DrVesuvius said:

Or more likely kill so he can keep control of the Dynasty...

LOL nice quick fix! It was bound to come anyway we could feel the lack of RT! ;)

Cheers looking forward for more.

p.s. I believe the RT class is cursed me too have issue having him over for the games.There may be an accident soon!

I pulled the excepts from this thread and slapped them into a Word file for a player in my campaign who has taken on the role of an Explorator, but is new to the setting and doesn't quite get the mindset of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

Having followed this thread since about the third update, I had no idea it's grown to 69 (Word) pages of juicy goodness. :)

Im sure Kilgrim will hand it all back, its not like dwar... er squats are greedy

Good luck with the killing of your RT crisaron.

Timberboar, the write up has turned into bit of a monster but as LordSpatula does a great job of writing it up I even find myself re-reading some of the episodes. Im also lucky that both DrVesuvius and LordSpatula are roleplaying their characters very well, DrVesuvius has limited knowledge of GW background and fluff while LordSpatula is roleplaying a different mindset.

Its also with regret that I have to inform everyone that we wont have a write up this week as we had to cancel the game but dont worry I will hopefully get to torment the players next week

 Oi!  I resemble that remark!  That's Abhumanist, that is!

Actually if you asked Kilgrim right now what he would do if a true heir showed up, he'd quite honestly and sincerely say he'd hand over the House and happily return to the role of loyal House Warmaster.  A few years down the line, however, I imagine he might find himself making excuses and rationalisations and finding reasons not to, since the thirst for power is kinda insidious that way.

Like Marvin says, I'm not really much of a 40K fan, but I'm seeing our RT game as "Frank Herbert's Dune - as directed by Quentin Tarantino" and playing accordingly.  It's certainly a heckuva lot of fun playing someone who operates on a spectrum between "morally grey" and "stone killer" instead of the usual heroic type.

Lord Spatula, on the other hand, has a much better grasp of the setting and has absolutely nailed the voice of Nikandar Hak in the write-ups.

And of course, it's Marvin's universe that we're playing in.  He's even overlooking my heresy of playing a [***REFERENCE TO A NON-EXISTENT ABHUMAN SUBSPECIES CENSORED BY THE INQUISITION***].

Here's to the next 69 pages of grimdark goodness. 

Once the story arc's finished I plan on putting all the write-ups together into a .pdf file to bring it all together, and add some images, character profiles etc, and make it all look pretty...

++ Excerpt taken from the personal record of Enginseer Prime Nicander Hak ++

++ LOCATION: THE FURNACE OF REDEMPTION, TRANSITION FROM SAPHIRUS SYSTEM, WINTERSCALES REALM ++

We rendezvoused with Captain Perez and The Revenge on the edge of the Saphirus System and made the final preparations for the transition to the warp. The plan was to keep our asteroid suspended between the Furnace of Redemption, and The Revenge, attached by huge chains which we had brought with us for this very purpose. Mindful of the potential for unwelcome attention during the passage through the empyrean, I made some plans, and then oversaw the work to extend the Gellar Field envelopes of both ships to cover our prize rock; as our new Rogue Trader Regent so colourfully phrased it; "We don't want to arrive in Footfall to find we have to fight to clear our new base of warp spawned filth!"

Tech-Priest Calldia, as ever, was vocal with his opinions of my plan and preparations. Although he found much that he felt could be done better, he could not actually suggest any way to improve what we were doing, so we settled with the original plan, and I "let" him check my calculations. Which, by the way, were correct. Yes, Calldia, I know it is far better to be safe than sorry. And yes I do appreciate your help. Oh, do stop sulking; it's unbecoming for one of your intellect!

Based on what happened during the journey through the Warp, I think I must investigate whether Rogue Trader Kilgrim Hartek-Dureen is in possession of some form of witch-sight, or is just suitably paranoid as befitting his new role...

Once the preparations were complete, and the initial transition made, Hartek called me to the Command meeting room, and we began to discuss the transition of power of the Dynasty to his command. He came up with a two-tiered strategy; firstly to let it be known that Rogue Trader Dureen had disappeared, although the circumstances of the disappearance were unclear. Secondly, we would let a few key individuals know, via rumour and scuttlebutt, that Hartek had visited Dureen's quarters and witnessed his passing to a higher plain, in a bright glow of light, with his last words bearing a cryptic message stating "Take care of my people, cousin!" This statement it would be explained, had confused Hartek, until I had produced the genetic evidence proving the familial link between himself and Dureen.

I suggested that Kilgrim take the Ship's Confessor, Archbishop Nathaniel Shepherd, into his confidence, explaining the circumstances of Dureen's death in full detail, and make the case that we need to ensure the survival of the fledgling Dynasty and as we have a crucial, Holy task to aid the Calixis sector; effectively we do the work of the Emperor and cannot risk failure because of the degenerate behaviour of a single individual. Hartek nodded, and broke into a smile when I suggested that he broach this as part of his regular spiritual confession to the Archbishop, so he could couch the plan in terms of asking for advice on the situation, to protect the mission, and the spiritual wellbeing of the servants of the Dynasty. He stood, and headed for the Chapel.

Hartek recalled me a short time later, and told me that although the Archbishop was initially a little uncomfortable with the spiritual aspects of the story and would prefer that that section be rethought; he had not particularly liked Dureen, and he felt that we were acting in the greater good, and was pragmatic enough to accept the plan for what it was. Hartek nodded, and promised to rethink the sections that Archbishop Shepherd did not like, and would check with him prior to releasing any story.

We spent a little more time tweaking the tale, until I suggested that rather than transitioning to a higher plane, a more mundane explanation could be that Dureen had had an epiphany during his time in the Expanse, and had seen the error of the decadence of his previous life, and, with a new purpose and purity of mind had headed into the Expanse to spread the word of the Emperor to the heathens there, leaving his cryptic message to Hartek on a dataslate within his quarters. Both Hartek and Archbishop Shepherd accepted this as a valid compromise, and the matter was settled.

Hartek then spoke to the Chief Bosun, Johannes Vitteberg, and the Ship's Master at Arms Mikhael Petrov, explaining that the Rogue Trader was missing, and unlikely to return, and that he would be taking control of the Dynasty. Vitteberg, a man who had previously suggested to Hartek that he felt that the Warmaster was a far better candidate for command of the Dynasty, had no problems with the proposed transition of power, whilst Petrov was taciturn, but accepted that the change was necessary, as Dureen had effectively abdicated his responsibilities months earlier.

Satisfied, Hartek announced to the crew that Rogue Trader Dureen was missing, and after the hours of agonising over the decision, was somewhat surprised by the lack of response. It seemed that the crew were of the same opinion of the Master at Arms, and had more contact with Hartek than they had ever had with Dureen, and anyway, it did not really matter greatly who was in charge, their jobs remained the same.

A few days later, a second announcement was made, outlining my research, and that Hartek was a distant relation of Dureen, so until further notice Hartek would be reluctantly taking the role of "Rogue Trader Regent", and command of the Dynasty - at least until a more suitable heir could be located. This announcement was met with some celebration, although that may have been more to do with the fact that I authorised the doubling of the daily disbursement of the shipboard grog-ration from the ration servitors...

Throughout the journey I suffered from vivid nightmares, most of which were related to the battle with the corrupted inhabitants of Saphirus 1-1S2M3, and I was assailed with memories that I could not place, that I could not clarify, yet I found disturbing. I was not the only one affected strangely on this journey, and it was noticeable that Rogue Trader Regent Hartek was rarely seen without a piece of the strange fruit that bore his name, that we had discovered on Dropas.

A day after the confirmation of Hartek as Rogue Trader Regent, he was presented with his first challenge of command; and emergency message reached the bridge from The Revenge. At the same time, from my position monitoring the ships systems, I noticed a surge in power draw from the Gellar Field.

Hartek ordered the message to be transferred to the main holo-screen, which was filled with the image of a worried looking Captain Perez.

"Captain Perez!" Hartek greeted him

Dispensing with any preamble, Perez replied; "We have a situation over here. I have just been informed by my Enginseer that the Gellar Field is strained, as is on the point of failure. I have had reports of intrusions on half a dozen decks, sir!"

Suddenly, the lights on The Revenge flickered out, and a warning siren sounded.

A new, panicky voice came over the channel out of the darkness; "Captain Perez Sir! The Enginseer says he can cover certain areas of the ship, but the Gellar Field is being strained Sir!" Emergency lights flickered on, bathing the bridge of The Revenge in a red glow.

"Tell the Enginseer to do what he can, but he must keep the field up!" snapped Perez, tersely.

The panicky voice responded, "Sir, he says that certain sections of the generator have blown, and until he repairs them, he won't be able to get the field fully back!"

Suddenly there was a cry of "Watch out Sir!", and in the background we could see a deranged crewman launch himself at Perez, who casually spitted his attacker on a rapidly drawn sword, however, in the struggle, the transmission from The Revenge was cut.

I turned back to the readings I was getting from the ships instruments, and could see that although the Gellar Field of The Revenge was still functioning it was wildly fluctuating, and the power spike we had suffered was our field compensating for the weakening of The Revenge's field around the asteroid. I reported this to Hartek who ordered that the chains be shortened between us, the asteroid, and The Revenge so that there was less strain on both fields. Although this was a risky manoeuvre, the crew performed it flawlessly, and the strain eased slightly, however, there were still problems on The Revenge.

Hartek was about to call for troops to ship over to The Revenge from our barracks, when I reminded him that they too would be vulnerable to the vagaries of the fluctuating Gellar Field, and we really did not want heavily armed combat troops falling under the sway of the powers of the warp.

He grunted, and then spoke; "I am going to speak to the Iron Men..."

I nodded. "I must attempt to do what I can remotely to rectify the problems on The Revenge, and I need to ensure our field stays strong, but I will monitor the conversation. Keep a vox link active..."

He nodded, and headed to the accommodation of the Iron Men.

On arrival Hartek pressed the vox-stud and announced "I seek an audience with Iron Man XX1V1", and settled back to wait.

A few minutes later the door to the chamber slid open, and an Iron Man stood there. Hartek reactivated my translation servitor, and repeated his request.

"I am Iron Man XX1V1" replied the Iron Man.

Deciding to get straight to the point Hartek nodded, and then spoke again; "I have come to ask for your help. Your directive is to deal with the xenos threat, confirm?"

"Confirmed."

Hartek continued, "How do you feel about warp entities?"

Iron Man XX1V1 paused for a second, before replying, "We do not have enough data to come to a conclusion with regard to these warp entities. We are aware of the threat, but have no specific details."

"We are currently transiting the warp, and our sister ship is being assailed by entities from the warp." Hartek paused, but there was no response. "We're in great danger. If we lose our sister ship, as well as the loss of life on that vessel, this ship could suffer heavy damage, perhaps even be destroyed too. If that were the case, your people would also be destroyed, therefore it may be in your best interest to aid us."

Iron Man XX1V1 did not respond, although it did appear that he was communicating with his brethren.

Hartek continued; "Humans are vulnerable to the mind altering effects of the Warp, and the entities that reside there. Your people are not."

XX1V1 appeared to consider Hartek's words, and there appeared to be some debate going on between the Iron Men.

Several minutes passed, so Hartek spoke up; "Do you require any further information to aid you in your decision making?"

"Affirmative." Responded the Iron Man.

Hartek nodded. "The human crew of our sister ship, The Revenge, are suffering and dying at the moment. I as the Warmaster, and now Regent of this Dynasty, cannot in good conscious let this continue. If you are unable to help us I will lead a human force onto the other vessel, and many will die. Many more will suffer as a result of the warp entities, but I will lead the force anyway to protect both our peoples. Whatever you decide, I will respect your decision as free thinking entities, but I need an answer soon."

The debate rolled on for another ten minutes, and then Iron Man XX1V1 spoke to Hartek; "We will assist you, but, we expect something in return."

"Name your terms!" Hartek grunted, with a wry smile.

"We ask for less restricted access to the vessel. We are confined to this small area. It stifles us. We wish to experience full life on this vessel."

I spoke over the vox to Hartek; "I do not believe that this is a bad thing Kilgrim, however, perhaps we should specify that there are certain areas that the human crew do not have full access to either, and that they need to respect what privacy is available to the crew. Perhaps we should offer them the same access as human crew, as long as they are careful in the numbers that they travel in; we do not wish to impact on the efficient functioning of the vessel?"

Hartek, grunted, and made an offer to Iron Man XX1V1. "Will you agree to abide to the same sort of restrictions that the human crew on board the ship accept? Freedom to move around, but with certain limitations?"

Very quickly Iron Man XX1V1 responded; "Affirmative"

"Very well then. It is agreed!" Hartek nodded. "I would be honoured if you, or one of your people, would accompany me to gain an overview of what we do here."

"Affirmative."

Again, Hartek nodded. "In that case, estimate the force you require, and ready your people for transfer to The Revenge please. You have the layout of this ship from the records?"

"Affirmative. However I am unable to estimate the force required as we do not have enough information regarding the enemy."

Hartek paused. "In that case I suggest the largest force you feel comfortable with."

XX1V1 responded immediately; "Ninety."

"Good. We will transfer from Small Craft Bay 17 forthwith."

I was left wondering what the remaining nine Iron Men would be doing while remaining onboard the Furnace of Redemption, but quickly finished making the last adjustments to the Gellar Field, handing over to the senior Tech-Priests, before collecting my equipment and heading to the small craft bay to meet the Hartek, his aide Antonio Fenducci, and the Iron Men.

Hartek had formally handed command to the Officer of the Watch, currently Orbest Dray, with orders to maintain a high alert, and then we split the force over four gun-cutters. Although nervous about making the journey in an unshielded craft, with some skilful piloting we would remain within the extended Gellar Fields, projected to cover the asteroid under tow, so we should be able to transit without problem. Fortunately the pilots were able to meet the challenge and this proved to be the case, and we successfully docked in one of The Revenge's small craft bays still protected by her Gellar Field.

Hartek requested that Iron Man XX1V1 leave the bulk of his people defending the small craft bay, and to a number to come with us as we headed off towards the bridge. Our group consisted of Hartek, his aide, myself, Iron Man XX1V1, and an additional seven of his people. The journey of several hundred metres was surprisingly uneventful, despite the distant sound of the occasional gunshot, and bout of screaming.

As we advanced through the ship, Hartek called me forward to translate, and then turned to Iron Man XX1V1, "Iron Man XX1V1, it's difficult for humans to relate to a name like XX1V1. Would you object if we re-designated you to help with human interactions?"

Personally, I do not see what the problem with the name XX1V1 is, but I translated the message properly as requested. Surprisingly, XX1V1 responded "I would not object."

Hartek smiled. "In that case, for human interaction, I think the name Xerxes will work!"

XX1V1 or Xerxes as he is now to be known apparently, seemed unmoved, and I cannot say I blame him.

Tech-Priest Calldia was keeping a running commentary up throughout our journey, and although I was able to tune most of his drone out, he did make some salient points with regard to a number of technical issues which were raised as we advanced. It was because of this internalised debate that I missed much of what happened next, but have since gained a better understanding after reviewing recordings of the encounter.

Hartek had spotted a crouched figure, perhaps forty metres away, down the corridor leading to the final approaches to the bridge. The figure was crying softly, and seemed to be hugging itself, focussed intently on something that no-one else could see. As Hartek approached, he drew one of his bolt-pistols, but hid it behind his body, and was able to identify the person as a woman. Beyond her, there was a splash of sparks, as some of the wiring seemed to short out, and he reached out to draw her away from the danger, her head whipped round, and he saw that her eyes were completely white, and she was covered in dried blood and cuts. Most horrifying of all, her lips had been sewn shut with rough twine, and it looked as though this was self inflicted. The woman screamed, and launched herself at him, and shocked, Hartek scrambled backwards and quickly swung the bolt pistol round, squeezing off a round, which hit, but did not detonate as she was too close for it to arm properly. Even so, the woman was sent sprawling, giving Hartek time to gather himself properly, and prepare for her attack. She pulled a knife from the folds of her ruined clothes and slashed at Hartek, scoring his armour. Tiring of this, Hartek finished her with a burst from his bolt-pistol. Fenducci, Hartek's Aide, took this as a cue to vomit on his own boots.

"Xerxes" Hartek spoke up, indicating around him, "This is why we needed your help..."

"Affirmative" was the emotionless reply.

We continued towards the bridge, passing a number of crumpled bodies, and soon came to a set of heavy sealed doors. Hartek attempted to vox through to the bridge, but got nothing but static, although, judging by the look on his face, and from the tone of his quiet muttering, he was also hearing something else. I am becoming quite the expert at recognising voices in the head, and I feel sure that Hartek was hearing something more than the static he reported. Such are the perils of a warp incursion, and I made a mental note to keep an eye on my friend. He seemed to quickly gather himself, and called me forward to open the door.

I connected myself to the data-port and began to negotiate with the machine-spirits, much to the disgust of Calldia, who chided me for taking unnecessary risks. It is nice to know that he cares, although I suspect it is more to do with self preservation than anything else.

While I was working, a number of howls and screams came from down the corridor, and a severed head was hurled at the group, mercifully falling short, and while I was aware of the Iron Men powering their weapon systems, and the heat from their firing, I focussed on my task in hand. Less than half a standard minute later, I had bypassed the security protocols, and spoken the correct litanies to calm the machine spirits, and turned to notify Hartek, when I noticed the remains of two dozen people either burnt to a cinder, or explosively dismembered and scattered around the corridor. The Iron Men were clearly highly effective warriors.

As the door slid open, I heard a voice shouting "Prepare to fire!"

I flung myself to one side and tried to shout "Cease fire!", but my voice was lost in the noise of the gunfire. Rounds whipped past me, one clipping my arm, and another two hitting young Fenducci. A number of the other shots struck the Iron Men, and that was enough for them to classify the firers as hostile. Once again, their weapons activated, and in an impressive show of force, they surgically removed our attackers.

Hartek bellowed "Hold your fire!", and Captain Perez raising himself from behind the cover he had taken, managed to finally restrain his men, and the Iron Men realised there was no longer a threat. There were over a dozen dead and wounded people strewn across the bridge.

"Captain Perez! Permission to come aboard?" asked Hartek jovially, as he stepped over the threshold into the bridge, and attempted to cut through the tension with humour.

Despite himself, Perez grinned, "Permission granted, Sir!" He swept low, removing his hat, in a formal bow. "Apologies for the reception, but we didn't know you were coming to the party!"

"That's fine Captain." and then the Hartek indicated the rest of us; "I hope you don't mind, I brought some friends!"

Perez looked at the dead and wounded crew, and paused for a second, "No, no problem at all Sir!", and the proceeded to update us with regard to the situation.

Captain Perez had lost contact with his Enginseer in the Gellar Field sanctum, but had managed to move all the crew into protected areas, and detach Armsmen to protect them. We updated our tactical plans to reflect these safe areas, and Hartek turned to the Iron Men; "Anything within these safe areas we do not engage. Anything outside is a valid target."

"We only engaged the targets here because we took hostile fire" stated Xerxes

"That is perfectly logically and reasonable" I interjected.

Hartek agreed; "Obviously you have the right to defend yourselves Xerxes. This is forgotten..."

We arranged for the remaining Iron Men to patrol the ship, protecting as many of the safe areas as they could. Perez voxed the crew warning them to stay within the designated safe zones as anywhere else was classified as a free-fire zone.

I stepped forward, "I need to get to the Gellar Field sanctum and restore it properly. I will need an escort, and we need to get there quickly..."

Hartek and Perez nodded, and leaving Perez on the bridge to co-ordinate, Hartek, Fenducci, Xerxes, his seven Iron Men, and I, set off, at speed, towards our destination. As we approached the Gellar Field sanctum, I picked up a reading on my auspex indicating a single slow moving target, so sent one of my servo-skulls, Yorrick, to take a quick look round the corner. As he approached, there was a short in some of the ships wiring, and he was caught in the discharge and effectively shut down. Unfortunately this meant that I had to base the rest of the record of this day on after action reports, as my recording ended here.

Throwing caution to the wind, I ran down the corridor to retrieve my fallen friend, and picked up a very weak signal from Yorrick, warning me that the figure was heading towards him. I was not going to leave Yorrick to the mercies of the unknown, and redoubled my efforts to get there first, all the time hearing faint whispers at the edge of my consciousness.

I reached out and grabbed Yorrick, as the figure came round the corner, and threw myself backwards to keep clear as the gore covered humanoid reached out. I scrabbled backwards and unslung my hellgun, as Hartek stepped passed me, pistols drawn firing at the figure. There was a horrible click as one of the bolt-pistols jammed, and distracted by this, Hartek missed with his second pistol. As the figure reached out for Hartek I fired off a burst from my hellgun, catching it a number of times, blasting it from its feet. It lurched once more, and with a deep groan, it reached out a hand to Hartek, holding forward a necklace, and muttering "Why did they all have to die?" and then it too died.

"I don't think he was a mad one!" exclaimed Fenducci.

"Aye..." nodded Hartek sadly, "But he was in the free-fire zone, and we couldn't take the risk..."

I gestured to the Warmaster for him to pass me his jammed pistol, and speaking the proper litanies, and applying the sacred oils in the correct places, un-jammed it and freed the action, before handing it back, and we continued on to the Gellar Field sanctum. There were the bodies of Tech-Priests scattered around the fairly large room, and in the centre was the vital equipment, obviously suffering from power-fluctuation problems. I stepped forward, focussed on the device and trusting to the Iron Men to protect me when suddenly the vox sprang to life, and we could hear gunfire and screaming from one of the safe areas; "By the Throne! What is that? How can it exist? Emperor preserve us... Aaaaaarrrggghhh...!"

I spent a few minutes analysing the damage, when once again the vox sprang to life; "By all that Holy! Arrrggghhh! How can this be... Noooo!"

Another safe area was being attacked. Between them, Perez and Hartek worked out that the attacks were in a direct line towards the bridge.

"Xerxes, can you bring your people to intercept please?" Hartek asked.

Xerxes responded, "Affirmative. But we are the closest."

I looked up; "Leave me some protection, and go!"

Hartek nodded, and Xerxes detached two Iron Men to defend me, and then Hartek, Fenducci, Xerxes, and the remaining five Iron Men left the chamber at a run.

I had to rely on second hand reports and some static recordings from The Revenge to piece together the events of the next standard hour or so, as I was engrossed in repairing the damaged Gellar Field.

The team reached the corridor to the bridge unopposed, but as they rounded the corner to the bridge doors they saw a terrible sight; a creature born of inhuman horrors radiating hatred, and immense power. They could hear the screaming of souls as its burning gaze passed over them, and men around the creature killed themselves rather than stand to be in its presence. Its shape constantly changed, with pseudopods and limbs forming and dissipating at random. The Iron Men, unmoved, opened fire with their plasma weapons bathing the creature with energy. It appeared not to notice, and one of its pseudopods began to bubble and then split from the main entity, producing a smaller, shark-like creature with legs of a sort, which began to move towards Hartek. At this time, Hartek noticed that the metal in the room had begun to corrode, and the Iron Men were showing signs of damage too, and as he staggered back, he could see the metal bulkheads of the ship weeping blood.

The Iron Men fired another volley of plasma at the creature, again bathing it in fire, but again it seemed not to notice. Hartek stepped forward to intercept the smaller creature that had began to stalk the Iron Men, and un-sheathed his Squat axe, attacking aggressively. With inhuman speed, the creature evaded the blow, and lashed out with a knotted limb, punching through Hartek's armour as though it was not there, driving him to the floor, and leaving him on the edge of unconsciousness. Hartek told me later he could feel reality melting away at this point, and he knew that the creature was feeding off weakness between the empyrean and reality...

The large creature charged into the Iron Men driving one into the bulkhead, Hartek realised that it was Xerxes who had taken the hit, and he had been rendered instantly inoperative by it. The others responded by leaping at the creature, slashing at it with their taloned hands.

Throughout this time, I worked on the Geller Field generator, knowing that speed was the key but not knowing how desperate the situation on the bridge was getting. Fortunately, I had identified the problem; something was blocking the machine spirits of the genatorium from flowing properly, reducing the power to the Gellar Field, however, it was also clear that the machine spirits would require much help to clear the blockage so I released a burst of incense and began the correct litanies to aid them on their journey. Immediately I could feel the harmonics changing, as I eased the spirits on their way, but I knew that it would take some time.

Back on the bridge, the fight was getting desperate. The remaining Iron Men were tearing chunks of foul flesh from the large creature, which began to fade and shimmer, and Hartek could feel a psychic roar of anger and pain. Then the creature quickly stabilised itself and moved to strike back at the Iron Men. Hartek and Fenducci had their hands full the smaller creature, and were fighting defensively, and as a team. Fenducci managed to evade an attack, but Hartek was not so lucky, being pinned to the floor by spine driven through his shoulder. As the creature twisted away to strike again, it tore Hartek's arm off, and left him unconscious, on the edge of death. The larger creature swatted two more of the Iron Men to the floor, where they remained motionless, and their remaining brothers renewed their assault, when suddenly, the creature burst, and disappeared, leaving ichor stains on the deck. There was a smaller explosion as the smaller creature, which had turned its attention to Fenducci burst too.

The young man paused for a second before leaping forward to the aid of his Master and attempting to staunch the blood flow from the amputated arm. He did his job well, and as the Rogue Trader Regent began to regain consciousness, he saw a huge clawed hand begin to descent through the bridge. Each finger was the size of an Iron Man; however, it had not quite coalesced into real-space. Hartek could hear heavy metal-shod footsteps approaching; Iron Men reinforcements had begun to arrive in the corridor approaching the bridge.

I knew I was getting close to repairing the Gellar Field; the machine spirits had calmed themselves, and the genatorium had begun to slip back into a proper rhythm, when suddenly I felt the ship lurch, and additional alarms sounded. Afterwards, when I was able to compare chrono readings, it became clear that this coincided with the giant hand reaching into the bridge. I completed the last litany, and felt the power began to flow cleanly again, and the Geller Field sprang back to full power enveloping The Revenge, and I felt the ship settle back into its normal routine.

Hartek told me he knew the moment I succeeded, as he felt a deep thrum vibrate through the vessel, and suddenly the fingers were sliced from the giant hand falling to the deck and dissolving. Hartek, relieved, blacked out once more at this point.

I got onto the vox system; "All call-signs, the Gellar Field is back up and stable. Report in please."

I was swamped with information, and was pleased to hear Captain Perez come onto the net, and exert some control over his crew. They had suffered heavy losses with almost 5400 loyal souls lost, nearly 30% of the entire crew complement, but as Perez said, it could have been much worse. I requested that the Iron Men undertake a sweep of the vessel, to round up stragglers, and destroy any remaining threats, which they did without further loss. I arranged for Hartek to be delivered to the Medicae bay along with the other wounded, and began to do what I could to aid them.

++ End of record ++

With a little bit of expanded detail, you'd have a full-fledged novel on your hands here! I greatly approve! Thanks for taking the time to put it all in writing.

This is the second campaign log I've seen that mentions a giant demonic hand forming right as a gellar field kicks back on.

Is that from a published adventure, or is it just too cool of an idea not to use?

Made my day again!

All,

Sorry for the late reply, ive been away this weekend.

So...

FoxPhoenix135 I have thought that with a little extra work so of the games I have ran would make a damn fine novel

Timberboar I dont remeber seeing it in any published adventures and I just thought the idea was too cool not to use, I thought about a tentacle or something similar but then realised that its harder for the players to realise just how big the creature would be and hence, PANIC!!!!

crisaron its good to hear your still enjoying the write ups, FYI the next session will be the last one for approx 5 weeks due to winter sports and climbing going on with the players and gm. Depending on how quick LordSpatula writes up the session will depend when it gets posted. Hopefully I can get a cliff hanger or two out but you know how players will attempt to destroy and gm plan

MARVIN THE ARVN said:

 Hopefully I can get a cliff hanger or two out but you know how players will attempt to destroy and gm plan

Oh Marvin only says these things to make me cry. javascript:f_valida_respuesta();

Anyway, we played the "holiday season finale" this week and it was spectacular, wrapping up a couple of plot threads and laying the seeds for the next run.  Sadly LordSpatula hasn't managed to finish the write-up before Marvin left for his "falling-down-a-mountain-on-a-plank" holiday, so I'm afraid you Fantasy Flight-ers will have to wait a couple of weeks to read about it.

Hi all,

Sorry for the delay in the posting of our last session but its all here now in its full glory!!! Enjoy!!!

Note - We will not be playing another session until the start of the new year.

++ Excerpt taken from the personal record of Enginseer Prime Nicander Hak ++

++ LOCATION: THE FURNACE OF REDEMPTION, TRANSITION FROM SAPHIRUS SYSTEM, WINTERSCALES REALM ++

Once the crew of The Revenge, and the Iron Men had dealt with the remains of the incursion, I asked the Iron Men to return to the Furnace of Redemption taking their casualties with them. As they left I thanked them for their assistance, and promised that I would do my utmost to reactivate their fallen comrades, in the same way that we were attempting to "reactivate" the damaged humans, and then began to repair the systems that had been damaged during the battle.

Captain Perez had moved to the secondary bridge in the enginorium chamber, and so it was that I heard him begin to curse to himself, as I was completing the replacement of damaged power couplings.

"How dare they! The fools! The ungrateful curs! I'll have their hides for this!"

I snapped the last restraining bolt in place and looked up. "Is there a problem Captain?"

Obviously agitated, Perez nodded; "The ungrateful blackguards have decided that they don't want to work anymore. It's a damn mutiny!"

"Really? What do you propose to do about it?" I asked.

"Huuurrmppph..." he grunted. "A firm hand is needed! Give these people an inch, and they'll take a mile - and a nautical mile at that!"

"Where are the mutineers?" I asked.

"Well, you know those safe containment areas I went to the trouble of setting up for the crew? A few of those are refusing to return to their duty stations, damn their eyes!"

"Captain Perez, would you give me a few minutes to attempt to speak to them before acting?" I asked, "We have lost a lot of crew today, and if possible I would like to avoid the further wasting of resources... By all means, put your plans into action, but hold off until I've spoken to them..."

The good Captain looked dubious, and I can't really blame him, but credit to the man he agreed to let me try.

I opened a vox-link to the ringleaders of the mutiny, and asked to speak to their spokesman. One was quickly appointed, and a new, aggressive voice came onto the vox.

"This is Petty Officer Theon. What do you want?"

"That was what I was about to ask you!" I replied calmly.

"We've had enough I tell you!" he shouted.

I knew then as the man listed perceived slights and minor grudges that the negotiations wouldn't end well. I offered a number of incentives, and promises of bonuses, which Hartek and I had already agreed would be paid to the members of our Dynasty on our return to Footfall, and completion of our first great endeavour, as a thank-you for loyal service. However, he obviously was not really listening, and he continued to shout about minor problems, and then began to criticise the decisions of the Rogue Trader Regent, whipping those around him up into a storm of disloyalty. I cut the link.

"Captain Perez" I looked at him, and he nodded, "You were right. We will do it your way..."

Again, the Captain nodded and ordered his armsmen in. I noted that although he had every right to say that he told me so, he chose not to, and my respect for the man increased. He led the armsmen himself, seizing control of vital areas, and storming the containment areas, managing to quickly snatch the ringleaders, applying the letter of ship-law, and executing the traitors. I was able to prevail on him to leave the skulls of several of the mutineers intact, as I had plans to create a number of additional servo-skulls. Once again, Perez was happy to comply, and I thanked him for his understanding.

The crew were informed that the unrest had been dealt with, and they quickly made the sensible decision to return to their posts, to prevent any further loss of life. I made a mental note at this point, much to Calldia's amusement, that I should stop trying to be reasonable with people, as they really do not appreciate the effort... I really should stick to dealing with the machine spirits of the wonders of the Omnissiah, at least they are logical unlike the clearly deranged flesh-bags I'm forced to associate with.

I left Perez dealing with his recalcitrant crew and headed up to the bridge, and spent some time repairing as much of the battle damage as possible, allowing the Captain to return to his rightful place on The Revenge, realising that it would be far easier for him to command the ship from his primary bridge. He thanked me for my efforts, and I returned to the Furnace of Redemption.

On my return, I headed straight to the medicae bay, and began to look at the long term care of Hartek, and take measurements so I could start to construct a replacement cybernetic arm for him. It was fortunate that I was able to make a difference to his recovery, and promoted speedier healing. The most worrying aspect was that in his delirium, he kept crying out for more of his "special" fruit, which I took to mean the fruit named after him that we were transporting from Dropas. It appears that an addiction has well and truly taken hold.

As I was tending to Hartek, the proximity alarm sounded, and a ship-wide announcement to "Brace! Brace! Brace!" was made. I attempted to clamp myself to the deck with my utility mechadendrite, however, had not managed to anchor myself properly when the impact occurred, throwing me off my feet, and into the far bulkhead. Once I had cleared my head, I attempted to contact the bridge to enquire as to the nature of our latest emergency, but aside from making out the word "impact", was unable to decipher anything else through the static.

After thirty-seven seconds of shaking and shuddering, the ship finally calmed, and as I was about to vox the bridge once again, the device crackled to life, and I heard the voice of Mister Dray calling for me.

"Mister Dray. What has happened?" I replied.

"We have had an impact to the stern of the ship. The asteroid shifted in its tether, and we have reports of three decks open to the void."

I sighed. "Seal them, and I will see what I can do."

As it turned out, there was little I could do other than ensure that the bulkheads would hold, check on the tether holding the asteroid, and mutter a brief prayer of passing to the unfortunates who had been caught in the damaged sections.

Later in the day we actually received some good news! The Navigator informed me that we were in a position to back into real-space, so Mister Dray made the announcement, and we made the transition, appearing right on the cusp of the transfer point of the Footfall system. I congratulated the Navigator on a well judged jump, and headed back to the medicae bay to see if there was any more I could do for Hartek.

Fortunately there was, and shortly after the judicious application of various chem substances, he regained consciousness, and although slightly surprised by the fact he was missing an arm, he shortly afterwards returned to the bridge.

As an aside, I used this opportunity to test a theory. I had noticed that the chirurgeons and medicae staff tended to use exaggerated facial expressions to reassure those remanded to their care, and so in an attempt to duplicate this, and make myself seem more approachable and friendly, I had constructed a series of mesh grills that simply clipped to the front of my respirator unit. Each of these grills replicated an expression that could be made by a human mouth, and as Hartek regained consciousness, I attached the one that represented a wide smile. I am not sure that it had the desired effect, as the Rogue Trader Regent looked more surprised and confused than anything else. I realised that perhaps I had not painted the smile with enough teeth. I resolved to experiment further and judge different reactions.

We began to prepare for all the work that would be required once we reached our destination, arranging for more ship repairs at Magos Julien's dry-dock, Hartek contacted the Black Dragon Society to arrange for the work to start on the new asteroid base, and then began to notify the relevant guilds that we would be recruiting more crew once we had docked. The astropaths were ordered to send messages back to Inquisitor Attalus and the Adeptus Mechanicus back in the Calixis Sector, notifying Attalus of the recovery of his team's equipment, and that we needed to speak to him with regard to a pressing matter. That matter was that of the corrupted world in the Saphirus System; however we decided not to mention that in the message because of the risk of a security breach. The message to the Mechanicus included the details of the strange terra-formed world that we had also found in the Saphirus System.

The vital messages sent, I returned to my workshop and turned my attention to attempting to re-activate the damaged Iron Men. It quickly became clear that the Iron Men contained an emergency download module to which they could send their consciousness if they were physically damaged to a sufficient extent and had enough time to enact the relevant protocols. However, I would only have chance to attempt to reactivate Xerxes, as his comrades had either not had the time to enact the protocols before critical damage shut them down, or as in one occasion, the module was too damaged to recover anything from.

As I was working, I reflected that I had not seen anything of the other Iron Men since our return, so contacted them to explain that I was attempting to reactivated Xerxes, or XX1V1 as they knew him. Although I was surprised by the lack of interest this information elicited from them, I returned my focus to the job at hand. Xerxes was in a bad way, although his head was undamaged, his torso was severely crushed, and his limbs were either broken or had be removed by the force of the impact, however, it appeared that his vital systems were intact.

I connected to one of the standard data-ports in the cracked chest cavity of Xerxes and replaced his damaged power-unit with a prototype I had been working on with Iron Man XX1V2 over the previous few weeks. I quickly invoked the proper rituals and litanies, and almost instantly Xerxes core systems hummed with power once more.

I could see the start-up routine and data compilation running through his neuro-sphere, and was able to guide the data-flow through the correct channels. I had just started to greet him, when Calldia spoke up;

"Oh! Oh! That's strange!" And then with increased consternation, "What's that? That's not right!"

I paused, "What have you seen Calldia?"

"Look... There! Have you seen that before?"

Suddenly, I could see what he was talking about; coded data was flowing, coded in a way I had never seen used by the Iron Men before, and in a style that did not make sense. I could feel an icy cold spreading through where I had connected to the data-port, and suddenly a panicky Calldia was shouting for me to break the connection. I quickly shut Xerxes back down again, and then disconnected myself.

"That was scrap-code!" Calldia was still panicking "It did not make sense! It was... it was Heresy! It was describing things that cannot exist! Things that break all the laws of the machine! Heresy! Heresy!"

"Corrupted code... Hmmm" I muttered to myself. "We need to strip the corruption away to give Xerxes a chance..."

I retrieved a stand-alone cogitator from storage, and rigged it to capture the data output from Xerxes. "We need to restart the process Calldia, it is important..."

"No, we cannot! It's far too dangerous! Please do not plug back in - it is not Holy information!" Calldia wailed

I nodded; "In that case we need to purge it..."

"I feel like it is changing me... I feel different..." Calldia's voiced trailed away.

"In that case I am relying on you Calldia. You must drag me back to myself if you feel it again, we must do this for the good of the Mechanicus and in the name of the Omnissiah!"

There was a brief pause before he replied. He sounded stronger; "For the Omnissiah. Yes. For the Omnissiah!"

I re-plugged into Xerxes port and began to transfer to the cogitator, keeping an eye on the strange code, and suddenly realised that although the code was corrupted, it was putting forward theories that were impossible, the mathematics did not add up, and the data relating to the tech-use made no sense... Unless, of course an additional variable was added; the fluctuations and power of the Warp. If included as the unknown element of the calculations, then the theories made sense... Stunned, I realised Calldia was right, Heresy indeed!

I checked through Xerxes' systems to attempt to work out whether it was him projecting the data, or whether he was infected, and although the theories were enticing I did my utmost to reject the heresy and focus on my search for Xerxes core data.

I heard a binary call from one of my Tech-Priests, "Enginseer! Look at subject Alpha!"

I turned towards Xerxes and saw that his physical body had rapidly rusted and decayed, and that his eye had changed colour to a sickly green colour. I rapidly enacted his shut-down protocols and disconnected. I realised that Xerxes core was indeed infected as a result of his contact with the warp creature onboard The Revenge.

The next logical step, as far as I could see was to remove the corrupted code from the copy I had made of Xerxes core on the cogitator, and to do that I knew I would need a healthy Iron Man to compare the coding with. I called XX1V2 over, explaining my intention, however, he ignored me, and after a few seconds simply walked away. I knew I had no hope of preventing this, so, shocked I let him go.

I destroyed the cogitator I had used to store the corrupted code, and sadly did the same with Xerxes emergency module, knowing that there was nothing more I could do to retrieve him. I did, however feel concerned by the response of the other Iron Men to my attempt to rescue Xerxes' personality. I would have been far, far more concerned if I had realised what was actually going on.

I reported the events of the previous hours to Rogue Trader Regent Hartek, and he was as worried by the reaction as I was, and equally at a loss to explain it. I confess that I was also slightly distracted by the new ways of using the technology that had been indicated by the corrupted coding that was being spewed from Xerxes. Calldia did his job in keeping me focussed, but I did feel a change in my body, no matter how much I tried to fight it, and eventually I noticed that my eyes became very sensitive to light. I resolved then to remove the fleshy orbs and replace them with sanctified cybernetics to rid me of this reminder of my fleshy weakness... As an interim measure I constructed a set of shielded goggles to wear to protect my vision.

The day after this uncomfortable occurrence we arrived in the settled core of the Footfall System.

++ LOCATION: THE FURNACE OF REDEMPTION, FOOTFALL SYSTEM, THE CAULDRON ++

We towed the asteroid into the location we had selected for our new base of operations; it was nicely high profile and close to the centre of Footfall, and quickly, the teams from the Black Dragon Society began their work. The asteroid itself was twelve kilometres in diameter and after the initial shaping was almost spherical.

We had arranged for a dry-dock area in the centre of the base to be created, and above the opening a huge Dureen Dynasty crest was laser etched; Asteroid Base Alpha, as we had named our home, was taking shape in a most impressive manner. Hartek paid a social visit to Mistress Chu Leng, the head of the Black Dragons, to thank her for her prompt work, and to finalise the plans. On completion, as well as the dry dock, capable of servicing a cruiser sized vessel, there would be external docking spines, and a docks area offering everything a crew on a run-ashore would need. We had arranged for specialist meeting places, stores, and services, hotels, a garden area of similar quality to that within the base of the Black Dragons, and, of course the private offices and accommodations for members of the Dureen Dynasty.

All these services would keep Thrones pouring into the Dynasty coffers, particularly when the Rogue Trader was busy elsewhere, allowing the base to be more than self sufficient. The asteroid would be protected by its own void shield generators, and have point defence weapons systems. All in all, it would provide an excellent and imposing front for the up and coming new Dynasty, projecting an image of wealth, power, and quality.

I took a step back, continuing to look towards our technological needs, with my immediate attention being focussed on building a cybernetic arm for Hartek. I focused on good quality components, and decided, as a little bonus to conceal a compact hand flamer within the construction. The Rogue Trader Regent was delighted with the results, and found that he was able to wield his Squat war axe one handed! It had been several weeks since I had seen him smile quite so widely. On a more selfish note, while searching for the components for constructing the arm, I stumbled across a suit of Dragon Scale armour, which, having listened to the pleas of Calldia who seemed inordinately concerned about my physical wellbeing for some reason, I managed to acquire for myself.

Even as the new base was being constructed, the work on our damaged ships was continuing apace, and within two standard months all three vessels were fully repaired, and ready for action. Hartek and Seneschal Cassandra Salvatore had recruited a number of Chartist captains to run the trade route to and from Dropas, and they now turned their attention to the recruitment of new crew. Hartek had notified the Guilds of his intention to do so on arrival in the System, and this prior notice, along with some generous sign-on bonuses, was quickly able to gather some high quality and experienced void farers. The Furnace of Redemption and The Revenge were brought up to full complement, and we were able to provide a permanent crew for Asteroid Base Alpha, however, The Great Fortune was still only crewed by a skeleton crew, which although not able to effectively fly her, would allow her to operate safely while docked in system. Once we had brought everyone into the Dynasty, and allocated them their respective roles, we then gave them rotating shore leave so that all of them could get to know one another, and those who had been with us previously could get chance to clear some of the star-dust from their hair.

Hartek began to source the basic weaponry that he had promised the Dropas leader, Word Bringer Korvek, and made sure that amongst the vessels selected to accompany us, was one suited to heavy lift as we would need to relocate the miners and their equipment from Saphirus 1-101 to Dropas, and the preparations continued apace.

Throughout this time, we had heard nothing more from Inquisitor Attalus, so we resent the astropathic message. Fortunately, the Adeptus Mechanicus had responded with a simple acknowledgement to the message sent to them, so that was one less thing to concern us. Perhaps the lack of response from the Inquisitor should have worried us more than it did, but hindsight is a wonderful thing...

Eventually, we did get a reply from the Inquisition, but not from the expected source. The reply came from a Witchfinder Rykehuss who informed us that we were to have no further contact with Inquisitor Attalus as he had been declared Excommunicatus! Rykehuss sternly questioned us, asking whether we could inform him of the current whereabouts of Attalus, which we were truthfully able to inform him that regretfully we were unable to do so. We also informed Rykehuss that we had replaced Attalus man, Rico Dureen, who had also mysteriously disappeared... We decided not to mention the corrupted world to the Witchfinder, as it was entirely possible that he would purge the Dynasty for simply possessing the knowledge of such corruption, and began to attempt to make contact with the Inquisitorial presence in Footfall, using some of Hartek's back channel contacts in the system, however we had little initial success.

The construction of Asteroid Base Alpha had progressed well since our return to Footfall; there were now areas which were inhabitable, and it was from one of these which Hartek had claimed as his personal office that I received a vox-call summoning me. I quickly made my way there, and found Hartek relaxed in a large chair behind his desk, enjoying a glass of amasec, with a slice of the Hartek fruit added for additional flavour; I noticed with satisfaction that he was using his new cybernetic arm, and seemed to have gained perfect control of the limb. I was, however, slightly worried by the noise I could hear; it sounded like the failed transmission of a cargo lifter from the docks, and I was considering how the delicate cybernetics could be making such a din, when I noticed that there was a music playback device in the room, and realised that the noise was emanating from that, and worse, Hartek had chosen to listen to it! This must be the traditional Squat music I had heard some of the crew talk of, and it probably explained why the Squats as a race were prone to flashes of temper; it certainly was giving me a headache. I tuned as much of it out of my hearing as I could and crossed the threshold.

Hartek looked up and noticed me, and then grunted; "I've had visitors..."

I paused, and realised that the Hartek had had lots of visitors over the preceding weeks, and surmised that the visitors he was referring to were unexpected. I know of Hartek’s penchant for telling a story though, so simply replied "Really? What happened Kilgrim?"

He smiled, obviously relishing the story he was about to tell, so I found a large, low, couch and settled into it.

Apparently he was relaxing in the chamber, and going over some of the status reports, when the lights in the chamber flickered; that caught his attention, but he was not too worried as construction was still ongoing. Then, from behind him he had heard a cough, obviously made to get his attention...

Hartek pivoted round in his seat, and saw leaning on the wall at the far side of the chamber a reasonable tall and muscled figure, wearing a long greatcoat, sturdy boots, and a tri-corn hat which left his face in shadow. The man was in the process of lighting a lho-stick, and seemed completely at ease.

Hartek poured another glass of amasec, and offered it to the man; "Alright, I'm impressed. You have my attention."

The man looked up, showing a thin, rakish face, and walked over to the desk with long, measured fluid strides, giving the impression that he could be a dancer or acrobat. There were definite shapes underneath his coat indicating weapons.

He smiled slightly at Hartek, taking the drink and nodding his thanks. "A toast, Rogue Trader Regent, to our future working relationship!"

"I am quite choosy who I go into business with..." Hartek smiled.

The man sipped his drink, and sighed. "It would be uncouth of me to say, but it is you who have been looking for me..."

"I have been looking for a lot of things, friend!" Hartek said, raising an eyebrow, "Which particular object of my intentions are you?"

"I heard from... mutual contacts... that you were asking for, shall we say, a certain service from the authorities..."

"Ah! Yes!" Hartek smiled. "And you have come to ply your trade?"

The man smiled, showing a perfect set of teeth. "As much as I enjoy the verbal sparring, we are both busy. Shall we get to the point?"

Hartek agreed, and switched on the holo-projector built into his desk. He quickly displayed the chart of the Saphirus system, and recapped the story of our adventures there, focussing on Saphirus 1-1S2M3, the world with the corrupted population. He showed the man the pict-captures and video recordings that we had made there, and the data-slate documenting the progress of the illness that so nearly killed me.

The man looked at Hartek; "This is very dangerous information you have here. I know people who would kill for far less; even knowing such information is grounds for termination."

Hartek shrugged, and the man continued to check through the information the Rogue Trader Regent had passed him; "But then, that would be counter-productive, as no-one would ever tell us anything would they?" He indicated the data-slates, "Can I keep these?"

"I'll have copies made for you..."

The man nodded his thanks, and asked "What now? What do you plan on doing with this place?"

Hartek smiled; "Never going back and forgetting I've ever heard of it. After reporting it to the proper authorities, of course! Some of my ships will be returning to the system however. Should someone wish to hitch a ride to discretely visit the area, they are welcome to do so..."

"Hmmm..." the mysterious man mused, "From what you say, this sounds like a significant threat, and certainly not one we should allow to grow. Valuable time could be wasted if action is not taken soon..."

The Rogue Trader Regent nodded. "I agree, however, I am no longer the military man I once was... I now have the concerns of a Rogue Trader House to consider... I cannot simply head off on a mad crusade at the of a hat... However, if a certain revenue stream was guaranteed, I am sure such an expedition would be approved by the house!"

"These dealings with the xenos, how go they?" The stranger asked pointedly.

"Well, thank you for asking! We have a trade agreement setup, and we have even seeded their world with humans, so the future looks good there!"

"Good..." the man replied, "Having the ear of... certain parties... would also prove beneficial for you, would it not? I hear of many things, and many of those are profitable. It would be to everyone’s benefit if those profitable opportunities were given to those who had proven their loyalty to the Throne..."

The Rogue Trader Regent paused before answering; "I would be more than happy to take on the task of purging this world, however, I'm not sure that my meagre forces are up to the task..."

"You would not have to purge the target yourself. Your role would be to get me and my associates close enough..."

"We can do that!" Hartek nodded.

"A joint venture then?" the man smiled.

"Agreed. How many associates?" asked Hartek.

"Myself, my travelling companion" he indicated the space behind the Rogue Trader Regent, who smiled, but did not look, "A few additional companions, and a small number of guests... No more than a dozen in total..."

"We can handle that!" Hartek smiled. "I assume you need our troops to support you?"

"Of course. We will deal with the major threat, you will keep the other threats off our backs."

Hartek considered the network would be available to the man via the Inquisition, and the offer he had made. He held out his hand, "I believe that this could be the start of a beautiful friendship!" and the two men shook hands.

Smiling, the stranger said, "We will meet again in a week" and left the office.

Hartek leaned back in his chair, and waited for a few seconds, and then spoke again without looking; "And you can go too!" He heard the door open, and then close softly again, and permitted himself a wry smile.

Hartek leaned back in his chair having relayed his story to me. I reflected that he was right, that the Inquisition has a far better intelligence network than we could ever hope for, but hoped that we would not have to pay too high a price for their favours. We both sat in silence for a few moments, after I had voiced my thoughts, before I got up and returned to my workshop on the Furnace of Redemption.

I had been working in the workshop for several hours, stripping down the remains of the deactivated Iron Men, when suddenly the ship-wide alarms sounded, and the lights and artificial gravity failed. I quickly clamped myself to the deck using my utility mechadendrite, successfully this time, and waited for a few seconds until the emergency systems activated, before moving to the master cogitator terminal in the workshop. The terminal was locked out, so I moved on to another, to find the same there. I did a little a digging into the code, and saw that it was a command override lockdown, and, had an immediate thought that this was the doing of the Iron Men.

All vox-traffic was being blocked, and the door to my workshop was sealed, so I stepped to the manual override, and ordered my servitors to open the door. It took them a few minutes to force a gap wide enough for me to squeeze through, and I headed towards the bridge, sending another Tech-Priest to notify the Rogue Trader Regent of the events.

It took forty-two standard minutes for me to reach the bridge as I had to manually open every door I came to, but as I moved and opened each one, I was able to release trapped members of the crew that had been caught by the lockdown. As I freed them, they followed me to the bridge, aiding me with the opening of further sealed doors that blocked our path.

As I stepped through the bridge door, I could see Officer of the Watch Dray attempting, and failing to get the systems back online.

"By the Throne Enginseer! What's going on?" he asked.

"I was about to ask you the same thing Mister Dray! Status report please." I replied

"We have no idea! Everything is locked out, it's as though the Rogue Trader Regent had removed that!" he indicated the control rod, locked into the command pulpit. "And one of the crew noticed that!" Dray continued, pointing so a metallic arachnid shaped creature, attached to the ceiling. Later, after reviewing the events that had led to this, I was able to recognise this construct from the recording made by the translation servitor in the chamber of the Iron Men...

At the time, I simply recognised the device of being of similar build to the Iron Men, and it appeared to be running a program of corrupted code. I firewalled and isolated my systems in preparation of interfacing with the device in an attempt to over-ride its actions, and finally ready, I steeled myself and made the connection, despite the protestations of Tech-Priest Calldia.

I made the connection, and was quickly able to overwhelm the arachnid's sub-routines and logic loops, shutting it down, and the ship's systems began to restore themselves. Immediately, I made a vox-call to Hartek, outlining the situation, and was about to attempt to contact the Iron Men, when Dray called out "Enginseer! The Great Fortune is heading out of system!"

"Hail them!" I ordered, and to my surprise, received a response, however, I recognised it as the corrupted scrap-code and killed the connection straight away.

"How long before we can be underway?" I demanded, however, even as I asked I knew it would not be quick enough as we were effectively coming from a cold start, and would take us several hours before the Furnace of Redemption would be active.

Suddenly we were hailed by The Revenge. Captain Perez came on the vox reporting that a number of mechanical creatures had teleported onto the vessel and started to interfere with the systems. They were quickly removed, and the vessel could be underway within two standard hours, I ordered him to do so, and Hartek and I transferred to The Revenge, meeting on the bridge.

Although The Great Fortune had the head start, I was confident that the familiarity of our crews with their own vessels would give us an advantage, particularly while commanded by the Rogue Trader Regent. I spent my time micro-managing the engines and tracking of the escaping ship, attempting to gain as much power as possible, making us more efficient in the chase. We closed down on our quarry quickly, and had got within weapons range in twenty standard hours, However, as soon as we closed to range the Sensorium Void Master called out; "They're bringing their warp engines online Sir!"

"This close to the gravity well?" I asked, incredulous "That's insane!"

The Void Master nodded, but confirmed that they were doing so anyway.

"Power-up the weapons systems, and prepare to fire!" Hartek fired off a number of orders, "Wait until they their shields just before they try to jump! Send out a vox-alert into Footfall warning that a rogue vessel is about to make a warp-jump so close in!"

At this, I quickly moved to the gunnery systems, and began to lock The Great Fortune into our targeting cogitators, and, at Hartek's command fired both the Sunsear Laser Battery and Mars Pattern Macrocannon at her. The lasers hit, scoring the armour from our target, but the vessel still began her jump; however, we had obviously distracted them as they began the transition, as the ship twisted at an angle, before the hole into the warp flashed with its strange light, and The Great Fortune disappeared.

Hartek shouted at the helmsman to turn us away, and although the void shield collapsed, we were able to ride the shockwave from the reckless transition, suffering only minor damage. The Furnace of Redemption which had got underway in pursuit of us was unscathed, as was our new base, but despite our warning, others within Footfall were not so lucky; fully ten percent of the structures in the system were destroyed, and an additional forty percent damaged to one extent or another.

Hartek and I sequestered ourselves into the command meeting room to discuss the events. Captain Bully Hayes, the erstwhile commander of The Great Fortune, had been onboard when she was taken, and given his past record, we decided that he would take the blame. The story that would be passed to the authorities was one of a man who had decided to return to his old life of piracy, and steal our ship in the process. We, of course, had pursued, and reverting to reckless type, he chose to make the near-suicidal jump in an under-crewed vessel when we challenged him, with catastrophic consequences for the system.

I destroyed every single record and all physical evidence that I had pertaining to the Iron Men, with the exception of this highly encrypted journal. Our story clarified, we turned back towards Footfall, and joined up with the Furnace of Redemption.

We began to offer tows back to the dockyards for any damaged ships that we came across, for the correct towage fees, of course, and made our services available to the authorities in Footfall, which were gratefully accepted. Strangely, the catastrophic events had left us virtually untouched, whilst many of the other Houses and Guilds were in poor shape, so we were much stronger, relatively, than we had been. Truly, the will of the Omnissiah is strong, and works in unimaginable ways.

As we journeyed back, Hartek and I transferred back to the Furnace of Redemption to begin the purge of all evidence, and I visited the chamber that had been used by the Iron Men. The walls had rusted, and there were strange symbols and sigils on the walls, so I cleansed the room with fire, and then an acid wash, before asking the Archbishop to re-sanctify the space. Once done, it reverted to a tech storage area.

In the aftermath, I was shocked to find out that twenty-seven of my junior Tech-Priests, and twenty-four of my Tech-Guard were missing. I checked the logs of the teleportarium, and found that they had fled to The Great Fortune with the Iron Men, Omnissiah damn them!

We spent the remainder of the week doing what we could throughout Footfall, and the name of House Dureen was spoken with much favour in the system, largely because of our selfless acts. We left The Revenge in Footfall, to help with the reconstruction efforts, and took the Furnace of Redemption to our rendezvous with our new Inquisitorial ally. He and his retinue came aboard with very little fanfare, and Hartek conducted them to their private quarters, effectively an area of the crew quarters more remote than the rest, and we headed out to the edge of the system, followed by the merchant fleet that would be making the trade runs to and from Dropas on our behalf.

As we approached the jump point, our new passenger made his way to the bridge meeting room. Finally we learned his name, Helbrech, and his rank, Interrogator, and he told us that his additional guests would be with us momentarily.

Within the hour, there was a flash of light, and another vessel exited the empyrean, several hundred thousands of kilometres off our bow. Our scans reported a destroyer sized craft, massively armoured and shielded, and if we thought that the Furnace of Redemption was overpowered for her size, then this ancient ship was a magnitude again more powerful. Her hull was covered with religious statues and huge, embossed texts from a holy book which I did not recognise. Truly she was a temple to both the Emperor and the Omnissiah.

"Our guests have arrived!" I looked over my shoulder to see who had spoken, and saw Interrogator Helbrech, with a small smile on his face.

Our holo-screen sprang to life and the head and shoulders a stern looking, huge, grey armoured figure appeared. His face has covered in the traceries of fine scars, and he had three gold studs embedded in his forehead. I recognised him immediately for what he was, after all, I had met an Astartes previously, and I could tell by the intakes of breath that the bridge crew recognised him as such too. I glanced at Hartek, if the Angels of Death were joining us, just how bad was this mission going to be?

The Space Marine spoke; "This is Justicar Poscar of The Light of Purity, we are here at the request of Interrogator Helbrech. Identify yourselves."

++ End of record ++

nice!

Read you next year!

Emperor's toothbrush! This is excellent. Really very, very good.

Thanks Marvin, and thank the Enginseer for the great read too.