Fifty Third Volume, Chapter Twenty Five
In the previous chapter we discussed how the Seleucaemi Treasurer and the Sword Class frigate the Sword of Dorn became entangled and how their combined plight doomed them if they could not escape.
Faced with a choice between escaping to another vessel or travelling to the warp as part of a space hulk, Talis Saro instructed his first officer and other officers to travel to the other ship and try and find out the state of affairs on the other ship and work out if it would be possible to form alliances with them.
Originally the Rogue Trader had intended to go himself however his officers argued against it. Knowing that if he travelled to the other ship he would place himself in terrible danger. So it was that the Rogue Trader remained behind while his officers went forth to deal with the barbaric factions that had grown up in the time since the Fall of Dorn had fallen through the Tempest of Graves. However the Line of Saro had long prided itself on the skills of their servants. In the firestorm that House O'Verlan unleashed upon the holdings of the line of Saro many of these fine servants were killed, a loss to the Imperium not only the line.
Those that escaped with Talis Saro however were among the finest servants that the Line of Saro had at the time. Macharius Quintus was more than up to the task that Talis had said before him. He was swift to realise that the poor crewmen of the Fall of Dorn would likely be swayed by confidence and a display of wealth. They took Talis' personal lander, an Aquila lander he had previously decorated to his own requirements. The fine wood panels were of warm chestnut and the gold Aquila was made of ore mined in the Lines own mines, before House O'Verlan burned them. The interior of the Aquila was just as well appointed, and Macharius added to this some of the fine victuals taken from the extended holds of the Treasurer. With a number of Ichigo's Armsmen the preparations were complete, and they began the trip to the Fall of Dorn's lighter bays. Macharius brought with him Ichigo, Luna, Omar, and Loka, thinking that having the support of the Master of Arms, and the High Enginseer, while also taking the two members of the command team to check for Warp taint in the people they were there to meet.
They reached the Lighter bays in only a few moments their ships far closer than any ships would normally be, but once they reached what would on any operational vessel would be a bank of void shields at the opening of the bays, they instead found only two void shields. More shockingly the voidshields were controlled by the act of several void suit wearing menials physically disconnecting the shields from jury rigged batteries, bleeding off their power and allowing the shield to fade.
The Greenshots the faction in charge of the Lighter bays allowed the Aquila to come into land, under the defence of their Hydra batteries and their leader the self styled Captain Jalasas rushed to greet the followers of Talis Saro. The Greenshots put on a show of force, an honour guard to prove their worth, but it looked ragged and weak before the combined might of Talis' servants and the Armsmen.
It can only be imagined what sights and sounds assailed the officers as they marched down the landing ramp of the Lander, to stand in the arc of the Greenshots troops. The market behind them was a jumble of tent scraps and shanties. The Fall of Dorn had long been in disrepair, and the air the officers found themselves breathing was nothing like the air of the treasurer. Stale and almost foetid it was like breathing through wet cloth. Before them a battered wheeled vehicle with a large calibre autocannon of some sort pulled up and from it a powerful man with grey almost white hair and green carapace armour approached, flanked by two mighty combat servitors, and another smaller man in full carapace.
In the annals of the House Saro the meeting between the Officers and Captain Jalasas has not been often discussed, most commentators instead concentrating on the later meeting between all of the faction leaders. However I believe this is a mistake, as the first meeting between the officers and the Captain was actually the most important of the two meetings. If the officers had proved less capable in persuading Captain Jalasas to their cause they would never have reached the meeting with all of the other leaders. If that meeting had never taken place then imagine the different route that history would have taken! Imagine how different our Imperium would now be! The Salasene Transact would never have taken place, the fall of Deniros would not have occurred, Alphan's march would never have been halted. Such a small meeting, that the people involved most likely did not place any great amount of import upon, but that set in motion such huge events that echo down the ages even to today.
As it was Captain Jalasas was not entirely trusting of the officers, only understandable given his situation. He wasted no time and immediately began to probe then on their purpose in visiting the market of the Fall of Dorn. Detailed notes of this meeting were unfortunately not kept however it has been said that at first Jalasas was not swayed by Macharius' claims that they had come solely to trade, correctly pointing out that they were a merchant vessel and as such most likely better supplied than the Fall of Dorn. As he pointed out to Talis Saro's first officer, the Fall of Dorn was in a delicate balance, and any outside influence could plunge it back into the state of anarchy that they had previously found themselves. The Greenshots themselves had taken the markets and lighter bays from their previous holders a faction called the Cutters, when it became obvious that they were withholding the right to trade for food from those factions they did not look kindly upon.
Wishing to speak more comfortably Macharius invited the Captain into the Banquet hall of the Aquila and invitation Captain Jalasas took with no hesitation, leaving behind all of his guards save his second and the two combat servitors. Seated in the opulence of the lander, supping upon the fine foods brought from the Seleucaemi Treasurer, Jalasas quickly became more friendly and talkative. He explained that the Greenshots had a strict non-intervention stance when it came to people trading in the lighter bay, anyone able to make their way to the bay was welcome to trade even if they were currently in combat with the Greenshots themselves, providing they did not disrupt the running of the market.
The conversation however was expertly guided by the first officer to the subject of the two vessels predicament. They were now locked together, and Jalasas informed them that as they were obviously a trading vessel more and more of the factions from the Fall of Dorn would attempt to raid them for supplies. Macharius asked him if he thought that this would destabilise the ship, causing factions to shift their holdings to try and get to the goods on the Treasurer, and effectively leaving the area around the markets. Jalasas agreed that there would be some form of upheaval however that most of the factions would be unable to pierce the Treasurers guards (obviously, but he did not yet know the force with whom he conversed as yet), and any that could prove problematic to the other vessel would not be missed from the area around the markets. The true skill of the Rogue Traders servants can be seen here however, by letting Jalasas speak his mind they eventually led him to the subject they truly wished to address, the possibility of escape from the Debris Field that they came to know as the Grave Swarm
Sadly, Jalasas could only tell them that none of the pieces of Vessels that the Greenshots had visited to loot for supplies seemed repairable. Indeed most were not even entire ships instead being sections of ships ripped asunder by the tempest of Graves' tidal forces. The only likely source of ships or pieces of ship that could be used for repairs that Jalasas knew of, was in fact the Spacehulk that the two vessels were now, unbeknownst to him plummeting toward. Wary of what the captains response would be to that news at the time Macharius decided not to reveal that information at this time, instead allowing the conversation to be deflected towards the eventual aim of the Seleucaemi Treasurers crew. This was of course simple, locate a vessel that could then be rendered capable of flying away from the Graveswarm. Again Jalasas informed them that no such vessel was near to the Fall of Dorn, but added that the Lighters did not venture too far from the Fall as the loss of even a single lighter would have had a terrible effect. The other Lighter bay it seemed had suffered some terrible fate when passing through the Tempest of Graves and was rendered unusable.
Without this first meeting and the skill of Talis Saor's first officer in handling such delicate diplomacy, Captain Jalasas would not have been persuaded to help them. Without his help it is almost certain that the more well known meeting of the Five Factions would most likely never have taken place, or if it had, it would have been a very different meeting indeed. Most scholars agree that the meeting of Five Factions was one of the Great turning points of Talis Saro's fate.
In the next chapter I will discuss the Meeting of Five Factions and it's results.
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