Lion searched his deck of possibilities but the fates seemed to keep re-setting every time that he tried to get a grip on their meaning.
On his last attempt to shuffle the Imperial Tarot, there was a violent lurch and the cards went scattering across the altar and his stomach went chasing after them.
Havelock considers his next action; perhaps it was time to attempt to get more involved?
"Navigator Benetek, allow me to direct the fire? I long to see the effect of our cannons on the xenos."
Lion nods his assent.
Havelock considers his next action; perhaps it was time to attempt to get more involved?
"Navigator Benetek, allow me to direct the fire? I long to see the effect of our cannons on the xenos."
The crew can't quite get a bead on the ork ships...
Failure
Struggling with the Void Wolf before finally establishing mastery over it once more. Managing an earlier turn by essentially powersliding the frigate, Jerol strains the engine systems and gets a little more juice out of the vessel, bringing the Void Wolf into range of the second Ork vessel and long range of the first Ork vessel.
Havelock hesitates for a moment, he has never attempted this before, but he knows his duty to the Omnisiah, the ship, the crew and himself. Putting his hand down on the console, he slots his MIU into the Void Wolfs weapon systems.
For a moment his mind is assaulted with vertigo, and he cannot truly tell which is Havelock the Explorator and which is the awesome might of the Void Wolf.
Havelocks voice rings out, devoid of emotions, and even more synthetic than normal.
"Calculating attack vector, target in range, locked on target, fire in 3...2...1...fire stern cannon." Havelocks hand comes down on the rune of activation
"Shot on target, firing secondary attack. Fire in 3...2...1...Fire port cannon.
.
Hooooh boy! Ok you elected to not fire in a salvo as far as I can tell as you made both rolls... So, to figure this out we look at the weapon...
Strength (max number of hits in a salvo)- 4
Damage (per hit): 1d10+2
Crit Rating (number of degrees of success to crit): 3
Range- 6
As both shots scored at least three successes, you have rolled two critical hits. We'll resolve the crit after resolving normal damage. In each volley, the Ork ship's void shield applies once, leaving you with 2d10+4 damage to get through armour on the first salvo and 3d10+6 damage on the second salvo (you got 5 successes but a strength 4 weapon can only inflict four hits maximum). So, get those damages rolled and then roll 1d5 on the critical hit chart... Twice..
:
:
The first battery of fire seems to do little against the well armoured ship (13 damage doesn't penetrate armour, but you do a point of damage automatically for scoring a crit, as well as the crit effect), but the lucky shot does manage to penetrate armour in a single location; the ship's thrusters.
The thrusters are not damaged beyond repair, but they take significant damage nonetheless. The ship's maneuvrability is severely impaired.
The second battery of fire slams through the ship's armour, dealing terrible damage to the ork vessel as macrocannon fire blossoms all over the ship's hull. Havelock's superb shooting also damages the Ork sensors; making their weapons fire extremely unlikely to hit. Worse for the Ork's, the sensors are an external component- repairing them means a trip out into the void for the unlucky Orks...
The second Ork Vessel, perhaps not trusting its damaged engines. moves its full speed of 5 void units and turns to face the Void Wolf directly with its prow. With the turn made, the vessel focuses its efforts on unleashing the full power of all three of its guns on your ship, despite its broken sensors...
Failure
+10 to fire Dorsal Gunz only
Epic fail inspires minor mutiny among gun crewz, -5 to all shooting tests this round.
Miss
Miss
Despite unleashing a huge amount of firepower on your vessel, the damage to the ship's sensors render its ballistic weapons almost useless, a few stray shots bouncing from your void shield but your vessel left completely undamaged.
The undamaged Ork vessel abandons any attempt it may have had at subtlety and heads right for you at full speed, the Ork's attempting to bolster the engines and make a ramming action possible with its fearsome armoured prow...
+10 maneuvr
Pass, 1 degree
The Ork Vessel just barely manages to maneuver itself into a position where a ramming maneuver is possible, but a combination of Jerol's crafty piloting and their complete failure to account for the movement of the Void Wolf means their ramming attempt is woefully off course; they abandon their maneuver and finish their turn in point blank range of the Void Wolf.
Havelock, still connected through his MIU begins to track the new target, ready to unleash a storm of punishing fire as soon as the command is given.
"Attack vector calculated, locked on target, awaiting command to fire."
Lion reaches into the future by consulting the Emperor's Tarot. He pulls a card and nods to the deck.
"Fire Now!"
Havelock waits with the patience of a machine for the optimal moment to fire.
As the Void wolf passes so close to the Orc vessel that in a normal battle the opponents would be eye to eye, his hand once more comes down to press the rune of activation.
"Optimal range achieved, locked on target, Fire port cannon."
"Fire starboard cannon."
The Void Wolf's dorsal mounted Shard Cannons fire powerful volleys of thousands of particles of advanced xenos energy at the Ork vessel- the power source for the weapons somehow existing within the weapons themselves. The armoured prow of the Ork ship only a few hundred kilometres away is the strongest part of the vessel, but the void shields are torn apart temporarily by the volley and the armour only protects the ship against some of the damage. Significant damage is dealt to the crude vessels hull integrity, non-essential components being torn apart by the energy and hundreds of Orks are no doubt killed.
Through the augurs, you can sense crude alarm systems screaming through the vessel as the component Havelock targeted bursts into flames. The hungry flames begin to lick through the vessel...
Further crew damage.
Further crew morale damage.
Havelock co-ordinates the second volley but it is far less accurate- it takes down the void shield briefly once again but the ship's armour is proof against the few remaining particles that reach the vessel.
Havelock's shooting also sets fire to a particularily vital element of the Ork tech- the life support system. Air begins to slowly thin aboard the Ork vessel...
Additional damage.
From your augurs you can see that the Ork's have somehow managed to put out the fire in the life support systems before they are consumed. Alarm systems begin flaring on the Void Wolf as the Ork's successfully lock their dorsal guns on to the Void Wolf. Whoever is piloting the Ork vessel attempts a classic come to a new heading maneuver- essentially a 180 degree turn to bring their formidable prow guns to bear. Unfortunately the pilot misjudges the timing of the second turn and has to abort it, meaning the vessel is only able to fire its dorsal guns at you. Although a huge amount of amunition is expended from the dorsal guns, the salvo misses you by several kilometres.
Fire fighting- Command at -15 (Pass)
Lock on target (5 successes, +15 to dorsal)
Come to new heading maneuver (fail)
Shooting dorsal guns at +15
Random weapon strength-
The second Ork vessel with damaged thrusters and damaged sensors does what few Imperial captains would ever dream of in such circumstances- the vessel adjusts its speed and heads straight for the Void Wolf. Ending its movement a few void units from the Void Wolf, the ork vessel sends some kind of shuttle full of Orks to raid the Void Wolf. The crew are fearful at first, but man their battle stations; and under Praetia's inspiring leadership, the turret gunners shoot down the raiding shuttle with competent ease and a cheer reverberates through the Void Wolf. The full firepower of the Ork raided is then unleashed upon the Void Wolf- also completely missing as the Ork's targeting sensors are still down.
Emergency Repairs (Thrusters, Pass, turns to fix)
Emergency Repairs (Augurs, Fail)
Pilot (Spacecraft) to hit and run at -10 from Void Wolf turret rating- fail by 4+ degrees
Prow salvo (two prow guns), 0 hits
Dorsal guns, +10 from short range, 0 hits
Order- Void Wolf, Orks
Havelock observes the battle from his screens, for a moment he disconnects his MIU unit to be able to talk to the rest of the crew without the disconcerting feeling of BEING the ship.
"Hmmfh, we have them right where we want them now, but the stubborn Xeno seems intent on making us destroy them utterly. But we can oblige them; the Void Wolf cannot be beat!"
Havelock rolls his shoulders and then makes something very incongruent with tech priests in general; he punches his fist into the air in a victory gesture.
Once more Havelock slots himself into the Void wolfs battle arrays, the dizzying sensation of being pulled apart mentally is not so bad this time around.
Jerol had just about recovered the ship from his last failure. He wasn't quite on form today, perhaps someone had been fiddling with the settings on the ship? He wouldn't put it past some of the junior pilots, press a button without knowing what it did.
Still, he didn't have time to investigate, he would have to make do.
I can spin her, get her facing right at the orc ships, Havelock could put a barrage right in the side of the orc ship then. They wont be flying much longer.
Praetia continued to drive the gun crews to greater levels of efficiency. 'By the Divine Emperor's Headtubes, that was an excellent shot! Master Havelock guides the guns, but you give them life. Let them taste the might of the Empire!'
"She's streaming air! Fine shooting Exporator Havelock."
"We'll need to consider serving up a cake to the gun crews when this is over or what ever textured paste they use to make a cake like thing in the lower decks."
"Jerol I like your enthusiasm to drive straight for the Xenos ships but we have plenty of gun range and flexibility of turrets. With the Xenos ships injured, I might suggest a bit of distance."
Jerol listened to what Lion said, it made sense, keep their distance from the orc ships, just gun them down from long range.....but...hell he could never resist a challenge. He grinned to himself and said
You picked the wrong partner to dance with .
He shoved the accelerator to the half position, flicked the engine flaps to maximum left, switched off the front boosters and put the back left boosters on maximum, essentially trying to drift the giant starship around a corner. The groaning of the hull was audible, as it was being pulled in several different directions at once.
She can take it...
Jerol mutter to himself.
Jerol executed the maneuver perfectly, moving the ship sideways in space, and leveling off at the exact moment he intended. He even had time to flash a wink at the rest of the bridge as he was doing it, this boyz didn't know who they were messing with.
One of Havelocks mechandrite hovers over the rune of activation as he observes stoically as the void wolf once more moves, and then the targeting array finds the orc ship once more.
Havelock gives voice to one short prayer, then his slowly depresses the rune, it seems almost a delicate motion, especially incongruent with the massive violence that small motion brings into being.
"Fire Starboard cannon."
"Fire Port cannon."