Port Wander-to meet the Admiral

The nondescript shuttle takes you to the coordinates sent by the Admirals office. The trip takes you a little over an hour as you fly in. With a small thump, the shuttle sets down and the ramp retracts.

You see two rows of naval honor guard lined up,weapons at port arms. Their armor gleams in the artificial light as you see three figures waiting at the end of the lighted landing area.

One figure wears the dress uniform of the Imperial Navy, her ranks shows her to be an Admiral.
The other figure is dressed in an Imperial Guard dress uniform, you would guess a General of some sort as these things are not as firmly established as in the Navy.
The last is quite recognizable as a member of the Mechcanicus. His augment are very obvious and quite extensive.

"Welcome my Lord to Port Wander."

"Thank you for the welcome Lord Admiral Crytis. May I present a trusted member of my cadre, Magos Terrellios. The rest you will meet in time, no doubt, but they currently have their duties." Frayhert says. "As I look forward to meeting your councilors and valued members of the Military and the Mechanius."

After introductions have been completed, "Perhaps we can move the conversation to a more private area for the breefing."

"Of course, my Lord. This way."

You see the honor guard form up and surround you in standard pattern used for an honor guard.
As you get to her door and go in she turns to the guards "Post the standard watch please and also over our guests shuttle." The squad sergeant nods his accent and starts to bark orders as the door hisses shut.

Inside you find a large table. There are ten chairs surrounding the wooden table with a holo-projector in its center.

It is a pleasant surprise that you find two of the chairs labeled with the Mechanicus symbol and made to bear the weight of someone highly augmented.

"My lord, please let me introduce you to my colleagues. This is Lord Marshall Thaddeus of the Imperial guard assigned to this sector and Magos Hegg of the Explorator fleet of the Mechanicus. He happened to be here sharing reports when your call came in, my Lord."

Frayhert nods as he is introduced. "Lord Marshall Thaddeus, Magos Hegg, it is good to meet you. Due to the nature of our travel, I have been away from any new intel. Have there been any new developments in the expanse?"

"I had anticipated that was one of the reasons an Inquisitor would visit this area of space. I have had the Fleet Commissar gather this data for us."

You see a hard woman with snow white hair in the uniform of the Commissar come in.

"Lord Inquisitor, Magos and assembled staff. Here is the data requested."

She plugs a data stack in to a recess in the table and you see the images of 6 planets pop up on a holo-field

"These six planets have come under the attack of the Ruinous powers. Five of them are Imperial worlds and one is a mining world under the auspice of the Mechanicus. There were troubling warp storms that preceded the attacks on the worlds. Inquisitor, we have always had raiders who worshiped the Great Enemy in the space lanes. They are rabble that picked on smaller ships. We destroy many of them as they have poor fleet assets and are cowards to true servants of the Emperor. Rarely do they attack a planet. When they have its been sparely populated and mostly for slaves. These attacks were coordinated. They seem to be somewhat unified in purpose and have fleet assets we have not seen before. Them are well led, for Chaos rabble and have made inroads on these planets. Combat rages on as we speak."

"Does anyone have any theories why they are attacking those planets?" Inqusitor Frayhert ask all assembled here, "Are these six planets in close proximity to each other, or other areas of Imperial interest?"

"They are far enough away that it stretches our Naval assets to have intercepted them. The closest is a month away by our fastest picket ships. The only thing they seem to have in common is that they are building these across various parts of each of the planets held.:

The image disappears with another



Lord Marshall Thaddeus takes over the narrative.

"The forces that I have are spread out across all 6 of these worlds and have reported these objects being built. Quite rapidly I may add. They are visible from space when full completed. They seem to constantly shift shape. Most disconcerting to the troops."

The commissar speaks up. "Summary executions are up to 25 percent higher with troops directly exposed to the object."

"Thank you Commissar Dewill. Yes, it has had a negative morale effect and seems to bolster the Enemy. They fight the hardest to defend those areas. We have attempted to call in strikes from space, but they seem to distort the area around them. I am told this is similar to a displacement field."

"It is clear that these...fabrications...must be stopped. Have you discovered anything else about these...cubes? How close did Imperial forces come to them?" Frayhert pause to take a deep breath. "Magos Terrellios, do you have any ideas what these things are?"

"I sent in a storm trooper squad in for recon. The vox and vid cast they sent were secured at the highest level on my authority. My vox man went insane. I had to shoot the poor man myself. I have the the recordings guarded by proven battlefield psykers and over seen by Commissars. I will gladly release these to you, of course. The team was not heard from. Otherwise we have not yet been close enough yet to hit them with artillery but that has been my plan to deny them the assets as Lance strikes are unsuccessful."

Terellios speaks up after considering the image. "How many of these structures are being built. And is there any indication how close the enemy is to completing all of them?"

Unfortunately Terellios is not the brightest magos in the Mechanicus, but I guess I can give archeotech a shot to see if these are even human technology.

Dice Roll: 1d100z
d100 Results: 78

FL: Archeotech (78) vs 58