The Gilded Lantern is a beauty, at least in your eyes.
At first a small vessel besides the gigantic Orbital Station, but as you get closer it expands to fill your entire field of view. Utilitarian gunmetal grey, interrupted by Macrocannons in precisely measured cutouts, with the great expanse of red upon which the Omnissian Skull stands out hundreds of meters wide as the only dash of colour in it.
As you get even closer you loose sight of that too, only metal surface being visible in any direction, until the shuttle bay opens before you and your transport touches down.
Nobody awaits you here save a few menials doing routine maintenance and a pair of Skitarii guarding the doors, it is tradition in the Mechanicus, the Navy and even Rogue Traders alike to greet the new Captain on the bridge.
As you walk the endless corridors, following memories of build-plans as much as the subtle coding that shows the way to the bridge (subtle so those less versed in the secrets of the Mechanicus could not find the bridge too easily during assaults), you are taking in all you see.
Hidden switches that will activate weapon emplacements and raise or lower covers are highlighted in your Auspex, bulkheads that would stand up to anything short of high-intensity Melta-Charges are open, but obviously oiled and ready to shut down if need be. So far so good.
Though part of you would like nothing more than to explore the ship for days or weeks, to find the laboratories and forges, to inspect the engines and generatoriums, you stick to your duty and enter the bridge.
There, among an honor guard of particularly heavily augmented Skitarii and mass of bridge-officers, techpriests and acolytes, messengers and menials, three figures in particular stick out from the rest of the crew.
Last vote before we get going, pick three notable crewmembers:
[] Subdominus Kepros Onag
An experienced leader of Skitarii and veteran warrior in his own right, the Subdominus will lead your crew into battle and advise you in all matters of tactics and combat, whether in a small combat-team, or when deploying an army of Skitarii.
Kepros is nearly two and a half meters tall, his torso, as far as you can tell under armor and robe is relatively normal, but his legs, being obviously augments, make up most of this size and split towards the ground into a primary foot and two supports each.
He greets you with a salute, the organic half of his face showing as much cold professionalism as the metallic half.
//Guaranteed high Martial and decent Combat
[] Lexmechanic Prime Seera Signa
The Lexmechanic Prime has the honor and duty of reviewing, comprehending and distilling the date-throughput of all Lexmechnics of a Manufactorum or a ship. Seera Signa is already connected to the data-flows of the Gilded Lantern by the time you arrive, having overseen the loading-process, being aware of how much in food, water, ammunition, spare-parts, promethium, personnel and dozens materials more are on board and how much the ship will use up beyond the rate of recycling in any given month of low to strenous activity.
She only briefly looks up from her stations to greet you, the only Mechadendrite currently not connected to a port waving in your direction, her eyes obviously unfocussed as she is paying attention to whatever her neuro-implants are currently showing over what her eyes see,
//Guaranteed high Administration and decent Spiritual Guidance
[] Magos Genetor Sachervell
The Magos Genetor of any normal ship already has a variety of duties, from being the ships senior medical officer to overseeing the augmentation of new Skitarii from the best-trained combatants among the regular crew to replace any losses the ship suffers. On an Explorator vessel however, and particularly on this one, they are more directly involved in the quest for knowledge than common, performing all manner of autopsies and dissections as needed. Sachervell appears at first glance barely augmented besides the Mechadendrites behind them, but a closer scan with your Auspex shows the feint traces of scars around eyes, ears, the lower jaw and at the throat and that is just what the red robe reveals. Whatever they have done to themselves, they must think it is equal to classical augmentations to walk so proudly as they greet you.
//Guaranteed high Bio, can probably pass for an unaugmented human if you put them in civies and temporarily remove the Mechadendrites
[] High Enginseer 453/Alpha-Secundus
You might be the captain, 453/Alpha-Secundus is the master of the Enginarium and he doesn't hesitate to let you know it. After the barest of greetings he returns to his realm, followed by his swarm of Servitors walking or driving behind him. You had barely even gotten a look at the burned remains of his face and the greeting had been in binary alone, without the usual phrases in Gothik accompanying it. You aren't even quite sure if that vox-grille even had a speech-mode?
// Guaranteed high Mechanical Movement and decent Motive Force.
[] Transmechanic Aura
The Transmechanic, and important for an Explorator adept of the Divisio Linguistica, that simply designated themselves as Aura is entirely hidden behind the typical red robe, obviously worn over armor, and the face protected by a mask showing a neutral human face with no visible openings save a vox-grille behind the lips. Still, their greeting was polite and the offer to show you the internal and external vox-systems of the Lantern sounded genuinly inviting.
// Guaranteed decent Diplomacy and Intrigue, knowledge of several unusual dialects of Gothic and some Xeno-Lenguages
[] Censor Seraphus Argellus
Stygies VIII does not have many Censors, at least not anymore, not since the shadow-war with the Inquisition started centuries ago. What few members of the order still work with your homeworld have adjusted their dogma slightly, now taking the First Warning to primarily mean that any unfiltered contact of Xeno-Devices with the Imperium or the sacred machines of the Adeptus Mechanicus must be prevented, but their study for any untainted nuggets of Comprehension are an acceptable risk, if undertaken by the trained and tested minds of a Magos.
Seraphus does not seem aware of any potential issues between your task and his, instead greeting you in a loud, almost boisterous voice and wishing you well on this sacred quest you are embarking on.
// Guaranteed high Willpower, seemingly good Diplomacy?
[] Secutor Arawn Diwedd
The Secutor reminds you of nothing more than a wall of steel, barely swathed in red cloth. The champion is almost as broad as he is tall so well-armored that you can only guess the slight inlination of his helmet towards you was meant as a greeting, no other sign of body-language or reaction is visible even to your enhanced Auspex. He holds a large Omnissian Axe in both hands, taller than he is, while two mechadendrites with electro-claws are peering over his shoulders. As he steps away from you after his greeting, you hear strangely little of his heavy-seeming steps.
//Guaranteed high combat, possibly good Intrigue?
//That's it, unless you can think of someone you really want or need on your crew. The roles you don't pick will be filled by generic NPCs with no particular skills or boni.
