Below is the log of Flight Marshall Lucius "Torque" Hal serving aboard the fleet of [[[Sebastian York]].
Port Wander
Signed onto the Cleansing Light, a recently recommissioned ship. They were lacking anyone with any real skill with small craft and heading out into the Koronus Expanse, further away from the eyes of the Imperium. Battlefleet Koronus is smaller than Battlefleet Calixis, and less likely to pay attention to the crew of a rogue trader like Lord Captain York.
Spent most of the voyage to the Expanse working on getting the Scorned Jezebel back up to scratch and repainted. She took a bit of a beating in that last fight, earned some scars. Checked out the rest of the craft as well. The Aquilas are all fairly standard equipment, as is the lander, but that Ork ship is something else. Might have a play with it later, but I'm hesitant to work with the Xenos tech. At least it's not Eldar.
Quppa-Psi-12 (not the Dread Pearl)
Damned and blast it! Those frakking Eldar screwed me over something royal. The Lord Captain says to take us down as fast as possible, so I take us down straight rather than the smooth, slow route and those backstabbing arseholes whip up some kind of freaky psychic storm that throws us completely off course and means I can barely see to stop us crashing. Still, I saved the lander, or at least I could say that if we'd taken the time to dig it out of the mud.
There was some fierce fighting from then on in, but the worst of it was when we faced the loathsome Eldar swine directly and I was caught glance of the Navigator's warp-eye. The damn thing's hypnotic or something. I would have fallen to my death had the Lord Captain not caught me. Still, it left me blinded for the rest of the fight, and the despicable bastards got away.
Zayth
Upon exiting warp at Zayth, I was at the helm - Crimson had a headache or something - when the Hammer of Destiny emerged behind us and opened fire. It was a thrilling combat and we almost crippled her, but she escaped into some asteroid fields. We were badly damaged ourselves, and couldn't risk venturing further to find them, lest we be taken instead.
We took a lander down to the surface, and I swear you will never see hives such as those on Zayth. Great walking cities that roam the landscape - incredible. We established trading links with one of them - the Indestructible, and while they don't have spacefaring ships, they have personal gliders and some type of primitive atmo-flyers. When we return, I may attempt to acquire some for myself. We also got auto-loading macro-cannons out of the deal - might not seem like a lot, but you can feel the extra power emanating through the ship when you let those bad boys fly.
The Processional of the Damned
Those Emperor-forsaken inhuman knife-eared scum appeared from nowhere and shredded our hull in one fell swoop. We gave them a worse lick of it in return though. Scouted out the wreck to confirm the kill and the loathsome vile xenos tore my sweet Jezebel apart. Orthesian is working on her, but I doubt she'll ever be the same again. We'll have to burn this dishonour into the hide of the thrice-damned scum next chance we get.
When we arrived at the Processional, well.. I'd heard of this place but never thought I'd see it. A system-wide graveyard of ships of all kinds, sizes and races. Never seen anything like it. Haven't seen anything like those Hollow Men either. Damn strange they are, tough as Orks, but nothing to them. Wouldn't surprise me if they were made by Eldar trickery, like that star probably is.
Rescued a bunch of crew and descendants stranded here in times past, but we took some damage escaping the system - flying through fields of space hulks and debris in a ship that big ain't that easy no matter how good you are - and I'm good, if I don't say so myself.
Vaporius
A dry, dead world. Landing an Aquila on top of a pillar of rock with Sebastian yelling in your ear is tricky enough at the best of times. Taking off while a monster of rock charges at you was interesting…
Unnamed system
That was a hell of an adventure. The Light of Terra shows up while we're investigating the place - the frigging Light of Terra! Ship's a legend, and the captain was still alive if half-insane. Studied the control systems and they're nothing like I'd ever seen before - I'm not sure I'd have been able to fly her, at least not easily. Whole crew had gone feral, some of them have come on board - more strays for the engine decks - and we barely managed to get off the ship with our hides intact - I'm not sure one should ever be that close to a warp gate without a Geller field around you. But we scavenged some archeotech that will likely prove very useful.
Dross
Frakking inhuman, knife-eared, Emperor-forsaken, heretical bony freaks and their frakking Warp-damned psychic storms! No wonder the entire frakking world was covered in wrecks - the storm tried dragging you in from the void itself - that shouldn't be possible, right? Still, I got us through it without trouble. That's what I was hired for, after all.
Natives had gone feral, worshipping the ships. Insanity, but I see where they're coming from. The gods of the sky fallen to the ground - it instils anyone with a sense of the void with reverence. Still, doesn't stop me seeing if there's anything valuable on the wrecks.
Turned out we needed to drive out a cave tribe in order to get the coordinates and get off the rock, of course the Lord Captain offends them and then charges in alone. Miracle he's still alive.
We go in after him, Gorbaz forced the door, and we charged the natives. Fuck me, but they were tough bastards. One of them got a lucky shot in, and took my leg clean off. No idea what happened to it, but these drugs Hack put me on mean I don't really care either. Got an augmetic now, does the job and it's better than some I've seen. Maybe this'll get Crimson to stop playing cards and do her fecking job. Now, where's my amasec…?
The Dread Pearl
The Eldar were waiting for us. Sebastian and Cymbry insisted on going to talk to them, tried warning them off but they didn't listen. Still, they came back in one piece. Had the guns primed in case they attacked, but they just left without a word.
That's when the storm opened up, and the augers lit up. Captain said charge, so we charged into the breach without a look behind us. Never mind that it was the other rogue traders, not an Eldar battlefleet…
Once we arrived, we cloaked up and went down with a lander. Found plenty of treasures, weird gems and the like. Astra took up one of their unholy psychic blades - it just feels wrong. Captain found himself a pet cat - think he's gone a bit warp-crazed; he keeps talking to it.
Got shot at by Eldar, found some native humans -that quiet conversation under a tree was a delightful experience… mm…
Lyn came by and screwed with Sebastian - stole his hat too. Once we found him, we went off to what Cymbry reckoned was the important bit. There were tonnes of these things he said were gates that the Eldar could come through or something, and then he complained when I started shooting the frak out of them. Frakking typical - the Eldar-lover would rather study the thing than stop the Eldar coming through and killing him.
Not that it mattered. One of their psyker-leader types came in from nowhere and made the statues start walking and shooting us. Had to start lifting people off the ground again, so I couldn't get a clear shot at the bastard, but I took out a couple of those statues.
Had to leave behind a couple of folk because the storm was closing up again, but we got them back afterwards - the other traders picked them up. After that, all that remained was limping back to Footfall.
Footfall
Plenty of parties - we're heroes of the moment or something. Chatted up Aoife Armengarde - think I might be in there if I keep it up. Played some cards, made a few thrones.
Captain had some run-ins with Inquisitors, but we've managed to find a hull for a second ship. An Orion-class Starclipper. She'd been hulked, but we got a good for her and she's spaceworthy. Sebastian's done a bargain with another trader and she's outfitted now.
Of course, as soon as the Astra's Bounty was outfitted, we get summoned up to go fight a war. Well, it'll be a hell of a shakedown cruise…
The Foundling Worlds, Star Cluster Decimus Gamma
So, it's the Light, the Bounty and whatever support we can drum up against the Rak'gol invasion. Ain't this going to be fun?
Venn's World
There's taste, and then there's the decor here. It's… unbelievable. But then what's inside is fairly surprising too. Whole place is filled with xenophiles - the main attraction when we walked in was a giant squid thing Slaith having sex with a twist hermaphrodite. There was even a queue of nobles lining up for their chance.
Venn himself seemed sound enough. May not have taste, but he's got sense.
Scratch that, he's got excellent taste in women. Shame some of them ain't interested in men.
Carax
Three groups of warring Mechanicus fighting over the thing we want. Lovely. Still, Orthesian talked them into a deal or something. Tech-priests are so boring to listen to…
Siethe
The private pleasure planet of a rogue trader called Carraway. I'd say it was perfect and idyllic if they hadn't drugged me and ripped a hole in my neck. I need to get Hack to see what he can do with it. Still, if he can finish the job, it might make things interesting if I heard what it was right.
Basically, the Mechanicus tech went wrong and made everyone berserk. So we had to clean up the mess. Being naked while being attacked by servitors and insane pleasure slaves was not what I call the best of times. Well, maybe if they weren't trying to kill me…
Verne
Frontier world. Nothing very interesting, but it has an auger array we can use to anticipate Rak'gol incursions.
Rhiber (Prison planet)
With a Rak'gol raid imminent, we went to press-gang some penal legionairres. Turns out they're not too friendly, but we got a regiment from them to shore up the defences at Verne.
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Yu'vath world (Rak'Gol base)
What a rush. I mean that! Have you ever buzzed a Titan as it marches across the battlefield? I have. I've also dodged gun implacements while flying a Valkyrie loaded with troops under the shield umbrella, up the face of the central spire and then dumped the troops off at low-orbit before reversing the manoeuvre.
Those Rak'gol bastards are hard bastards, and they're not bad fliers either. Just not good enough. We put enough holes in their ships and them to keep them in dry dock for a few centuries.
Wasn't easy, but we won - we beat them. Now to rake in the dough and live off the fame.
Angels of Death
I wasn't sure what to make of having to travel with the famous Angels of Death. Turns out they are men, after all. Giant, heavily-armoured men who can punch you across a room without thinking twice, but men.
The one who spends most of his time drinking? He's sound enough. Wouldn't like to be on his bad side though.
Alien World
Other than the Cult Mechanicus, the place looked dead. Chased by a storm into the city - only lost one lander. Luck had it that it was the one with the Marines. York wouldn't let me go out and find them until the storm cleared - something I made sure to pass on. I wish I'd taken a pict of that punch!
The place was empty. The surface was dead. Underneath, it seemed like the whole world has been hollowed out - endless caverns beneath the surface. With armouries that like to blow up and giant robots that like to smash people. There was a weird screeching over the auspex too - I think it picks up on things normal ones don't. Every time something was going to happen, I could hear the screeching.
Of course, wasn't too long before the Mechanicus caught on. And feth all I could do with a few Aquilas against a horde of Mechanicus fighters. I don't rightly know exactly what happened, but seems we made a deal and they let us go.
