CanoptekConfusion reigns among the voidship's augur operators: the unidentified emission keeps disappearing then reappearing on their scanners. At first it seems that sandstorms are to blame for this, hiding the source of the radiation. A team of explorers easily overcomes these storms and begins studying the surface.
CanoptekAs their accounts suggest, the planet remains littered with broken and mangled ruins of xenos origin. Insect-like constructs flicker among the ruins, like static on a malfunctioning cogitator. Their black, metallic bodies are equipped with grappling blades which bring to mind the spindly legs of spiders. With each occurrence, the devices look more and more distorted, bent, and sometimes even appear directly in the remnants of walls or overlap each other. The only stable thing in this structure is a deep hole with a melted rock at its centre. Whatever purpose this structure served for the xenos, the meteorite destroyed it long before the arrival of the Rogue Trader.
YOULinger to observe the object.
CanoptekMagos Haneumann volunteers to lead the observation team. His passion for the xenos' devices borders on heresy, and he takes a long time after his return to report to the Lord Captain. Later, Pasqal admits that he is discouraged by the gap between the scientific accomplishments of the xenos and the capabilities of modern Tech-Priests.
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CanoptekSuch inquisitive appetite finds no approval from Interrogator van Calox. Though Heinrix agrees that understanding the enemies of the Imperium well will improve the Imperium's ability to destroy them, he fears that unprepared minds may become victims of their own curiosity and fall into heresy.
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CanoptekMarazhai is so impressed by the murderous forms of the constructs that he proclaims his desire to possess such an instrument himself. Once the Drukhari learns that bringing one of the devices aboard is impossible, a sigh of genuine regret escapes his chest.
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CanoptekYrliet recognises the weaponry of an old foe in the descriptions of the discovered mechanisms — Necrons, now a part of the mythology of her people. This enemy is too old to truly frighten the Aeldari, but the shadow of an ancient contempt, burned into her very blood, passes across her face.
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CanoptekProlonged observation brings almost no results. The only thing that the Rogue Trader manages to understand is that the xenotechnology disturbs the integrity of realspace, so observing them from up-close is a bad idea.