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

The councilors of the Equinox spend a great deal of time debating how best to proceed. The lord-captain believes they must instill fear and dread in mutinous crew of the Thorned Courtesan while many others feel the lord-captain should lead armed crew members in a hostile takeover of their prey.

While the councilors debate what to do the new leadership of the Thorned Courtesan decides to take action ... by firing a brutally successful and accurate barrage of battery fire onto the Equinox dealing 16 damage after penetrating through armor.

[Continuing the post while posting your guys' actions]

Without hesitation the councilors agree to obliterate these impudent fools and rush to their stations. Tristan maneuvers the Equinox with unparalleled mastery while Novalaz and Hig fire at the Thorned Courtesan well outside its mars pattern macrobatteries' range. Tristan uses the superior speed of his beloved Equinox to remain outside the enemy's firing range while allowing his fellow crew members to continue shelling volley after volley of fierce laser fire.

Under the unrelenting devastation the Thorned Courtesan takes drastic action and carries out an emergency jump into the warp. Novalaz understands what they have done and explains to the lord-captain and his fellow councilors that they must merely wait for the Thorned Courtesan to resurface, for surely there is not a navigator among them skilled enough to successfully enter the warp with such little time to prepare. Thirty minutes of eerie silence pass but Novalaz's conjecture was completely correct. Preceded by an explosion of unholy lightning and light rays visible to the naked eye, the Thorned Courtesan resurfaces from the warp approximately five void units to the ten o' clock of her original position.

"They must have had quite an exciting trip. Let's see what they have to say about it." On a whim, Karitoss hails the enemy.

The voidsmen operating the communications array furiously work to establish a communications line at the behest of enginseer prime Karitoss. A few minutes later a voice responds: "Ey! What do you want now? If its surrenda you are. never. eeever. going to get it."

"Oh, that's nonsense!" Karitoss cheerfully declares, "We've already bested you in an honorable duel. Now that it's over, we'd like to help you out with supplies and repairs to speed you on your way. Just tell us what you'd like and I'll have it sent over."

You hear a spitting sound from the transmission, "Pretend I was there to spit that on you. Supplies you say? Your heads on metal rods."

Desilco - Put your backs into it
Karitoss - Aid machine spirit
Crew - Default Move
Tristan - Lock on Target
Joachim - Two attacks

Karitoss' servo-skull returns to the bridge after a mysteriously long hiatus. The Enginseer appears to have a short conversation with it.
"Do I really look like that?" he mutters, then turns back to the com-screen, chipper as ever.
"I am no expert, but I don't think that will help fix a vessel. Still, you know what is best for your ship. What kind of metal would you like the rods in?"

[Karitoss your discussion is being moved a divergent thread]

The Equinox moves into position to fire on the Thorned Courtesan as it emerges from the immaterium. Most of the shots from the macrocannon salvos miss or graze the enemy voidship dealing only minimal damage. The Thorned Courtesan responds by diving into the warp again but fails once more appearing nine void units to it's ten o'clock again. This time when the Equinox fires her salvo of laser fire the shots land well placed by luck and cripple the enemy ship. To this the Thorned Courtesan attempts to dive into the warp again.

As the councilors debate the nuances of handling the incapacitated foe, Tristan leans back in his chair with his feet resting haphazardly on the controls. When the Equinox begins to shake violently, he pulls back to a ready position, but not without uttering a resigned sigh and bringing the deserving smack of a quick palm to his forehead. "Pardon me for the interruption, this is your helmsman speaking. Would you kindly shut the fukup and start shooting them please."

Tristan smoothly guides the ship into a strafing maneuver that lets the Equinox batter the enemy senseless, completely out of their range. After sticking to the enemy's futile warp attempts, he pushes Lady forward for a devastating close range finisher.

To the surprise of none the Thorned Courtesan is unable to successfully dive into the warp under Tristan and Jochaim's strafing fire. Instead, out of desperation she launches boarding craft to take the fight to the halls of the Equinox. The swarm of boarding craft shoots forth from the launch chutes of the Thorned Courtesan and meet their grizzly ends by the dozen as thick walls of turret fire obliterate the pitiable attackers.

A voidsman operating the communications array calls to the attention of the councilors "Councilors! It appears the Thorned Courtesan is hailing us. Is it your desire to open the communications line?"

"NO SURVIVORS. CRUSH DA HUMIES"

"Open the line, but also open fire."

The communications are opened and except for the androgynous voice not a sound can be heard: "We ... we have come to the conclusion that we cannot escape your horrible kind. We are willing to surrender if you leave us the ship with its parts. In return we will give you our food and extra stocks of grenades."

"Please turn off all extraneous systems, and wait for us to turn the ship around and board."

Desilco, who has had a scowl on his face since the enemy ship put a number of holes in the Equinox, stands up and grabs a vox communicator near his chair.

"If you all are just about finished letting some damned filthy pirates put holes in MY ship I'd appreciate it if you did what I originally said to do and SHOOT THEM INTO OBLIVION!!!"

He then sits back down swearing under his breath

"Its all a ploy lord captain, we now know what filth occupies that ship and aim to cleanse it. It would be slightly easier if they turned off their systems, and hence my vox to them."

"I don't care if they power down or not I care about how all of my councilor a bickering let these plebeians get a one up on us! It's going to take us more time than we can afford to repair these damages"

Desilco obviously is unhappy with how things have unfolded in his laxidasical absence not at a lake

At Tristan's discretion he can move the Equinox into position and obliterate the enemy ship for it has powered down all unessential components.

"I'm right with you captain. Those grenades make for a juicy offer, but so does watching the scums who dented the Equinox burn." Tristan pulls back to optimal firing position (a safe distance that still allows easy hits) and readies himself for the impending fireworks.

[Rolling is unnecessary, you can proceed assuming are about to annihilate the Thorned Courtesan]

Tristan watches the ensuing inferno with a smirk. As the guns quite, he runs scans to determine which parts of the wreckage will make worthwhile salvage.

Desilco once the destruction ends rubs his fingers against the area between his eyes and speaks over vox

"Lord Karitoss what are the damages, can we repair them, and if we can how long would it take?"

(You can edit a glorious destruction scene into your post if you'd like)

The Equinox greedily searches through the utterly annihilated wreckage of the Thorned Courtesan. Defying all logic, the barracks quarters of the ship and the M-100 auger array are completely unharmed. Every other part of the ship has been heavily damaged or shredded by explosions and cannon fire to a point beyond salvation.

Glorious destruction scene:

Year: M42.013

The guns fell silent, but silence there was not.
As one final wave of cannon fire ripped into the side of the Thorned Courtesan, the crew of the Equinox could almost imagine a shrill shriek erupt as the plasma drive of the Thorned Courtesan imploded.
As if a dying star, crying its last breath, the Thorned Courtesan exploded into light brighter than the human mind can handle.
A shower of molten adamantine and steel was scattered among the stars, giving one last testament to the Thorned Courtesan's existence.
All that gazed upon the resulting blaze cried tears of pain and amazement, but the only thing that was left after the light faded was a black charred wreckage.

The Thorned Courtesan drifts lifelessly through the void, never again will you endure indignant threats and insults from captain Bolog and his mutinous crew. Now that the threat has been eradicated it is up to the lord-captain and his trusted councilors to decide how to proceed. Do they undertake the costly and lengthy endeavor to retrieve and repair the Thorned Courtesan or do they press on into the unknown in search of what might be Dhroth's lost treasures?

"Lord-captain, my scans indicate that their M-100 augur array and barracks are wholly intact. Should I contact tech-priest Karitoss and have him analyze acquisition success rate?"

"We should leave the barracks and take the auger array. We don't know what else we'll find on this venture and the barracks would likely take up too much storage space. However if we have plenty of space for the two then we should look into aquiring them both. "

Desilco grabs the vox need him and says into it

"GRONK and lord Joachim come to the bridge to help plot a course to further our venture. Karitoss send a report to the bridge on damages and repairing them as soon as you can"

He then gets up and down from his captains chair and says to Tristan "A little shakey toward the end there helmsman. If I didn't know any better I'd say you were all talk but I think we both know that's not the case"

Once done speaking Desilco walks to the holo table and starts to look at the star map.

Strangely, the lord-captain calls on neither his master helmsman nor his navigator to chart the course ahead. He also forgets that without any cargo holds the Equinox does not bear the space to store any components of the Thorned Courtesan. Novalaz, though great insulted by his lord-captains ignorance, prepares the journey map he had drawn up when the Equinox set forth from footfall.

[Nobody tells me this stuff thought the weird boy was the navigator and the helmsman already being here no point in voxing to him]

Tristan tries his best to hold back a look of indignation. Clearly this is not the first time the captain has failed to understand the vast intricacies and challenges of piloting a raider-class starship. He begins to formulate a retort involving the fact that he was perfectly happy to blast the bastards as soon as their engine failed, but after numerous conversations with the captain and seeing him walk over to the star map, he thinks better of it. Tristan sits down at his chair, takes a quick calming breath, and sets a course for the coordinates indicated on his screen.

"Perhaps we should fix our hull, it is dangerously low. Also, shall I send out a request for towing help? It seems as if star ship hulls fetch a pretty price, destroyed or not."

"Where u wanna go now Cap'n? We gotz lots I shinies out dere in da starz to grab? Imma go get sum, uhhh, mapz I bin keepin in me room. See u en a bit, Gobsnack"

The perceptive ork charges and jumps onto GRONK as the mischievous weirdboy tries to escape. Gobsnack says nothing but nods to himself and smiles contently.

"CURSEZ GOBSNARK. YOU SO GUD AT KATCHIN ME!!!!"

It takes no enginseer to know that the time for repairs will depend on the competence of the crew. Still, Karitoss gives you an estimation that repairing the Equinox to peak condition in the void will take anywhere from three to four months. You also know you spent two weeks traveling in the void and five days in the warp to reach this location, to seek out a repair station would mean ten days of exposure to the empyreal and horrid waste of time.

Desilco tips his hat to Gobsnark for a job well done. He then ponders for a moment and then looks to his advisors and says

"It would seem we don't have the time to repair the hull so we'll likely have to make due. Should we run into any more scraps we should make sure to use our superior maneuverability and range to avoid uneccissary damage and make sure to focus down enemy ships with both batteries so as to best pierce anyone's defences."

Desilco draws his las pistol and places it down on the star map with a thud and looks back and forth between his advisors

"We came here to do a job and I'll be damned if we don't do it. So to do that what does everyone think is the best course of action to do that job? If we're going to get through this we need a plan of action and to get our act together but if you're not going to cooperate and work with us than we'll drop you off at the next station"

Desilco turns away from the star map draws his sword and then turns back to everyone with it planted toward the ground and both hands on the hilt

"So then my trusted lords, are we going to get this job done or keep sitting around bickering like a couple of old scribes?"

Tristan is busy readying the Equinox for the journey ahead. He lends an ear to the conversation at hand but otherwise focuses on the necessary calibrations. As soon as his calculations are done, he reports to the council their distance from mission coordinates and an ETA.

"That would actually be quite a good idea, to visit a nearby planet for repairs. Our objective can wait a few weeks, its not like some inanimate objects will walk away. If someone has gotten there before us, they would have anyways. There is some equipment I wish to purchase personally as well."

"I concur with the Astropath, our mission does not have a strict deadline. I recommend that we proceed to a proper repair station, the time we will waste there is far less than we would repairing it manually. Here are the three outcomes we are most likely to encounter as a result of the delay."
Karitoss holds up a finger.
"One: The artifact is still there, and can be freely bought or obtained. Our current course of action is irrelevant if this is the case, but this is highly unlikely.

Two: The artifact is not there. In this case, it may be impossible to determine when it was moved, destroyed, or if it was even there in the first place.

Three: The artifact is there, but there another party has arrived or is present that will violently contest our possession.

Four, the worst case: There is no artifact, and we have jumped into another ambush.

It is for the latter two possibilities that I would advise against proceeding to the destination in our current condition, suboptimal for combat. To put it in layman's terms, I would rather survive with no prize then die with the prize in sight."

Tristan confers with the astral chart navigator Novalaz prepared. The master helmsman swiftly returns his lovely Lady to her course. He understands that so long as there is an actual planet at the destination the Equinox will arrive in three days time.

[Once again thought this post sent yesterday. By the way players, the rules for duration and success of ship repairs is in the core rulebook. You should read it.]

[Beginning an exploration challenge]

Three days pass quickly. The crew members of the Equinox have busied themselves with funeral services for the dead and minor repairs to the ship's interior. On the approach to the Dhroth's coordinates Tristan is continuously examining the augury terminal for the telltale sign of a planetary body or large asteroid but no signal has appeared. The sinking feeling that all might have been for naught beings to tug at Tristan's confidence, but he has not given up yet. Tristan hearkens back to his years served aboard other deep space explorers and calls upon the skills and intuition he developed then to attempt find the solution to this immediate crisis.

While Tristan contemplates his solution to the missing planet other councilors are slowly noticing that the Equinox was supposed to be at her destination by now. They walk the halls of the ship contemplating an enacting operations to get the bottom of this missing planet.

"Cap'n! Mebbe de planet is sneeken? Mebbe dere arr ass-ter-oydz hidin it, or clowds of dust. Itz lik wen I sneek from Gobsnackle."

"Paging the lord-captain, this is master-helmsman Sky speaking. We appear to be... echem... lost. the coordinates we found must have either been faulty or the planet is hidden somewhere behind the... err... empty void of space." Tristan is clearly exceptionally flummoxed and frustrated by this unusual turn of events. "I suggest you summon your advisers. Perhaps our combined skills might serve to overcome this... err... challenge. As far as my personal abilities are concerned:" Tristan details the problem further and announces his potentially relevant skills

1. Scrutiny/Active Augur (44/79)

2. Common Lore (Imperial Navy) (40)

3. Navigation (stellar) (40)

4. Scholastic Lore (Astromancy) (40)

[An Active Augur test is a perfectly fine test to make to try to progress through the exploration challenge. Furthermore, people can try to use their skills in creative ways to progress. However trying to use something like common lore Imperial Navy to recall a technique used by them to find elusive targets might come with a -10 or -20 penalty.]

GRONK, bored with the funerals (why won't they let him take their teef?!) is wandering around the bridge, working on skinning his dead squig. He stands behind Tristan as he fiddles with the switches and knobs of the auspex. Suddenly, a strange combination of genetic memory and instinct combine, and he is struck by inspiration. He points a thick, gnarled, squig-slime covered finger at the screen. "Week humies cud liv dere. Mebbe dey hid de arrr-teee-fak rite here?"

GRONK's fat finger points straight to empty space. The voidsmen at the navigation terminals look skeptical but fear of the large green xenos holds their tongues. The location is only a few hours from the current position of the Equinox and shuttling around the empty void gives the restless crew members something to work on so the lord-captain acquiesces to GRONK's naivety.

Tristan, as your adamantium clad Lady approaches the empty space the augury array begins displaying a large cloud of fuzz twenty void units to port. At first you think the array might finally be showing signs of damage from the previous engagement but thorough inspection confirms something is sitting there in the empty void causing this disturbance. An intensive augury scan might hone in on the center of the astral static.

"I'm impressed GRONK," Tristan's voice cracks as he attempts to properly vocalize the ork'z painfully loud name, "echem, Gronk, but what do you suppose could possibly live in there?" Opening up the vox-caster, Tristan calls to the tech-priest,

"Lord Karitoss, I'm going to need your help up here. We'll need the Omnissiah's guidance if we want any hope of finding something useful in that static.

"oh sillee Mistuh CLoudzz, dee humies liv der." GRONK then walks away, humming to himself contentendly as he slurps the last few scraps of meat from his squig's spine. He will need to land (on a planet) soon so he can regrow his squig friend.

Joachim concentrates and attempts to send a telepathic message over to the astral static.

Karitoss links with the Equinox's machine spirit yet again, pushing its Augury systems to the limit to pierce through the veil.