You direct Frank to place the Aegis in the shadow of the Terra Incarnadine and to prepare to send shuttles across.

Frank lets you know that doing so on thrusters only will be slow, but that is fine with you, as it will give Jace some time to work with the sensors and get a bit more information on the Terra Incarnadine and the shipyard.

Two days later…

You gather down in Ventral docking bay two, where a space-marine sized conference table has been squeezed into a corner, along with chairs capable of taking their weight and that of their full battle gear. Its early in the day, so caff and assorted breakfast foods are available. You lean back and cock an eye at Jace, who is performing percussive maintenance on a stubborn portable hologram projector at one end of the conference table.

He hits it one last time, and a slowly-rotating test image appears, "sorry sir, I didn't expect this to be quite so recalcitrant."

You take a sip of coffee, "I didn't know we had a spare one laying about.”

Jace shrugs, "We didn't. I got bored."

You are saved from responding by the arrival of Yasha, Adam, Elena, Olaf, and Lord Pyrus, who file in and claim various seats and mugs. Lord Pyrus is in full regalia, complete with sword and staff. Direwolf is nowhere to be seen, but Rubicon comes clumping in loaded for war.

You feel your eyebrows climbing up into your hair as he claims two entire pitchers of Caff and finds a seat. In addition to his usual boltgun, bolt pistol and chainsword, he has three bandoleers of grenades, an autocannon, and enough ammunition to arm a squad for a month's worth of war. He meets your eyes, " 'morning, Shipmaster."

You shake your head briefly, catching an amused look on Lord Pyrus' face, "good morning to you as well Rubicon. Jace, I trust that you have some new information for us?"

Jace nods to you, and bows to the Space Marines and the Inquisitor before continuing, "indeed I do. please bear in mind that this is still preliminary: the raw amount of data from each CAT still operational on the Terra Incarnadine after almost a year is immense, and will take at least a full day to process. Given the twenty-three remaining active units, that time frame can be expected to grow somewhat as new data is gleaned. However, the sensor sweeps and what CAT data I have been able to skim has confirmed that the Terra Incarnadine is free of any signs of life."

Jace activates the projector, bring up a semi-detailed schematic of the shipyard, "indeed, the scans of the HJG-1034 Shipyard, named Gibil, also show it to be devoid of all life signs. Gibil's bulk is large enough to shield some of the central sections, such as the macro-forges, asteroid refineries, and control centers. Thus, the presence of living entities cannot be ruled out entirely. The chance of their presence is no more than seven point seven nine six percent however, due to the total lack of notable power generation aboard Gibil."

Olaf frowns into his mug, "This does sound rather ominous. I purpose that the Deathwatch team makes for the control centers aboard Gibil, with the aim of retrieving maintenance logs or other data to determine the fate of the stations inhabitants. Shipmaster, where do you propose to deploy your team?"

You don't have to think very hard, "Aboard the Terra Incarnadine, to investigate her with an eye towards salvage. At least until the Deathwatch turns up something that will require additional firepower or manpower. Jace will also deploy CATs to Gibil via the docking arms to gather more data on the station. Who knows, they may even turn up something useful."

Lord Pyrus nods, "a sound, if conservative, division of labor."

You shrug, "I've enough bad dreams about retrieving the Aegis, so I'm treating Gibil will all due caution. Particularly given how few armsmen I have available at the moment. Better to be over-cautious and take an extra week or three then charge in and awaken something better left sleeping. Speaking of, any signs of warp-taint Yasha?"

Yasha shrugs, a bemused look on her face, "I've detected nothing. Kudo, our new Astropath, has likewise found nothing but silence and stillness, so warp-taint is likely not present. The stillness is almost too quiet however. I've not felt its like anywhere else."

You shrug, "sounds like I'm probably being a tad too conservative then. Would you care to suggest a target aboard the Terra Incarnadine Jace? An area you would like to investigate first, given you experience in ship construction?"

Jace shuts off the projector, "normally, I'd suggest the bridge, but that part of the Terra Incarnadine isn't fully constructed yet, so either the aft enginseering spaces or the prow sensor array may yield valuable information, in addition to what the CATs have surveyed."