Warhammer 40K: The Interex Valhalla

[Eplov]

After about twenty minutes of Naomi running diagnostics on Snuffles, playing a game of "fetch the bolter cartridge", and other such diversions Nieli finally arrived. At least five of which Naomi was positive had been tacked on to heighten the anticipation of the moment.


Clicking high-heel boots, tailored and expensive clothing hugging and exsentuating her curves, expertly applied makeup, and shiny white hair cascading down her back, tucked behind her ears to proudly display her face, Nieli was a sight to behold.

Spoiler

[dice]22069[/dice]


Two degrees of success, she knows how to make an entrance!


Nieli beams, smiling at all of those assembled, "Good morning, I am Nieli." she positively purrs. "My sister tells me you have a problem I could help out with?" making it a question.

 

[Protagonist]

Apollo says "Siblings. I used to have them".


He listens to some classical music while he waits for Neili to arrive.


[dice]22070[/dice]


[fail]


When Neili arrives, Apollo's rendered a bit speechless by her beauty. He attempts to say "hello" but instead says something to the effect of "Wjodsafdf;". He blushes, clears his throat, and then does his best to regain his composure. "H-hello, Neili. What's going on is we're negotiating with a contact originally from your homeworld, and we'd like help negotiating a deal with him".


He turns around in his chair and pushes a button. A voice over the radio speaks.


"Uh...hi? Is this thing on?" says the other voice, nervous. Neili might recognize this voice. A former customer of hers.


Apollo says "Yes, we hear you loud and clear, James! So, I've heard that you've found salvage for us?"


"Oh, good, it works! Yeah, I got some salvage for ya. It's a ship called the Emperor's Bounty. Me and my posse want it, but don't have the equipment or the manpower to tow it back home."


"So, I'm thinkin' 1,000,000 Thrones for 'ya!"


[dice]22071[/dice]


Apollo says "That's impressive. However, only a fool starts negotiations with the price they actually want to pay. You're no fool. I'm afraid that the operation you're requesting is pretty expensive on my end, and I bet".


James sighs. "Fine, fine. But we can't go higher than that!"


But maybe he can....And perhaps someone should try to find out who his "posse" is?

 

[Eplov]

Nieli slides smoothly into the seat beside Apollo, her leg "accidentally" brushing his, and then leans toward the com unit.


"Hey James, Nieli Rook here. Long time no see. We both know you can do better than 1,000,000 thrones."

Spoiler

[dice]22075[/dice]


Holy cow! That's four degrees of success!


By the way, you still running with the Kafcans?






[dice]22076[/dice]


Hoping to use it to get him to spill his real accomplices. Succeeded with 15 points to spare.

 

[Protagonist]

James pauses a moment, unsure if he can make up his mind. He eventually answers


"Well...I don't have the money just yet, but I suppose I'll make it back. Fine. One million, Two Hundred Thousand Thrones! But that's my final offer."


James is asked if he's still with the Kafcans. He says "Uh...no. I got out of that gig. Crime just doesn't pay."


Apollo says "Then who are you running for?"


James acts evasive and says "Well, I...uh..." He then sighs. "I'm working for a new 'security firm' that's workin' to keep the planet stable, what with recent deaths in our leadership."


Apollo asks "Vigilantes?"


James says "I guess that's one way of looking at it."


Apollo says "Anyways, I think we'll take it. So where's the ship?"


James says "It's just an hours trip away by Warp Travel. Only problem is...it's not in a safe place. It's surrounded by asteroids and debris. You'll have to take a guncutter to it, and pilot it out from the inside."

 

[Nexus Placater]

Apharius stood up from his navigator chair, still disorientated by the long period of guiding the ship through the perilous warp. As his mind cleared and his concentration returned, he saw that another woman had joined the bridge, and judging from the attire and way she acted, she was probably the ship's seneschal. Something felt off about her, as if something familiar to him lingered on her. Checking he did what he had trained himself to do. Opening his mind, he looked deep into the soul of the woman, in hopes he might find something.

Spoiler

[dice]22077[/dice]2 DOF, Nuffle doesn't like me today apparently.


His mind was groggy and he couldn't see much, due to the confusing currents of the warp. He was still suspicious of her but he knew that he will have to check her another time.

 

[Protagonist]

James says "Alright. I'm sendin' the coordinates now. Follow me to the location. When you get to the edge of the debris, why don'tcha get on a guncutter and follow my craft? I'll lead you right to it."


James makes the jump to lightspeed.


Apollo turns to Apharius and says "Make it so, Apharius!" we're heading to a region of space known as "Battleground". Sounds fun!

 

[Nexus Placater]

Apharius straps himself down again, clearing his mind once more for the horrors that is the immaterium. His mind was still on the topic of the seneschal but with one last breath, he rid it from his mind.

Spoiler

[dice]22078[/dice]4 DOS





[dice]22079[/dice]5 DOF, this is not going to be good.





[dice]22080[/dice]2 DOS, this is better but I don't think I can make the next one.





[dice]22081[/dice]This was meant to fail due to my stupidly high roll.





[dice]22082[/dice]5 DOF, this is not a good day for me.


Apharius is definitely having a bad day. (This is kind of bullshit the stuff that me, a rank one navigator has to go through. Especially when it requires awareness, a skill that you don't start off with.)

 

[Protagonist]

We travel through the warp, but unfortunately, we have trouble getting there since the Navigator had trouble finding the astronomicon.


Our Gellar Field starts to flicker, though. And then suddenly everyone hears the soft, monotone whisper of someone they've lost.


It says:


P̧oo͘r, ̀poor ͘c͢h̷i͞l̢d̛.̛ ͏Lo͟s̵t͜ i̸n t͡h̛e҉ ́b̛i͟g̀, sc̕ar͏y w̶ar͠p̕,̸ ́a͏re͏ ҉we?͝


̧Do̷ņ't̸ w͢ǫrry.͘ ͘Į'̡ll̛ ́h̴el̶p̡ y̨ou͠.


We arrive in realspace, into a field of debris.


[dice]22083[/dice]


However, as if we were protected by some kind of weird invisible forcefield, we don't get peppered nearly as bad as we should be!


[1 Hull Damage]


[dice]22084[/dice]


[-1 Morale]


Surprisingly, the crew isn't especially shaken by the event. From the bridge, we can hear shouts of "Praise the God-Emperor!!". Even Apollo had to admit that this was weird. He had some doubts if that was truly the God-Emperor, but...well, you never know.


Apollo says "Alright. I think our Shuttlebay should be fixed by now. Let's get to the Guncutter."

 

[Eplov]

Nieli, seated on a plush couch of fine fabric, was massaging the many new business contracts she'd established here on the ship via the ship's comms While Naomi fiddled with schematics and prototypes on her utilitarian work bench across the room.


"Who knew there were so many business oportunities without even leaving the ship?" Mused Nieli. "I mean, I've already improved distribution of, let's say "goods and services" here on the ship by 30%. It's only right that I should get my cut after providing such a necessary service."


"I read something about an earth saying, "you cannot remove vital life fluids from inorganic matter", or something like that. " replied her sister. "With you though, I'm not sure that's the case." She added with a wry smile. "I'm not sure I'll ever get used to this warp travel. I mean, is it always going to be this interesting?"


Hearing Apollo's message the sisters and hound quickly gathered up heir things (already set to go by the door this time) and set off for the shuttle bay.

 

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

Carth was wandering the ship in full gear, exploring and investigating and evaluating tactical positions. It was one of the things he did in his spare time. And he was always in full gear when he was awake, because he never knew when trouble could strike. So when Apollo's message came through, Carth reversed his direction and made for the shuttlebay. As he walked, he cradled his hellgun in his arms in a distinctly military way.


His route happened to take him past the quarters of Naomi and... he could barely remember the name of the other sister. The shameless one with tight clothes. As much as he didn't want to acknowledge it, the woman was attractive. But the way she acted, the clothes she wore... it didn't click with him. It was entirely overstated and too flashy for his liking. Even still, he made mental notes to steel himself against anything like that. It wouldn't do to waver in the face of anything like that that may arise. Not just any possible manipulations from... whatever the other sister was called. She was just the catalyst of the realisation. In his unofficial role (or was it official by now? He didn't really know) as Apollo's bodyguard, getting distracted by these things would compromise him as a bodyguard.


He passed their door, and moments later the door opened. Presumably the sisters and their hound. With luck they'd ignore him and leave himself to himself. But from what the ship had been going through combined with his history, he doubted he was really that 'lucky'.

 

[Nexus Placater]

Apharius was not having a good day. He didn't want anything to do with navigating for a while, his mind incredibly shaky and tired from the horrors of the warp. He still couldn't get two things out of his head, the seneschal and the voice that had called out to them in the warp. It was by luck that he met with Carth, not good luck for him at the time. "Hello Carth, I am sorry to cause such trouble with you and your men. The warp is incredibly strange lately."


It was only then did he realise that the seneschal and Naomi were there. With that in mind, Apharius couldn't help but try again to look into the woman's soul.

Spoiler

[dice]22093[/dice]These dice are killing me!


As his third eye sees nothing, he changes his perspective to the second thought on his mind, the voice. Quickly he changed his search from a pin point gaze into one's soul and searches for any sign of warp taint or daemon interaction.





[dice]22094[/dice]3 DOS, So I should be able to search for a good chunk of the ship.


His mind open, he continued down to the shuttle bay, ready to leave.

 

[Eplov]

Nieli grinned broadly and waved a hand "Hey Carth, fancy meeting you here." She concludes with a wink.


"Hi." Adds Naomi, a bit lamely, with an abortive gesture that may have originated as a wave.


Snuffles, like Nieli, seems to find Carth interesting, his enhanced scent detectors behaving like his namesake as he clacked directly behind the twitchy soldier.


Naomi's breath smelled of recaf, Nieli's of quality Amasec.

 

[Eplov]

When Apharius joined them he received a similar invitation from the sisters and the hound.


"Behaving strange you say?" Asks Nieli, "in what way?" Then adds, "My sister and I were just discussing how odd warp travel seemed to be when we received the captain's summons."

 

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

Carth didn't verbally respond, instead letting out a surprisingly thoughtful "Mmm..." in response to the three greetings. He didn't comment on Apharius' mistake that the soldiers on the ship were 'his'.


He looked over his shoulder briefly at everyone else, then continued to walk ahead, impassively listening to the rest of the conversation.


At least, he tried to be impassive. Mention of the Warp behaving oddly and going against them put him a tiny bit on edge. The last time he'd heard that, what followed was a nine year nightmare that nearly killed him. His form tensed up slightly as he walked.

 

[Protagonist]

The Guncutter was a black craft, with enough room for us all to be comfortable in, but nonetheless very tiny. Apollo sits in the pilot's chair and says "Alright, taking off in 5...4...3...2...1..."


We fly away from the Valhalla, being able to view it from our windows. We sail into the eerie abyss that is the Battleground. Everywhere you look, there's debris as far as a human eye can see. In its own way, it's gorgeous, but nonetheless terrifying.


We get a call on our radio. It's James again. "Oh, wow! You're alive!" he says. "I didn't think you made out of that warp storm."


Apollo says "Sorry, we ran into some trouble in the warp. Are you still able to show us the way to it?"


James says "Yeah, I'll see what I can do".


We maneuver through the field of space debris, until eventually we see the top side of the Emperor's Bounty. It's a Dauntless Light Cruiser.


We get a message from James again.


"Ok. Here's the ship. I'll wait here while you inspect it."


Apollo radios in "Very well, then."


The ship flies closer to the Emperor's Bounty. Up close, the Emperor’s Bounty is in bad shape indeed; large rents score its hull, and its bastions and bulkheads are pitted and worn by months of unshielded exposure to the void. There are, however, a faint glow from the drives and a shadow of light spilling from the vista dome of the bridge, indicating that the vessel’s plasma reactors have not gone completely cold.


Apollo says "There's an atmosphere, so we won't need voidsuits, but I suggest taking breathers." He puts one on himself and grabs his equipment.


He fiddles with his drone controller.


[dice]22099[/dice]


The Drone activates, saying "Kara Drone online." Kara then looks out the window at the Emperor's Bounty, and declares "The Imperials fly around in those things? Well, no wonder they embrace martyrdom so easily!"


It opens up, we fly in and land, slowly.


Apollo says "Alright. Follow me." as he walks outside the Guncutter. The Emperor's Bounty is on low-power mode. The hallways are filled with dust and corpses-it's hard to tell how they died. No signs of violence, and their weapons are holstered.

 

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

Carth files onto the ship and adjusts his grip on the hellgun. A vox came in, being amazed at surviving a warp storm. He tensed again, rolling his hand around near the trigger, but the feeling passed. He glanced out at the ruined ship for a moment, then spent the rest of the trip in silent preparation for whatever they may find.


The guncutter lands, and Apollo steps out confidently. Carth follows, but at the first sight of corpses he moves up to Apollo's side. Didn't look like there was any violence. Corpses were almost untouched, and their weapons were all holstered. Somehow, that only made Carth more wary. He tensed again, ready to raise and fire his weapon in a fraction of a second if need be. He didn't trust this.

 

[Protagonist]

Apollo notices that much of the ship's doors are locked. These doors have warning seals on them-warning that there isn't any atmosphere behind them.


Apollo hms and then starts inspecting the ship's wiring.


[dice]22103[/dice]


"There's still a few lines receiving full power from the bridge." he says. "I believe we should head there."

 

[Eplov]

Nieli, content to let the others go first, primes her Long las, then pulls her chameleoline cloak more tightly about her and becomes indistinct.

Spoiler

[dice]22114[/dice]


1 DOS


Meanwhile Naomi hunts along the walls and consoles for a data port with both power and a functional line to data storage, while Snuffles prowls the area, alert for anything.






[dice]22116[/dice]


4 DOS!!


[dice]22117[/dice]


Snuffles failed, even with heightened senses. Silly dog.

 

[Protagonist]

While Naomi scans around for information, she eventually finds some dataports. Sadly, the information appears very damaged-but you nonetheless get some pretty good schematics of the ship. The power core is still functional, and many areas of the ship are sealed off due to lack of oxygen. However, Naomi can tell that power's being controlled from the bridge If we get to the bridge, we might be able to restore an atmosphere to this place.

 

[Eplov]

Nomi downloads what she can from the computers to her data slate, then in a hushed voice says, "Carth, can you take a look at these for me? I'm assuming you have more experience with laying siege to derelict space craft than I." She holds her data slate out to Carth with her mechadendrite, then stoops down to examine one of the corpses.

Spoiler

[dice]22119[/dice]


Sigh, missed it by 3.


Sadly, she cannot make heads nor tails with the state of the bodies, or what killed them.

 

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

Carth stepped back and grabbed the dataslate with one hand, looking it over for key tactical positions and drawing from the past nine years of his life.

Spoiler

[dice]22122[/dice]


Bonus wasn't needed, because that's a goddamn 6. At least 2 DoS.


Immediately, he mapped out several positions where the team could cover all angles of approach should they need a fallback position, as well as identifying key routes through the ship and how to cut them off. All told it was more information than they'd probably need, but he'd spent ages doing it, so it came rather naturally to him.


He slid the dataslate inside his coat for later reference, nodded to Naomi, and then resumed his watch. This time he was focusing his attention on where attackers would most likely come from, but he gestured for someone in the group to watch the other way just in case.

 

[Eplov]

Naomi unslung her bolter and followed Carth's lead, eyes trained where he had indicated trouble would likely originate. "Let's hit the bridge first," she says, "once there I think I can re-establish life support to the rest of the ship, and hopefully get this thing operational."


"Can do, sis." replies the blurred form of Nieli, closely hugging the bulkhead and keeping her distance from the others. She did not want to catch a round intended for someone else.

 

[Nexus Placater]

Apharius was amazed at the size of the ship and staring at the map that had been drawn from the ship's data banks, he was surprised that such a ship could exist. As he look at the different walls of the ship, he wondered if this had been dumped out by the warp and an such a devastating calamity could have occurred.

Spoiler

[dice]22124[/dice]Nope, Don't know what happened.





[dice]22125[/dice]Well, going on a trip with Aliens apparently taught him a lot.


Just in case that something dangerous from the warp was lurking after him, he made sure to check his surroundings.





[dice]22126[/dice]Well, I might have just done something very bad.


With that, Apharius continued after the group, making sure to pull out his inferno pistol.

 

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

Carth grunted in assent with the plan to head to the bridge, stepping forward towards one of his planned routes. The route took them to the bridge but avoided most of the 'main' pathways to it, instead remaining somewhat more discreet and out of the way. He was sure that Apollo would agree with the plan; the man had sense.


Carth wasted no time and took the head and waved everyone to stay behind him as he lead, hellgun ready and on a hair trigger. He stepped lightly, trying to keep an ear out for any rogue footsteps that might indicate other life aboard the ship.

 

[Eplov]

Arriving at the bridge unscathed but still on alert, Naomi checks the engineering console for tampering or traps.

Spoiler

[dice]22127[/dice]


Not even close. 4 DOF if her utility mechadendrite helps, 5 DOF otherwise


Finding none, she asks the group as a whole, "Are we ready to see if this old tub has life in her yet?"