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Brother-Captain Orlov Orlov hesitates for a moment as he fights back the sensation of vertigo, a feeling he hasn't felt since... "Come on, Jed! You'll never pass initiation at your pace!" came a call from above, barely heard over the howling wind. Orlov leaned back from the cliff face and peered up. High above him, the unmistakable head of his friend Buck protruded out from a ledge. Despite the glare of the sun, Orlov knew that Buck would have that stupid grin on his face - he always did. Trying to shut out the distraction, Orlov turned his attention back to the rock wall he was precariously hanging from. Left, right, left, right, he thought to himself, pulling himself slowly up the jagged rocks toward the peak. Hundreds of metres below, a jumble of shattered stone threatened to punish the slightest mistake with death. Orlov took comfort in the fact that a fall from this height would likely kill him instantly. As he slowly worked his way up the cliff, he suddenly heard the strains of an old children's song being sung, loud and off-key. That bastard had changed the words, though: "Rock-a-bye baby, on the cliff-face When the wind blows, the baby will brace. When the rock breaks, the baby will fall And down will come baby, smashed on the floor." Looking up again, he saw Buck's grinning face only a couple of metres away. Taking a moment to wipe the sweat from his eyes, Orlov called, "Do you want to stop serenading me and give me a hand?" With a laugh, Buck stuck out his arm. "Come on, Jed-baby, almost there!" Orlov reached up and clasped his friend's hand tightly. As he swung his body up onto the ledge, he felt the rock crack below him. "No!" he cried, as he began to slip. With tremendous effort, Buck swung Orlov further onto the ledge, saving his friend from certain death, but dooming himself by the same action. Orlov tried to hold on, but the blood and sweat on their hands made it impossible to keep their grip. Orlov watched, helplessly, as his friend tumble down the cliff and shatter on the rocks below. He couldn't be sure, but he could have sworn that he saw Buck's broken body moving weakly for a few minutes. It was hours before Orlov's head stopped spinning and he could move again. He can't help but imagine Buck's body still there, twitching impotently as the insects slowly devoured him. Orlov takes a moment to silently recite an invocation of purity of mind. "The console's machine spirits have been corrupted by time. Have patience, Brother," he says to Aster, as he enters a command to run the LOGS file.
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Nov 23, 2018 00:53
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Solomon "I'm waiting for Orlov to finish his work before I do anything else."
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Nov 23, 2018 03:14
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 Xaiphos the Erudite Something felt like a torch was being held a little too close to a powder keg and Xaiphos didn't want to be looking over his shoulder for the entire elevator ride. "I say everybody keep your bolter handy and we move them. If these marvelous death machines decide to have a go at us then I'd rather it be here than in an enclosed ceramite box."
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Nov 23, 2018 04:59
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While the others work at moving the automatons from the elevator, Orlov skims through the log files, his brow furrowing. The records on the ship were immaculate, even past the day of its disappearance, up until approximately 100 days after its loss where all records simply become short snippets declaring 'NO DATA.' He skims past rote maintenance logs, logistics reports, and other mundane records until he finds something incredibly damning: the mention of an artificial intelligence aboard the ship. Something about the text on the AI gives him pause, and he moves through the logs to find a passenger and crew manifest, checking it against the date it was launched. His suspicions are confirmed. There never was any man by the name of Vance Stubbs aboard the vessel. Delving into the medical logs, he finds information revealing the entirety of the crew had perished some 95 days into the voyage, when every means of exit to space had simply opened up and all life support had ceased functionality. There are matching robotics logs showing peculiar movements throughout the ship, and matching it to the map shows that the vessel had been searched stem to stern before all machines had been sent to the hangar bay. Reading forward through the logs, it appears that, thousands of days into its disappearance, the AI had somehow split itself into two warring personalities, and there are endless logs of dialogue between a bloodthirsty computer and a simpering, guilt-ridden machine. The very fact all of this made itself available to Orlov makes him wonder if the former is dormant at the moment. Conferring with his battle brothers, it is decided the vessel is far too corrupted to be of use to the Imperium or the Blood Ravens, and is more of a threat than it is worth. Orlov, accessing the console's deepest and most secure functions, finds a means to overload the plasma generators and weapons batteries to cause them to self-destruct, and quickly sets about to doing so. Once the process is started, the marines make a hasty retreat to the landing bay, loading onto their lander and taking it into the sky. Two hellfire missiles later, the shielding to the landing bay is destroyed, and the marines escape into space, putting as much distance between themselves and the vessel. Minutes later, numerous explosions occur across the hull of the ship as its lance batteries detonate, chaining to the numerous rocket and missile batteries as well; the ship is crippled by this, and the chaos vessels nearby swoop in, hoping for an easy capture. But as the chaos ships move in, the plasma generators erupt, and the entire vessel goes supernova, exploding violently in scintillating colors; the explosion washes over the unaware chaos ships and they, too, detonate. All in another day's work for the Blood Ravens. With all of the delays and things that have gone on, mixed with issues with the plans I had for the game, I have unfortunately lost interest in keeping this going; I didn't want to just kill it without resolution, though. This was ultimately going to be how I wanted you guys to end it regardless, and that was going to be the general plot of the game. I was going to gun for a System Shock style feeling with the group moving through the ship, finding no signs of life outside of themselves while being told everyone was being directed elsewhere in defense of the ship, only to ultimately discover it was a trap by the AI hoping to kill the marines and implant itself in the Tech-Marine's body. You would've had to destroy the ship with the aide of a fractured personality accidentally generated by the AI as part of its programming to protect and serve Terra. Thank you for playing and again, I'm sorry you all didn't get to play much!
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Dec 21, 2018 01:54
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