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

We're only using this part because I couldn't get a hold of you to get my own. I stated this because you were busy and people wanted to play rogue trader. Feel free to contact me if you want to join Amos

From your rousing speech you can feel a palpable excitement that even the most disciplined of those in the room cannot help but emanate. Commander Zuensyr steps forward to the table "Captain, the auger scans the souls of Tanurom have made have revealed an interesting geography to us. The planet is by all accounts, completely perfect for life. It contains vast oceans that are abundant with see life ranging from microscopic to half the size of our ship. The land masses, of which there are four continents, are all covered in lush forests and freshwater lakes with mountain ranges reaching up into the clouds running along their lands. It would appear the atmosphere to contain large quantities of oxygen, 35%, and the skies contain a plethora of flying creatures."

Gesturing to the holo-table several lights come up on the planets image "At these areas we have detected large amounts of geothermic activity suggesting there is plentiful renewal of the minerals below. Unfortunately we have not found any signs of the craft world amongst the signals."

"'Hmm, it's possible the populace has valuable information for navigating this forsaken section of the void. I'm in no rush to charge unprepared into the unknown. I propose to venture to the surface with the Honor Guard. In the mean time, have Tanurom make itself as safe as possible and continue learning whatever we can from orbit. All in favor of this plan say 'aye''"

"Aye!" all exclaim except for Zuensyr who continues to stare at the holo-table

"Does Zuesyr look concerned, or did he just not vote?" Tristan asks his Lord-Captain.

Desilco sifts through some paper you have no idea where he got from organizing it before answering "He appears to have just not voted perhaps because he already knows the outcome or he is unsure"

"'It's decided then. Prepare the shuttle.' Firsa beams. 'This planet is about to meet it's first Illunivar. Dismissed!'

As the assembly clears out, Firsa beckons to Zuesyr. 'Does something trouble you commander?' She lays a hand affectionately on the Zuesyr's shoulder. 'You know you can tell me anything.'"

Face completely stone cold, speaking to a long career on the outcast path, Zuesyr speaks plainly "The world troubles me. It's far too fruitful to be unclaimed and there are few signs of tampering. Perhaps it's a lost Maiden World and the craft world had come to set up a colony or perhaps there is someone guarding it. The Mon Keigh have been here before and it isn't like them to leave such an opportunity alone."

"'We'll be very careful then. As always, be ready to blow this place into the warp if I give the command.' Firsa heads towards her chambers where she will don her armor and prepare for surface exploration. As soon as she is out of Elder ear shot from the assembly room, she cocks her head to one side.

'Truly an excellent speech madame-capitan.'

'Oh, well, really you must compliment my team of speech writers. I just read, they do all the hard work.'

'The Illunivar family will surely be honored to have you as its heiress.'

Blushing intensely, Firsa responds 'No, the true honor is working with such a talented crew' and continues her imaginary conversation all the way to her room."

Once back at her room, Firsa finds herself even more alone than before. If while on the bridge the chance of speaking to someone real is tolerable this is truly oppressive loneliness. The room, being made of wraithbone, has the wonderful ability to become decorated in almost anyway desired. This perhaps provides some of the only entertainment on board for a captain whose seer seems to have better things to do than speak to his leader and has very few other people to talk to besides herself. No wonder she's deranged.

It is approximately going to take 26 hours to move from the outer edge of the solar system Solemnance occupies to Solemnance itself. Is there anything the good lonely captain who probably needs a boyfriend or some other form of company more than peanut butter needs jelly would like to do?

"Other than leave passive-aggressive vox-mails for her Seer, she'll just rest up before the journey."

Lae'Orenar swivels about the corner of the stairway with Yval's guards in tow. She strolls down the corridor at a leisurely pace while taking in the sight of the slave pens and the torture stations found throughout the location. Finally Lae'Orenar comes to the cell of her comrades. One of the guards motions to a cell keeper to unseal the metal cage holding Karitoss and the others prisoner. Before the way is opened the other guards ready their weapons and keep their gaze focused on the purple xenos in the back of the cell.

Desilco looks up from his sheets of paper and sees Lae'Orenar is somehow back in the custody of the guard. He looks warily at her and the guards.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As you slumber, Firsa, you dream of places and riches beyond human comprehension. In the dream you recollect your first battle and when you first were given command of the Tanurom along with the feeling of joy when your father bade you farewell on your journey. After about sixteen hours of periodically resting and rearanging decorations in the room to your liking you receive a message through the coms. A mechanical voice comes through that you recognize to be the ship itself

"Captain Firsa, a large energy spike from the planet of Solemnance has just begun. We have ruled out the possibility of new geothermic activity and the origin is unknown. It has been detected that several attempts at accessing the ships files have occurred at the time this energy spike began."

Tristan eyes the guards apprehensively, but continues to play. "Well, now we now the beings on this planet have at least some semblance of civilization. Can you tell if any of the attempts have been successful? In any case, redouble all scrap code defenses and see if you can trace the incursions back to their source. And for Isha's sake, do whatever you can to get the seer in my presence."

"The seer has proven unresponsive. We have been attempting to contact him for several hours. We are unsure of whether any attempts to access files have been successful and the traces of the data incursion appear to have been scattered across the surface of the entire planet. What we do know is that the incursion was looking for data on the ships armaments and population."

"'Then they are assessing our threat level, understandable. Quiet the ship as much as possible, we wouldn't want them to think we're dangerous, now would we?' she grins. 'Reiterate that we will proceed with the plan as agreed. I'm confident we can reach a diplomatic solution.'"

After spending some time reassuring the living members of the crew, the souls operating the ship lower some of the energy output from the systems and weapons. Not long after this has succeeded a message is received by the Tanurom in human text.

"Hail travelers. We await your arrival. Please send a peaceful delegation to allow for first contact. The meeting location will be detailed in future messages"

"'Rest assured citizen of Solemnance, we come in peace. I am Firsa Illunivar, captain of Tanurom, and I will personally lead a delegation to your surface. Your planet looks positively radiant with life, I look forward to meeting you.'"

"Welcome once more, travelers of the Tanurom. By now you have surely realized that something strange is afoot. Please come to the beach located at longitute 130 latitude 55 and I will be pleased to answer any of your questions at your earliest convenience." comes another message in typing

"'Then we will come as fast as our ships will carry us.'"

Baravyn knew he was in trouble when he saw the alarming amount of passive-aggressive vox-mail sent to him by Captain Firsa. As he read the messages Baravyn grinned riley at the veiled threats laced through them, Captain Firsa was definitely not happy with him this time. Baravyn's frequent disappearances had been a sore point between him and the Captain and had resulted in more than a few harsh words and, more recently, passive-aggressive vox-mail. Baravyn preferred the company of his own thoughts rather than the company of others, so he would regularly find quiet places in the ship away from others to be at peace with himself where he could be lazy and casually take glimpses into the future without being interrupted. The only problem with this was when Captain Firsa tried to get in touch with him during his "quiet time", since generally Baravyn either didn't notice the vox-mail or chose to ignore it. Well, he figured he had kept Frisa waiting long enough, time to get what was coming to him. Wearily he rose from his sequestered spot, picked up his Witchblade and made towards the bridge like a condemned man walks to the gallows. He paused before entering the bridge, mentally bracing himself for the verbal lashing that was sure to come, then opened the door and walked in.

"'Weapons down to 25%, we're in a tight spot madame-capitan!'

'Divert all power to forward thrusters, our only chance is to loose them in the black--Baravyn!? Baravyn, what are you doing on the bridge!? I mean, echem, how many times do I have to tell you people to give me five minutes notice before intruding on the bridge!'

Firsa sheathes her sword, pulls her hair back into order, and carefully climbs down from her captain's chair, where she had been standing with her feet on the arm rests. Abruptly, she adopts the rigid stance of an irked captain, fierce eyes boring into Baravyn's very soul.

'Seer, you know I respect your abilities, but this kind of behavior is unacceptable. You may be the link between the living and the dead on this ship, but you would do will to remember that I, Firsa Illunivar, am the captain Tanurom. As such, I cannot tolerate your flagrant shirking of duty, unexcused assembly absence, and direct violation of my orders. One more infringement of Tanurom's code of conduct, and I'll make sure that you are personally disciplined. I won't say how, I won't say when, but I can assure you it will not be comfortable. Oh, and don't look into the future on this matter, you won't like what you see.

Well, I have you now. We have some items to discuss. I want your thoughts on our current plan. Use your sight if you see fit. If you don't what we're currently preparing for, I suggest you view the assembly log, I certainly will not explain it for your sake.'

Firsa presses a button on her captain's chair which projects an audio-visual recording of the assembly's proceedings, then promplty turns her back to Baravyn and taps her foot impatiently."

[Who in the cell is playing Baravyn? Do they have a name?]

As Baravyn listened to Firsa berate him he raised his arms in mock surrender, all the while mentally planning where he would go the next time he sought out his "quiet time". Unfortunately the opportunity would probably not present itself for quite some time given current events, but at least it gave him something to look forward to.

When Firsa turned on the audio-visual recording of the assembly's proceedings he moved closer to get a better view. During the first part of the assembly recording Baravyn zoned out a little, listening to the impatient tapping of the Captain's feet rather than her speech, but he was able to focus in time to hear the crews decision to have the Captain take her honor guard to the surface of the planet.

Baravyn didn’t know much about the planet and so didn’t trust it, which made him uneasy of sending anyone to the planets surface. He took a moment to focus his thoughts and then reached out with his mind to try to find the answer to the simple question: “What will we find on the planet Solemnence?”

(The person playing Baravyn is the big blue alien in the cell.)

Try as you might, you find yourself unable to scry into the future

Faced with his failure Baravyn laughs out loud, it wasn't often that he was unable to see even a glimpse into the future. "It seems that this planet might prove to be very interesting, as of now I can't see a thing. Do you still plan to go down to the surface Captain?"

"'Yes, the gentleman on the phone seemed very nice' Firsa replied with a smile."

Baravyn gave Firsa a perplexed look, "What Gentleman? Did you receive a message from someone?".

"'Try to keep up honey. I'm heading to the surface in a shuttle as soon as the Honor Guard is ready. Care to join us?'"

Baravyn shrugged, "Sure, it appears that this voyage could prove to be a very interesting trip for the both of us."

And indeed the journey shall be interesting for the both of you. As you get into the one shuttle your ship possesses capable of taking you to the surface of the planet you are bade farewell Commander Zuesyr as he takes command of the ship in the captains absence. After a fairly smooth ride down to the quordinates (only a slight bit of turbulence) you both are called to the pilots chamber. The pilot, a rather new addition to the fighter squadrons, points at an image being displayed on one of the screens

"Captain, it appears that there is a small wooden structure at the coordinates on a beach. I am picking up the image of what appears to be a man however I am having trouble getting resolution for a better examination."

On the screen you see what appears to be a small wooden shack on a white, sandy beach with, in front of it, a grey cloaked figure standing alone.

"'Bring her in nice and easy' -- Lord-Captain, what's this guy's name? Whatever, Firsa refers to the pilot by name -- ' and let's make sure there's nothing in that water. I'm not very excited about life 'half the size of our ship.'"

"We are detecting no movement in the nearby waters aside from small marine life Captain. I'll bring her in"

After another ten minutes the ship glides in across the ocean into a smooth turn parking the ship ten meters away from the figure who is five meters from the shack. As the door opens you see that the individual is taller than any of you among the Eldar and your honor guard fan out a perimeter around the shuttle keeping an eye out for danger. Aaaaand go

As Baravyn disembarks from the ship he looks at the individual intently and tries to read its aura.

You focus your mind intently, so intently that you begin to read the aura of the trees behind the individual (they want sunlight) despite the ordinary limitations of the ability. Despite the over abundance of success in seeing the world, one thing eludes you. The person in front of you is a blank slate. You get no reading on its emotion nor anything else. Suffice to say, this individual has no soul

As they leave the ship Baravyn walks closer to Captain Frisa and whispers into her ear, "Be careful, that person has no soul."

Like your mom, Tristan thinks, but refrains from saying out-loud to the purple xenos he barely knows. "Firsa steps with other-worldly grace towards the creature before her. She wears gold and crimson Elder void armor that does nothing to hide her nobility. 'Greetings friend. I am Firsa Illunivar, captain of Tanurom, The Star-lit Spirit Dragon, daughter of Maelan Illunivar, whose father was Athanwe Illunivar, Scourge of Serator Prime.'"

The mysterious figure responds. The voice sounds Human, and is far too high-pitched for someone of this size.

"Greetings, Firsa Ilunivar. Your dynasty sounds most noble and ancient. I welcome the opportunity to converse more thoroughly with you. Perhaps we could discuss inside this lovely structure I have set up for you?" The figure gestures towards the shack, making sure to keep himself gully covered in the cloak. "I know how easily you, er, we meat species burn in solar radiation. I would be pleased to answer any of the many questions which must be teeming through your head right now."

So subtle

"'Yes... I do love my meat species. But I must say, I'm dying to know what a hulking, high-pithched, and no offense, apparently soulless creature is doing inviting me into a specially built wooden shack. You must understand, I am just the slightest bit suspicious. Let's talk out here, if you please. The air is so pleasant, and I've never found wooden structures very tasteful. You should see the masterpieces my people have sung from wraithbone.'"

Lae'orenar winks heavily at Tristan, almost pulling a face muscle. "It's me!" she stage-whispers. She then continues in character.

"Of course, of course. You have no reason to trust me, but I hope you will. I only asked you to move into the structure because I fear for your safety. You are being hunted on this planet, and you are lucky I found you first. My rivals would be much less polite. Let me be clear; I do not seek your death or imprisonment. My leader wishes to speak to you, and he asked a number of my kind to find you. I fear that they may take a more violent approach. An undeniably effective, but often messy and unnecessary method. If you like, I could answer your questions while we make our way to my Lord Ph.. to my Lord."

Tristan looks at Lae'orenar, then at his Lord-Captain, then back at Lae'orenar. He lets out a long sigh. "'I'm being hunted you say? Most intriguing, I've only just arrived and someone's already after me, how frightful!' Firsa says with a smile. 'After you kind sir. She gestures to the shack."

Desilco is obviously barely able to keep from bursting out laughing

"Perhaps you misunderstood me. My leader is not in this structure; he lies a short travel away. We may go in here to keep your arrival hidden of course. I just wanted to ensure you understood why we are using the structure."

"'Very well then. You seem to know your way around here. Lead me wherever you feel my party will be safest. I'm currently searching the Halo Stars for a certain objective. I'd be happy to exchange goods or services with any kindly face I find on the planet for useful information.'"

"In that case, let us head out to meet my leader. The sooner we are in his presence the sooner you will be safe. Now, do not be alarmed by what is about to happen."

Aten throws off his grey cloak, revealing his true necrodermal glory. He stands almost ten feet tall, a massive heavy skeleton wearing a brilliant cape braided with the Nefru dynasty's colors, blue, red, and white. He contacts his warriors, bringing those that were in the water onto shore. He orders them to form a protective square, with him and the Eldar in the center. The other warriors will remain in their patrol squads and scout around the party, ensuring that no one comes too close.

"My warriors will keep us safe. However, it would do to keep on your guard as well. There is no telling to what lengths my rival would go to claim you for himself. Now, do you possess any questions that I may answer while we move out?"

As the horde of necron warriors swarm in perfect unison from the ocean water and forest every member of your honor guard moves to surround the warlock and captain trying to push them back into the shuttle whose energy levels have begun rising

Lae'orenar laughs. "HAHAHA See how foolish my Craftworld brethren are? A true Eldar, a Dark Eldar, would never fall for so simple a stratagem!!!" She stops laughing when she remembers that she isn't supposed to enslave and slaughter the other characters. Playing a pacifist is hard.

"'At ease friends. We have no reason to worry, it's only a small army of soulless 10-foot tall death robots, we've seen worse. I do have quite a few questions for you. First, allow me to introduce my seer, Baravyn. I'm sure you two will get well acquainted soon. May I have the pleasure of knowing your name?'"

Lae'orenar points out that only Aten is 10 feet tall. The others are only about 6 feet. She doesn't mind though; she knows that humans often have trouble with numbers.

"I am Lord Aten, of the Nefru dynasty. I am pleased to meet you, Baravyn. I hope I have not made you nervous by unleashing my forces so dramatically. If there were any other option, rest assured I would have taken it, but we must hurry before my rivals discover us." Aten orders the nearest warriors to burn down the shack. He is hoping to move out as quickly as possible, preferring to answer any questions while on the move.

"Firsa waves to her party and beckons them to walk with Aten. As they walk, she begins her questioning. "So how does a pristine gem like Solemnance go unmolested so long? As far as I knew, we Elder are the only beings who care at all for the natural beauty of a thriving planet. Of course the days of Elder home worlds are just fairytales now...'"