[RT] The Silent Architect (IC)

[A.T.]

Malvolio:

 

The astropath looked across to the Chyldes own complement of light fighters, forced to launch at a slow and deliberate pace due to the limited configuration of the ships hangars. No doubt they could intercept a boarding craft but they were an escort screen, poorly suited to engaging one star vessel let alone three.

 

"Can we fire torpedoes?"

 

If the ship could not manoeuver then they would have to find a way to turn any enemy into their guns, buy time for repairs.

[Mazer Rackham]

Malvolio:

 

'Miss Sola commanded all weapons to readiness, our tubes are full,' the ordnance crewman replied. He fired a glance at the Gunnery Mistress herself, showing where his deference lay.

[Trokair]

Sola

 

“Hold for now.” Anastasia kept her tone low and calm. A panicked officer will panic the crew.

 

Glancing at the augury display again and the plotted trajectories she considered the space between them and the opposition.

 

“Helm, are the manoeuvring thrusters currently functional?”

 

With the main engine out they might have to rely on the tinniest deflection in course that the thrusters could give, perhaps enough to avoid the first torpedo salvo or macro cannon broadside.

 

‘Come on’ she whispered under her breath, without power everything was so limited. Waiting on the enemy was one thing, but waiting on your own ship quite another.

[Mazer Rackham]

Sola:

 

A voice comes across the deck. 'Aye Miss, repair crew report Starboard manoeuvring available.'

 

A chirp announces a comm-hail. The tone is for incoming external. The chirp continues to repeat,.

 

A Comms officer dials in, reports in hushed tones. 'It's a broadcast signal. No specific receiving terminus. The frequency is Imperial, but the carrier is not.'

 

[A.T.]

Malvolio:

 

A single direction, enough for their purposes. Malvolio moved to the auger displays seeking portents amongst the static as the vessels closed in yet unidentified.

[Mazer Rackham]

The Bridge:

 

A scanning pulse strikes the bridge, and the lights flicker. Whatever thumped home has lots of power. The comms channel blares.

 

+I know you're there. Even now, our seeker-spirits scour the black to find you.+

 

It is a female tone, but that is only just discernible. It is playful, yet cold, haughty yet with an odd, unusual inflection on the Low Gothic. It rings about with a mellifluous harmonic. You can tell it is not going through a translator.

 

On the tactical screen the three scattered silhouettes resolve into Aeldari shapes. One Eclipse Class Cruiser, two Hellebore Frigates. Darkstar fighters slash around the immediate zone.

 

The Aeldari woman returns, alien-bejewelled human tongue filling the bridge. 'I am Elaithnil Nightstar, mistress of the SleáD'hubh and Corsair-Queen of the Abyssal. Destiny has determined our meeting. Fate calls and binds us, upon Demeter VII.'

 

They coast into firing range.

 

'Well? Would you keep me waiting?' she says, barb ripe with relish.

[Lysimachus]

Reynard:

 

Reynard had been sitting quietly on one of the crash couches on the bridge. There wasn't a lot he could add while the crew attempted to repair the damage to the Chylde, so he'd been keeping his mouth shut.

 

However, even though there was a great deal he didn't know, some things were pretty obvious. Space was big.

 

“It's a damn huge coincidence that we get dumped out of the warp right in the path of someone who's looking for us.”

 

The odds against it happening by chance were - literally - astronomical.

 

How did these Aeldari know they would be here? The murder servitor that had caused their early translation had been a malfunction - hadn't it? Could the xenos have arranged it? Or had their seers simply foreseen that it would happen?

 

Of course, all of that assumed that the raiders actually did know where they were. Maybe this ‘Elaithnil’ was just fishing?

 

“I'd say stay silent for now,” he offered thoughtfully. “The longer we have to get your systems up and running, the better position we'll be in.”

 

 

[Mazer Rackham]

LOCSIT: Eisenrung Orbital Docks and Control Facility (AKA The Ring)

Affiliation: Neutral

Control: Imperial Navy (Disputed by the Tau)

Anchor World: Demeter VII

 

The Chylde manages to limp into dock under it's own power, the Aeldari having fallen well behind as per the agreement struck between the Corsairs and the Seneschal. It will take time and funds to repair the damage, but upon this planet, the Inquisition have decided is the first step into recovering the Silent Architect.

 

GM OOC: Players are free to narratively concoct their arrival or interactions as they please. Petrus Kovac will have had many secret meetings with the Seneschal and Captain, and departs to his own fate. Other characters can say farewell as they wish. Once completed, Petrus vanishes.

[Trokair]

Sola

 

Pirates and Xenos, a bad combination.

 

However it was still more then they had know just moments before, and the ships being of the Eldar explained a few things. Their sensors might not have been as damaged by the emergency transition as the patchy readings would suggest. Eldar vessels where known to have arcane distortion systems and you had to be stupidly close in navel terms to be sure that the Xenos ships were where they appeared to be.

 

Likewise the apparent sudden shift in vectors now made more sense. Solar Sails one Captain had called them during her Navy year. Given how far they were from the nearest star perhaps the name was not particular apt, but it would do to explain how Eldar vessels could manoeuvre in ways that defined conventional voidship logic.

Edited June 13 by Trokair

[Lysimachus]

Reynard:

 

Reynard was happy to be back within the bounds of a solar system, rather than travelling the deep void, even if the stay was only temporary.

 

Demeter VII wasn't much as worlds went, but the massive Eisenrung orbital ring was big enough that its environs felt in many ways akin to the Hives that he was most familiar with. A home to many hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, from every possible social standing and walk of life. Though it was not laid out like a Hive, there was still a Spire, and a Sump, and everything in-between.

 

While the Chylde was repaired and they searched for any sign of the mysterious Silent Architect, Reynard was determined to also seek more information about Androcles and De Grassi. He hadn't heard anything from Cheeky, or his young librarian friend Cassie yet.

 

Useless, the pair of them.

 

The old man had got them all out of trouble with the xenos, though. Reynard still wasn't sure how he'd managed that, but if he could make a deal that the devilbreed raiders would actually abide by, he was an even better negotiator than Reynard had thought.

 

 

 

Edited June 10 by Lysimachus

[A.T.]

Malvolio:

 

Accursed xenos, vile leeches that skulk and steal from their betters. No doubt seeking a less well armed vessel they were fortunate that the trials of the warp were such that they could not be met with the fire they deserved.

 

But other matters were more pressing and the captain yet indisposed to say otherwise.

[Mazer Rackham]

++ THE SILENT ARCHITECT ++

 

END OF PART I