Futuristic Stellar Knights | The Crew

[Lost Swordlance]

"WEAPONS ONLINE, ENGINES ONLINE, SHIELD ONLINE, LIFE SUPPORT ONLINE, ALL SYSTEM NOMINALS. Welcome Captain." said the loud robotic voice of the System Validation protocol.

Soleil was standing up in front of a navigation panel, she was only checking a few things. Soleil was still getting used to our new ship, a refitted Empire cruiser, this new ship, while not as stealthy as her old Pirate Corvette, has significantly more firepower and crew capacity. She'll miss her old ramming beast, but this is for the best. Scrapped from the typical white and blue colors of the Stellar Empire, the ship has been painted black, gold with hints of red. Ironspittah told her to put more red as that would make the ship go faster, this ork theory seems idiotic but she still respect Ironspittah's opinion.

She booted off the console and started walking away. She opened the deck's high durability door, now fixed, to head toward the crew quarters. Those sure are way more fancy and voluminous than the Corvette's, we transformed the cafeteria into a Bar/Cafeteria. There is still much stuff to do before this ship is really "ours", we are still not quite used to it and some space is just unnocupied, we should also recruit some additional crew, while our current numbers (about 20) are sufficient to operate the ship, we could go up to 100, or even 200 if we converted some rooms into bunks, like the emergency pods, who the hell need those.

Soleil walks past a worker which is still doing some welding, while Rogue engineers aren't the most reliable or skilled, that's the best we can do so far. In the future, when the Empire Cruiser will be unrecognizablably modified, we'd certainly be able to strike some deal with more competent and civilized engineers, maybe Sophons, I don't know.

She enters the bar.

 

[Martydi]

Decius Audens entered the the bar with distinct sound of his many cybernetic legs impacting the floor. He looked around for a second and spoke in deep, emotionless voice. "To dedicate so much space just for eating. Prisoners of flesh are so wasteful." Magos then approached the captain and leaned on his cane. "Captain Soleil, I have checked the ship for mechanical issues. All crucial machines are running properly, yet Machine Spirits are unhappy. I will have to run additional rites to convince them to serve us faithfully. Our holy incense and blessed machine oil supplies are sufficient for several weeks of intense rituals. Soon I will check on-board cogitators for useful information, and then begin establishing my laboratory. Before I go, I must ask: did we manage to take any prisoners during our boarding of this ship? I could use servitors to help me with my rites."

 

[Lost Swordlance]

Soleil turned toward Decius, swiveling on the stool she sat on. "Don't you still require sustenance ?" she said a bit surprised.

"Anyway, I know you don't like AI's, but I can't give you any of the prisoners. They were quite cooperative and they aren't criminal enough for me to condemn to such a life. I've decided to ransom them back to their family, it'll fill up the bank too. What I can do, is give you a few hundreds energy credits, I'm sure this space station has some scums in their prisons you can buy for labor or to turn them, that would be fine by me."

Servitors sure useful but... they creep her out a bit. Being a captain means managing a bunch of weird crew needs though, and she needs to stay a good captain.

 

[Skylord Nexus]

Lucius was currently looking the Captain as he had some reports and a couple of requests for her. He had actually been quite busy that day, he had spent the first half the the day decorating his room so it was as fabulous as him. In the second half of the day he had taken the liberty to create an inventory of the ship, along with predictions on how long they would last. While it was true that he didn't have to do it, i enjoyed being helpful, not that it would make s difference as he always seemed to be at the same level of enjoyment no matter what.

He eventually arrived in the new bar and his smile got even bigger as he saw the Captain, he held his right arm up in the air and began quickly waving at her as he approached, his sickeningly cheerful voice being able to greatly increase someone's mood, or give them a headache (depends who you ask) "Hi Captain!" The pale man then took a seat with her and tech-priest "I made an inventory report for you, we seem to be well stocked for the most part, though we could do with some more base components in case we need to do any repairs further down the line." He then handed the Jedi a data-pad containing the information he had enquired.

Continuing to maintain his happy demeanour, Lucius started talking again "I also have a request." He then leant in closer and began whispering to her "I was wondering if i could have a small room far away from everything else to convert into a small alter to Slaanesh, usually i'd keep it in my room like before, but i'm worried it makes people uncomfortable. I promise i won't let it get out of hand! I'll even work with Decius to make sure nothing gets effected by it." He then looked at the Captain expectantly with big puppy dog eyes .

 

[Lost Swordlance]

"Hey, Lucius." At least, Lucius is somewhat normal, if we ignore his fanatical obsession with the Chaos Gods that is.
Soleil quickly reviewed Lucius's data-pad before sliding it back toward him. "You guys are hemorrhaging our credits, I knew this ship wouldn't be cheap to refit but still." She snickered with a smile.
She considered Lucius's request before slamming her hand onto the bar. Not trying to whisper, Soleil answered loudly "Well, that's possible I guess, you can build your thing inside one of the Emergency Pods in the rear. That way, if things go south, we can jettison the whole room with ease. I've never met demons and I don't plan on meeting some anytime soon." She stood up and circled around the bar to reach the other side.

Soleil grabbed three glasses, then looked at Decius, "Oh, right" and only placed two on the bar while putting away the third. She took a bottle at random, couldn't exactly read what was written on it but she recognized it as some kind of alcoholic beverage. She filled the glasses to half and put away the bottle before taking one and leaning onto the wall. "I'm glad we got a new ship, the old one was getting rusty and inefficient. I wonder how we should name this one. What do you think ?" she said, addressing her two crewmates.

 

[Skylord Nexus]

Lucius' smile somehow got even brighter as Soleil gave him her approval as he clapped his hands together in excitement "YAY! Thanks Captain, and don't worry, I'll make sure everything nothing gets out of hand, and as you said, if it does, we can just eject the shrine out. There's also no particular need to worry about demons, if any did turn up they would be demons of Slaanesh, and i like to believe that they would be the most amenable of chaos demons... i think anyway, I've never actually met any."

Lucius took the other glass and began sipping at it's content, while it was true that he had no need to drink it, i did enjoy it non the less, in truth, he was thankful that he was still able to enjoy food and drink, otherwise he'd just be stuck with blood, which would... suck. He did however cock his head to the left a little while he thought "I'm not really sure to be honest, I've never been good at naming things... OH! What about The Dark Vigil, it fits the new colour scheme of the ship whilst also sounding morally ambiguous."

It was then that the over proposal Lucius had for the Captain popped back into his mind, sometimes he cursed his absentmindedness "Also Captain, i have a suggestion. What if we ask the crew we captured whether any of them want to join us? I mean, it's unlikely, but there may be a few of them with nothing to go back to, and it would be good to have some crew members who are more familiar with this ship."

 

[Lost Swordlance]

"I'm always skeptical of things with the word 'Dark' in their name." replies Soleil. She went to drop of her now empty glass by the bar.
Soleil thought about the prisonners, Empire soldiers and crew, weird, somehow she felt some kind of link to their condition, she'd probably be a Empire dog if she had just followed her training and not escape. "The higher rank of the Empire's troops often are quite fanatical about their assignment, I allow you to go and recruit some if they want, but be careful, if you recruit a spy, I'll hold you responsable." she said.

"Anyhow, I need to manage our current crew now, gotta make sure everyone knows his post. Speaking about that, Lucius, you are part of the boarding crew if I'm not mistaken ?"

 

[Martydi]

"Chaos shrine on board. Ridiculous. I still have several incense burners from the Argosa III action, I shall deploy them nearby to limit potential daemonic incursions. And vile stench that often comes from Chaos shrines of varied origin, if you care about this effect too." Decius turned towards the door "Captain, if my attention is necesary, I shall be at the bridge, looking through cogitators, or later in my cabin. Please be careful whilst seeking me there, some of my laboratory equipment can be quite volatile if not secured in stable position. And Lucius, if I find any corrupted Machine Spirits, daemon intrusions or Warp rifts on this ship, I will personally turn you into biofuel." With these words Tech-Priest left the bar, emitting short bursts of static, possibly grumbling in Lingua-technis.

Magos Audens approached doors to the bridge, still damaged after Soleil's unsublte entry during the boarding action. After getting all of his excess cybernetic limbs through the doorframe, Decius approached the main interface. Most of previous crew's blood was washed away, but several red spots still remained. After uttering a few phrases in Lingua-technis, Audens connected to the terminal and started looking through data files of the vessel.

 

[Skylord Nexus]

Lucius gave Soleil a quick two finger salute "Understood Captain! I'll go look through the list of crew members and find people with no meaningful relations to the Empire, and for people who would have a reason to want to leave. If any of them do a thing wrong you can land on a planet and tie me to the hull all day!" That being said, Lucius did decide that if he found anyone, that he may have to have them watched by other members of the crew for a period to keep an eye on them just in case. He then let out a small, cute, and slightly disconcerting giggle and looked at the tech-priest "No need to worry! I have no idea how to do any of that, and even if i did i wouldn't, too messy you see, chaos is really hard to wash out."

Lucius had began leaving when the Captain addressed him again. He quickly span round on his heel to face her, a puzzled, just still extremely happy look on his face "Yes i am Captain, Why? Is there a pressing matter you need to to attend to, because if so, i'd be more than happy to get to it post haste."

 

[Lost Swordlance]

Soleil nodded goodbye to Decius as he left.

She turned back toward Lucius. "If you guys could try to not allienate each other that would be great by the way."
"But my point about you being on the boarding crew was, since our ship is rather larger than before, we can't approach the same way. We'll probably need to turn a section of the ship into a carrier for a smaller boarding vessel. Since it won't be available right away, the boarding crew, such as you, should try to make themselves useful at other posts for now." Soleil start to walk off. "Sorry to leave you at that, but since we are flying off today, those matters are somewhat urgent."

 

[Skylord Nexus]

Lucius gave the Captain a small shrug "I can make no promises either way, but i do try to make sure everyone gets along with each other."

Lucius then proceeded to hold both hands behind his make and paced back an forth in contemplation "Hmm. I see what you mean, and at the moment what need a lot more crew members working on the ship rather that waiting to leave it. I'll inform the rest of the boarding crew for you and deal with assigning them to more relevant places." He then began to leave the room "If you need me just call." and then, he was gone.

The vampire had returned to his room, and sat in a large gold and lilac armchair and began to get to work, he did pride himself on being a diligent worker after all. He sent a message to the rest on the boarding crew informing them of the Captains orders and told them to go join whatever post needed their skills most. He then set about reading through the crew list, and slowly began taking notes on possible new members for the crew, though not particularly exciting, Lucius was still happy to be helping.

 

[Martydi]

Decius left the bridge quite disappointed. Of all the data on this ship, only things worth any attention were several schematics that could be of little value to the Mechanicum, as well as locations on several cargo transports this vessel was supposed to escort. With their designated escort boarded and taken over, those transports will surely be additionally reinforced or retreated to a safe location, so there was little hope of catching them in time for assault. As such, Audens headed straight for his room instead of reporting to the captain.

 

[Lost Swordlance]

Soleil walked toward the deck, relaxed and calm.

"WHAM!" The ship was suddenly shook around. Lights flickered. An alarm started resonating around the ship. "FUCK, FUCK, We are under attack ? What the hell !" Soleil tumbled down for a second before rushing toward the deck. Once there, a few of the piloting crew was already there. "What is happening ? Who is attacking us ?" she asked as she took her place in the commander seat, putting on her tactical helmet. "The Stellar Empire ! 1 Light Cruiser, 4 Corvettes, On our right ! They are firing ballistic missiles ! Our shield are depleting fast." said a member of the piloting crew. Soleil started a broadcast, her voice suddenly echoing inside the ship. "All Crew to battle stations, prepare for an emergency FTL jump. The station double crossed us. There may be invaders on board." Soleil started to issue order to the piloting crew. "Undock, don't care for safety, we'll be blown to smithereens if we stay here much longer. We need to return fire, focus the Corvettes."

The situation definitely took a turn for the worse. Soleil was pissed, she didn't quite envision this possibility.

 

[Skylord Nexus]

Lucius let out a small yelp as his chair tipped back from the shaking, sending him rolling across the floor. Lucius then led there on the floor in confusion until he heard Soleil's broadcast and quickly jumped up. Leaving his datapad on his bed, the vampire grabbed his rapier and made his way to the bridge. Upon his arrival, Lucius quickly looked at the data on their attackers and flicked his head around to the Captain, his demeanour still being inappropriately happy "Well, this is a bit of a pickle isn't it? With you permission Captain I'll head down to where we're holding the captured crew and make sure no one can let them out, if that happens we'll be terribly outnumbered." Not waiting for an answer Lucius then left the bridge, happily skipping to his destination, humming a little tune.

 

[Martydi]

With the attack disturbing Magos' procedures of establishing a laboratory, Decius decided to make himself useful in the engine room, praying to the Machine Spirit of the vessel, and fixing any possible mechanical issues. As such, he ensured his weapons are charged and loaded, their Machine Spirits willing to cooperate and all rites of maintenance completed within acceptable past timeframe. Tech-Priest then grabbed a handheld incense burner with his mechadendrite and left his room, heading to the back of the vessel.

After reaching the engine room, Tech-Priest left his power axe leaning against the wall and began preparations to appease Machine Spirit of the vessel. He lit up the incense inside the burner and picked up the power axe. When incense burner started to give off approperiate amounts of smoke, Decius began emitting machine-like noise, prayer in Lingua-technis to the Omnissiah and the Machine Spirit. Whilst singing the canticles, Magos also scanned the machinery with his optical augmentations for any sign of malfunction or mechanical issues.

Spoiler: Decius' prayer, translated from Lingua-technis as best as possible

Omnissiah, Tech-Priest requires your aid, bless this machine
Omnissiah, Your faithful servant requests Your aid, bless this machine
Machine Spirit, Omnissiah's faithful are in need of your service, do not fail us
Machine Spirit, Omnissiah commands you to do your duty, do not fail us
Engage the linkage Omnissiah
Engage the linkage Omnissiah
Our duty is to see Your will be done
And to accomplish our duty
We require Your blessings
Engage the linkage Omnissiah
Engage the linkage Omnissiah
May we be blessed in our service to You

 

[Lost Swordlance]

Soleil and her crew shake the Cruiser out of the station as an Empire's plasma barrage strikes it, fire and decompression. Soleil hesitated while picking up the FTL target, where could they be safe ? She had an idea but it was cocky. She resumed her broadcast. "Alright boys, here is my plan, we jump inside Marauder's turf and then immediately jump once again. Hopefully, the Empire will think we are with them and attack them instead of us while we jump away. They'll most likely be able to follow us on the first jump, but not on the second. What I need you guys to do, is to be really careful about any Anti-Cruise torpedoes, those would fuck us bad. Also, we may get attacked by Marauders but I prefer that than the Empire." said Soleil in a authoritative but supportive tone.

"Initiating jump, jumping in 120 seconds. Brace for launch." said an automated voice across the ship.

 

[RayPurchase]

Santini's eyes flick open as the bunk he sprawled across begins to shake. He let’s out a groan, the thumping in his head matched only by the thumping of the ship as it rocks, a handful of empty bottles from last night roll across his floor. He pulls himself up from the bunk, thankfully still fully dressed from when he crashed out, dark shirt, black jeans and a pair of matching dark leather boots. He stumbles slightly steadily to he mirror hanging slightly ajar on the wall. The room is a mess, and admittedly was so before the sudden shaking, with various bits of dismantled tech strewn seemingly haphazardly about it. He slips a pair of sunglasses on, grumbling happily as the harshness of he light fixtures is removed, and grabs his ever present leather duster, pulling it on as he exits the room.

The corridor is a hub of activity, various crewmembers running this way and that, with alarms blaring and orders being shouted. Santini however is an oasis of calm, striding purposefully down the corridor with a song on his lips, whistling to himself happily, and sending pleasantries to any crewmembers he came across on his way to the bridge.

Spoiler: Whistling Tune

He finally made his way onto the bridge as Soleil finished her broadcast. He flicks a salute in her direction, flopping himself down onto a spare seat on the bridge.

“Morning Captain, got to say I’m not a big fan of this new wake up alarm feature the ship has got,”

He frowns and looks at one of the screens close to him.

“Ah frack, who the hell did we piss of this time?”

 

[Lost Swordlance]

"Did you actually listen to my broadcast ?" Of course he didnt. "It's the Empire this time, can't the FTL go faster ? We are dying here." said Soleil, half to Santini, half to the piloting crew. A weird metallic sound can be heard and an alert shows up on screen. 'Hull breach in Sector 4-6.' "Sector 4-6 Camera's on Screen." she ordered, after a few seconds, the screened turned to show the footage.

Some kind of drill punctured the hull and opens. A large boarding robot climbs out of the hollow container. It is outfitted with one large minigun and a plasma saw which he is using to damage whatever feels like is important. This robot is probably not remote controlled, a simple combat AI.

"Shit, Shit !" she toggled the broadcast once again. "Boarding Robot in Sector 4-6, Be careful." Soleil turned back toward Santini. "Can you go deal with that ? Do your thing with it ?"

"FTL CHARGED. JUMP INITIATED."

The ship is suddenly pulled forward, the outer space turns black. The ship is now stable and flying through space at a ludicrous speed. It will still take about 15 minutes of travel time if we are to trust the consoles. "It's not over boys ! 15 minutes of respite, try to do as much as you can." Soleil broadcasts.

 

[The_Omega_Effect]

It appeared that Kiro's nap was to be short lived as their ship was attacked. He was no heavy sleeper so the shake from the impact the ship received was enough to jolt him out of sleep. He was already in his armor, with him rushing over to his rifle and loading it with standard armor piercing shots. The alarm was starting to get annoying with him listening in to the broadcast from his captain.

"All Crew to battle stations, prepare for an emergency FTL jump. The station double crossed us. There may be invaders on board. Undock, don't care for safety, we'll be blown to smithereens if we stay here much longer. We need to return fire, focus the Corvettes." Kiro rolled his eyes under his helmet as he had already voiced his concern about trusting these people. But with him criticizing everything, it appeared that he was simply getting ignored lately. No time to contemplate on such things however, as there was an attack for him to repel.

"Alright boys, here is my plan, we jump inside Marauder's turf and then immediately jump once again. Hopefully, the Empire will think we are with them and attack them instead of us while we jump away. They'll most likely be able to follow us on the first jump, but not on the second. What I need you guys to do, is to be really careful about any Anti-Cruise torpedoes, those would fuck us bad. Also, we may get attacked by Marauders but I prefer that than the Empire."

He left his room and loaded one of the two magazines he had into his rifle, with one of the massive rounds being chambered into the barrel, prepared to blast any intruders. If he paid attention correctly, he had heard that there would be possible invaders on board the ship. Instead of heading to the bridge and being useless, he went hunting for their unwelcome guests. Sector 4-6 was not that far off from him, meaning that he would have to get there soon in order to stop the boarding robot from doing any more damage than it already had done.

The packed corridors of the ship meant it was difficult for him to get a good angle for a clean shot. But it also meant that it would be easier to detect exactly where the robot was due to the sounds it was making as it destroyed things, despite them being separated by a wall or two. Walking into the area and the line of fire of the robot meant death, due to how it could fire at Kiro faster than Kiro could aim and fire his massive rifle. There was his SMG but he was unsure as to whether it would penetrate the robots armor. The robot had finished off its target as it had stopped firing. Closing his eyes, Kiro focused on its footsteps, with him aiming through the wall that was between then. He was glad that he packed his normal bullets, as it allowed for him to get a hit on the robot. He pulled out his SMG and finished off the shot down robot as it could no longer fire back.

"Boarding Robot in Sector 4-6 is down" he spoke into his communicator to his captain as he reloaded his weaponry. Ready to take on more intruders.

 

[RayPurchase]

"Did you actually listen to my broadcast ?"

Santini gives a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders.

"I got the gist of it, but you know, details details details. Much easier to come up here and get it straight from the horse's mouth... not that you have a big mouth Captain,”

"Can you go deal with that ? Do your thing with it ?"

He frowns at the security footage of the droid causing havoc, tapping his finger against the screen. Simple combat AI, essentially programmed to get aboard, shoot anything that moves, and run that power saw against anything that looks like it could be vaguely important; power conduits, coolant ducts, controls, coffee machines... all the important stuff. Dangerous buggers, heavy armour, oversized weaponry, but boy were they thick. And he could easily deal with thick droids. He spins around on his chair, leaping up and brushing himself down.

“I’ll be back in two shakes, make sure no one nicks my seat,”

He breaks into a jog as he exits the bridge, his duster flapping behind him, as it does revealing the oversized revolver at his hip. If it was required he could begin blasting away at the bigger with it, armour piercing rounds would do the trick, maybe 3 rounds in its CPU. Hopefully it wasn’t going to come to that however. His main weapon was a rather nondescript wrist mounted computer pad strapped to his left forearm. Cobbled together himself, from a multitude of different pieces of tech from differing races and factions, this was his arsenal. Whilst others selected different ammunition he selected different programs and commands, each serving a specific purpose, from simply disabling a system, to making said system turn on its masters. Already his fingers were tapping across it as he jogged down the corridors towards Sector 4-6. His eyes were kept dead ahead, having spent enough time with it to work it effectively blind. Already he had a programme pulled up and ready to broadcast wirelessly, multiple sub routines already in place to help it worm it’s way through the boarding robot's cyberwarfare defences.

He rounded the corner ready to send the code firing towards its target. Instead what he finds is the droid in a crumpled heap, sparks flying. He skids to a halt, he looks at the robot and then looks up at Kiro as he reloaded his weapons.

“You bastard that was mine, I jogged all the way here for nothing,”

He kneels beside the robot, and prises a damaged panel open, glancing inside.

“Great its wrecked, you know how much you can get for serviceable combat droid parts..”

Before he’s able to say exactly how much you can get, the ship jumps, causing him to lose his balance, almost toppling on top of the downed robot.

"It's not over boys ! 15 minutes of respite, try to do as much as you can."

He scrambles off the deck, brushing sparks and debris from the droid off himself.

 

[The_Omega_Effect]

He holstered his SMG as Santini came running to the robot in order to hack it. Although Kiro did not interact with him much at all, he preferred to be around him than the other, more religious nutjobs on the squad. He was not overly zealous like Decius and certainly not obnoxiously positive and bubbly like the vampire.

“You bastard that was mine, I jogged all the way here for nothing,”

"I don't care. If you wanted it so much, you could've sprinted here instead. Maybe you would've gotten here in time to stop the droid yourself." His rifle didn't need reloading as he only fired a single bullet from it. He held it with both of his hands as Santini opened the droid up.

“Great its wrecked, you know how much you can get for serviceable combat droid parts..”

"Not sure. Would it cost as much as it would to repair whatever crucial part of the ship it was going to destro-" The shaking of the ship wasn't enough to throw him off. It did however, lead to him wanting to hurry up and clear the ship faster.

"Lecture me about it after we've repelled the attack." He uttered as he moved on, not wanting to waste any more time on chit chat.

 

[Skylord Nexus]

Lucius made his way down to where the captured Empire crew were being held, and to his surprise, no one was there freeing them, it seemed as though they were all still there. In all honesty, the vampire thought it somewhat of a shame, after the time he'd spent travelling there he's hoped there would be some fun to have. He then drew his rapier and stabbed it into the door controls to make sure that if someone turned up after he left, they'd have a much harder time getting in; true that also applied to them, assuming they survived.

With his job done, Lucius headed back to the bridge where he took the seat previously occupied by Santini and spun around in it a couple of times before stopping in the direction of the Captain "I have an idea Captain, re could rig up a fake communications signal to lure the Marauders here, so that they arrive after we've left, but before the Empire ships get here, giving them one hell of a welcome party."

 

[Lost Swordlance]

She acknowledged Kiro's com as Lucius started to spin on his seat.

"I doubt a lure would work fast enough, Marauders would probably take time to regroup., but It's worth a try. I'll let you work your idea out." Soleil replies to the odd ball that is Lucius. "Aside from that, is everything good on your side ?" Soleil tapped a couple times on her console which changed to display the camera's footage from Sector 4-6, she sees Santini and Kiro arguing, she chuckled, beckoned at Lucius and showed him the footage. "Look at these dudes." she said amused.

"Enough of this. We'll be arriving in about 10 minutes, we have stuff to do." said Soleil as she started to review the map of where they would pop up and look up calculations for how much time they would have to charge for a back to back FTL jump. About 5 minutes at least, and we'd risk damaging the FTL, but it was a risk we had to take in that situation.

 

[Skylord Nexus]

Lucius giggled when he looked at the screen, watching the two men fight was definitely amusing. He let out a happy sigh and looked at the Captain, a big, beaming smile on his face "You know, you really made something special here Captain, I don't think there's a more colourful crew in the Universe. Thanks for making it!"

Lucius then turned to the console and began typing away on it, doing his best to create a message that would be reminiscent of a Marauder's. The basic gist of the message was that the Empire came from nowhere and had started firing on them, destroying most of their ships before they had a chance to fight back and were requesting aid. Admittedly the actual message was slightly more flamboyant and illiterate to somewhat resemble what Lucius imagined a Marauder sounded like. "With your permission Captain, I'll send out the lure."

 

[Martydi]

Decius left the engine room with empty incense burner and deep satisfaction. Machine Spirits allowed the crew to escape. Now that prayers to the Spirit inhabiting the engines were no longer necesary, Tech-Priest decided to go and see how did the fight in sector 4-6 go. Destroyed boarding robot is a source of potential useful parts, whether it was already defeated, or still walking.

Magos Audens approached the destroyed husk of a boarding robot. He scanned the machine with his optical augmentations, happily noticing that not many important parts were destroyed, save for the main AI procesor - which wasn't a loss at all, as Decius would destroy it anyways, given how close it was to a true silica animus. After examining the destroyed robot, Tech-Priest turned towards Kiro and Santini. "Did you destroy this robot? I must congratulate you on your precision, these machines usually can sustain much more gunshots before succumbing to malfunction. It is rare that such feats are accomplished by beings still trapped in their flesh. If only I had a neural cortex, I could salvage the husk of this machine and turn it into a battle-automaton. As it stands now, it can only be disassembled into components."