Wait! It's dangerous out there, take two!

"Soooooo now that we've got a few spare moments, perhaps we should relax! What do you lot do for fun around here?" Lae'orenar is addressing the room at large, imagining that the common crew as well as the ranking officers will all have different delights to indulge in.

"Here, we can play my favorite game. It's called 'shut up and fix the ship.' If you talk or the ship isn't fixed in three weeks, you loose! Sound fun? Great. Ready. Set. Go."

Lae'orenar mimes locking and zipping her lips shut and then smilles at Tristran. She begins walking off the bridge to follow Desilco.

Please dear Holy Emperor don't let him find me

Desilco will be taking some of the men to calm the situation and get everything straightened out. He'll do it in addition to ordering an increase in ration quality for the men to help the situation as well as have our fancy music room play relaxing music throughout the ship. Those things in conjunction with the personal reassurance from the captain should do well to calm people down a bit.

I'll also use my rogue trader power to give Karitoss a bonus to repairing the ship. Forgot I had that power

Desilco exits the bridge with what manpower he can muster and Lae'orenar follows close behind. The enigmatic pair witness gore and grisly sights at every turn and in every hall. Worse than the massive casualties is the Equinox herself. Some of the halls collapsed, pipes have burst and circuits have melted into fine globs of precious metal. The Lord Captain successfully calms down and rescue a sizable portion of the crew but there is no hiding that strong sentiments of rebellion and mutiny are stirring.

"Worst case scenario I offer our new Eldar to any mutineers to sate their hunger for revenge" Desilco thinks to himself as the newest annoyance in his life follows behind him. He makes a note to himself that the Eldar may be satiating its hunger for torture and misery by annoying him with it's presence.

After the crew is calmed to some reasonable level that can be expected of the situation he goes off in search of Karitoss.

"Explorator Karitoss, it shames me to see the Equinox and her crew in such miserable condition. Tell me, is there any hope of salvaging her or will this possibly be her final journey? I would hate to see her last resting place not even be within the physical dimmension."

"Attention duelistscrewthugs, we have a damaged engine and Staravar macrocannon. We shall proceed to repair them posthaste."

Desilco turns to one of the men with him and says "Armsman, show the Eldar to her quarters. Keep it away from the main traffic areas, we don't need it getting in the way with movement about the ship."

Specifically not speaking to the Eldar Desilco goes to speak with Joachim about having a message sent out inside of the Webway. as doubtful as it may be that it'll work, it could be the ships only hope. He summons Tristan and Novalez to join him as well not wanting to disturb Karitosses repairs but still wanting to set about formulating a plan

The armsman and two of her buddies escort Lae'orenar to her restrictive quarters. They are unable to avoid showing off the Dark Eldar in the main hallways because of the collapsed and dangerous corridors running around the periphery of the Equinox. Meanwhile, the tech-adepts and able bodied still breathing on board get to work repairing the staravar macrocannon and the damaged sections of the plasma drive.

Before Desilco convenes at a meeting with Joachim he is found by one of his division leaders, Yhvol. Yhvol kneels at the Desilco's feet and addresses him. "Lord-Captain, grim tidings come. The tech-adepts have confirmed that the massive scale of the damage wreaked on the Equinox has damaged the life support beyond repair. We have not the resources or rare components required for the sacrament of renewal needed to restore it either. They estimate we have ten weeks at the very most sir, less if any further damage comes to your vessel."

"This is grim news indeed. You did well to bring this before me before telling the rest of the crew of these developments. Tell no one else of this latest problem and see to it that those who know don't let it slip. Should word get out about this anarchy would surely ensue. I will take the matter up with my advisors and we will determine a means out of this dimmension and to safety. Succeed at your task and I'll se you promoted Yhvol"

"I am most grateful my lord. I will not speak to any others about this. I think it unlikely the tech-adepts will spread rumors the crew either sir." Yhvol takes his leave.

Joachim finally makes it to Deslico's presence after much delay.

"I am sorry lord captain, it seems that I was knocked unconscious for a good while by the impact of the latest attack. I will get to sending the message for help right away, although I do not know how much it would help since this does not seem to be a place humans should be in."

Joachim spends a couple of minutes entering a meditative state, and then uses an PUSH +3 to project out a message for any imperium psycker in the area to receive.

"This is the Equinox of the Imperium, we are in grave danger after a dark eldar attack. Anybody who can help, please come to our aid."

Joachim's psychic emanations echo through warp in every direction. Seconds later the bridge shakes vigorously and nearly everyone falls to the ground. A few more moments pass and the shaking ceases. Everyone collects themselves and return to their duties. Only time will tell if the message has reached its allies.

Three weeks pass by quickly. Every adviser, officer and crewmember has been working day in and day out to expedite the repairs to the Equinox and keep a pretense of peace and civility on deck. Finally the engine and the macrocannon are repaired to near full functionality. Still, the living quarters and hull of the Equinox have not been fixed up since the engagement with Dark Eldar and the effects of this has manifested in strong resentment towards the Lord-Captain and his advisers that festers just beneath that veneer of civility the officers have worked so hard to maintain. There have been no responses from astropaths and no ships observed passing this nook of the webway. Lastly, the crew has been complaining about stuffy air and strange tasting water, but this might just be a case of insanity made real as hypochondria.

At the meeting Desilco tells his advisers of the pressing issue of the life support system and the haste that must be made to get out of the Webway. Other than that it's just a general debriefing of the situation so everyone knows the situation and everyone is sent to do what they can.

After the three weeks Desilco sits atop his chair on the bridge debating with himself on something he really, really doesn't want to do. After almost an hour of inner turmoil he calls for a meeting of his advisers on the bridge and asks for Lae'orenar to join them at the meeting. As he waits for them to all arrive he gives out the order to the bridge to begin setting the ship ready to disembark from their current position

Desilco looks down at Lae'orenar and says "Before we continue any further, Eldar, let me make one thing clear. The only reason I have called you here today is because you have lived within this dimension for the entirety of your life. You have the most experience within this place and as such I am forced to rely on you to get my ship and my crew out of here safely. That does not mean that I will ever come to trust you, nor does it mean that I will not question your every action. It is because I believe your selfish nature will force you to act in whatever manner will maximize your chances of survival that I can rely on you to not simply turn us over to your cursed brethren."

Desilco looks around at his gathered advisers, clears his throat, and says "Now then, I must task all of you to determine the best course of action to get us out of the Ewbway and back into Imperial space. Until we do so, this ship will continue to destroy itself from within assuming that those without do not do it for us"

"If you truly believe you are able to guide us in devising a method to tail a ship out of this dimmension then go ahead Lae'orenar. If the Emperor is on our side today then perhaps we'll get lucky and come out near an Imperial planet."

After a few moments of no further suggestions Desilco breaks the quite on the bridge.

"If there are no further suggestions then I believe we have our course. We will begin departure immediately with small space craft flying ahead to scout should we come to any branches in these tunnels. Without any knowledge on this place we are left to wander until we can find a potential place to lay ambush, escape, or die of old age as we wander for eternity. Let's see to it that the latter doesn't happen"

"I suggest the eldar waits aboard The Equinox as its expertise could be crucial for saving the ship should some psychedelic horror pose a threat. I volunteer to lead the small craft force in La Fortuna"

[The chaotic nature of the webway is such that those inexperienced with the domain are horribly incapable of navigating it. To circumvent this problem they will need beacons or signals to lock onto with the guidance methods of their machine spirits.]

Responding to this sudden flash of inspiration, Lae'orenan replies.

"I'm afraid your little human mind may not be able to navigate the Webway. We would have to send along some beacon or signal with you so that you did not lose your path and die of madness. Perhaps you have a particularly powerful psyker of some sort. I've been told you humans use these types rather freely."

Lae'orenar's voice positively drips, nay, pours with scorn at the word psyker.

"Joachim, my friend. How about we follow the Eldars advice and you go into the potentially lethal dimension in a small craft and act as our beacon to follow? Yes you say? Sounds good!"

[Will edit a post in here later today. Did not want idle people to think that I'm done with this. Don't post till you get my response.]

"Oh of course Lord-Captain. I will be the shining ray of psychic hope that illuminates our new and strange surrounding." Joachim holds out his cloak and bows respectfully before Desilco and makes towards the hangar bay.

The astropaths sets off into the webway and valiantly wanders through the darkness. His small shuttle goes on excursions for 14 hours each Terran day. Day after day Joachim fruitlessly hunts for an exit from the unfathomable empyreal architecture around him and day after day he fails. Two weeks pass this way, nurturing a spirit of dissapointment and resentment in the crew.

On the bridge of the Equinox the other advisers and their Rogue trader have bided the desperation and hopelessness of the situation with the reserves of fine brandy and telling of tales. Not that any were ignorant of the grim truth, simply that they put their hopes onto Joachim and did everything they could to hold out for the fruition of that hope.

When Desilco finishes reminiscing of one of his myriad military exploits of yore a youthful and meek operator steps forward from behind Novalaz and the others. He waits for permission to speak and once he has it he stutters out his findings. "Mi'Lord ... I did not bring this to you sooner because I did not want to present you with paranoid ramblings. The augury has picked up faint traces of signals. I thought them part of the noise at first but these 'echoes' have appeared time and time again at the same relative locations all around us. Some phenomenon or malefic force is following us sir, or we are coming closer to it."

Desilco takes a swig of the fine brandy he most definitely has in his hands right now. After taking a second to enjoy the aged beverage as it slides down his throught he finally speaks with bravado probably indicating he's had too much to drink

"Malefic entities you say? Bah! Everything in this damned existence is malefic! Bring them on I say! We might as well face our fate with blades drawn and fight tooth and nail with our foe! Let Joachim come back safely before we take action. Once he's back let's send out a rudamentarily encoded message detailing a false position to meet at. Hopefully that'll bait out those tailing us"

Desilco then proceeds to drink the rest of the bottle, recognizing that it may damn well be his last chance to

The youth quivers with his hand half raised. "S-s-sir. I mean! Mi'lord, I am not qualified to pass final judgement for that is the privilege granted only to you and those you deem fit. But ... they have not encroached on us y-yet Lord Desilco. What-t-t if the nature of this evil cannot be fought?" The youth takes a deep bow and remains prostrated before the Lord Captain waiting for his response.

Suddenly right next to the Lord-Captain, Karitoss chuckles merrily.
"Hah! Of course we can fight them. You can tell simply by the fact that they have not engaged us yet. They're too scared to face our might directly."

The perceptive among the group notice that every operator on the bridge shudders at Karitoss' support for another voidborn engagement.

Desilco slams the empty bottle on the table with a resounding thud (hopefully he's not too drunk to have it break) "I'm sick of putting the poor Equinox through the hardship she's going through now. I want to look the enemy right in the eye and put a shot of scorching plasma up their arses for all the pain they've caused her! We've been moving through this place for two weeks now, we've seen tunnels going off only capable of fitting ground forces. Let us use the knowledge our Eldar knows to setup a good hiding place for the Equinox while a group go into one of these tunnels. We'll use the false communications to convince them the shore party has found a way possible way out and we'll see if we can't catch our foe unaware. With the old girl running silent it should be difficult for them to find her"

Lae'orenar is juggling three empty brandy bottles as she speaks. Her alien metabolism allows her to drink much more than the average human. She doesn't think much of this, "brandy".

"Captain Of Men, perhaps you should explain more about these tunnels. Are you referring to the caverns on the rock? I'm not sure exactly what purpose wandering around in these dark caves would serve, but I'm sure it would be quite an experience. I would be honored to join you."

She bows, leaving the brandy bottles flipping through the air, and catches them just before they all shatter on the bridge floor.

[Joachim has been exploring the webway proper and the signals picked up an augury do not speak to the immediate vicinity of the ship, rather they peer into the distant void and spy on whatever may or may not be lurking out there.]

"Great idea, my lord chap. Won't do us any good waiting here, let's push off this old rock and carve our own path." Karitoss orders preparations for takeoff. A cold, almost cruel smile flickered across his lips. He was going to enjoy setting right the evils that had been done.
"By the way, my darling eldar. Just because something initially seems boring doesn't mean you should quit. I find that having a longer attention span greatly expands your ability to enjoy life and death, pleasure and pain."
He gives a knowing wink, and then his expression seems to reset.
"Now, do you know any other great places to visit in Sir Camelback's way?"

Lae'orenar ignores the strange man's speech, but responds nevertheless.

"Well, if you truly want to experience all of life and death, all of pleasure and pain, we could always go and visit Commorragh! I can guarantee you it would be like no other place you have ever experienced. I can't promise you that they would be quite as ... hospitable ... towards you as I have. If that does not interest you, perhaps we could explore another lithic fragment that exists here. Beyond that, I know only of regions teeming with my kind, and one foul area infested by those monstrous Harlequins."

Lae'orenar spits to show her disgust.

"Can you two discuss your honeymoon later? We have some slightly more pressing matters at hand. Like how we're getting out of this nightmare maybe? Lord-Captain, what would you have us do?"

"Given how damaged our ship is and the hostile nature of just about every xenos we could find within the Webway it is imperative we either lose our pursuers or destroy them. Since they are likely eldar they'll be able to keep up with us no matter how hard we try. Unless Lae'orenar has yet to tell us information of import our only chance is to try and figure out a way to interact with the Webway and find a way out. I still do like that cave idea though..."

"So these pathways do exist within the Webway then? Only large enough for the movement of ground forces?"

"Why of course! Anything exists in the Webway, so long as people still dream and desire it," Lae'orenar laughs sweetly. "I'm not sure if I can find them however. The Webway is large and complex, an unending storm riddled with shifting passages and raging torrents. What was once may not be again for thousands of your human years."

[FYI until you post something active (e.g. Desilco sends out the scouting parties) nothing will happen)

Lae'orenar interrupts the awkward silence.

"Why Captain of Men, it looks like you've had a little too much to drink. Let us send out the orders and prepare for a ground assault! I relish the chance to spill fresh blood."

"An ambush it is! Let us prep for battle and lure our pursuers into one of these tunnels!"

Your officer in charge of infantry combat and skirmishes hurries to arrive at the bridge. At his arrival he tries to stutter our a few words but his breath fails him and simply heaves for a short minute. Once he successfully collects himself the fellow asks Desilco "My lord, excuse my unbecoming appearance. How would you have us prepare the formations? Are losses to be expected sir?"

"Losses are always expected in the Emperors service, especially in such trying times as these. All we can truly be certain of is that we take as much corrupt filth down with us as possible." Desilco says in a philosophical mannerism.

"Gather together twenty-five of our finest men and instruct them we are to be setting an ambush for those pursuing us. We will be sending out a message in a feint to our scouting ships that we have located a potential way out and will be sending in men on foot to investigate. The Equinox will hide amidst the labyrinth and, with luck, our foe will bite the bait and send some of their crew down after us. Gather any equipment necessary to the ambush as we know not the nature of our foes. Now go, prepare the men Gilleth, and tell them that the fate of every crew member could rest in their hands. The Emperor protects."

(Tristan will need to make a check or use a creative maneuver to hide the Equinox)

Twenty five men gathered behind Gilleth meet the Lord-Captain and those with him at one of the shuttles several minutes later. Gilleth and the twenty five sit solemnly on the plasteel benches inside the shuttle, two are spending this time in prayer to the Emperor.

The pilot brings the shuttle to a smooth stop a mere foot away from a man sized tunnel in the periphery of the larger chasm the Equinox was adrift in. One by one Desilco, the others, and the twenty five disembark from the shuttle and pile into the tunnels. The group journeys a small way deeper into the network leaving very subtle markings on the gleaming rainbow colored corridors to ensure they will not become lost in this alien dimension. Finally the group comes across a junction of tunnels with enough space to split up the groups and wait in hiding to ambush pursuers.

Two hours pass silently.

*Beeeep Beep*. Someone is trying to reach the group on voxcaster. The armsman responsible for the voxcaster looks at Desilco waiting for further directions.

"I swear to the Golden Throne if the crew has started to mutiny already I will kill them" Desilco thinks to himself

Desilco takes the voxcaster and speaks into the device with a jovial tone "Yes what is it? We are making good headway here with the opening. Karitoss thinks we'll have it open and get back into real space with a little more effort. How are things aboard the ship"

Novalaz's voice pierces through the screams and gunfire sounding from his location. "----Si----SIR!-SIR!---TH---D-ELDAR--TCKING!-AUGH!". The vox cuts out.