- Pronouns
- He/Him
Okay! Roll Em's charm, at a -50!
WARHAMMER 40,000: ROGUE TRADER: FALLEN SUNS (40k roleplaying on the farthest frontiers)
- Thread starter DragonCobolt
- Start date
Sir_Travelsalot
Never wakes up tired.
- Location
- At Home
Right, so a 42 or under is needed. Here goes.... Seriously? Ugh.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yeah, you can spend an FP to add +10 to the roll!
The FPs are linked to the character rolling!
The FPs are linked to the character rolling!
I concur! Spend that fate point.
Hmm, disappointed we didn't go for a team-up with Dr Balthazar. It's blatant metagaming, but as a Stephen Maturin stand-in, I think he's bound to be a good egg.
C'est la vie!
Also, regarding the Fate Point, no one actually seems to have re-rolled, so...
C'est la vie!
Also, regarding the Fate Point, no one actually seems to have re-rolled, so...
- Location
- [REDACTED]
I believe the intent was to use the fate point to improve the result of the last roll to a success, not to re-roll.
Oh snap, my mistake! Apparently I cannot read.
Given my roll was much worse, that is handy then. 😅
CHAPTER ONE: Crows in the Night (1.4)
- Pronouns
- He/Him
WARNING: Smootching and sex happens in this chapter! It'll be spoilered, as per usual!
Coaxing the Eldar from their chambers took a few minutes of nervous back and forth, back and forth. Conversations were held, halted, Badb Ra was paraded before suspicious eyes. At last, after the exasperated Lady Amaranthine literally threw her sword into the room for Aria to harangue them directly, the Eldar were escorted away and taken to chambers, where they could secure themselves in a place that at least had restrooms and beds. The artifact, under the watchful eyes of the First and the Kreigers, was taken to the most secure vault in the Argent Scourge.
And the Inquisitorial agent?
"I admit, I am somewhat vague on the exact nature of command - it always seemed rather unimportant to my studies...but despite that, I do seem to recollect that one's allegiance to the Emperor did mark a smidge higher, just a portion, higher than the words of xenos?" Dr. Balthazar said, his features shifting to bring the planes and edges of his face into something even more fearsome than usual.
"If we believe them-" Tine started.
"If," Dr. Balthazar said, dryly, and in a single word cast the entire enterprise into some doubt.
"Listen. I don't trust an Eldar further than you can throw one," Ryia said, leaning back in her seat.
"From what your men have said, your co-wife can throw them quite far..."
"...but," Ryia continued, barreling forward. "This Eldar didn't tell us this shit because he wanted to. We had a gun to his head, and browbeat him. Plus, the last thing any Eldar wants to do is put their Farseers at risk. They're like...their...bigwigs, right?"
"One could say that, yes," Dr. Balthazar said, quietly, his finger working the lid of his chron.
Em, who had been watching the rest of the fleet through the windows, turned to face the Inquisitorial agent. "Would you rather come home with inconclusive scraps, a few digi-files, tales of corpses, or would you rather come back with actionable intelligence and with the name and face of a threat?" He frowned at the doctor.
The doctor looked stubborn.
And Tine, in a flash of inspiration, sat up and beamed. "Oh! It won't just be meeting with some corsairs - there'll be two Farseers, meaning their accompanying servants, aides...uh...bonesingers," she said, cocking her ear, as if listening to a silent bit of advice. "Just imagine the amount of xenographic knowledge you'll glean, just by taking notes."
The doctor's mood transformed - ire melted, irritation vanished, and in its place was a rapturous eagerness. "Truly? You think they would allow me to...even to take some picts of an Aeldari meeting, to see two Farseers...maybe even to ask a question or two. Perhaps, do you think, they might have cadavers, corpses, that they might be willing to part with too? No, no, I doubt that..." He hummed, thinking to himself. "...and you do raise a good point, Captain Vendigroth...it would be better to come back with something known..."
Em shot a smile at Tine, who looked smug. Under the table, Ryia kicked her shin.
"Yes, I will send a astropathic letter, is it all right if I use your 'path?" Dr. Balthazar said. "Using, of course, my own ciphers, codes, and such."
Em inclined his head and the doctor swept out, muttering under his breath. "I do wonder...the ears, it could be, Mr. Gennik's book on nerve clusters, and...oh ho ho, to imagine, a dissection!"
"Well, he's happy!" Tine said, cheerfully.
"How likely is it that his eagerness to rip an Eldar corpse up is going to get us killed?" Ryia asked.
"Ehh, seventy forty?" Tine said, waggling her hand from side to side.
The movement of a fleet, of a true fleet, was a thing of majestic splendor.
Sheerest luck and an outstanding current of the Warp allowed the four transports to string into port while the final touches of the Argent and her fellow ships - the Liberty, Salvation, Mercy, and the Respite, not to mention the Pax Imperialis and the Acheron.
The view from the windows of the bridge of the Argent Scourge was nearly as spectacular as the bridge herself. Emil watched it all with a confident, happy smile on his features. The bridge was arrayed in an arrowhead formation, with several sense-tanks sunk into the floor, capped with purity seal laden hatches that contained the specially trained tech-priests that were needed to manage the most miraculous part of the bridge - the hololithic displays.
"Felid! Canid! Avian!"
Em turned and saw that Tine and Ryia were both admiring the glowing animals that were appearing and morphing from shape to shape before her eyes. He was used to hololiths having clear projection lines, and emitter arrays. This? Though, this was a blue-white replica of a four winged corvid flapping around before his wives without any sign of projections or emission lines. Tine laughed, then held out her hand and the corvid landed. Her eyes widened.
"Em! Em! Em! I can feel it! I can pet it!" she squealed.
"How the bloody hell do they do that?" Ryia asked, scowling at the red robed hunched figure of Phi, who was still lightning votive candles along the sleekness of the brass and steel cogitation array that managed the starboard cannon. Phi turned to face her, their mechadendrites writhing.
"MISS RYIA, THE HOLOLITHIC PROJECTION SYSTEMS UTILIZE A DIVINE ART KNOWN AS LOCALIZER SPRITES. RATHER THAN USING LUMEN PROJECTIONS AND INTERPHASED FIELD SCREENS, LOCALIZER SPIRITS ARE PHYSICAL MACHINES OF APPROXIMATELY 0.2 MILIMETERS IN SIZE CONSISTING OF SENSOR, EMITTER, COGITATION SYSTEM, AND MACHINE SPIRIT. BY PULSING SUBLIMINAL AETHERIC PRAYERS THROUGH THE BRIDGE, THE LOCALIZER SPRITES CAN BE MADE ANIMATE AND CONTROLLED BY WILLING TECH-PRIESTS USING THEIR ELECTROO SHUNTS AND CORTEX IMPLANTS."
"Can you see dust motes as anything but specks?" Tine whispered.
"ALLOW ME TO DEMONSTRATE." Phi paused, then held up their left hand. "PROJECTION: LUMEN CONTROL CONSOLE."
The bird on Tine's arm flowed away from her, turning to wisps and dancing motes of light, then forming into a glowing, free-form collection of dials and knobs that Em recognized as the votive systems of a lumen control. Ryia, curiously, flicked one of the glowing, semi-translucent switches. The lumens on the deck went from full illumination to half, and a few mids glanced up nervously, before Ryia cackled and flicked the switch back.
"By all that's holy, that is a miracle..." she whispered.
"ONE THE FELL TRAITORS YOU DEFEATED KNEW NOTHING ABOUT. THEIR WORKAROUNDS WERE AS BRUTISH AS THEY WERE INSULTING." Phi said.
Em smiled to himself. "Time to red line?" he called out.
"Two days, m'lord!" one of the mids called from the front of the arrowhead. "We're pulling 'head of everyone."
"Give orders to rig us down to standard array," Em said, then breathed out. He looked to his right...and saw not Jessie, the right hand that he had for his entire career as a captain. It was a wrench, but Lieutenant Commander Draxen Ven had been the third, under Jessie. And with Jessie promoted to Commander and given the Revenge, she had demanded only the best for the Scourge. Em remembered the feeling of handing over the Revenge to Jessie...pride...mingled with sadness.
But the Scourge was a miracle of miracles. He opened his mouth to give Ven the bridge, but then a tugging at his sleeve drew his eyes. He saw Tine, smiling coyly at him.
Tug tug, pause, tug - Scourge code. His brow furrowed as he translated it: I want to talk to you.
He arched an eyebrow.
Tug, beat. Tug tug. Tug. Beat. Tug.
Ah, no: I want you to fuck my brains out.
Em sighed, then placed his hand over her hand, turning back to the Lieutenant Commander. "You have the bridge, Mr. Ven."
Ven managed to hide his smile, despite his bristling mutton chops.
"Very good sir."
Em and his wives sprawled together, panting, watching the rippling, whipping tails of plasma contrails of their escorts - the Colossus with her immense wake was two points above the Pax Imperalis and the Salvation. his finger played with the dark hair of Ryia, while his head rested against the slow rising of Tine's chest.
"So..." Ryia murmured. "Who do you think's gonna kill the Faceless Lord?"
"You," Em and Tine said, at the exact same time.
Ryia choked on nothing at all.
A trilling alert came through the wall. Crystal clear, piped in by the nigh miraculous techno-sorcery of the Argent Scourge, came Lt. Commander Ven's voice. "Captain, we're being shadowed."
"It's not a...dark eldar ship, is it?" Tine asked.
Von Struass shook her head, then turned to Em from the hololith. The rest of the fleet was drawing in, visible in stately arcs carving across the vista-plate, their courses visible in the rippling wakes of their mainsails. The four transports were to be bracketed by the Scourge, the Revenge, the Demise and the Colossus. An Eldar ship could strike fast and hard, then fade away, and with their holo-projection capacity, could be nigh impossible to land a hit upon.
"I believe she must be from the Children of Thorns," she said. "If they are as monomaniacally focused on the Lu'nasad craftworld as our new guest claims, then us having the artifact would be reason enough to dispatch a fleet, let alone a ship."
"So, you think there are other ships out there?" Ryia muttered, frowning.
Von Strauss shrugged. "She is shadowing us at some distance..."
"I've seen Eldar cover distances twice as far in a half an hour," Em said, rubbing his chin, watching the hololith spin before him.
"All ships report ready, m'lord!" a vox officer called out. "The fighters are loaded and prepped across the fleet."
"What's time to the redline?" Em asked.
"Twenty seven hours."
Em pursed his lips.
"Should we try voxing at them?" Tine asked. "They have to know we spotted them."
"Not necessarily..." Ryia said, shrugging. "This kind of fleet formation...we'd take it anyway to go into the Warp. The Eldar don't use Warp drives like us, they wouldn't know where the redline would be for our ships, right?"
"Possibly," Em murmured, quietly.
The plasma wakes that rippled in the void beyond the bridge belied a calm that Em knew could shatter any second.
---
What are your orders, Rogue Trader?
[ ] Keep on and watch the Eldar. Lets see what their first move is.
[ ] Vox them.
[ ] Vox them with Badb Ra on the bridge.
[ ] Send the entire fighter and bomber wing to eradicate the ship and force the issue.
[ ] Write In
Coaxing the Eldar from their chambers took a few minutes of nervous back and forth, back and forth. Conversations were held, halted, Badb Ra was paraded before suspicious eyes. At last, after the exasperated Lady Amaranthine literally threw her sword into the room for Aria to harangue them directly, the Eldar were escorted away and taken to chambers, where they could secure themselves in a place that at least had restrooms and beds. The artifact, under the watchful eyes of the First and the Kreigers, was taken to the most secure vault in the Argent Scourge.
And the Inquisitorial agent?
"I admit, I am somewhat vague on the exact nature of command - it always seemed rather unimportant to my studies...but despite that, I do seem to recollect that one's allegiance to the Emperor did mark a smidge higher, just a portion, higher than the words of xenos?" Dr. Balthazar said, his features shifting to bring the planes and edges of his face into something even more fearsome than usual.
"If we believe them-" Tine started.
"If," Dr. Balthazar said, dryly, and in a single word cast the entire enterprise into some doubt.
"Listen. I don't trust an Eldar further than you can throw one," Ryia said, leaning back in her seat.
"From what your men have said, your co-wife can throw them quite far..."
"...but," Ryia continued, barreling forward. "This Eldar didn't tell us this shit because he wanted to. We had a gun to his head, and browbeat him. Plus, the last thing any Eldar wants to do is put their Farseers at risk. They're like...their...bigwigs, right?"
"One could say that, yes," Dr. Balthazar said, quietly, his finger working the lid of his chron.
Em, who had been watching the rest of the fleet through the windows, turned to face the Inquisitorial agent. "Would you rather come home with inconclusive scraps, a few digi-files, tales of corpses, or would you rather come back with actionable intelligence and with the name and face of a threat?" He frowned at the doctor.
The doctor looked stubborn.
And Tine, in a flash of inspiration, sat up and beamed. "Oh! It won't just be meeting with some corsairs - there'll be two Farseers, meaning their accompanying servants, aides...uh...bonesingers," she said, cocking her ear, as if listening to a silent bit of advice. "Just imagine the amount of xenographic knowledge you'll glean, just by taking notes."
The doctor's mood transformed - ire melted, irritation vanished, and in its place was a rapturous eagerness. "Truly? You think they would allow me to...even to take some picts of an Aeldari meeting, to see two Farseers...maybe even to ask a question or two. Perhaps, do you think, they might have cadavers, corpses, that they might be willing to part with too? No, no, I doubt that..." He hummed, thinking to himself. "...and you do raise a good point, Captain Vendigroth...it would be better to come back with something known..."
Em shot a smile at Tine, who looked smug. Under the table, Ryia kicked her shin.
"Yes, I will send a astropathic letter, is it all right if I use your 'path?" Dr. Balthazar said. "Using, of course, my own ciphers, codes, and such."
Em inclined his head and the doctor swept out, muttering under his breath. "I do wonder...the ears, it could be, Mr. Gennik's book on nerve clusters, and...oh ho ho, to imagine, a dissection!"
"Well, he's happy!" Tine said, cheerfully.
"How likely is it that his eagerness to rip an Eldar corpse up is going to get us killed?" Ryia asked.
"Ehh, seventy forty?" Tine said, waggling her hand from side to side.
***
The movement of a fleet, of a true fleet, was a thing of majestic splendor.
Sheerest luck and an outstanding current of the Warp allowed the four transports to string into port while the final touches of the Argent and her fellow ships - the Liberty, Salvation, Mercy, and the Respite, not to mention the Pax Imperialis and the Acheron.
The view from the windows of the bridge of the Argent Scourge was nearly as spectacular as the bridge herself. Emil watched it all with a confident, happy smile on his features. The bridge was arrayed in an arrowhead formation, with several sense-tanks sunk into the floor, capped with purity seal laden hatches that contained the specially trained tech-priests that were needed to manage the most miraculous part of the bridge - the hololithic displays.
"Felid! Canid! Avian!"
Em turned and saw that Tine and Ryia were both admiring the glowing animals that were appearing and morphing from shape to shape before her eyes. He was used to hololiths having clear projection lines, and emitter arrays. This? Though, this was a blue-white replica of a four winged corvid flapping around before his wives without any sign of projections or emission lines. Tine laughed, then held out her hand and the corvid landed. Her eyes widened.
"Em! Em! Em! I can feel it! I can pet it!" she squealed.
"How the bloody hell do they do that?" Ryia asked, scowling at the red robed hunched figure of Phi, who was still lightning votive candles along the sleekness of the brass and steel cogitation array that managed the starboard cannon. Phi turned to face her, their mechadendrites writhing.
"MISS RYIA, THE HOLOLITHIC PROJECTION SYSTEMS UTILIZE A DIVINE ART KNOWN AS LOCALIZER SPRITES. RATHER THAN USING LUMEN PROJECTIONS AND INTERPHASED FIELD SCREENS, LOCALIZER SPIRITS ARE PHYSICAL MACHINES OF APPROXIMATELY 0.2 MILIMETERS IN SIZE CONSISTING OF SENSOR, EMITTER, COGITATION SYSTEM, AND MACHINE SPIRIT. BY PULSING SUBLIMINAL AETHERIC PRAYERS THROUGH THE BRIDGE, THE LOCALIZER SPRITES CAN BE MADE ANIMATE AND CONTROLLED BY WILLING TECH-PRIESTS USING THEIR ELECTROO SHUNTS AND CORTEX IMPLANTS."
"Naught two millimeters..." Ryia muttered, leaning in close, narrowing her eye at the glowing projection of the bird, which was preening its nonextant feathers with its curved beak. "I can't see them..." "Can you see dust motes as anything but specks?" Tine whispered.
"ALLOW ME TO DEMONSTRATE." Phi paused, then held up their left hand. "PROJECTION: LUMEN CONTROL CONSOLE."
The bird on Tine's arm flowed away from her, turning to wisps and dancing motes of light, then forming into a glowing, free-form collection of dials and knobs that Em recognized as the votive systems of a lumen control. Ryia, curiously, flicked one of the glowing, semi-translucent switches. The lumens on the deck went from full illumination to half, and a few mids glanced up nervously, before Ryia cackled and flicked the switch back.
"By all that's holy, that is a miracle..." she whispered.
"ONE THE FELL TRAITORS YOU DEFEATED KNEW NOTHING ABOUT. THEIR WORKAROUNDS WERE AS BRUTISH AS THEY WERE INSULTING." Phi said.
Em smiled to himself. "Time to red line?" he called out.
"Two days, m'lord!" one of the mids called from the front of the arrowhead. "We're pulling 'head of everyone."
"Give orders to rig us down to standard array," Em said, then breathed out. He looked to his right...and saw not Jessie, the right hand that he had for his entire career as a captain. It was a wrench, but Lieutenant Commander Draxen Ven had been the third, under Jessie. And with Jessie promoted to Commander and given the Revenge, she had demanded only the best for the Scourge. Em remembered the feeling of handing over the Revenge to Jessie...pride...mingled with sadness.
But the Scourge was a miracle of miracles. He opened his mouth to give Ven the bridge, but then a tugging at his sleeve drew his eyes. He saw Tine, smiling coyly at him.
Tug tug, pause, tug - Scourge code. His brow furrowed as he translated it: I want to talk to you.
He arched an eyebrow.
Tug, beat. Tug tug. Tug. Beat. Tug.
Ah, no: I want you to fuck my brains out.
Em sighed, then placed his hand over her hand, turning back to the Lieutenant Commander. "You have the bridge, Mr. Ven."
Ven managed to hide his smile, despite his bristling mutton chops.
"Very good sir."
***
Em, Ryia and Tine break in their fleet by breaking in their bed.
The door shut, but it had not even latched before Em found himself quite overwhelmed. On the one side, he had Tine, pressed to his shoulder, her mouth molding to his ear, her tongue teasing him. On the other hand, there was Ryia, and she was being quite instent. Her hand was down his pants, and she was gripping his dick as if he owed her something.
"Me first," Tine said. "I call dibs."
"Hm..." Ryia considered the moral, ethical, and political ramifications of this statement. She tapped upon dozens of different responses, both legal and ethical. She settled, after a few seconds of this deep thinking, upon the only logical response. "No, mine."
Tine gasped, in shock, as Ryia dragged Em's pants down with her hands, sweeping down and kneeling before him on the soft, soft carpet. Her mouth captured the tip, then she thrust forward and Em's ability to think, let alone decide between his wives, was obliterated by the eager warmth of her. Tine muttered dark, mutinous words under her breath, then slid down. Her lips pressed against his thigh, then leaned forward and began to lap at his balls, her nose flaring as she breathed his scent in. The feeling of Ryia's lips - slipping forward, slipping back, slipping forward again, pausing to allow her tongue to work - and the feeling of Tine's hand and tongue and lips as she began to explore to places...less commonly taken...
"Emperor!" Em gasped out, and remembered when he had once thought that his future would be respectable.
After Ryia had licked her lips clean and looked as smug and cheerful as a felid that had not just eaten the canary but the canary's whole damn family and Tine had wriggled out of her dress, Em forced both girls to settle onto the bed and found a compromise. His mouth pressed first to Tine, while his fingers worked in Ryia. Then he switched. Then switched back again, and found that there was nothing quite as pleasant as the eager, husbandly work of coaxing his wives from whimpers, to moans, to...
"Oh Fuck!" Ryia cried out. Tine, who was just an edge behind her, had time enough to think how uncouth before her climax struck.
"Oh Emperor!" Tine gasped, then ducked her head forward. Then, as she gasped, panted, tried to get her breathing working again, she whispered. "Oh fucking hell, fuck, fuck, fuck, oh fuck."
Em, rubbing his aching jaw, drew back and allowed a moment to wallow in some smugness. "How was that?"
"You have to ask?" Ryia laughed, rolling onto her back, her body glistening with sweat. She crooked her augmetic finger. "Come on." Her thighs twitched open, inviting.
Tine mustered her rhetorical abilities, to win the debate.
"Mmeeww!" Tine flopped onto her belly.
"Hmm, she does raise a good point," Em murmured, watching the reverberations of that flop - specifically, the effect they had on Tine's rump.
In the end, it was not Tine nor Ryia who 'won' the debate.
In the end, it was Dr. Ventris who put paid to things. Not that she was there, no, Dr. Ventris was ensconced on her new cabins on the Scourge, which had a medicae that was approximately the same ratio of medicae to ship as the old Revenge bay had been, but due to the difference in size between the ships, was the same actual size of the Revenge's medica. And yes, she was grumbling about the new change in her positions, to an endlessly tolerant Hospitaliar lover.
No, Dr. Ventris won because Tine, with an utter lack of concern for propriety, had asked for some drugs normally used to ensure rigidity and stability of men on their sixth century of juvinat treatments.
They were...quite effective.
"Me first," Tine said. "I call dibs."
"Hm..." Ryia considered the moral, ethical, and political ramifications of this statement. She tapped upon dozens of different responses, both legal and ethical. She settled, after a few seconds of this deep thinking, upon the only logical response. "No, mine."
Tine gasped, in shock, as Ryia dragged Em's pants down with her hands, sweeping down and kneeling before him on the soft, soft carpet. Her mouth captured the tip, then she thrust forward and Em's ability to think, let alone decide between his wives, was obliterated by the eager warmth of her. Tine muttered dark, mutinous words under her breath, then slid down. Her lips pressed against his thigh, then leaned forward and began to lap at his balls, her nose flaring as she breathed his scent in. The feeling of Ryia's lips - slipping forward, slipping back, slipping forward again, pausing to allow her tongue to work - and the feeling of Tine's hand and tongue and lips as she began to explore to places...less commonly taken...
"Emperor!" Em gasped out, and remembered when he had once thought that his future would be respectable.
After Ryia had licked her lips clean and looked as smug and cheerful as a felid that had not just eaten the canary but the canary's whole damn family and Tine had wriggled out of her dress, Em forced both girls to settle onto the bed and found a compromise. His mouth pressed first to Tine, while his fingers worked in Ryia. Then he switched. Then switched back again, and found that there was nothing quite as pleasant as the eager, husbandly work of coaxing his wives from whimpers, to moans, to...
"Oh Fuck!" Ryia cried out. Tine, who was just an edge behind her, had time enough to think how uncouth before her climax struck.
"Oh Emperor!" Tine gasped, then ducked her head forward. Then, as she gasped, panted, tried to get her breathing working again, she whispered. "Oh fucking hell, fuck, fuck, fuck, oh fuck."
Em, rubbing his aching jaw, drew back and allowed a moment to wallow in some smugness. "How was that?"
"You have to ask?" Ryia laughed, rolling onto her back, her body glistening with sweat. She crooked her augmetic finger. "Come on." Her thighs twitched open, inviting.
Tine mustered her rhetorical abilities, to win the debate.
"Mmeeww!" Tine flopped onto her belly.
"Hmm, she does raise a good point," Em murmured, watching the reverberations of that flop - specifically, the effect they had on Tine's rump.
In the end, it was not Tine nor Ryia who 'won' the debate.
In the end, it was Dr. Ventris who put paid to things. Not that she was there, no, Dr. Ventris was ensconced on her new cabins on the Scourge, which had a medicae that was approximately the same ratio of medicae to ship as the old Revenge bay had been, but due to the difference in size between the ships, was the same actual size of the Revenge's medica. And yes, she was grumbling about the new change in her positions, to an endlessly tolerant Hospitaliar lover.
No, Dr. Ventris won because Tine, with an utter lack of concern for propriety, had asked for some drugs normally used to ensure rigidity and stability of men on their sixth century of juvinat treatments.
They were...quite effective.
Em and his wives sprawled together, panting, watching the rippling, whipping tails of plasma contrails of their escorts - the Colossus with her immense wake was two points above the Pax Imperalis and the Salvation. his finger played with the dark hair of Ryia, while his head rested against the slow rising of Tine's chest.
"So..." Ryia murmured. "Who do you think's gonna kill the Faceless Lord?"
"You," Em and Tine said, at the exact same time.
Ryia choked on nothing at all.
A trilling alert came through the wall. Crystal clear, piped in by the nigh miraculous techno-sorcery of the Argent Scourge, came Lt. Commander Ven's voice. "Captain, we're being shadowed."
***
"She's not a Crow Spirit ship," Von Strauss said, with utter confidence as Em, Tine, Ryia and her stood around the shimmering, nigh perfect hololith projected in the center of the bridge. "The coloration, symbols, they're wrong for those."
"It's not a...dark eldar ship, is it?" Tine asked.
Von Struass shook her head, then turned to Em from the hololith. The rest of the fleet was drawing in, visible in stately arcs carving across the vista-plate, their courses visible in the rippling wakes of their mainsails. The four transports were to be bracketed by the Scourge, the Revenge, the Demise and the Colossus. An Eldar ship could strike fast and hard, then fade away, and with their holo-projection capacity, could be nigh impossible to land a hit upon.
"I believe she must be from the Children of Thorns," she said. "If they are as monomaniacally focused on the Lu'nasad craftworld as our new guest claims, then us having the artifact would be reason enough to dispatch a fleet, let alone a ship."
"So, you think there are other ships out there?" Ryia muttered, frowning.
Von Strauss shrugged. "She is shadowing us at some distance..."
"I've seen Eldar cover distances twice as far in a half an hour," Em said, rubbing his chin, watching the hololith spin before him.
"All ships report ready, m'lord!" a vox officer called out. "The fighters are loaded and prepped across the fleet."
"What's time to the redline?" Em asked.
"Twenty seven hours."
Em pursed his lips.
"Should we try voxing at them?" Tine asked. "They have to know we spotted them."
"Not necessarily..." Ryia said, shrugging. "This kind of fleet formation...we'd take it anyway to go into the Warp. The Eldar don't use Warp drives like us, they wouldn't know where the redline would be for our ships, right?"
"Possibly," Em murmured, quietly.
The plasma wakes that rippled in the void beyond the bridge belied a calm that Em knew could shatter any second.
---
What are your orders, Rogue Trader?
[ ] Keep on and watch the Eldar. Lets see what their first move is.
[ ] Vox them.
[ ] Vox them with Badb Ra on the bridge.
[ ] Send the entire fighter and bomber wing to eradicate the ship and force the issue.
[ ] Write In
Fleetwide DETECTION ROLLS!
Scourge: 54 (success)
Revenge: 39 (2 DOS
Tachyon: 72 (Fail)
Colossus: 10 (4 DOS)
Subline ships: 78 (fail)
????: 73 (1 DOF)
Von Strauss knowledge check: 35, 2 DOS
Scourge: 54 (success)
Revenge: 39 (2 DOS
Tachyon: 72 (Fail)
Colossus: 10 (4 DOS)
Subline ships: 78 (fail)
????: 73 (1 DOF)
Von Strauss knowledge check: 35, 2 DOS
- Location
- USA
[x] Keep on and watch the Eldar. Lets see what their first move is.
So Balthazar is coming with us. @DragonCobolt does that mean that we are no longer heading for Scintilla?
Also, any chance we could clarify with our new Eldar friend which farseer chose which path for dealing with us?
[X] Keep on and watch the Eldar. Lets see what their first move is.
-[X] Have the captured eldar on the bridge to ask for information
-[X] Have our fighters on alert, ready to launch at a moments notice.
Also, any chance we could clarify with our new Eldar friend which farseer chose which path for dealing with us?
[X] Keep on and watch the Eldar. Lets see what their first move is.
-[X] Have the captured eldar on the bridge to ask for information
-[X] Have our fighters on alert, ready to launch at a moments notice.
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- Location
- Under your bed
[X] Keep on and watch the Eldar. Lets see what their first move is.
-[X] Have the captured eldar on the bridge to ask for information
-[X] Have the captured eldar on the bridge to ask for information
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Is the extra ten percent when we get killed, get resuscitated, and killed again?
Might be this is the scout that found us, not sure about letting it stay vs tipping our hands
- Pronouns
- He/Him
That's how the vote went, to head to the cradle. It's in the opposite direction!
- Pronouns
- He/Him
...FUCK.
Math is hard and I'm very dumb!
Math is hard and I'm very dumb!
10ebbor10
DON'T PANIC
- Location
- Present
Seems like we're playing golf now. Lowest score wins.
@DragonCobolt
Math is hard. Don't worry about it, I kinda figured that if we told the inquisitorial representative about the Eldar then he would want to stay an supervise anyway.
Math is hard. Don't worry about it, I kinda figured that if we told the inquisitorial representative about the Eldar then he would want to stay an supervise anyway.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I'm going to need a detection roll from each ship!
Sir_Travelsalot
Never wakes up tired.
- Location
- At Home
So how many would that be in total, then? Oh hey, my first good roll in this thread.
10ebbor10
DON'T PANIC
- Location
- Present
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Three in total (the subline ships aren't going to be helping!)
Sir_Travelsalot
Never wakes up tired.
- Location
- At Home
Since it's been a couple of hours now, is it alright if I roll for third as well? No one else seems to have.