VentOne of the bridge officers turns to the throne. "Lord Captain, the vox-stations are malfunctioning and overloading the system! None of our outgoing transmissions are getting through. The incoming ones that do make it are distorted beyond interpretation!"
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Entry point 2 of 83
VentSector: Koronus Expanse Region: Cinerus Maleficum Location: Cranach Material: Pict-report on events on the bridge on approach to Kiava Gamma Recorded by: Servo-Skull Watcher XVI
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Entry point 3 of 83
VentThe voidship's bridge. Sounds of working cogitators and officers' footsteps. The everyday scene is interrupted by an ear-splitting beeping sound, followed by lumens going out. In the dim glow of candles and emergency lights, one of the officers in frame cries out, another falls to her knees, clutching her head. Over the beeping of voxes, shouts can only just be heard: "What's going on?" "The doors are locked!" "We've lost contact with all compartments!"
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Entry point 4 of 83
VentFor a moment, tense silence falls over the bridge. But then the lunatics are stricken with another fit of rage. The officers' orders break through the cacophony — execute them all!
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Entry point 5 of 83
VentVigdis enters one command after another. The station groans, shrieks, and sparks under her fingers, and a shock passes through the wires. Blood drips onto the control panel, and Vigdis lets out a grinding cry, but does not relent. A few moments later, she crumples. "The signals... have been... blocked..." Then she falls unconscious.
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Entry point 6 of 83
Vent"Proceed!" A team of decryption experts gets to work. Data-tethers are inserted into sockets as they connect to the cogitators. One of the vox-clerics leans over the console, another is writing something on a piece of parchment... but then she bursts into maniacal laughter and stabs herself in the eye with a steel quill. Another scream — a Tech-Priest, who was mid-prayer, tears himself to pieces with his own mechadendrites. More and more lunatics are mutilating themselves and lunging at others.
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Entry point 7 of 83
VentOne monitors the comm line, another prepares written orders. The Vox Master's unit sets up an internal communications system via comm-beads. The crew's efforts are expedient and well-coordinated, and within moments, servo-skulls carrying instructions from the Lord Captain are diving into the ventilation shaft and vanishing into the gloom.
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Entry point 8 of 83
VentOne of the cogitators jolts, lets out a piercing screech, swells up — and explodes, peppering the nearby officers with a hail of white-hot shards. The voxes produce an unnerving mechanical sound like mad cackling. The vox picks up a series of metallic clangs as servo-skull messengers carrying prepared orders plummet to the floor. From beyond the pict frame, a shout comes — the distorted orders made it into the internal vox-system and have already been delivered to the compartments!
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Entry point 9 of 83
VentThe next few seconds of the servo-skull's pict contain nothing but flashes and gunshots. When the sounds of the massacre die down, the lunatics have been destroyed, as well as some of the sacred cogitators, oculi, and consoles on the bridge.
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Entry point 10 of 83
VentThe Lord Captain barks out the command. The Vox Master raises her arms in protest, but it is too late — the enforcers open fire on the vox-stations. The transmission of distorted data is stopped... along with the ship's main vox-systems.
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Entry point 11 of 83
VentCurrently, the most frightening situation on the ship is in the arsenal. Some of the distorted commands, despite the bridge's best efforts, still made it into the compartment, and the lower-ranking technomats complied — by raising the temperature inside the ordnance depot! The heat is about to hit critical levels, and the shells are going to explode, blowing the arsenal and the neighbouring compartments to smithereens.
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Entry point 12 of 83
VentThe bridge is littered with evidence of disaster — corpses being hastily removed by healers, broken machinery, and bloodstains all over the bulkheads and deck. Among the dead are many irreplaceable specialists and officers, but the remnants of the command have already gathered around the hololithic map and are in the process of discussing the plan of action.
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Entry point 13 of 83
VentThe image on the pict is fuzzy — nothing but glimpses of people, shouting, racket, and the Lord Captain's orders. Within minutes, the crazed crew members are either dead or bound and unconscious. The officers clustered around the Lord Captain are barely breathing but unharmed.
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Entry point 14 of 83
VentThe mad officers are attacking their comrades. The recording shows glimpses of a torn head staining everything with blood and a vox-cleric howling in pain, clutching his broken arm. By the time they have tied up all those not killed in the scuffle, the bridge attendants can barely catch their breath.
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Entry point 15 of 83
Vent"Scrap-code..." The voice belongs to the on-deck Enginseer who has turned to the Lord Captain from his station. "We have been attacked with scrap-code, a tech-heresy designed to corrupt machines! The transmission received from the planet was infected with this taint, and it is now running through the ship's veins. Omnissiah preserve us!"
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Entry point 16 of 83
VentThe exhausted crew members, who were still breathing deeply, one by one begin to bend and collapse to their knees. Coughing, wheezing, and the sounds of stomachs being turned inside out come from all directions.
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Entry point 17 of 83
VentGathering a group of technomats and workers with plasma cutters along the way, the Lord Captain reaches the middle decks. Armoured doors separate thousands of people from the rest of the ship, people who have been robbed of light, communication, and oxygen. A wave of the Rogue Trader's hand — and the cutter gets to work. Ten minutes later, sheets of metal come down with a crash, and a stream of haggard-looking people pours out of the death trap and into the passageways, praising the Throne, the Lord Captain, and all that is holy.
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Entry point 18 of 83
VentThanks to the Rogue Trader's efforts and the sacrifice of the senior bridge officers, the rest of the ship's compartments were able to suppress the panic and deal with the raging machine spirits with few casualties. No critical reports.
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Entry point 19 of 83
VentThe Rogue Trader is taken to the medicae deck, where he/she is instantly surrounded by doctors — the crowd is so dense that the servo-skull anxiously circles above them, trying to catch a glimpse of the subject of its recording. At last, the Lord Captain opens his/her eyes, dragged back to consciousness by a cocktail of medications and biostimulants from several IV bags.
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Entry point 20 of 83
VentSomething twitches at the edge of the frame, and a blow knocks the Rogue Trader into the bulkhead — the vox catches a muffled wheeze and the crunch of breaking bones. Everything else gets lost in the interference that obscures the frame. When the image is restored, the servo-skull shows a group of people finishing off a loader servitor — the one that must have attacked the Lord Captain. The rest lean over a body lying on the floor...
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Entry point 21 of 83
VentThe atrium is in a state of panic — silhouettes skitter about in the dark hall, illuminated only by the flickering of emergency lumens. Curt orders and someone's feverish words of prayer can be heard. Having lost all communication, the beheaded ship is writhing in agony.
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Entry point 22 of 83
VentThe Rogue Trader takes a few steps down the corridor and breaks into a coughing fit — undoubtedly a result of spending too long on the bridge. Splashes of crimson stain his/her clothes and the floor, and the Lord Captain shakes his/her head...
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Entry point 23 of 83
VentWith each word, the people around the bed straighten up, and their gazes are filled with awe and faith. The officers salute the Lord Captain and leave the medicae deck in complete confidence, ready to do their duty.
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Entry point 24 of 83
VentThe crew is too tired, barely standing, to heed any orders. The most resilient officers rush to cut open the doors. When the way out opens, most of the crew are dragged out by their exhausted comrades. Last to leave the bridge, the Lord Captain runs out, coughing heavily.
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Entry point 25 of 83
VentThe Lord Captain gets to the door... and they obediently open, as if they were never locked to begin with. A few more people run out after the Rogue Trader, one of them dragging the Vox Master's body.
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Entry point 26 of 83
VentThe Lord Captain tries to get to the doors, but they are surrounded by panicking people who are slamming their fists on them. The doors suddenly open, and the crowd pours out, leaving behind several trampled bodies. It is a miracle that the Lord Captain makes it out uninjured.
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Entry point 27 of 83
VentWithout saying a word to anyone, the Rogue Trader makes for the exit through the smoke, steam, and rubble. The servo-skull is right behind him/her — the Lord Captain's back is in the frame, the vox is picking up screams of pain and coughing coming from somewhere off to one side.
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Entry point 28 of 83
VentLeaning on a support beam, the Rogue Trader takes several deep breaths, trying to flush his/her lungs with air. Then he/she straightens, smooths his/her uniform, and heads toward a goal known only to him/her. The servo-skull follows.
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Entry point 29 of 83
VentIt takes a while for the Lord Captain to find the cogitator mentioned by the fallen officer. The panel of the isolated terminal is riddled with cracks and bloodstains, and on the floor by the terminal, a Tech-Priest is lying in a heap with his head smashed and technical liquids mixed with blood oozing out of his ports. The Lord Captain decides to...
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Entry point 30 of 83
Vent[Name] gives the order to...
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Entry point 31 of 83
VentThe Vox Master nods curtly and connects the tangles of cables coming from the back of her head to the main vox-station. "Spirit of the ship, I beseech thee, shield us from this peril and allow not the heretical signals to pass!"
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Entry point 32 of 83
VentPoisoned and disoriented, the people can barely stand, and they are slow to respond to the order. The servo-skull shows Abelard Werserian, the Lord Captain's loyal Seneschal, stepping in. He firmly gets to work, personally guiding those who are dazed, issuing direct commands to the crew, all the while barking instructions peppered with choice words of naval slang. The screeching of plasma cutters and the loud crash of the falling doors signals that the way out of the trap is clear — the survivors abandon the bridge in haste.
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Entry point 33 of 83
VentThe Rogue Trader gathers the senior officers and assigns each to one of the ship's control systems.
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Entry point 34 of 83
Vent---Portion of pict-recording damaged after contact with unknown object---
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Entry point 35 of 83
VentThe madman's body falls at the Rogue Trader's feet as his/her commanding voice, magnified by a vox-amplifier, carries over all the noise. He/She orders the crew to master themselves immediately, promising to personally execute anyone who fails to do so.
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Entry point 36 of 83
VentA loud pop — the pipes over the officers' heads burst, and a blast of hot air flings the voidborn away from the Lord Captain, his body slamming straight through a cogitator panel. The pict frame spins uncontrollably — the servo-skull was jolted by the gust. The pict-recorder fogs over, the vox picking up the crackling of electricity and a death cry. "Gas on the bridge!" a junior attendant shouts and instantly doubles over, inhaling the poisoned air.
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Entry point 37 of 83
VentThe Rogue Trader...
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Entry point 38 of 83
VentThe walk to the bridge is uneventful. The crisis has passed — although wounded and crippled, the ship nevertheless is returning to its normal operation.
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Entry point 39 of 83
VentThe Lord Captain gives the order to...
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Entry point 40 of 83
VentLife on the bridge is as bustling as ever — even though the people are surrounded by destruction. The senior officers have the situation under control, and the people have been organised — the emergency crew have already finished repairing the pipes, the technomats are setting up cogitators and consoles, and the healers are bagging up what few corpses there are and examining the wounded.
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Entry point 41 of 83
VentThe farther the Rogue Trader walks into the atrium, the more unsteady his/her footsteps become. The Lord Captain takes a moment to lean against the bulkhead, but then crumples to the floor, coughing up gouts of blood onto his/her chest. Several people immediately dash to the Rogue Trader's side...
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Entry point 42 of 83
VentThe officers' faces are calm and confident. One by one, they bow their heads, their hands forming the sign of the Aquila on their chests. They soon leave the medbay to deal with the situation on board.
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Entry point 43 of 83
VentThe Rogue Trader enters a sequence of commands into the terminal. The machine goes dark for a few seconds, then whirrs. The screens fill with endless streams, then light up again. The control panel responds to the Lord Captain's requests, warning about the critical situation on the lowermost decks of the ship. The Lord Captain decides to...
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Entry point 44 of 83
VentThe maintenance bay is sending out hundreds of desperate distress calls that have gone unanswered up to now — when the machines went out of control and started turning people insane, others, driven by some hateful and paranoid logic, started butchering the servants of the Adeptus Mechanicus. The Tech-Priests have sustained heavy losses, but the remains of the cult are still holding the line. Out of everything that's happening on the ship, the situation in the maintenance bay is the direst.
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Entry point 45 of 83
VentAn enforcer shoves a rabid servitor away from the Lord Captain as he/she...
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Entry point 46 of 83
VentThe most problematic situation is on the middle decks, which have been left without any instructions from the bridge since the disaster began. Due to power supply failures, the bay has been completely cut off from the life support systems. The people, surrounded by darkness, are panicking, and their oxygen supply will last another half hour at most.
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Entry point 47 of 83
VentThe Rogue Trader jumps to the side, dodging an attack from a worker servitor. Shrieking binharic trills flood the vox-recording, and the pict-recorder picks up nothing but sparks from the blows. Eventually, the frame rights itself. The Rogue Trader, weapon in hand, is standing over the broken servitor, which claws mindlessly at the floor with its appendages.
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Entry point 48 of 83
VentThe Rogue Trader arrives not a moment too soon — the crew, frightened out of their wits, have already cornered the priests of the Omnissiah and are about to execute them. The Lord Captain stands between the angry mob and the Tech-Priests, his/her sheer presence already giving the crowd pause. Harshly cutting off any objections from the crew, the Rogue Trader orders the officers he/she gathered on the way here to escort the mutineers out and set up a guard post outside the bay, where the Tech-Priests begin to offer desperate prayers to the crippled machine spirits.
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Entry point 49 of 83
VentWhen the Lord Captain and the officers he/she gathered along the way reach the arsenal, the servo-skull's ocular lenses instantly fog over. On the vox-recording, the Rogue Trader issues commands calmly and succinctly — execute those responsible for carrying out the asinine order that came from the bridge and get the compartment sorted. The three technician teams immediately head to the overheated reactors, and the privates to the warhead transporters. An hour later, the situation is back to normal.
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Entry point 50 of 83
VentA number of scared junior officers promptly surround the bed. "The ship is suffering devastating losses!" "The interbay comms are still offline!" "The crew is terrified, Lord Captain!" Eyes full of terror, bloodied uniforms, slumped shoulders — and these officers are the only link the Lord Captain currently has to the world outside the medicae deck! All he/she can do to support these people who are willing to risk their lives for the ship is...
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Entry point 51 of 83
VentThe Rogue Trader approaches the Vox Master who is rummaging inside the case of a ruined vox-station. "Lord Captain! Praise the Emperor, you're in one piece! The situation on board is unclear. I'm afraid that currently most of the compartments can only receive orders in written form."
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Entry point 52 of 83
VentThe Rogue Trader contacts several officers via the vox-terminal and orders them to deal with the most critical situation on the ship at once.
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Entry point 53 of 83
VentOne of the officers — a burnt woman who has lost her hand — starts weeping, interrupting the Rogue Trader's speech. The officers shudder and quickly avert their eyes, then, after a half-hearted salute, back away toward the exit.
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Entry point 54 of 83
VentThe Lord Captain knows where help is needed most. He/She decides to...
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Entry point 55 of 83
VentThe officer salutes and hurries over to the bridge vox-system, to the Vox Master, who is leaning over her station. Moments later, a cry of surprise: "Lord Captain, our transmissions are being distorted as we speak! 'Depressurise the lower bays,' 'Execute adepts of the Machine Cult,' 'Disable the life support systems'... If even one command gets out..."
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Entry point 56 of 83
VentThe officers are too exhausted. It's easy to tell by their fallen faces and hunched shoulders that each word the Lord Captain says crushes their spirit like a rock rather than helping it soar. Ashamed of their own weakness, they leave the medicae deck and shuffle off to their stations in resignation.
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Entry point 57 of 83
VentThe bridge resembles a battlefield — the floor is strewn with corpses, the cogitators are damaged, and the people inside are barely standing. Healers in masks are bagging up pale corpses, technomats are hastily patching up the ruptured pipes, and the surviving officers are trying to get the remaining cogitators back up and running.
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Entry point 58 of 83
VentBy the comm station, the Rogue Trader runs into the Vox Master. "Praise the Emperor, you're in one piece, Lord Captain! The situation on board is satisfactory. I was just in the middle of setting up comm channels — soon all the vox-casters will be fully operational."
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Entry point 59 of 83
VentAnother man appears in the pict frame — a junior officer, completely out of breath, carrying a heap of scrolls. The Vox Master nods at him. "Ah, here are the reports, Lord Captain. If you find yourself able to return to your station, I can immediately give you a rundown of the state of affairs on the ship..."
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Entry point 60 of 83
VentThe Lord Captain demands some parchment and a quill. He/She briefly questions the officers, outlines the situation on the ship, writes down the data, and calculates possible outcomes. After ten minutes, the officers start to leave the medicae deck, each one carrying a piece of parchment with specific instructions.
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Entry point 61 of 83
VentThe Rogue Trader analyses the available data, devises formulae, and lists the most optimal patterns of behaviour for the crew to follow in every potential situation. The officers just nod in confusion. They mix up terms and argue with each other as they clear out of the medicae deck, leaving the Rogue Trader alone with the doctors.
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Entry point 62 of 83
VentThe Lord Captain falls onto the bed in exhaustion, letting everyone know that he/she has used up all his/her strength. The medics react instantly by sending the puzzled officers out of the room. Once outside the door, they wander off toward their respective stations and into uncertainty.
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Entry point 63 of 83
VentThe Lord Captain spends some time in bed, in the doctors' meticulous care. Out there somewhere, beyond the bulkheads of the blinded and deafened ship, people who have been left without their leader are fighting against an unknown threat. New victims are constantly being brought to the medicae deck. The servo-skull records medics carrying in a young man, the right side of his body a mess of flesh and bone. Then a young woman with her jaw missing and her ribs bared... as if realising the pointlessness of his/her stay here, the Lord Captain demands to be patched up and helped to his/her feet.
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Entry point 64 of 83
VentSome of the lunatics quiet down, others try to snap out of it — one pins her hand to a panel with a dagger to stop herself from moving, another fervently whispers prayers. Some return to the cogitators, others lean over the wounded. Shots ring out — those still on a rampage are executed by the Rogue Trader himself/herself, as promised.
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Entry point 65 of 83
VentThe Rogue Trader rips the power key off the Tech-Priest's mechadendrite and opens the cover on the terminal. Sparks fly into his/her face, but he/she is confident in his/her manipulation of the tangled wires and clanging levers. After replacing the cover and ensuring that the system is restored, the Lord Captain brings up the required data on the screens.
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Entry point 66 of 83
Vent-- End of pict-recording --
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Entry point 67 of 83
VentThrough the wheezes and coughs, the Lord Captain begins to quote numerous codices, whose commandments must be followed by every man, woman, and child in the Imperium. His/Her solemn words are filled with a call to fulfil their sacred duty — to the bitter end.
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Entry point 68 of 83
VentThe voidborn officer appears before the Lord Captain once more. "Whatever it is that's attacking us, we have a backup procedure that can circumvent the vox-barrier! In the atrium leading to the bridge, there is a terminal for an isolated system that might still be unaffe—"
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Entry point 69 of 83
VentThe Lord Captain, buried under a mound of catheters, props himself/herself up and, taking breaths through a mask now and then, begins to speak of human tenacity, of the trials that the crew have already overcome and those that still lie ahead in their struggle to save the ship.
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Entry point 70 of 83
Vent-- Start of pict-recording --
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Entry point 71 of 83
VentOne of the officers, scorning the order, steps away from his station... and drops to the deck as a shot rings out. "You have your orders!" Abelard Werserian, the Lord Captain's Seneschal, roars loud enough for the people to come to their senses — the vox-clerics and officers lean over the cogitators. When the doors are broken open and come crashing down, the survivors hobble toward the exit, but the majority of the crew will never leave their posts again. The last to leave, supported by Abelard, is the Lord Captain himself/herself.
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Entry point 72 of 83
VentThe Rogue Trader personally oversees the evacuation. "Bring the plasma cutters!" "Get the wounded to the exit!" The officers repeat his/her orders. When the servo-skull following the Rogue Trader reaches the doors, they fall to the plasma cutters and crumble outward. The Rogue Trader is the last to leave the bridge.
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Entry point 73 of 83
VentAs soon as the Lord Captain picks up the vox, Idira grabs his/her hand. Her eyes are wide, staring off into space.
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Entry point 74 of 83
VentAs soon as the Lord Captain takes a couple of steps, Idira grabs his/her sleeve. Her eyes are wide, staring off into space.
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Entry point 75 of 83
Vent"Darkness! Darkness is waiting in the lower bays... the darkness is lying! It beckons, it promises truth, but instead of truth — it's all pain, and suffering, and fear!" Idira continues to speak in a hushed voice, trying to persuade the Lord Captain not to believe the mad cogitator possessed by something foreign and malicious. The Lord Captain...
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Entry point 76 of 83
VentThe Rogue Trader rushes to the elevators and goes down to the lower decks, the pict frame juddering from the servo-skull's swift flight. Suddenly, the recording is heavily distorted — noise appears on the screen, and the pict rocks back and forth. The device hits a protruding beam, and the picture shatters into dozens of small pieces:
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Entry point 77 of 83
VentHaving entrusted his/her loyal officers with handling the remaining problems, the Lord Captain heads to his/her rightful station — the bridge.
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Entry point 78 of 83
VentThe Lord Captain glances down the dark passageway, seemingly coming to some realisation — and turns back. The long journey to the lower decks has turned out to be a trap set by a system that has gone haywire, and a pointless waste of precious time.
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Entry point 79 of 83
VentThe machine sparks, and the Vox Master throws her head back frenziedly. Blood criss-crosses her face and implants, and her body shudders from the electric impulses. A voidborn officer pulls out a dagger, cuts the cables connected to the station, and sweeps the Vox Master's limp body into his arms.
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Entry point 80 of 83
VentThe officers, their lungs full of gas, do not have the strength to stand up even to escape the death trap. Shapes dart back and forth in the dark while clashing voices give commands to tear through the doors with plasma cutters. When the way clears and the survivors leave the trap, they leave dozens of dead bodies behind them.
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Entry point 81 of 83
VentHeedless to the gas spreading over the deck, the officers continue their flurry of work at their stations, executing the orders issued by the Lord Captain. Even when the doors to the bridge are opened, the crew carries on for as long as they can. Last to leave the bridge, the Lord Captain runs out, coughing heavily.
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Entry point 82 of 83
VentThe Rogue Trader contacts several officers via the vox-terminal and orders them to deal with the most critical situation on the ship at once.
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Entry point 83 of 83
VentThe Rogue Trader rushes to the elevators and goes down to the lower decks, the pict frame juddering from the servo-skull's swift flight. Suddenly, the recording is heavily distorted — noise appears on the screen, and the pict rocks back and forth. The device hits a protruding beam, and the picture shatters into dozens of small pieces: