Despite the attempts of reality, the whacky adventures of Elesh Phryx continue!
welp.no sleep tonight.
A single, soft chime rouses your mind as a soft light penetrates your eyelids and bathes your retinas in a soft red hue. Though the ship's morning has officially begun, you are the Captain; you deserve to enjoy the company of a certain XO for a while longer, along with the feel of her sensitive form against your own. Weak flesh murmurs protests as your cogitators force relaxed muscles to slowly contract, causing the soft sheets of your bunk to glide across your fragile skin organ. Abdominal muscles cry softly in exhaustion as you roll toward Athe, your true arm reaching to pull her form against your own. Only a slight chill presses against your form. Cogitators whirl as your eyes snap open and frantically dart about your quarters in search of your friend. Curiously, only a large damp area remains where Athe's head lay beside your own the night before. Slowly rising from the lacking warmth of the sheets, you sit upon the bunk's edge and ponder your next actions as your true flesh conducts the cold of your quarters deep into your weaker flesh's core. Something twists within your abdomen as you notice that the pile of Athe's garments from the previous night has vanished. Strange, you don't recall consuming anything that might cause such pain.>cont
You are Elesh Phyrx, rogue techpriest and commander of a trio of ships in the Corgus Sector: 'Sword of the Omnissiah', a sword-class frigate; 'Heavenly Forge', a massive transport converted to a mining vessel; and 'Zephyr Spirit', a vagabond-class transport with a crippled spine. A small army of techpriests under your care and command has begun preparations to construct a long-planed space station and repair facility above the lone planet in your hidden system.Ever helpful, to-do-list skull quickly makes its way across the room trailing a meter-long scroll of parchment across the deck of your quarters. A moment's inspection reveals the vast majority of the parchment covered in lecherous 'tasks' that may or may not have taken place the previous night. Clearly, you'll need to refine this skull's functions. Your servant quickly severs the trailing parchment and begins reproducing a proper list of tasks.-Discover the Identity of the Rogue Trader Dynasty that broke ranks in Tortuga-Finalize details of space station construction with Artisan Vorth-Decide the fate of 'Zephyr Spirit' and her crew [Ship's spine damaged by emergency warp jump during escape from Tortuga]-System Scan report from 'Heavenly Forge'-Planetary Exploration Report and Lifeform Evaluation-Artisan Vorth, Adept-Captain Advi, and Artisan-Captain Exors request an audience with Magos Phryx.-Locate Athe?>orders?
>>19926751Locate Athe
>>19926967Personally? Send your two servo skulls to search the ship? Find and press-gang minio- crew? other?
>>19926751>-Discover the Identity of the Rogue Trader Dynasty that broke ranks in TortugaCan't do that right now.>-Finalize details of space station construction with Artisan VorthDefinitely, what better way to start the day?>-Decide the fate of 'Zephyr Spirit' and her crew [Ship's spine damaged by emergency warp jump during escape from Tortuga]We must repair and rebuild that ship. It has served us diligently.>-System Scan report from 'Heavenly Forge'Can be read during breakfast.>-Planetary Exploration Report and Lifeform EvaluationBreakfast.>-Artisan Vorth, Adept-Captain Advi, and Artisan-Captain Exors request an audience with Magos Phryx.After breakfast.>-Locate Athe?She's probably already doing her duties on the ship. No need to bother her right now.
>>19926967Being emotionally attached to one of our subordinates is most unseemly for an adept of the Machine God, and feeling sad about waking up to an empty bed is a weakness of the flesh brain, dammit!That said, seconding. Send the servo skulls and get ready to deal with:>Artisan Vorth, Adept-Captain Advi, and Artisan-Captain Exors request an audience with Magos Phryx.
>>19927094Good thing Elesh's a rogue techpriest, right?
>>19927094>feeling sadYour cogitators vehemently refute the notion that you are experiencing any sort of grief, sadness, or other weak emotions. The simple solution is that your potentia coil requires caloric intake for the day's activities! Your flesh brain meekly agrees with the cogitators.>>19927089I assume you vote to "get some fucking breakfast"?
>>19927246It's like you can read my mind. Are you a wizard?
Your cogitators demand caloric intake immediately as your flesh brain tries to seize control and search the ship for Athe. The two quarrelsome factions of your mind quickly reach a middle ground as your flesh brain grudgingly admits to a desire for caloric intake and your cogitators see no reason why Athe can't be located by your still unnamed servo skulls. Grimly offering a prayer to the Omnissiah that rations haven't been reduced to ancient nutrient paste, you release your servo skulls upon the hunt and move to- wait, no. You're fairly certain that the sudden stale smell in the air might be due to a certain stench upon yourself. Bathing may help you decide upon a post-breakfast activity and calm your flesh brain.>2D100 for servo skull search>Details of space station construction or general Techpriest meeting first after breakfast?>Reports with breakfast...>cont
You bask in the welcome warmth of the shower as water cascades over your unaugmented flesh. Mechadendrites dance along the edges of your bionics in search of any signs of the slightest damage or infection of the weaker flesh, flooding your cogitators with more than enough raw data to allow your flesh brain to savor the sensation of water and steam against your flesh. With your medicae mechadendrite caring for the areas where given and true flesh join, you preform the necessary daily maintenance of the remainder of your given flesh. A long scar upon the back of your right hand reminds you of your time as a tech adept, and the engine compartment edge that caused the lingering reminder. Other scars and marks quickly catch your attention as well; gashes and cuts from slipped tools, jagged curves where objects had pierced your flesh, even small circles where slag from plasma cutters burned thru gloves to meet your flesh. Each scar a story of your devotion to the Omnissiah and a testimony to the weakness of your given flesh. Even now, you spot a dozen more minor gashes upon your fingers where oil or grime has been captured to produce a dark reminder of more recent stories. There is always a favorite story, however. >cont
Your first assignment to a repair team as an enginseer, blessed with the opportunity to wield one of the Omnissiah's smaller plasma cutters. Excited, you'd forgotten to recite the incantation of activation properly and the machine's spirit rewarded you with a fine stream of plasma that burned cleanly thru the flesh of your left hand. You can still vividly recall the charred smell as you looked at your superior enginseer thru the hole between your thumb and index finger. Even as your body roiled between numbness and icy cold, he'd begun berating your ignorance and lack of faith before removing you from his work team. Fortunately for your stabilization-impaired self, a stranger had assisted you to the medicae. A strange way to meet your future XO, really. Ever since, Athe has always gently inspected that wound, as if the plassteel metacarpal within would corrupt or harm you in some way. Since Aquari, she'd even begun holding your left hand to her cheek before drifting off to sleep murmuring of when she'd first met her 'lost little techpriest'. Which is quite puzzling, as you're quite sure you've always been taller by at least half a hand.>end pre-written dump for this thread. working on breakfast.
rolled 55 = 55>>19927495Since nobody else seems to be around, I'll do the rolls.Brace for the worst possible outcome.
rolled 80 = 80>>19927692And the second roll.
>>19927585>>19927544Awesomeness. There is nobody else on /tg/ who could make a recounting of hideous industrial accidents adorable.Also, what does one eat for breakfast in the grim darkness of the future? I feel like ordering a bowl of Corn flakes would sound too close to something extra heretical.
>>19927774when you see someone literally cut a hole thru their hand in an instant or hear the scream as someone severs their fingers, you have to make it sound cute or that shit haunts you.update nearly complete, got distracted by phone call!
With a fresh robe covering your form, you head toward the officer's mess and the promise of delicious, filling caloric intake; unless nutrient paste is on the menu. Even though your cogitators know that nutrient paste for breakfast, lunch, and dinner is unavoidable eventually, you don't have to like it. Thankfully, a small amount of grox yet remains and has been turned into caloric bomb by a healthy coating of fried batter. Even so, you note that nutrient paste has been mixed into the ground up grox meat. For a moment, you nearly offer a prayer to the Omnissiah to protect your sense of taste, but your cogitators are overruled on such an act by your flesh brain. Sitting down to consume your meal, your mechadendrites pull up a pair of reports upon a data slate.System Scan report from 'Heavenly Forge'- accurate asteroid and debris mapping has been completed for each of the system's three debris spheres- First sphere consists mostly of dust and small debris- Second sphere contains several large bodies and an anomalous cluster of debris.- Nearest large body is a planetoid believed to be rich in metals and ice, initial expedition launched- Expeditions for remaining bodies and anomaly pending- Third sphere contains several anomalous clusters of debris and a heavy concentration of dust and smaller particulates.- Estimated 4% of Star's light penetrates this final sphere- Single planet and the twin moons are only non-debris planetary bodies-Possibility of additional wrecks in debris spheres, will require visual identification>cont
Planetary Expedition Report from Bob-Ancient planetary map recovered from supply vault-Major population centers are now craters-Three additional supply vaults located, two collapsed-3,000 autocannons and large supply of ammunition recovered-Several years worth of nutrient paste in stasis located in second vault *stasis field generators earmarked for use on station-Estimated 10 wealth worth of goods recovered-Life limited to bacterial level and extremely limited-previously noted "moss" actually strange bi-product of bacteria and mineral deposits-planet is unusually fertile for such limited life*Artisan-Captain Exors note: suspect planet was purged with some form of virus bomb or other exterminus in pastYour servo skulls have not returned with any results.>orders?
>>19928113>Possibility of additional wrecks in debris spheres, will require visual identificationHave our fighter squadron check out those anomalous regions in the debris fields during their training maneuvers so we can get a sense of just what's out there to salvage.>planet is unusually fertile for such limited lifeThose slaves we have, are they the sort of slave that's good for working on farms and plantations? Because our refined sense of taste (and I suspect the crew's morale as well) demands more satisfying fare than mere nutrient paste can provide.
>>19928225Done.You currently lack any sort of livestock or seeds to begin cultivation. There -will- be nutrient paste, but at least you'll live to go get food elsewhere!Your slaves currently have no real skills at all.>orders?
>>19928289Are the autocannons we recovered the sort that you mount in vehicles, or are they the kind the infantry squads carry around? If the latter, send some to the armsmen so they can get some practice shooting them.Also, I suppose we ought to have that meeting with Vorth and Advi to see what they want.
>>19928398The auto cannons are currently mounted for infantry use, but can likely be converted to defensive turret usewill continue in ~20 due to food (thankfully not nutrient paste!) and hopefully more votes
Blood hell, it seems the rest of the regulars forgot about the quest.
>>19928461well, I did effectively vanish 2 out of the 3 past weeks due to crazy shit in life.
Do we know if the planet is safe to harvest? Or will we catch horrible contagions and die horribly? If theres some way, send unmanned scouts, if not possible, send someone we dont like.
>>19928611Well we've already sent scouting parties down there, and they seemed fine.
>>19928656Ok, lets talk with our mates then
>>19928113Let's take a look at that ancient map of the planet and see if it has any locations of interest we could check. Locations such as other vaults or things hidden from initial scans and such.
>>19928611the planet has nothing -to- harvest at the moment.As a precaution, your expedition team is remaining upon the planet's surface for several additional weeks to ensure they don't return with some sort of horrible death microbe. A handful of autocannons were returned to 'Sword of the Omnissiah' for inspection and sterilized.
>>19928709Your expedition did so under Bob's leadership.meeting with Vorth, Advi and Exors it is then!
With your belly full of delicious calories, aside from the portion of nutrient paste, you summon your fellow techpriests to parley in your ship's planning chamber. In short time you are joined around the chamber's massive tactical table by the trio of skilled techpriests. Standard greetings are exchanged as you study your subordinates, two of whom technically outrank you yet call you 'Magos'. Vorth and Advi both sport impressive augmentation ratios, though you note Artisan-Captain Exors has a ratio more in line with your own thanks to his position as Magos Banks' officer. Still, you feel lacking as the least augmented of the four present. Advi quickly produces a conclave portal, silently inviting you all to integrate and communicate in the Omnissiah's divine language. Your cogitators quickly adapt the data streams into distinct voices for each of your followers."To what do I owe this pleasure?"The three before you hesitate visibly until Advi's code follows your own. "We wish to know your plans, Magos Phryx. Will we be acting as members of the Mechanicus or shall we continue to walk the path of the Rogue Techpriests and pirates? This crossroad can not be ignored, we are afraid.">orders?>apologies, forgot it was my cousin's birthday and had to call her!
I would love to contribute to this quest, but I haven't been here for any of the previous ones, so I feel a bit lost. A friendly bump for you, good sir.
>>19929221Get their opinions on this matter. While the choice may be up to us, it would be foolish to make one without hearing what each of them have to say for either option. Plus it gives more time for people to hopefully show up.
>>19929221Whoa... I'd guess we are planning to continue cultivating a good relationship with Magos Grumann while still maintaining our position outside the hierarchy of the AdMech?No clue, to be honest. And wouldn't be the majority of our techpriest be headed straight for servitorisation if we joined the AdMech proper?Anyway, I'm off to bed. Glad to have you back MachineSpirit. I hope the next thread will have more players once people notice the quest's back.>>19929288Feel free to read the archive:http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Privateer%20QuestOP must have forgotten to post them.
>>19929288thank you kind sir! You've reminded me that I forgot to post the archive links...>archive linkhttp://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Privateer%20Quest>previous threadhttp://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/19755077/
>>19929311secondedop can u post the benefits of doing each as well? would make it easier to decide.
>>19929221I think we've gone too far down the path of piracy to turn back. I mean, we've destroyed a number of Mechanicus-owned ships, we have an Eldar among our crew, most of our closest allies are career criminals, and we're currently building a base in a forgotten system beyond the borders of Imperial rule.I really don't see how we could get back into the good graces of the AdMech at this point.
"I'm afraid you have caught my cogitators processing other information, Adept-Captain. Would my esteemed fellows care to enlighten me as to their opinions on the matter?"Again, hesitation. Though Artisan Vorth is a proper member of the Adeptus Mechanicus, he -was- imprisoned for tech heresy when your raid freed him and his fellows. Techpriest Advi is also a proper member of the AdMech, though you are quite certain Magos Grumman entrusted her to your service knowing full well you were a pirate. Artisan Exors is a rogue techpriest much like yourself, formerly serving Magos Banks much as you once did. Fittingly enough, he is the first to respond."I believe Magos Banks would advise we follow the Quest for Knowledge by our own path. I do not know if Feophe's Fabricator General has led his followers astray or if the AdMech itself is flawed in policies, but I trust that Magos Banks had processed more information than myself. Personally, I have no desire to become a servitor."Advi visibly balks at the suggestion that the AdMech is flawed, but keeps her own response on target. "I believe the Omnissiah grants you a path to join the fold and walk his true path, Magos Phryx. I worry that you have grown too... fond of your flesh and its pleasures. Magos Grumman will ensure that any past offenses are forgiven with minor penalties, so long as you wish to walk the true path."Artisan Vorth's data stream takes several filters to clearly understand, but his words are quite frank. "We are loyal to the Omnissiah's teachings but have been declared strays. What are we to do? We know not.">orders?
>>19929592I say for now we remain pirate until we can get a better idea on how the Ad Mech is responding to changes in the sector. Last I recall, some of the higher ups in their organization weren't very pleased with Elesh after that whole battlecruiser fiasco. Magos Grumman could probably give us a good idea on how the state of things are in regards to them.
>>19929592It's simple.We keep on truckin'.
>>19929592Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me!I say we continue on our path outside the orthodoxies of the Adeptus Mechanicus. We've achieved too much now to give it up for a chance to rejoin their ranks. There's no way they'd let us keep a private base, multiple ships, and salvage rights on a whole system. If some choose to call us a heretek, then so be it.
>>19929719Magos Vorgus? Yeah, you're fairly sure he threatened to convert you to a cleaning servitor.
>>19929831Yeah, that's the one. Might be worth bringing that up. Not sure even Magos Grumman could protect us from that completely at this point.
>>19929592>I worry that you have grown too... fond of your flesh and its pleasures. Advi confirmed for jelly as fuck. She just needs to find the right man/woman/mechanical thing.
"There will be at least one Magos calling for my servitorization, and perhaps that of my entire crew. I'm uncertain that the risks of attempting reconciliation outweigh the rewards. For now, we continue as pirates and forge our own path on the Quest. As pirates, any member of this crew is free to take their leave at any port for their own reasons.""Lead on in the Omnissiah's name." respond your followers."On to other business. Artisan Vorth, what additional resources do you require for construction of the station and what is your projected timeline for construction?""We were able to utilize Magos Grumman's facilities to prefabricate a good portion of material for the station's construction, specifically core architecture. We believe that the station's repair dock could be made functional in two months time, and estimate four months of repairs for 'Sword of the Omnissiah'. Initial estimates suggest the light cruiser hulk will require perhaps a year for repairs and that many of her components have been destroyed beyond reasonable repair. 'Zephyr Spirit' would best serve as a source of essential parts and resources for construction of the station and repairs to 'Sword'. We request the full number of slaves as a labor force, along with the majority of techpriests from Artisan-Captain Exors' crew and the sentinel lifter compliment of 'Heavenly Forge'. I do not expect to have resources remaining after 'Sword' completes her repairs, and the station will be approximately 75% storage and cargo space due to lack of resources and tooling for industrial processes. The autocannons discovered upon the planet would also be useful for defensive armaments, as would permission to act on my own authority on construction matters.">cont
>Request list-all slaves-Techpriests of 'Zephyr Spirit'-'Zephyr Spirit' to cannibalize for parts-Sentinel Power Lifters from 'Heavenly Forge'-autocannons found upon the planet-all metal resources possessed-Authority to make decisions for construction process>approve/deny?>orders?>1 previous vote from early post "repair Zephyr Spirit" being honored.
>>19930224Scrap the Zephyr Spirit for parts and resources. An unarmed civilian ship isn't worth much to us at this point.
>>19930224What's he going to do with 3000 autocannons?
>>19930224additional note:Zephyr Spirit is still a -very- capable transport and can still risk warp jumps if you'd like. That and scrapping her will result in you having a spare Captain character.
>>19930371>scrapping her will result in you having a spare Captain characterWe'll need one soon enough, once we manage to fix up that light cruiser and it becomes our flagship. Someone will need to command our frigate.
>>19930224Repair the Spirit. Scrapping her will be nice in the short term but long term, another ship is better at the moment. With a war in the sector, ships are a valuable resource we shouldn't squander.
>>19930371Oh, I was under the impression that it was no longer warp capable without extreme risk.Would it be possible to fix the visible damage and sell it to a merchant?
>>19930355the defensive turrets of most ships are generally autocannons and other such heavy infantry weaponry. 3,000 autocannons is roughly enough to provide a space station with a turret rating of 1 and allowing it to fend off the occasional rogue meteor. They could also be used to augment another ship's turret rating, but such improvements have limited space to work with.note that your space station will lack void shields no matter what choices you make initially. (you'll need to find some massive projectors!)
>>19930415>extreme riskWarp travel is risky to begin with. Even a minor chance to have your ship literally break up on its own during the act makes it worse!>fix superficial damage and sellNo one with the wealth to purchase a ship would overlook critical damage to the very core of a vessel.you -can- repair the ship, but it will literally require tearing half off it away to replace the spine.
So it seems that the only real vote was on repairing/scrapping Zephyr Spirit?I'll wait another 10 minutes just in case someone wants to chime in on the other stuff.
>>19930636Seems like it. Assuming the Spirit is kept, it's going to be out of commission for awhile if we're repairing it so there's no reason why we can't let him use all that stuff from it.
>>19930636I don't have a problem with giving Vorth access to the other resources he requested. But let's not scrap the Zephyr Spirit just yet.
"Your requests are approved, though 'Zephyr Spirit' is to remain intact and be repaired in the future. Artisan-Captain Exors has final say on anything involving his ship. Is this understood?""Your will is clear. 'Zephyr Spirit' will be used as a base of operations and temporary addition to the station during construction, should Artisan-Captain Exors allow it" chimes Vorth."This one has no objections. 'Spirit' shall contribute proudly to such a project." Exors has allowed a small grin to visit his face after you declared 'Spirit' to be preserved."If there is no other task to be completed here, you are all dismissed. Omnissiah bless your endeavors."Once again you watch your subordinates file from the planning chamber, though your servo skull hovers past Advi before the door is sealed. The small servant hovers about you jovially, left eye blinking an unabashed message "A-T-H-E".>orders?
>>19930874I assume our servo skull has found Athe or has a message from her to us. Either way, let us go locate her and see what she has been doing.
>>19930874Lets see what our little friend has to tell us.
"F-O-L-L-O-W"Your servo skull proceeds to quickly lead you along an inefficient path until you arrive at a small observation chamber. A commander and his aides likely oversaw the transfer of war supplies to the vessel from this room countless times in the past, but now the room mostly gathers dust and hosts a lone figure watching the blue and brown world in the distance. Athe's arms hold her knees loosely to her chest, her head held low. >orders?
>>19931080Has Athe noticed us? I'd kinda feel like a dick if we interrupted her for no real reason while she's meditating/praying.
>>19931122Athe has not noticed you, and you're fairly sure that she does not meditate. Praying in such a position would be unorthodox, to say the least...
>>19931080Let's go find out what's bothering Athe.
>>19931183In that case we should probably go see if she's alright.
credit where credit is due!I'm afraid that a certain someone has just given me far too wonderful of an idea for the conversation with Athe. The only problem is that I can't do it justice tonight.>calling it here tonight!>Timeskip soon, fellow pirat- privateers!>Next thread on THURSDAY, July 19th @ 7-8:00 PM EST>midnight!? Damn it, a year of this song being fitting to life. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBLEYjXr_Nw>usual Q&A for a bit if anyone has questions.
>>19931358I have a question - will real life stop preventing you from running this?
>>19931386There is a chance I may have to drop down to doing Privateer Quest once a week or even once every other week. I can't make any promises. Worst case, I may have to switch to doing 1-shot side quests.I promise to actually let you guys know if such things occur.
Yay, Privateer Quest is back!Wait, I missed tonight's session entirely? Damn. Gotta remember to come here earlier next time.>mfw
>>19931418That sucks. Hopefully the worst case scenario is once a week but ya gotta do what ya gotta do.
>>19931438Thank you, I was just googling that image for next thread.Any questions or requests, good sir?
Yay, this is not dead. Awesome session as always.>>19931495>I'm afraid that a certain someone has just given me far too wonderful of an idea for the conversation with Athe. The only problem is that I can't do it justice tonight.>Thank you, I was just googling that image for next thread.Well, fuck.
