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This post's a whopper, wanted to get the briefing done in one go.

@ CrazyGuy: The room's light enough no echolocation is necessary. It appears safe but, as you said, 'safe' is a relative term.

You sit in the chairs and wait. Cheery upbeat music is piped into the room through speakers embedded in the wall. Weather this is an attempt at entertaining the occupants of the room or else some subtle form of torture is hard to say.

After some time, anywhere from 10 minutes to half an hour, another door on the other side of the room opens and someone walks through. He (due to the body type, you assume it's a male.) wears the read cloak and hood of the Adeptus Mechanicus. This same hood renders his face invisible. He walks with an oddly stiff gate, almost a limp.

He steps up on the dais in the center of the room. When he speaks, his voice sounds distorted and tinny, as if he was talking through a microphone.
My designation is Q10601, but you may address me simply as Q. I am designated to brief you on the impending mission.

He pushes a few buttons on the dais, and your chairs tilt back slightly. At the same time, a ring of holo-projectors activate around the outside of the room. You are now looking up at a map of the solar system.

Quick summery, this system has one star and one major planet. The sun is surrounded by many char-worlds, and the planet is a massive gas-giant. There are many moons orbiting the giant, some the size of small planet. Of these, two are notable. H8318, the hive world; and Dune, a desert world that serves as the Imperial Guard garrison for the system.

Beyond this is an asteroid belt and, at the edge of the system, the barren planet Gatekeeper and the orbiting planet sized fortress Gatekeeper Station. These serve as the first line of defense against the inner solar system.

you are jolted back to reality by the harsh voice of Q One week ago, a rogue asteroid was detected on an intercept orbit with the inner system.

A red dot appears on the map of the solar system just inside the asteroid belt. A dotted red line appears, it curves around before finally connecting with the gas giant.

Normally, this would be a source of little concern, but the circomstances were...exceptional. A distress beacon was found emanating from a colony on the asteroid. This colony is apparently human in design, and it's signature is consistent with pre-Imperium technology.


You will board an orbital transport shuttle which will take you to a waiting scout vessel. This will proceed to the asteroid and you will board a dropship. It will drop you off outside visual range of the base to avoid any peremeter defence that may still be operational. Your mission is to enter the base and find a central computer access. You will then download any relevant data and exit the base. You will have a shuttle waiting to pick you up.

As he describes each stage of your journey, a line is traced across the holo-display to chart your path.

You will be outfitted with environmental suits equipped with a radio device. In addition to this, one of you will carry an archaic computer interface device to download the data. It's valuable, try not to loose it.

Briefing over, the holo-display turns off and Q begins to leave the room. About halfway to the door, he stops and turns around.
There's rumors circulating about this colony. They say it's got some rather impressive technology. You could benefit greatly from delivering an example of it to the proper authorities. His voice drops to a whisper, at least as much of a whisper as is possible when you're talking through a speaker. The Adeptus Mechanicus is a force to be reckoned with. No doubt even an Inquisitor would find it difficult to harm persons placed under its protection, but I've said too much. I must go.

He quickly proceeds to the door, humming an Imperial litany particularly fervently.

Are we alone in the room again, or is our 'Honor Guard' still present?

So, we grab some goodies for the Tech-Preists, and they offer us protection. 'Course, unless one of them is actually on the shuttle, it doesn't help our primary problem, which is that odds are we have an 'accident' happen to us as soon as we cease to be useful, which occurs right after we return to the shuttle with the data in tow. So we need to figure out how to extend our usefulness at least long enough to talk to the Adeptus Mechanicus.

'Course, that's based on the bold assumption they will not do the exact same thing to us, whether now or down the line. Actually, actually, that's based on the bold assumption that really was a Tech-Preist and not, say, the Inquisitor in disguise.

How big was Q? Also, if possible, I would like a Sense Motive check to evaluate the sincerity of his last statement.

And, hypothetically, if I were to punch him in the face at some point, would he say 'Picard never did that'?

Still, any chance is better than zero, and the Mechs, unlike some Imperial agencies I could think of, are not brain-dead ideology-spewin' zealots who rely on others to make their value judgements for them. So it's a risk we're gonna have to take.

The "honor guard" as you call it stayed outside.

Q looked about 5 foot 6 inches, but the robes render it rather hard to tell for sure. Nice one about Picard, but I was thinking James Bond when this particular name came to mind.

Go ahead and roll a Sense Motive if you want to be sure about his intentions.

In response to your last comment, Q stops beside the door and turns around.
Your mission will begin in 12 hours, the Inquisitor shouldn't miss you until then. I have taken the liberty to set you up some temporary quarters. They aren't spacious, but they're better than nothing. Follow me.

He opens the door and begins to walk down the hall.

Nice roll.

Your observations of Q's gait and stature lend you to believe that he is truly a tech-priest.

You can also tell that he is truthful in his statement about the Adeptus Mechanicus.

However, you can tell he's withholding some information. You're not sure what it is, but you know he's not telling you the whole truth about what's going on.

I honestly know nothing about the Imperial dating system in 40K. I'm just using the real-world Gregorian Calender.

Q receives the barrage of questions in silence. Finally, once you're finished, he calmly replies
You are talkative for someone who's been imprisoned for over 2 months. Let us continue and I'll answer everything to the best of my ability.
He continues down the corridor, the volume on his speaker increased so you can all hear him clearly.

The distress signal was first observed coming from the asteroid belt some time ago. It was repeatedly dismissed as a rogue transmission, or simple static. However, with the emergence of the asteroid from the belt one week ago, the signal was finally triangulated as coming from it.

We do not know how long the beacon has been active, although we assume it was activated long enough ago to render any attempt at aid irrelevant. This assignment should be considered a salvage run, not a rescue mission.

This mission been authorized by the Inquisitorial seal. Beyond that, I couldn't say. In any event, it does not seem that this was a unanimous decision. Inquisitor Karrack is certainly opposed to it.

As to a map, we know that pre-Imperial structures were built according to a limited set of blueprints; what we do not know is which this colony is based upon. All we know for sure is that it appears to be built into the wall of a canyon and the rock is deflecting all attempts at active scans.

The corridor ends abruptly at a double door. He pushes a button, and the door slides open to reveal an elevator. Once everyone boards, the door closes and the elevator starts to ascend. Q continues to speak, apparently unaware he neglected to turn down the volume on his speeker.

We are currently at the bottom of the prison's central shaft. This prison is not part of the main city, but the exact location is classified. I have secured a section of the guards living area for your use. We should arrive in approximately 5 minutes.

The elevator continues in silence.