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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zen_Pollo" data-source="post: 5195613" data-attributes="member: 11404">In the Year of the Light of the Golden Throne 042.816.M41++The Continuing Voyages of His Divine-Majesty's  Ship, the Dawn TreaderLord Captain's Log; The Countess Lucretia Von Krak, CommandingIn the Year of the Light of the Golden Throne 042.816.M41++Location:  The Maw, at the Boundary of The Koronus ExpanseCourse:   Navigating towards the famed BattlegroundsImmaterium:  The Warp is melancholy today.  The Death Cult can't even muster the energy for a bit of human sacrifice in honor of the God-Emperor.Comments:  What a beschissen day yesterday turned out to be.  Yet, a glorious day it was.Orbest Dray wanted to meet in a crowded market place in the middle of Port Wander's  “day”.  So I packed up my entourage and had my lustknabe plan a picnic luncheon in a basket.  Well ensconced in my rickshaw, I implored the lustknabe to make their way to market; laufen, schneller zu laufen!.  The members of my bridge crew lagged behind the man-cart; I shall have to increase their mandatory calisthenics aboard the ship.Sadly, a picnic was not to be had.  Dray, a crusty arschhusten, met us at a table in the middle of the crowded mid-day marketplace.  After we had been seated, my grandfather's henchman related the tale of how he had been holding a sealed relic for Goderick Von Krak for over thirty years at this outpost, but the Rogue Trader never arrived.It occurs to me that my Grandfather must have last visited this output prior to mustering for the Margin Crusade.  I wonder if Goderick was planning to desert the Navy and make a break for the Koronus Expanse rather than face conscription...In any event, Dray was all too happy to turn over the relic to me as Goderick's direct heir.   The tube would only open at my behest due to some sort of genetic encoding on the lock.  As soon as I touched the gene-lock, it opened and a strange jewel popped out.  Before anyone in my party could appraise the stone, a mechanical raven swooped out of the air and swiped it from my grasp!And then the shooting started...It seems a rival Rogue Trader Dynasty was after the relic.  Knowing that only my genetic code could unlock the device, they had laid in wait...perhaps for some years...Fortunately, we came well equipped for trouble.  The Void-Master whipped out his Bolter and laid low many of our adversaries.  The Tech-Priest and the Missionary engaged others in melee.  Meanwhile, I focused on chasing down the bird, which we were able to drop some yards away from the skirmish (Later, the Tech-Priest, Octus, explained the raven-servitor was keyed to the will of a Psycher and was bound with its master through the Warp).  Dragging the old man with me, I retrieved the jewel and cut down an assailant with my Mordian Powersword – though the minion lived.  And that is when the Arch-Militant finally showed up, das shiessekopf!  The Arch-Militant had been getting a damn leg of mutton at a market stall!  In any case, the Volkner opened up with his Stormbolter and the assailants went down quickly after that – nothing disperses a crowd like a deluge of flesh-tearing explosive bolts.  I suspect the cleaning-servitors will be scrapping bits of human viscera from the station bulkheads for some time.Sadly, my minions killed all the attackers – in spite of my express order to keep some of them alive for questioning; the Arch-Militant shot the last assailant in the face with an Inferno Bolt.  We needed to interrogate the survivors to learn whom was behind this ambush.  Alas, I will have to schedule some compulsory self-flagellation for the crew to remind them of their duties...Afterwords, the Imperial Guard showed up to restore order, but I grew bored with the marketplace and had my minions straighten matters out with the constabulary.  The Missionary mentioned something about visiting the Station  Provost, but I honestly wasn't listening to Brother Mordechai...my interest was on our new acquisition.The stone was a mnemolith that contained the location for a long lost vessel, the Righteous Path.  According to our shipboard Astropath, the mnemolith indicated the hulk was stranded in the Magoros system, deep in the Koronos Expanse.I admonished my crew to track down information about the missing ship – salvage is half the purpose of Rogue Trade!  The Void-Master had heard a legend regarding the Righteous Path.  The vessel was lost while scouring Xenos treasure planets with the Cleansing Flame of the Emperor.  If we were to salvage the vessel, the holds full of Xenos artifacts would make for rich Profit!However, the Koronos Expanse is still mostly uncharted space – rife with Xenos, Chaos Fleets and lost  worlds still rebelling against the Golden Throne.  We needed a map to plot a path past the Maw and through the heart of the Expanse.Fortunately, the Tech-Priest had a contact at Port Wander.  The Magnate Scrivener Journ was a master map-maker and had a proprietary chart which highlighted a course through the Warp to the Magoros system.  The Tech-Priest negotiated a deal to secure the map, in exchange for a service...The Explorator confessed to me later that he had accepted the charge of transporting a simple wooden box to the port of Footfall on the other side of The Maw; yet, secreted within the box were Heretical Texts from the Dark Age of Technology!  As Octus put it, <s>“Sweet, Sweet Tech-Heresy!”</s>  “How dare that Scoundrel!”  I only grudgingly allowed my vessel to harbor such a blatant violation of the God-Emperor's writ.  Of course, I instructed the Tech-Priest to peruse the documents in order to insure there was no danger to the crew in its contents; I expect a full briefing of his findings within a few weeks...  We agreed the Missionary was better off not knowing about the box, the Adeptus Ministorum takes a dim view of Tech-Heresy.With the map in hand, we were set to launch our expedition to the Magoros system.  And that is when I first encountered the Rogue Trader, known as Hadarak Fel, Lord-Captain of the Fell Hand.Hadarak Fel had hailed the Dawn Treader, mostly to gloat...“Ha, you fool, did you think we will let you claim the Righteous Path?  You wont even make it out of the station alive,” Fel taunted.“What wonderful Obscura Dust you must be consuming, Lord-Captain, you really must connect me to you supplier,” I snickered in response, “After all, those minions you sent to the marketplace were hardly much of a threat.”“The minions' deaths mean nothing, I have much greater allies – such as my fair Lady Ash...”,  the Rogue Trader gestured to a striking woman tending to another raven-servitor behind his throne.I had recalled Octus' explanation that the raven belonged to a Psycher and was bound to its master through the Warp.  Yet, the Lady bore neither the third eye of of the Navis Nobilite, nor was she a blind member of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica...which meant...“An unsanctioned Psycher, my dear Hadarak Fel? Why you are dastardly...”  I had almost purred into the Picto-Monitor.  I must admit, I was quite impressed – the audacity of the man to so brazenly flaunt the Inquisition's purge of Psychers not slaved to the Emperor's will.  Lord-Captain Fel's Warrant of Trade allowed him to ignore certain troublesome rules in the course of the Rogue Trade.  For that matter, so does mine...Still, Fel had the need to gloat more, “And that is not all, Von Krak!  My uncle, Oberon Fel, Lord-Captain of the Fell Storm, is about to blockade the port. I'm afraid you will not be leaving Port Wander for some time, my dear.”  Der Schissen!  We were in for some real problems.  Even I knew that the Fell Storm was a light cruiser – at least 4 times larger than my own 1.6 kilometer frigate – with 4 times the arsenal to boot.“Well, Fel, at least I have the verdammt map!” I snarled into the Picto-Monitor while switching off the channel.  I immediately ordered the frigate to make ready to depart.  Within thirty minutes, the Dawn Treader pulled away from the dock – without the Port Master's authority, I might add.  Not that the poor Imperial Functionary could do anything, my ships' Star-Breaker Lance would have punctured the station's hull like a fetid pustule.Oberon Fel hailed me as my vessel began pulling away, “Forget it, Von Krak, you're going nowhere and Hadarak has already made the transition to Warp.  Stand down, and perhaps I won't run you through with my Mono-sword when I capture your vessel!”I brashly replied, “Old Man, the next time you see me will be when I hand you your nephew's head – encased in a Skull Servitor!”  Not one for making bold promises, am I...Oberon Fel apparently did not take my threat well; he ordered the light cruiser to open fire into the crowded port harbor.  Smaller vessels caught between our two capital ships burst under the Fel Storm's  volley.  With no time to waste, I implored the Helmsman to navigate through the crowded spaceport harbor as quickly as possible, Das Schiff fliegen!Schneller!The Emperor must have smiled upon us that day, for Quinn Vanberg threaded the needle dodging small space craft disrupted by the arrive of the light cruiser, the fusillade from the Fell Storm and the Port Wander infrastructure itself.  All without taking a hit!The last thing we observed before jumping to Warp were the fragments of random space craft being destroyed by errant battery fire from the capital ship.  We'll see whose ship is captured next time, Oberon Fel...I am Lord Captain of the Dawn Treader, The Countess Lucretia Von KrakDen Stets-Siegreichen Imperium!</blockquote>

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