shoulder, which the Ventus was currently perched on, "for him to fly out in space, so we'll be heading planet side." Talon facepalmed with one of his wings, embarrassed at the way Satoshi addressed a room full of what might be potentially a lot of people outranking him.
"Commander, the Librarius stands ready for pre-op prognostication at your convenience," says Draconion, already tracing out a ritual circle on the tacticarium floor.
"If the thousand sons want this item i will go down there" as tempestus spoke he looked at marmoroth "i have the most experience dealing with them and their powers"
"Commander", Amraphel said and stepped forward from a shadowy corner of the briefing room. "What means of transport do you plan on using for the teams insertion and what means of deployment do we have at our disposal anyway, as I take it, many of our dropships have been destroyed, right?" Amraphel stood tall inside the room, fully clad in armour and with his helmet on, the armour in turn was covered by bone white robes. Two small black wings extended from his power pack, an ocasional cracking of energy discharges emitting from them. This was his new small refractor shield generator, not as powerful as many of the more advanced versions like the iron halo, but it still offered some protection aggainst small arms fire and non power melee weapons. His new half mechanical tongue implant still felt very odd and somehow he felt as if his voice had changed, but gladly his helmets speakers reduced all this to a deep mechanic tone. "Well Chaplain I also happen to have a few more questions: Is there any more intel about this planet? The information we have does by all means seem meagre, I suggest extensive scans with the short range scanners, once we are in range. With our current ammount of intel we are basically going in blind. Besides, is there any more intel on it's history? Who did it's inhabitants support during the heresy, is it compliant, is the planet feudal or industrial? There are two final things I need to know: Will we be able to use the hulks weapons for fire support, just incase we encounter fortified enemies? And last but not least, his voice dropped to an icy tone: Is the civilian population disposable?"
"Civilian casualties should not be our concern when an objective is endangered."interfered venerable Skitarius as he pointed toward the planet,his metal index finger zooming on the objects in the oasis zones of Ellander.Brought up to speed to everything that has happened to Marmaroth and all those that followed him,Zeth operated with greater degree of confidence,as the hard data filled in the blank spot.The only thing that has troubled him was that his status now,as was the status of all those aboard was that of a Renegade at best.The very notion is enough to trigger self-destruct protocols in a Skitarius,luckily...this Ranger was 'off the hook',his free-will replacing the slaving data-imperatives of the Techpriest masters. "Thought we might interrogate few of the high ranking civilians since they obvious have a semblance of a civilization.Omnissiah knows what new data might surface."spoke Ranger as his monotone voice was at odds with his incredibly human-like motions. "Also..."spoke Zeth as he zoomed in on Caerne "...i reckognize this transponder SOS codes.The distress signal is definetly of Imperial making,but that requires either an infrastructure to house the beacon or a starship has crashlanded on the moon itself.That also explains interference and counter-signals,probably an aftermath of an explosion of some kind..but still enough to protect the beacon from the blistering head of the inferno storms."spoke Zeth as his bionic eyes zoomed in and out of the hololitic figure of a moon.
Draconion's expression hardens as he listens to Amraphel and Zeth, one after the other. "Preemptive permission for butchery and 'interrogation' of a civilian populace, all in the name of expedience and insufficient data when other means exist. A fine gallery of saints we have amassed here," he mutters, ostensibly for Feron's ears only, but pitched loud enough for all to overhear.
<Feron> "Draconion, Veritas make it so if you would. I'd rather make sure we have a solid grasp on terrain before we deploy as our Mechanicus assets will better weather adverse terrain. Do we have the proper environmental equipment for deployment on the moon or are we expecting some sort of facility so we don't have to muck about on the surface. If you've any preference for where you'll be deployed speak up now, I won't promise you your desired spot but I'll factor it in. Thus far I want Veritas taking to the planet in command of that respective team, Draconion I'll want you going to the moon so we have witch-sight supporting both teams. " Peering over at Draconion when the 'muttering' starts the elder Salamander holds his own peace for now, hiding his own distaste behind an expression edged in stone. "So far I believe we'll look into three initial deployment teams, one for the moon and two for the planet with the express interest of pursuing our unknown priority while the other focuses on investigating that village, of course if no immediate split leads are available then both groups may simply converge to handle the latter. " Every suggestion was being mulled over, each thought a piece of wisdom worth considering even if it wasn't morally sound.
@DeranVendar @lord-watchman "So ordered, so done," says Draconion formally with a short bow to Feron. Stepping into the middle of the ritual circle, he unfurls the by-now familiar scroll and lays it about himself in a rumpled circle. "If you please, Ancient One," he says, addressing Tempestus before forming the mudras with his hands and taking up the chant. "Om chakravartin, maharajah di rajah...OM!" roll the words, echoing weirdly throughout the tacticarium, their resonance and pitch making the space seem a lot more cavernous than it really is. The little drakeling, as-yet unnamed, looks up from its latest game of pursuing vermin into the nooks and crannies of the room to peer sharply at its de facto master, wide black irises narrowing to slits in amber as it stalks closer, head lowered and bobbing with predatory cadence. A few sniffs seem to convince it that no threat is imminent from Draconion, and it sits primly outside of the ritual circle, tail wrapped about its clawed legs, watching with a formal aloofness. As the ritual progresses, its eyes begin to swirl with amethyst light, and those with eyes to see would perceive a reciprocating cycle of power flowing between Draconion and his companion beast, the latter actually opening a controlled and filtered portal to the Sea of Souls, in effect turning on a tap that provides a steady trickle of additional power to the former. Feeling a surge of strength, Draconion takes the opportunity to narrow down his scrying, digging deeper into the skein of Fate for the nature of the Cry of Helios, the true allegiances of the Ellanderians and the significance of the signal beacon on the moon.
@WanderingJester "That is the question for our Techmarine, but as I understood it, he is in the process of getting every machine spirit under our command and using them to serve our purpose. That's why we have some life support online as well as weapons systems under our control. But as I said, it's a process so you are better of with asking him the question, when you meet him in the workshop." @lord-watchman "Like I said, they were the first explorers who mentioned the thing we are looking for. I strongly believe they failed to acquire it, because the times were different back then and who knows what stopped them. In any case, perhaps members of their legion that are also members of the Unholy Alliance were the ones who tried to find "Cry of Helios", but were unsuccessful." @DeathKorpsOfKrieg "For means of transport, we have two remaining Valkyrie gunships as well as my Stormbird. Also, we have couple of those cargo ships, but all of them are free of any weapons, so the choice of insertion will be decided after you are spread in appropriate teams." "No more intel on the history or its inhabitants, since I already told you we are first Imperials that came out here in quite some time. The only thing we learned so far from scanning of the atmosphere condition is that there are no exhaust gases or any type of industrial pollution which should mean that this civilization is not that advanced. But you are Space Marines and going in blind against a city of regular humans shouldn't be much of a problem, in fact this is what you came here to do." "Hulk's guns will be at our service however I won't simply bomb the civilians just because I don't like the way they smell. In case there is a wide spread heresy then of course, but only having meager evidences and campfire tales as means to discern what is right or wrong is not something that can sway me in ordering the destruction of an entire population. Not to mention we might endanger our objective by doing it, so the bombing will be our last resort." @High_Adept_Zeth @DeranVendar "As for the moon, I agree with your assessment Ranger. But if we are right and a starship of Imperial origin has crashed on it, we need to be extra careful about it. As for the moon's environment, we detected presence of strong winds as well as some primordial vegetation which goes to prove that there is some kind of an atmosphere on it, however whether its lethal or not, we won't know until we go there." @Draconion The ritual didn't show much, or at least not as much as they needed to be on the safe side. Librarians felt a number of souls on the planet, all of them human in origin, most of them located in the settlement already mentioned, while others were unevenly scattered across the globe, probably around oasis or similar places. As for Cry of Helios or whatever the thing was, there was no trace of it whatsoever, no spikes in his search, no hidden objects he could focus on or powerful psychic signatures he could inspect, so either there was nothing down there or it was quite well hidden and out of sight. As for the moon, he felt souls of the lost calling out to him, the place being of great destruction and death. But this was in no way unusual, since places like this were common around the Imperium, the war something quite normal in the 42nd millennium. However were those souls killed in a ship crash or something else, he couldn't say. As for psychic signatures, he couldn't discern if he was feeling local "fauna" which he only felt small traces of, but of anything "bigger" or more humane, there was no trace.
<Feron> "Marmaroth which of our current AOs will be the furthest from friendly support? I imagine if we'll be near enough to the planet to provide orbital support that would mean the moon team will likely want an extra edge with them to ensure they aren't caught unprepared correct? Also do you intend to deploy yourself or no? "
