Prelude: Cadian Dawn (IC)

[LordPsycho]

Several teams have been despatched back to the hive to search for the crucial contra-grav generators.  The most likely locations are the old turbo-elevators that rode up and down the hive spires.  Azrael also considered the wreckage of the Xenos constructs, and had some it brought aboard for him to study, but he is wary of the time it might take to properly integrate Xenos technology with the ship, and the consequences of malfunctions...

The hive-spires and the massive anti-grav lifts that enable them to function are indeed your best choice. Even with all the devastation and the pillaging there are bound to be more than enough useful components somewhere in the vastness of the hive. The main challenging is getting to the parts; the trek back and forth is long and ardours, even without tons of equipment. Takes a man on foot, without much encumbrance, a day to walk either way. And given the number of warbands on the move the situation is more dangerous than usual - stealth or protection or speed are needed to get safely across the wastelands. Ideally you should have techy-savvy people with each reclamation team, or you risk damage to the components (or getting the wrong components).

"Sergeant Malavida, please establish a communication with Magos Azrael."

"Magos" says Maegon after hearing Azrael's concerns about the Ship. "Should I leave my Interrogator, my Savant and civilians to form a reclamation team in Kasr Heshim ?"

[DM B]

Azrael is somewhat surprised by the apparently Imperial nature of the mechanisms of the Xenos ships, but is grateful nonetheless.  If the components perform as expected it should significantly reduce the requirement for hard to find items from back in the hive.  The Xenos ships couldn't supply all of the components they needed though, as a rather large number of the ship's gravitic coils had been damaged, so they would still need to get some from the hive.

The components appear in such numbers that they must either have been pillaged from the Imperium on a grand scale - or some unscrupulous merchant, a Rogue Trader perhaps, have sold this hallowed tech to the abominable xenos. Given the lack of identification markings on the parts you're inclined to believe the latter.

Extracting everything they needed from the hive would be difficult, particularly as some of the components they needed would be rather heavy, but now that Azrael had rather more equipment and resources to hand, both from the ship and from the Xenos constructs, he could rig up a couple of small speeders that could be used to carry materials.

Using the whole of the day - and various scavenged components - you're able to construct a makeshift barge that should be able to carry the weight of the parts you need. In addition you've been able to fashion two skiffs out of wrecked ground vehicles. Neither will be able to carry much more than a ton or two, but their are somewhat faster than the barge and can be used either as escorts or used around the ship for various other duties.

Relatedly: You work is attracting the attention of the surrounding crowd. There are a few clashes in the ruins around you, including one that appears to be a mad attempt at rushing the ship. That attack is very short-lived, as Hrothgar's and Azrael's men pick them off as they rush forward.

[DM B]

@Maegon: Sergeant Kremiel contacts the Inquisitor, both to appraise him of the situation and to arrange for a meeting.

[Dragon Lord]

"Magos" says Maegon after hearing Azrael's concerns about the Ship. "Should I leave my Interrogator, my Savant and civilians to form a reclamation team in Kasr Heshim ?"

"That would be most helpful Inquisitor.  I am sending a group of my people from the ship with a cargo barge and a pair of escort vehicles.  The situation around the ship is growing restless so we need to move quickly in retrieving the necessary components from the Hive.  I cannot join the reclamation team myself as I am needed here to continue supervising the repairs, but I have briefed my people thoroughly about what is required."

Azrael sends out a group of 10 people lead by Derryck, and including Sam, with the barge and skiffs to join up with Maegon's people in the Hive.  The vehicles should be more than capable of carrying back both groups and the salvaged parts.  Azrael's group is also taking some extra weapons from the ship's armoury to arm the civilians.  They will reach the Hive quite quickly, but the journey back will be somewhat slower when the vehicles are weighed down with equipment.

After the group departs, Azrael returns to the repairs.  Work is progressing well, a number of breaches in the outer hull have now been sealed (focusing first on those that might allow ingress for the crowds gathering around the ship).  These repairs Azrael leaves mostly in the hands of the crew, as they quite straightforward, concentrating his attention on the more delicate internal work.  While conducting and supervising the repair work Azrael has taken to wearing his Mechanicus robes again as it helps to mark him out to the crew, though he is careful to remove them on the rare occasions he needs to inspect the exterior.  At some point he needs to go to engineering to check the condition of the drives, but he is still putting that off.

Separately Azrael has also been trying to put out feelers amongst those outside the ship, to determine whether any of them might be useful.

[LordPsycho]

"Magos" says Maegon after hearing Azrael's concerns about the Ship. "Should I leave my Interrogator, my Savant and civilians to form a reclamation team in Kasr Heshim ?"

"That would be most helpful Inquisitor.  I am sending a group of my people from the ship with a cargo barge and a pair of escort vehicles.  The situation around the ship is growing restless so we need to move quickly in retrieving the necessary components from the Hive.  I cannot join the reclamation team myself as I am needed here to continue supervising the repairs, but I have briefed my people thoroughly about what is required."

"Understood, Magos. Please let us know what is required, so that Nemus and his team can begin to search."

The Inquisitor divides his force in two groups.

Nemus and Jethro lead the reclamation team including almost 80 civilians and 6 former gangers, protected by 13 Spiders.

Maegon leaves with the 10 Manticores, Oshgor (hidden under his mask), THX-138 (the rusted battle servitor), 6 former gangers (to keep an eye on them) and 36 civilians (too exhausted to be send exploring the Hive's ruins).

The whole band is growing, but desperately lacks armed forces.

@Maegon: Sergeant Kremiel contacts the Inquisitor, both to appraise him of the situation and to arrange for a meeting.

Maegon is pleased by Kremiel's proposal. They organize a meeting some distance from the ship. Maegon is anxious to hear the Astartes' views, and maybe convince them to join their force to his retinue.

During the forced march toward the ship, 3 more civilians fall to never rise again.

[Dragon Lord]

Azrael provides details of the parts that are required so that Nemus can begin to search for them.  In particular they are to try and locate any apparently intact turbo-elevators, but not to try and extract the grav coils until Azrael's people are there to supervise the delicate dismantlement.

After relaying the details Azrael has one final message for Maegon, "I can't go into detail now, but when you arrive at the ship there is a matter that I could do with your expertise to assess."

Azrael is still concerned about the warp core, and also about Captain Lexander, and knows that the Inquisitor will have more experience dealing with daemons, and will hopefully know what to do.  With Lexander in command of the ship though he doesn't want to risk stating his concerns, even over their secure comm-link.

[LordPsycho]

Azrael has one final message for Maegon, "I can't go into detail now, but when you arrive at the ship there is a matter that I could do with your expertise to assess."

Azrael is still concerned about the warp core, and also about Captain Lexander, and knows that the Inquisitor will have more experience dealing with daemons, and will hopefully know what to do.  With Lexander in command of the ship though he doesn't want to risk stating his concerns, even over their secure comm-link.

"Understood, Magos. Who is guarding the area outside the ship ?"

@Maegon: Sergeant Kremiel contacts the Inquisitor, both to appraise him of the situation and to arrange for a meeting.

Maegon is pleased by Kremiel's proposal. They organize a meeting some distance from the ship. Maegon is anxious to hear the Astartes' views, and maybe convince them to join their force to his retinue.

During the forced march toward the ship, 3 more civilians fall to never rise again.

"Greetings, Sergeant Kremiel. Glad to meet you. Without your intervention, the ship could have been destroyed by the xenos, and with it possibly our last chance to leave this doomed world."

[DM B]

As for who is guarding the outside of the ship, the situation is roughly like this:

Kremiel is hanging back, but with his high mobility he can intercept anyone coming or going.
Gaius and the Scourge control the most likely approaches to the crash site.
Hrothgar controls access into/out of the ship, plus some of the key corridors and junctions.

[DM B]

Up close you can see that the sergeant - and the rest of his command - are battered and battle-weary. They must have been stranded on Cadia for a while.

"Greetings, Inquisitor. It is as you say, this ship, if it can be made to fly, may well be our final chance of getting away from Cadia. And I've had just about of this accursed planet!

I'm willing to extend my aid to anyone who may have a shot at fixing the ship. To this end I'm sending two of my landspeeders to escort the reclamation skiffs. They are of no use to us if they are destroyed - or if the reclamation crews are prevented from doing their job."

[DM B]

The freight barge and the two skiffs make good speed as they head for the ruined hive in the pre-dusk hour. They are guarded by two Astartes landspeeders that sweep the path they must travel, flushing out anything that might threaten the trio of makeshift craft. A couple of times there is weapons fire, but by the time the transports reach the hotspots the fighting is over and the space marines have moved on.

The reclamators reach the hive even as darkness blankets the broken spires. They are greeted by the bulk of Maegon's warband, who are waiting for them as per their master's orders. Together they will proceed to find the parts Maegon has listed as essential for the repair of the starship.

[DM B]

The reclamation crews work like mad for one night, one day, and another night. And still they have only about two thirds of the stuff on Azrael's list. Had it not been for the guidance of Interrogator Nemus and the special skills possessed by Savant Jethro Asklepios it would not have gone nearly as well.

There have been a few deaths and serious injuries, caused mostly by accidents, as the men become more and more exhausted. No major attacks by other gangers or scavengers though. In between close support provided by such characters as Sam, and the perimeter patrols conducted by the handful of Dark Angels, the workers are relatively safe (as safe as can be in the twisted, broken mass that is the ruined hive).

---

Back at the ship Azrael is making good progress. The clan of squats have come of of seclusion - urged on by their remaining Elder - and are helping out as best they can. Some of them are quite tech-savvy (but aren't exactly acting in accordance with the machine rites), plus they know the ship very well indeed.

Lexander and his marines are mostly content to stay out of the way.
There are rumors of the Tenebous Cabal engaging in sorcerous rituals somewhere deep inside the ship.

[Dragon Lord]

Azrael has somewhat mixed feelings about yet more space marines getting involved.  Certainly the Dark Angels are being helpful at the moment, and would be useful allies should a confrontation with Lexander occur.  However, having so many superhumans milling around does make Azrael slightly concerned that the normal humans (such as himself) might get sidelined.

Now that the squats have come out of seclusion Azrael has been working quite closely with them.  Though he may be a priest of the machine cult, they have been on this ship for far longer than he has and know every nook and cranny of the inside of the ship.  He also hopes to be able to glean from them further details of what to expect of the enginarium.

The reclamation crews in the hive are progressing well and the workers on the ship have begun preparing the ship's systems to accept the new components.

[DM B]

Azrael's fears are not unfounded; Astartes are not exactly known for caring much for 'lesser' beings. But there isn't much that can be done about it, is there?

Inquisitor Maegon is on-site at the crash site. Sergeant Kremiel is following the Inquisitor around. There is a bit of tension between the Dark Angel and Hrothgar.

Maegon's made contact with Azrael. Azrael has urged the Inquisitor to investigate the enginarium.

---

Interrogator Nemus orders the reclamation teams to return to the ship. The don't have all the stuff on Azrael's list, but he wants to drop off what he's already scavenged so that work can continue.

[DM B]

You've managed to secure enough part to make the necessary repairs. Azrael would have liked for some additional fixes and some added redundancies, but that would require more trips to the hive, and more days of labor. With Maegon hinting that speed is of the essence, it looks like you'll have to make do with what you have.

The only question now is who do you want to let on board/do you want to do something with those already on the ship?

[LordPsycho]

"Greetings, Sergeant Kremiel. Glad to meet you. Without your intervention, the ship could have been destroyed by the xenos, and with it possibly our last chance to leave this doomed world."

Up close you can see that the sergeant - and the rest of his command - are battered and battle-weary. They must have been stranded on Cadia for a while.

"Greetings, Inquisitor. It is as you say, this ship, if it can be made to fly, may well be our final chance of getting away from Cadia. And I've had just about of this accursed planet!

I'm willing to extend my aid to anyone who may have a shot at fixing the ship. To this end I'm sending two of my landspeeders to escort the reclamation skiffs. They are of no use to us if they are destroyed - or if the reclamation crews are prevented from doing their job."

"Good initiative, Sergeant.

I am wondering... Do you know if the damned Emperor's Children are still in command of the Ship ?"

Sergeant Kremiel explains what he knows about the situation.

"Access into and out of the ship seem to be controlled by Space Wolves. However, the outer area is under control of servants of the Great Enemy. The question is... Should we try to maintain the truce and board the ship together, or try to crush them ?

And unfortunately, we don't know much about the situation inside the ship."

"Thank you, Sergeant. I have several soldiers inside, together with a strong ally: Magos Azrael Kane. He is our best chance to repair the ship."

How ironic.
Azrael was the name of the Supreme Grand Master of the Dark Angels, missing in action during the 13th Black Crusade.

"Concerning the other warbands... Please let me read the Imperial Tarot."

Maegon takes a moment to rest, protected by his own troops and the Dark Angels.

Then he draws the Tarot, and tells his reading to Sergeant Kremiel and Malavida.

"The troops stationed outside are not a threat. However, some great powers are waiting for our coming inside..."

"Are you ready to move forward, Inquisitor."

Not really, but I will never be as much as now.

"Please open the way. Emperor protects."

Maegon sees Sergeant Kremiel grin before putting his helmet, as if he had already lost most of his faith.

Inquisitor Maegon is on-site at the crash site. Sergeant Kremiel is following the Inquisitor around. There is a bit of tension between the Dark Angel and Hrothgar.

Maegon's made contact with Azrael. Azrael has urged the Inquisitor to investigate the enginarium.

The Inquisitor takes the opportunity to move away from the Space Marines and asks Sergeant Malavida to call Azrael.

"Dear Magos, glad to hear you. I'm outside with Sergeant Kremiel of the Dark Angels and..."

Maegon hesitates.

"...Wulfen Hrothgar of the Space Wolves."

The Space Wolf's nature was not a big surprise. Maegon has seen so many things on Cadia... But that may complicate further plot and action... If Space Wolves are not easy to manage, what about Wulfens ?...

"What did you want to tell me ? Should I join you inside ?"