New Ambitions 9

<Ambitious_GM> IT IS THE 41ST MILLENNIUM...
<Ambitious_GM> "No delays! The cogitators will run the numbers while the breaks from orbit!" Commander Matthews barks to the Helm, First-Officer Harrow giving him a quick nod of approval as he paces to Cato's side.
<Ambitious_GM> "She's being pushed as hard as the systems will allow," Harrow informs the Leviathan's Gluttony captain.
* Cato_Artaega nods "Whats our ETA and any sign of the Fel Hand?"
<Ambitious_GM> "Aetherics?" Harrow calls, looking back to Tyruss.
<Tyruss> "The sensors are tracking an object moving into the belt, however I can't be certain it is the Fell Hand. Soon it will be impossible to differentiate it from the other objects and debris that make up the belt. If you wish to strike first Lord Cato now would be the time."
<Cato_Artaega> "The objects location tracks with what we observed in the structure?"
* Rey_Lasky checks that weapon systems are up and running, though he still shoken up by the images he saw on the planet, his orders are more via text commands then voice.
<Valarian_Stukov> "Allow me to prepare the machine spirit's trek."
* Cenva rushes back to the Navigator Tower.
* Zog prepares to yell at the crew to do better.
* Valarian_Stukov heads over to the control panel as he plugs himself into the ship's cogitator.
<Valarian_Stukov> "The soul of the Machine God surrounds thee."
<Valarian_Stukov> "The power of the Machine God invests thee."
<Valarian_Stukov> "The hate of the Machine God drives thee."
<Valarian_Stukov> "The Machine God endows thee with life."
<Valarian_Stukov> "Live!"
<Tyruss> "All I can be certain of Lord Cato is that it's trajectory is indicative of something trailing the position of the Righteous Path within the belt."
<Cato_Artaega> "Odds are favourable then - I wish to remove this thorn thats been troubling us for so long."
<Ambitious_GM> "Plasma heat and pressure rising, though still below criticality," the Master Helmsman reports.
<Valarian_Stukov> "The Machine is willing and so shall it be."
<Ambitious_GM> "Keep an eye on it, and push engine output," Harrow commands with a nod. "Thank you, Enginseer."
<Cato_Artaega> "Whats our best bet to approach this?"
* Galivan Stands to the side of the command throne, keeping an eye on the bridge personnel and monitoring the officer comms for crew and armsmen. He himself looks cool and calculated, drinking some chilled water for now.
<Cato_Artaega> "Obviously an intercept course would immediately give away our intent."
* Cenva gets her servants and prepares the Navgator Chambers for the Ritual of Divination.
<Tyruss> "An engagement comes to mind similar to our present one Lord Cato. During the Angevin Crusade the Imperial fleet lost a light cruiser for pursuing an opponent who was prepared, the light cruiser delved straight into a pre armed minefield..and waiting bombers. I recommend we either rethink our present course or utilize the Lighters as a screen, though that is hardly what they are built for."
<Ambitious_GM> "Lord Tyruss is right. Screening could give us forward advance enough to allow us to engage at long range; perhaps our only advantage."
<Ambitious_GM> Harrow turns, then, to observe the Master of Ordnance.
<Cato_Artaega> "We will need as much time as possible to fire before they can close and out manoeuvre us. Lighters come cheap and will be even more so once we reap this bounty."
<Cato_Artaega> "Make the necessary arrangements to deploy this strategy."
* Rey_Lasky works quietly, not noticing Harrows watching him.
<Cato_Artaega> "The risk of such an operation will not be lost on the pilots, I shall personally see them off on the flight deck."
<Ambitious_GM> "Lasky! You heard the Lord-Captain, arrange the flight crews necessary!" Harrow barks just behind the apparently distracted Master of Ordnance.
* Rey_Lasky jumps at Harrows command. "Wait.... What?" he says somewhat confused, his mind still not working properly.
<Ambitious_GM> "Arrange the crews, or I will do it myself," Harrow says in a low tone, bending at the waist to align his eyes with Rey's.
<Valarian_Stukov> ++Piotr Karpenko, Prepare Arvus Landers for deployment Lord Captain's Orders.+++
* Rey_Lasky kind of shrinks back and nods slowly, and turns around and starts send out orders via text to the flight crews with there orders.
<Ambitious_GM> +Da, Enginseer-Prime. Service crews deploying.+
* Cato_Artaega makes his way to the flight deck to encourage the crews.
* Cenva cuts her palm and lets her blood drip into a basin of water. Her fellow navigators drip different colored dyes into the water at random. She tries to read the flow of blood and dyes to see the future.
<Ambitious_GM> "We will soon enter the periphery of the asteroid belt," the Helm station relays the information to the central holo-displays showing the voidship's progress.
<Galivan> +Armsmen detail on the Lord-Captain.+ He orders one of the squads outside the command deck. +I shall join you in the flight bay soon, Lord-Captain.+
<Cato_Artaega> +Affirmative.+
<Ambitious_GM> +Attaching to Lord-Captain, Master Galivan.+
<Cato_Artaega> "Arvus crews your attention! The mission you have received is of great import and great risk but be it known that you all stand to gain great wealth when your valour leads to our inevitable victory! The Emperor is with us this day and we cannot allow one of his holy relics to fall into the hands of a brigand."
<Ambitious_GM> "Huzzah!" "For Emperor and Dynasty!"
<Ambitious_GM> The men cheer their assignment as though given a mission by the Golden Throne itself.
<Ambitious_GM> Shortly, they begin boarding.
<Galivan> The Arch-Militant approaches the Lord-Captain. "I caught most of it on my way here. Not a bad speech, Lord-Captain." He folds his arms as he looks down towards the bay as the pilot's board their craft. "Shall I put the men on standby for boarders?"
<Cato_Artaega> "Yes have the defences prepared."
* Cato_Artaega hangs for a moment while the crews board before turning and returning to the bridge.
<Ambitious_GM> From the launch bays pour out squadrons of lighters flying in tight patterns behind the voidship until, fully assembled, they pass forward to screen the advance.
* Galivan bows slightly before turning and heading towards the main armory, relaying orders to his Lieutenants to have the armsmen beat to quarters. +Let us show the Lord-Captain just what all the drilling was for, men.+
<Ambitious_GM> The holo-displays on the bridge now make room for the trackers on the launched Arvus squadrons.
<Ambitious_GM> All along the vessel, armsmen rush to their reporting stations, and ready themselves for action.
<Ambitious_GM> "Sir, we have readings."
* Cato_Artaega opens the sensor reading on his own console, making some minor adjustments to aid to improve accuracy.
<Tyruss> "I am picking up an imperial voidship lodged in one of the larger asteroids ahead Lord Cato...strange..I'm not reading any other vessel on our optics. Surely the Fell Hand would've beat us here."
<Cato_Artaega> "Anything from the picket?"
<Ambitious_GM> "Master Lasky?"
* Rey_Lasky checks in with the picket screen.
* Rey_Lasky looks over the report. "No, Lord Captain.... but it seems their vox and auspex systems are.... weakening."
<Ambitious_GM> "Perhaps the Chief Enginseer can assist?" Harrow suggests, leaning toward Cato.
<Cato_Artaega> "Valarian, can you identify the source of the interference, Lasky, have some of the ships in the picket pull in closer to relay communications to the outermost ships if necessary."
<Ambitious_GM> "Route their comms directly to bridge, Ordnance."
* Galivan arrives back on the bridge, moving to stasnd next to Tyruss. "I miss anything?"
* Rey_Lasky sends the order the the picket ships to have some ship move back and act as a relay communication point.
<Valarian_Stukov> "Pull of the ships back so I we can get a idea what is going on out there."
* Rey_Lasky then gets to work relaying their comms to the bridge directly.
<Ambitious_GM> A steady vox-stream window appears on the holo-display. "Go ahead, Major. You are speaking to the bridge. Tell us what has happened," Harrow calls out.
<Ambitious_GM> ++Aye, sir. We approached at- yet with sufficient spread to rule out the natural inter--++
* Tyruss speaks quietly to Galivan while the bridge crew carries out their orders. "No sign of the Fell Hand as of yet, though we have located the Righteous Path. I had assumed Fel would be waiting for us at the prize. He did have a head start."
<Ambitious_GM> ++Not just the comms, however. Auspex systems being intermittently jammed.++
* Galivan folds his arms. He replies back in the same low volume. "Perhaps the bastard has set us a trap? This was going to come to a head one way or another."
<Ambitious_GM> ++Any chance this is from the stellar pulses, sir?++
<Tyruss> "I agree, there appears to be some kind of interference..but wether it's Fel's doing or not is up in the void."
* Tyruss speaks up at the mention of the stellar pulses. "There were no such phenomenon's present when I took the sensor reading Lord Cato, it seems unlikely they are to blame."
<Cato_Artaega> ++ Unlikely there was no interference this far out when we did our earlier scans, track the exact time each vessel experiences interference and relay those times to us.++
<Ambitious_GM> ++Aye, sir. Reposi--- Emperor's balls! Contact! Interceptors!++
<Ambitious_GM> "You are speaking to the bridge, Major. Don't blaspheme," Harrow berates the squadron leader.
<Ambitious_GM> The holo-displays are refocused, and soon light up with unknown contacts flying towards the Leviathan's Gluttony.
<Cato_Artaega> ++Bring the picket back, report the direction of the incoming contacts.++
<Ambitious_GM> "Lighters maneuvering back, Lord-Captain."
<Ambitious_GM> Suddenly, the unknown contact signatures double, half pulling back, half advancing at a faster rate.
<Ambitious_GM> "Closing quick, sir... they appear to be moving clear past the lighters."
<Cato_Artaega> "Obviously we can't hit the interceptors - How about we make some asteroid sized frag grenades."
ateral damage. There is no way to spare our own from such indiscriminate destruction."
<Ambitious_GM> ++Sir! They were not here for us! They were bombers, torpedo-bearing bombers! Brace!++
<Tyruss> "But it will certainly wreak havoc amongst the enemy."
<Cato_Artaega> "Fire on the asteroids closest to the bombers prepare countermeasures."
<Galivan> "Well..."
<Cato_Artaega> ++Major manoeuvre clear of the bombers and take a wide berth.++
<Ambitious_GM> ++The bombers have peeled away, sir.++
* Rey_Lasky goes into a slight panic as he gets to work getting the counter measures up, but with a little luck on his side he is able to do so.
<Ambitious_GM> "It's a salvo..." Harrow says, looking at the incoming signatures.
<Cato_Artaega> "We can't have them getting away to rearm, where is that firing solution?"
* Rey_Lasky begins firing the ships main guns at the the asteroids.
<Ambitious_GM> The asteroids shatter, creating a wide debris field.
<Ambitious_GM> "Brace! Brace for impact!" Harrow calls out as the torpedo signatures narrow for impact.
* Cato_Artaega grips the arms of his throne preparing for the worst.
* Rey_Lasky activates the ships defense turrets to take out as many torpedo's as possible.
* Tyruss straps himself into his station chair.
* Galivan braces himself on one of the consoles.
* Rey_Lasky grabs on to his console.
<Ambitious_GM> A devastating series of blasts assails the voidship, warning runes and klaxons alerting the bridge of the terrible wounds.
<Ambitious_GM> "Fire on the main cargo hold, fire on starboard Sunsear batteries!"
<Cato_Artaega> +All crew hold fast!+
<Ambitious_GM> Harrow turns to Galivan. "We will need all hands to fire suppression."
<Valarian_Stukov> "Structural Integrity at 18%, Almost half our crew is MIA."
<Galivan> +All hands! Suppress fires! Get damage reports and repair crews to the worst areas! On the double!+
* Cenva fanatically looks at the water and tries to find a path out of this situation.
* Tyruss keys in the command line for voiding the section currently on fire, dousing the flame and voiding the unfortunate crew members still in the section.
* Cato_Artaega had been silent for a significant time after the torpedo volley. "Fire on the Righteous Path we are retreating we can still turn this into a win."
<Ambitious_GM> +Master Galivan. Crew morale is dismal. We will require the armsmen to crack down on this until we reach port.+
<Ambitious_GM> The Chief Bosun's voice betrays serious concern.
* Rey_Lasky as a last ditch effort, he then fires the ships guns on the Righteous Path.
<Cato_Artaega> +Get us out of here Cenva+
<Ambitious_GM> The Leviathan's Gluttony spitefully delivers a focused broadside on the legendary vessel, shattering the asteroid in which it is embedded while causing disastrous damage to the wreckage.
<Galivan> +The lads and lasses know their duty, they'll crack down.+ Galivan reminds the Chief Bosun to stay steadfast and keep to his duty.
* Cenva prepares the translation into the warp and plans an escape route towards Footfall.
* Cenva feels exhausted after a grueling 7 days of warp travel and safely exits into the materium.
<Rey_Lasky> During the trip Rey has a nagging fear of the first officer and stays away from him as much as possible.
* Zog thinks he got weaker during the trip.
<Ambitious_GM> Voyage through the warp sees the Leviathan's Gluttony ride out a warp storm that batters the maneuvering thrusters on the voidship, all the while the effects on the warp assail the minds of those within the vessel. At last, the immaterium spits out the battered ship, the familiar light of Furibundus noting a safe and accurate translation back to Footfall.
<Ambitious_GM> The shutters slam open on the bridge as comms begin to fill the channels.