"Moreover, I am concerned about the corruption that this ship has surely sustained... The crew, the structure, the machine spirit... In addition to mechanical repairs, the purge may be long."
"Indeed, though I am not so worried about the ship itself. From external appearances at least it does not appear that corruption has soaked too deeply into it."
After concluding with Maegon, Azrael informed Hrothgar of the substance of their conversation, allowing the two of them to discuss things themselves at their leisure later. He also told Usher that he and his men were free to go, but were also welcome to remain with the Nar-Ghosts if they wished.
Derryck also then mentioned the location where he had sensed watchers to Azrael and they discussed investigating it the next day.
[OOC: won't happen now]
Some time later Lukas, who was observing the ship and it's surroundings, radioed in to say that there was a large group moving through the ruins at the bow of the ship, presumably intent on attacking it. The group seemed large enough that it posed a real threat to the ship. Azrael considered the situation for a moment and then decided that allowing the assailants to attack the ship and cause some casualties to the defenders, before then providing support to the defenders and 'rescuing' them might be a way to enable them to get onto the ship without having to fight their way through the crew. He contacted Hrothgar and Maegon to inform them of his plan and then instructed those of the Nar-Ghosts who were capable as snipers to get into observation positions, and assist Lukas in taking out any of the defenders who seemed to be a leader (especially that Emperor's Child if he appeared), while the rest were to move under cover closer to the ship.
Lukas picked out a few targets while the others were getting into position, moving silently between firing positions so that it seemed there were many more snipers, and making it difficult for anyone who might try to return fire, though in the general confusion this was probably not a likely prospect anyway.
Several more snipers got into position and joined Lukas in striking at the defenders, keeping the locations and frequency low enough to seem random and disorienting. Just as the rest of the Nar-Ghosts were almost in position however the tide suddenly seemed to turn and the attacking force began to break, despite the fact that they seemed to have the upper hand. This was unexpected and caught Azrael slightly off balance. He told the snipers to continue pinning down the defenders but had the rest fall back slightly and stay in cover while they reconsidered the situation in case a new unknown force had entered the equation. He also contacted Maegon up in the hive to see if he could say anything from his elevated vantage point.
[OOC: As events around the ship have moved a little faster than I expected I thought I needed to bring Azrael back into the action, but it also seemed appropriate for them to have moved a little faster than Azrael expected too!]
