LogYuriRT1-2011/04/14-Jason-1

Game log for the 2011/04/14 session of Rogue Trader: After the Gold Rush, as taken by Jason

A quick backtrack: back at Port Wander, while Solo Drakban is fitting out, Bors Tovon comes to Marneus Machariel and explains that he needs leave right away, and isn't sure when he can return. Marneus encourages him to return someday, to which Bors agrees. There's just some trouble on his home planet that needs to be cleaned up. Well, we were recruiting anyway.

Our new Inquisitor inserts himself into the recruiting process, endeavoring to keep the corruption on the ship down to a managable level.

Marneus discovers that he father has sent help. Among other Machariel personnel comes some tall, blond, fancy-looking dude. He identifies himself as Roe Van der Weyden and explains that Property "Npcref" (as page type) with input value "YuriRT1/Talfore</br>Machariel" contains invalid characters or is incomplete and therefore can cause unexpected results during a query or annotation process.Talfore Machariel sent him. Marneus, grown somewhat suspicious, goes to look for the data packet confirming the provenance of this recruit. He finds such but also reads that Roe has killed an awful lot of people, and has demonstrated skill with both blade and gun. Marneus shows the file to Livienne and asks her to bug the newcomer's room. Talfore's message also indicates that the old man's health is getting worse.

Opiter Castus corners Livienne and discusses the possibility of using servitors instead of crew. Intriguing! The savings in good costs alone have the Seneschal's balances tingling. She ponders inviting the Mechanicus aboard in an attempt to sway them with our hospitality, but the Mechanicus have a reputation for not caring, and our ship has so recently been... under some stress... that perhaps it would be best to transact business elsewhere.

They fly to the Forge and meet with Property "Npcref" (as page type) with input value "YuriRT1/Magos Septimus</br>Pollux" contains invalid characters or is incomplete and therefore can cause unexpected results during a query or annotation process.Magos Septimus Pollux. Opiter quickly explains our needs to the Magos, who responds that he's open to the idea, but they do not have sufficient quantity on hand to meet our need. They have about 3,000 now, where we need 10,000. They also decline to be hurried on the subject. The Magos then cuts the meeting short and hovers off. On the way back, Marneus buys a utility shuttle. Opiter, not to be outdone, buys himself a powerfist.

Anyway, back in the present, we once again arrive at Machariel Station, notice a bunch of Ork wreckage including a cruiser hulk, and that the station has her guns run out. It has many guns. Many, many guns. They hail us, we answer, and Captain Teodor Ziel, formerly of STV Mendicant explains that his old ship is a mess that will take a month to get operational, the other ships are in disrepair, and the station has some damage. We repair aboard the station and see that the Machariel crews have done a lot of work. Poor Zeal has been seriously burned and now looks even more alarming than he did before. The Orks showed up a couple weeks ago and none escaped, but now the station is out of ammo.

Marneus asks Jotham to show Roe and the new Inquisitor around the station. Solid. Jotham likes Inquisitors! We meet a nice petty officer who gives Jotham a map of the station, which makes the tour go rather smoother. The PO's data dump reveals that the station has a previously-unknown launch bay. Ooooh. Fancy! Roe worsens the mood by asking the Inquisitor, straight out, why he's there. Unruffled, Inquisitor Drax explains that he's present to observe and advise.

Opiter busies himself unloading servitors. Magos Yorke, leader of the contingent from MMV Foresight, explains about how what had been a relic is now a fully and operational battlestation, plus or minus a few cubic kilometers of ammunition.

Marneus meets with the other captains and sees that they're all pretty banged up. There were Ork boarding actions and other forms of mayhem. Ziel has set up operations around a large holotable. He shows what happened, and reveals that the Orks came out of the Warp right onto the station. How'd they know right where it was? Anyway, the fighting went on for two days, but the human forces eventually prevailed. Ziel sent men to board the hulk of the Ork cruiser and salvaged pieces of the Ork Boss's log. One of the surviving men could sort of read Ork (I sense heresy) and discovered that some human sent them here and told them they could loot the station if they kicked the Machariels out. The culprit had to be someone who knew where the station is, and we agree that the Mechanicus had no reason to do it, the Space Marines wouldn't have done it, we know we didn't do it... so maybe Lyssa Machariel, Marneus' sister?

Anyway, clearly we need to move the station before the Orks return, but we also need to keep an eye on the planet. That puts us in a tough spot. Marneus orders the station moved within the system and mines placed within the existing debris cloud. He also orders the ammunition that Drakban brought over distributed amongst the fleet. The station turns out to be armed with missile batteries and mega-melters, which means we can't rearm it. The camoflaged battery worked against us this time.

Ziel reports that the Augur captured several anomalous readings around the planet, which sound like recurrences of the ghost ship we previously encountered. He sounds oddly reassured when Marneus tells him it's just a ghost. Marneus them promotes/reassigns Ziel to command of the station and allows him to promote one of his former officers to command of Mendicant.

The Inquisitor asks whether we might have picked up some sort of Chaos device or token in realspace. Jotham tells him we've seen many signs of Orks and also some Traitor Legion armor on the planet. Oooooh, the mention of the Chaos Marines has Drax positively salivating.

Lucius Holt uses his brain powers to survey the station. He finds some sort of non-human psyker power around the center and gets permission from the Captain to grab a mess o' armsmen and investigate. He closes in, moving laterally to try to fix it, and fixes its exact location and a general sense that it's not human and not actively using psyker powers. Lucius tells the Sergeant of the Armsmen where they're going, and the Sergeant comes up with a plan for approaching it. Unfortunately, when they ask Lucius to point it out on the station map, he points to... the reactor core. They move toward it and begin to see graffiti on the walls. Then they find a nest. It's not clear what sort of nest, but it sure does look like a nest, made out of random crap you find on a station. It's large, like something bigger than man-size is hanging out there. There are also metal chunks that look like ship hull plating, and beneath that, a rolled up burlap something. Lucius orders one of the Armsmen to open up the roll, and it's full of oversize tools that look like they were made by a four year old. One of the squad leaders uses his microbead to summon Lucius over, and explains that there may be a situation. Lucius decides that now would be a good time to report this to command, who escalates it up to Ziel, who summons Marneus, who sends reinforcements.

The reinforcements go past Jotham, Drax, and Roe, who decide to try to get in on this. Jotham immediately joins up with the troops, while Drax uses psynicience to find out what the thing is. It's not human!

Lucius and co hear banging noises, then swearing sounds in some filthy heretical xeno tongue. Eventually they see that it's a really big Ork in a work coverall, wielding a massive spanner-tech axe-thing, poking around in a disturbingly Orky way. As the troops try to sneak up on it, it spots them, and all hell errupts. The troops cut loose with their auto shotguns and fill the compartment with lead, but can't hit the Ork, which flees. From some compartment deeper in the reactor core, they hear it bellow, "It wadn't me! I didn't do it!" Lucius orders his men to close in. The Ork asks for parley in Low Gothic, then tries to wave a white flag to surrender. It keeps asking to speak to the Captain. Lucius prefers not to waver in his pursuit of the Xenos. Then the Ork threatens him with a Big Red Button, which, when uttered by a Mekboy in a reactor core, has a certain sense of finality to it. Then he starts talking through the station PA. Lucius, disgusted, uses a Psychic Scream to stun the Mekboy so the armsmen can close in again. There's a loud "beep" and then the armsmen close in, delivering massive shotgun execution. Turns out the Big Red Button was not, in fact, the station self-destruct. The Inquisitor arrives and uses Psychometry to discover that the "Off" button was supposed to disable everything on the station and open all the doors, including venting the place to vacuum. He was part of the boarding party, got lost, and followed his instincts. He had been the head Mekboy for the cruiser, and was with the boss when the boss took the contract for the raid. He took that contract from a fancy lady. Lucius then summons Opiter to investigate this technomological mayhem. Opiter immediately asks about possible Orky traps, and is not pleased to hear that not only was there one, and not only did the Ork already try to use it, but the Inquisitor already has it. Oh well, time for the Mechanicus to take over.

Meanwhile, up in station traffic control, a ship just dropped out of warp on the other side of the system. She's actively searching for something. Marneus sends Drakban and STV Calamity to investigate. Marneus orders the fleet to battlestations, but orders no active augury. Our pickets get out there in a big hurry, and as they close in, they discover that it's AAV Stalwart, a humble little Space Marine Strike Cruiser, looking for Marneus Machariel - and that AAV stands for Adeptus Astartes Vessel, like in Space Marines. Acting Captain Anastasia Xanatov offers them all possible cooperation. The Space Marine Captain actually smiles. He seems happy to see her. This does not match up with our expectations of Space Marine behavior. He introduces himself as Property "Npcref" (as page type) with input value "YuriRT1/Brother-Captain</br>Bartel" contains invalid characters or is incomplete and therefore can cause unexpected results during a query or annotation process.Brother-Captain Bartel of the Imperial Fists. Turns out that Bartel likes to meet new people and converse socially. Most humans find this both awesome and disturbing.

Inquisitor Drax hands Marneus the Big Red Button. He also reports the results of the Psychometry. Marneus ain't no chump- he recognizes the lady as his sister's Seneschal. He tries to feign ignorance of her identity, but the Inquisitor realizes he's not being truthful.

Since the incoming ship is friendly, the station stands down. Ziel effects disbelief when he hears the news, then informs Marneus that the Imperial Fists would like to talk to him. When Calamity gets close enough, they politely request permission to dock, instead of demanding. This Bartel guy kind of wigs everyone out with his politeness and respect for us lowly humans. Pretty much everyone of rank joins the welcoming party. Bartel boards in uniform, not armor, with an escort of a half-dozen Marine Scouts, a fully armored Librarian named Alexander, and Brother Lysander, our favorite Dreadnought. Marneus asks how we can assist the Iron Fists, and Bartel says "that's not the right question to ask." Unsurprisingly, the rest of the Imperial Fists seem a lot less social than Bartel. The Brother-Captain asks to speak with Marneus in private, although he clarifies that Marneus' officers are welcome as well. Marneus leads us all in, but when I say "all", I mean not Roe. Marneus comes right out and tells Roe he doesn't trust him. Whuff! Roe doesn't feel the love, but accepts the Lord Captain's decision with good graces.

Once we're all in private, Bartel tells us that the Imperial Fists consider Marneus to have returned Lysander from death, and they want to know how they can be of service to us.