Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Stirk]

"Human habitation would simplify things. Colonization requires greater resources than simply returning the lost lambs to the light of the God Emperor, or bringing them into the greater Imperium if his torches still burn. However this phenomena, is it something unusual or hazardous?"

[_DivideByZero_]

"Human habitation would simplify things. Colonization requires greater resources than simply returning the lost lambs to the light of the God Emperor, or bringing them into the greater Imperium if his torches still burn. However this phenomena, is it something unusual or hazardous?"

"I--we cannot guarantee your safety, if that is what you seek. This is a remote place in the void, touched by the immaterium in strange and unusual ways. It really shouldn't exist, by all means. And its spectrum, according to the astrographs, puts it far from the main sequence. Animus is a league of its own."

He stacks up his plates and sets them aside to make a clean space on the table, folding his fists.

"All things in the void present a hazard," the head scholar declares, also finishing his food. "The question is of what magnitude. And the reward which awaits those hazards. We have connections to the hidden echelons of the Administratum, so as an ally, you can rely on us."

A servitor comes to retrieve his plates and carry them away. It moves from diner to diner, building up an uncomfortably tall stack as it shifts and sways in its motion.

"If you have any need of supplies and equipment, we will do our best to supply you. This is a remote station, so what you find in terms of equipment will be rather modest."
The techpriest and his cohorts are notably absent from the dinner. Perhaps they know something about equipment.
"Surely you are trained professionals, however? I doubt any research station could match your already-impressive armory."

[Stirk]

"I have tasked my men with filling our larders and some auxiliary rations for the cargo hold, if they can find any. Aside from that I believe we are properly prepared." Tristan stands up, adjusting his hat as a gesture of farewell "Thank you again for your assistance in this endeavor, but we should be off for this cryptic star post-haste. My men seem to be getting restless, some peril might wake them up a bit. I'll send a message back when we arrive, if you do not receive one then either we have perished or there is some truth to the communication-blocking theory."

Tristan says his goodbyes, and leaves for the ship. Prepare to launch once everyone is ready.

[GiglameshDespair]

"+I will see this map. If you have it stored digitally, that would be more convenient.+"
Camilla downloads or observes with her unforgetting brain the map, then returns to the ship.

[_DivideByZero_]

Amara, Navigator of the Indecent Proposal, found herself tasked with navigating into an unknown sector. So far away that any pictures taken are at least two-hundred years old, the lone navigator found herself unable to locate any records of persons having made the journey. Without a warp chart to go by, the journey may take some time, perhaps even a month.

The actual journey was much faster. Owing to the ship's runecaster, the Indecent spent her first week of the journey surmounting that awful gap between the galaxy's edge and forlorn Animus.
Written in the raging currents of the immaterium, Amara saw her name. She thought little of it, being an experienced navigator. The real question was whether or not it was the same entity as the last dozen times.

What gave the impression of a stable chasm in the warp, however, gave way to a crushing reality: Animus was surrounded by a bubble of incredibly pure warp, surrounded by the usual rapids which constituted the "normal" state of the immaterium.
Indecent had pierced the veil, but at her loss, the vessel had carved a gap in the bubble with her presence. Plumes and vortices swirled and dragged Indecent into a spin. Amara's perception went blank as the hull shuddered and groaned, tossing crewmembers about.

Amara's mind briefly toyed with several options. It would be incredibly punishing (-50) to try and steer clear of this sudden storm. Simply (-20) dropping out of the Warp right now would place the ship hopefully at the edge of the system and keep from falling further off-track. However, Amara recalled seeing not one, not two, not even three, but five suns shining faintly into the warp. Whether this was Animus, or something else entirely, was unknown. All that could be said is that dying under the warm light of a foreign sun would be preferable to some, than freezing to death in the void.

[Tiruin]

Amara busied herself on the ship before all this by checking up on many sections she was accustomed to--having been born on, and raised among Imperial vessels with similar configurations. Floors upon floors and decks upon decks was only large and tantalizing to the unfamiliar eye; they all had a purpose, and a feeling, just as the room she was in had its own feeling, much better than the usual sanctums for people like her. Receiving the command to move the ship, she was glad the Captain and his colleagues came back safe from the shore; she somewhat disliked being away from something she was very familiar with, and her hooded form was pretty-...she had a pretty acute sense of self-awareness to know that regardless of wealth and status, the people around her had a sense of belief that she didn't like to interrupt on.

In the present, she felt as if she could feel the machine spirit of the ship as she guided it through the warp, and it was resonant with her foresight. She was glad it told her there was something wrong before she could see it--much like looking at a planet without noticing the magnetic fields shifting ever so slightly, guesswork in navigation was far too dangerous for anyone traveling alone or with aid, and even a simple gash like what was happening now prompted immediate action.

And this was a good time to inform the Captain or at least any of the crew about her decision, but she lacked a requisite servo skull or other method of communicating given the MIU one of the nice crewmen shared with her. As an aside, she remembered the importance of names, despite casting her house name away herself. This would be done later, when she knew they would survive this.

To humor herself, she dropped out of the warp (Take that -20!) instead of trying to traverse what she had taken as what looked like a 'natural bubble' around the system--Animus or otherwise--and focused on the fact that her name was echoed in the warp. Such silly denizens out in the high seas of the Empyrean.

Now if only she had actually changed her name just like any other basic detail about herself, that would be a story to tell.
There just needed to be a few altercations before she could start telling them...

[_DivideByZero_]

[38 vs 50 +20-20]

Indecent Proposal burst out of the warp in spectacular fashion, followed by a plume of scattered energies which danced off her hull.

As the armor panels masking the observation deck retreated, the deck crew was greeted not by the familiar darkness of space, but rather by a a bewildering sight.
It was a grid pattern of shining lights, which created a horizon. Off in the distance, the lights coalesced into a grey backdrop.
It was as if Indecent had entered a titanic shell made up of innumerable objects... such a structure could never have been imagined, for not even the mighty resources of the Imperium could muster so much material. Entire stars would have been mined to build this... if it were real.


Five suns inhabit the distance. It is a great distance to even the closest, about a week's journey through the void using sublight plasma thrusters. They are as follows:

A white sun of about 1.2 solar masses; initial trackings place it roughly twenty Terran orbits apart from its closest stellar companion, a binary star system. However, its own orbit is shown to be twisted and warped, following an unexpected path. With so little data, it is difficult to say exactly what is happening to the star. Its closest planet is a massive hydrogen world about 1.3 Terran orbits out. Hydrogen giants have many moons, but at the same time their rings and satellites present a dangerous environment.

A binary star system; orbiting one hundred Terran orbits from a distant companion (see above). A paucity of worlds surround this star owing to an unstable gravitational environment, mostly on eccentric orbits. There are two planets in this system, however both are potentially temperate and may host colonies.

A red dwarf of 0.4 solar masses; orbited by a handful of closely-spaced planets and a thick asteroid belt, a xenos civilization that arose here is likely to have exploited many planets worth of resources due to the close distance and short travel time between worlds.
This system orbits about ten Terran orbits from a white dwarf star. The resultant binary then orbits at around a hundred Terran orbits away from a triple star system consisting of a white star and a binary (see above)

An ancient white dwarf of about 0.7 solar masses; a dead star by all means, its numerous worlds and asteroids are frozen to the core. Its closest companion is a red dwarf (see above).

[Devastator]

"This may not have been what we were looking for, but these still seem like promising locations to chart.  Shall we get started?"

Sub moves to work the auspexes, beginning in an attempt to gather data about local transmissions.  Are there any lightspeed transmissions similar to the ones being monitored by the research station?

[Tiruin]

Amara called on one of her housemates to continue piloting, now that the worst was over, and exited the navigator's sanctum for the bridge of the ship while donning her hood, alongside other outer 'vestments' to cover most parts the 'non-mutant' crew would be uneasy around.

Entering the bridge with an unconscious clank of her staff on the flooring, she approached the Rogue Trader to deliver what exactly she saw (sans any personal details).

"This is unlike anything I've seen before, other than the storm surrounding this place. Imagine an atoll, lagoon, or bay, but very enclosed; I could not get us any further lest we strain the gellar fields. Those five suns are also what I've seen," Amara said, after delivering her report.
"If anything is needed, I will be trying to chart the area with the auspex scans and otherwise."

Trade (Astrographer) tests, go?

[Stirk]

Tristan nods as he ponders the results, hands steepled in front of him. He had switched to his circlet and fine furs for the new world-an outfit that denotes power to even the basest of cultures. While his armor may be more practical for any hostile landing, it may be necessary to make a more peaceable first contact first. Besides, its much simpler to change into his war suit than it is to change into this outfit.

"So that is what the signals represent....Truly an exotic locus. Our rations should hold out for a realspace trip. Let us send a report back to our friends at the station, I did promise after-all. Perhaps our passage cleaved an opening for our message to creep through." He looked at his advisors, making eye contact where possible. "So what do you all suggest?"

[Devastator]

"No suggestions, sir, at least not yet.  We came out in a good location to get a sniff of the place and see if anyone's moving about.. if it's been 200 years since anyone has been here, the state of affairs should last another week.  But whatever the local situation is, things look promising, be it opening a lost human colony to trade, exploiting some empty mining worlds, opening a planet to colonization, or even sniffing about some local xenos there should be some money to be made here."

[Caellath]

"Active augury, move towards the closest planet, repeat the dose when on orbit." Tork calmly replied. Of course the best course of action in his opinion was scanning the area for any sign of danger before making a beeline for the first planet in their reach. It was simple and worked.

[GiglameshDespair]

"+If what we see is true and this area is located within one gigantic construct... we must investigate and learn its secrets. Who constructed such a thing? Their capabilities are far beyond the Imperium at present. Recovering any hints as to his technology should be our priority.+"

[Aseaheru]

 From one of the secondary augur stations Eggbert manages to regain control of their body enough to speak.
"For anybeing to be able to shift, or even to create a star, let alone five, and then to enclose them... I have heard tales of stars with rings or nets placed close in around them, but this is... _{by the Emperor's light...} This is another level again..."

 "I rather hope that no one associated with whoever or whatever created this takes issue with our presence. In all likleyhood, their response to us would probably equate to using atomics on an ant if even the slightest remnants of the power used to create this still is around."

[Stirk]

"+If what we see is true and this area is located within one gigantic construct... we must investigate and learn its secrets. Who constructed such a thing? Their capabilities are far beyond the Imperium at present. Recovering any hints as to his technology should be our priority.+"

"It should be simple enough to determine if the enclosure has been touched by the hand of man, some foul xenos, or if it a fantastic fluke of nature. Those on the station suggested that the bubble was blocking any psychic communications from inside, now that we are within the object ourselves that should no longer be the case. If they are correct and lost human civilizations continue to use astropath analogs without their connection to the God Emperor, then we should pick up signals if the locals are human. Finding nothing would not rule out that possibility, of course."

From one of the secondary augur stations Eggbert manages to regain control of their body enough to speak.
"For anybeing to be able to shift, or even to create a star, let alone five, and then to enclose them... I have heard tales of stars with rings or nets placed close in around them, but this is... _{by the Emperor's light...} This is another level again..."

 "I rather hope that no one associated with whoever or whatever created this takes issue with our presence. In all likleyhood, their response to us would probably equate to using atomics on an ant if even the slightest remnants of the power used to create this still is around."

"We could always retreat, should the threat prove greater than the reward. Even if they prove to be powerful, their domain is limited and a simple warp jump will free us form their grasp."