The Conclave

The Ordos Majoris - Roleplay => In Character => Topic started by: DapperAnarchist on May 12, 2012, 02:59:11 AM

Title: The Order of Liars
Post by: DapperAnarchist on May 12, 2012, 02:59:11 AM
The Runtkiller

I see the world through rat's eyes...

+++Threat Report
+++Johannes Silverster, a.k.a. 'The Runtkiller'
+++Threat Rating – Hereticus Abominatus, Traitor to the Imperium, Malleus Minoris
+++Threat History –

+++Subreport – Loss of Imperial Navy Vessels The First Dust and Oldheart

- The First Dust fails to meet scheduled ration resupply at Anagotha Prime
- Three years later declared Lost to the Warp
- Encountered in Armia System by the Navy Patrol Cruiser Oldheart, crippled, with extensive damage to its engines and many of the dorsal turrets destroyed.
- Salvage team boards The First Dust
- 7 minutes into exploratory mission, contact lost.
- Salvage vessels reports equipment malfunction, returns to Oldheart
- Upon arrival, maintenance crew is killed by unidentified figure from Salvage 1/Oldheart
- 58 minutes later, Captain Cordwainer is killed and Oldheart's bridge is captured.
- 1 hour, 47 minutes after return of Salvage 1, Oldheart broadcasts a repeating "13-13" signal, reporting all hands lost to enemy action. Broadcast ends after 11 minutes.
- 32 days after Oldheart's contact with The First Dust, Patrol Group 83 discovers them on the outer edge of the Armia system, both entirely derelict.
- After an initial Naval investigation, a request for Inquisitorial assistance was forwarded to the Memorial. An investigation committee is convened, headed by Interrogator Dalian and supported by Data Recovery Group Celestine.

+++Subreport ends

Honoured Lords –

I am the bearer of troubled news. In my investigation of the losses of The First Dust and the Oldheart I have found evidence that one of the Ruinous Powers has turned its attention towards the Keltani region again, and chosen a champion for itself. Almost a year before it vanished, The First Dust was infiltrated by Investigation Team C-6, with the intent of examining the officers for corrupt behaviour and heretical opinions – a conventional mission. Three months into the investigation it became clear that something much worse than the ordinary corruption of an officer class with insufficient discipline was occurring on board. Control over the crew was being lost, and fights would break out regularly.

Investigations proceeded immediately, with the full assistance of the Navel Armsmen, under Sergeant-at-Arms Johannes Silverster, who was considered by the Captain, Captain Afranius, to be "an honest and loyal man, if sometimes overly enthusiastic". However, it appears that Captain Afranius made a severe mistake. C-6's investigation discovered a cult of the Ruinous Power of Violence and Rage, whose name shall not be written here, had spread through the crew, focussed around Sgt. Silverster. C-6 immediately attempted to confront Silverster, but found themselves blocked off by a mass riot. As the heretic crewmen took over the ship, it was established that there appeared to be no intent to leave any other crew alive. On the advice of C-6, those loyal crewmembers left attempted to prevent Silverster from gaining control of a fully operation vessel, detonating munitions stores and turning turrets against each other. Before being overwhelmed by a swarm of heretics and under-deck mutants, the Mechanicus contingent successfully crippled The First Dust's warp engines. Following this, the heretic crew not only turned on all remaining loyalists in a frenzy, but began turning on each other, until the only one left was Silverster himself, with C-6 being wiped out by a mutant suicide bomber who flung itself into their shuttle before they could escape.

It appears that Silverster was alone on The First Dust for three years as the ship drifted out of the warp into the outer reaches of the Armia system, where it was encountered by the Oldheart. There, Silverster, by now referring to himself as "The Runtkiller", seems to have wasted no time in slaughtering the salvage crew and taking Salvage 1 back to the Oldheart. Once aboard the Oldheart, Silverster appears to have used some form of warp-magick to drive the crew into a frenzy much like the one on The First Dust. Silverster himself, armed with a Grox-cleaver and carrying a shield of unknown origins, led the frenzied crew straight to the bridge, where the entire bridge crew were killed within seconds of Silverster gaining entrance. Over the next hour the entire crew are killed, either by Silverster directly, by the conflict he seems to have inspired, or by suicide.

Unfortunately it does not appear that the story of the "Runtkiller" ends there. When Patrol Group 83 made contact with the Oldheart and The First Dust, the preliminary investigation showed that Salvage 1 was missing from the Oldheart's launch deck, and Data Recovery Group Celestine estimates that it left, presumably with Silverster inside, roughly one hour after the end of the 13-13 signal. While it is true that even at it's best speed, Salvage 1 would take 7 months to reach any of Armia's inhabited worlds or orbital complexes, it is clearly within Silverster's ability to wait, as The First Dust drifted for three years before it was discovered. All ships leaving Armia are potential risk vectors, and he may already have escaped; indeed, three trader convoys are known to have passed near enough to the ships that Silverster could conceivably have intercepted them. I recommend a full alertness warning to be passed through the Keltani Commercia and all Naval Patrol Groups, with immediate effect.
Interrogator Dalian
+++
Title: Re: The Order of Liars
Post by: DapperAnarchist on May 12, 2012, 03:39:58 AM
The Keeper of the Rot

I venerate life. You worship a corpse. Why say you I kill, when all I do is bring you new kinds of life?

+++Interview Fragment 000198+++
I, Mikale of the Eighth Floor, indentured servant to the Soloruex of Locithun, blessed be his memory, give this statement in full knowledge of the fate awaiting liars and traitors in the furthest Sump.

I never served the Ritter, that wasn't my duty, but I did know him, yes. T'were always a funny one, him, always fretting with his plants, all them growths. He spent his fortune on them, and though he were a low son, t'were still a proper fortune. Said some were from old gardens in the core-spikes, some were from the Sump, some even from them other worlds, they said. His servants were always a grey bunch too, all sickly and ill-shaded, like hiveworms. The messageboys and carrierlegs always feared going to the Ritter's chambers, said it didn't smell right. We had nowt to say on that though, us servants, he were the Soloruex's son, and was not our place to question.
+++Fragment Ends+++

+++Interview Fragment 000213++
My name is Lieutenant Enforcer Antonius Israfiel, and I was present at the death of the Grand Duke. If it so pleases this court, I would like to explain my presence. [Interrogator Dalian: You may, but keep it brief.] Under Hive Locithun law, a junior child may be incarcerated or executed only by the Global Enforcers, not by family or mercenary agents. It had occurred that the Grand Duke Soloruex had seen that his junior child, the Ritter von Adonat Soloruex, had seemingly lost his mind, spending all that he was given on a foolish garden. It was the Grand Duke's intent to have the Ritter imprisoned by the Global Enforcers under Article 178/C of the Inheritance Law, which states [Interrogator Dalian: Please, Lieutenant Enforcer, this court has full access to the records and the books of law, we wish only to hear of the circumstances of the Grand Duke's death.] Well, milady, I was assigned the duty of investigating and carrying out the sentence. I was accompanied by the Grand Duke, and by a phalanx of his personal guard, who carried flame units to destroy the Ritter's garden. On our arrival, we were shown through the Ritter's chambers into his garden. On my arrival, I was struck by how... ungreen it was. I know a little of plants, you see, having once arrested a man in one of the hydroponics centres on sub-level 143. Down there, in those lights, the plants are green like a medicae's robe, but in this garden... there were brown things and grey things and deep red things and a few white things that seemed to move oddly. To be honest, though it was not within my assigned duty, I was happy that the Grand Duke had decided to destroy this garden. It wasn't right. The Grand Duke spoke to the Ritter then, telling him we'd come to take him away, and destroy the garden. He said it was for the best, and the Ritter would feel better among proper steel and stone. The Ritter didn't speak at all, but it was clear to me that there was no question he needed to be put away. He was sitting on a low stool, wearing only a jacket, a noble's ruff, a gas mask, most likely to keep out all the damp and spores that must fill a place like that, and a little apron to cover himself. He didn't speak at all, just kept stroking one of those sprayer-guns the cleaners use. The Grand Duke asked my permission to remove his son, and I granted it. As the Grand Duke turned to move his son away, the Ritter pointed that sprayer-gun straight at him and soaked him down. I don't know what he'd put in it, but the Grand Duke was screaming and blistered before anyone could move. The Grand Duke's personal guard tried to seize the Ritter, but the Ritter's servants attacked, faster and stronger than anyone could have expected. I saw one set alight by two flame units at once, still running so he could grab onto his killer and set him alight too. I, for my part, did my best to tend to the Grand Duke, but there was nothing to be done. I've never seen a man die like that, all the skin melting away, not even in the Sump. By the time the servants had been put down, and the Grand Duke's body moved away, it was realised that the Ritter had vanished. I reported this to my commandery, and was told to secure the area and await the arrival of the Paramilitary Command Group.
+++Fragment Ends+++

+++Interview Fragment 000412+++
I... I... uhmm... [Interrogator Dalian: Medicae, the interview subject will not speak. Give him something to help.] I... Oh Holiness, oh my Emperor, oh take it all away... I... What, what am I doing here? [Interrogator Dalian: You are giving evidence to an Inquisitorial Hearing into the death of the Grand Duke Soloruex and the disappearance of his son, the Ritter von Adonat. Please, tell us what you can.] I... My name, it's Tore Valentin, I'm a Dathrapatish [Note – roughly equivalent to a Sergeant in the Imperial Guard Standard Rank System, though with more tactical control] in the Paramilitary Command Group. I led one of the three units sent after that warpdamned thing. We went into the garden... there were corpses, the servants we were told, left behind by the bodyguards and that Global Enforcer, but... they were all maggoty, wormridden, it was the worst I've seen in a long time, worst of all perhaps, because the maggots... I don't think they were of any kind I'd seen before, it was like they were the corpses. We made our way though the garden, found a lift shaft at the back, made our way down. The bottom... oh Holiness, it was worse than the garden. There was a cavern, two old manufact-domes had merged, there were paths running along walls, and in the spaces between, things, penned in. In one there were sumpvines, that moved as we watched, twisting around like grubs, but they filled the entire pen. In another, slime covered worms, the size of the Grox corpses you see at Holytides, worse and worse things as we got further in... We saw the prisoners, in different pens. In one, there were so many they could barely move, but each had their head covered with a bag. We never checked why, perhaps the Emperor stayed us, for our own good. In another... [Valentin breaks down crying. Medicae Servitor 23-Beta administers a second dose of Restorative C] Ever-risen, Ever-risen, there were children down there, trapped by hobbles and chain, but they were infested, things grew on them. I think I know where the Ritter got his servants from. Haydn, one of my men, he tried to free them, even though we said not to, to stay on mission... that's when the Ritter's servants attacked. Our weapons did better than the Grand Duke's men had, but even so we were hardpressed. Haydn got caught trying to climb out of the pen, Mansel was knocked off the path into a pen filled with some sort of pale foam, but he never appeared again, Dalibor and Madog both were dragged away... by the end there was just me and Gallus left. We knew our mission, but by the Ever-risen Emperor, it was hard to move. Nothing there was right, nothing. We finally got up, I don't know who first, and moved on. At the end of the paths was a sort of shed, with a candle burning. Inside, we could see a table, with stuff like from a apothocary's chambers on it, and shelves with books and infoslates all over them... but in the corner, we saw him. It was the Ritter, we were sure, he was still wearing the clothes we'd been told about, but nothing else was him. His feet were all wrong, there were horns coming out through the leather of his filtermask, his gut was swollen and red and covered in little spots of white pus... oh, but there was worse. He was kneeling over a tub, in the tub was a worm, white and shiny, with three dark eyes on its head. The Ritter... oh, oh, I wish I hadn't looked... the Ritter was feeding it from his hand. I don't mean bits of food, I mean it was eating his hand, eating down to the bone, gnawing away. I shot it. I shot it first, I was a fool, but somehow I shot it first. The Ritter moved, he turned and suddenly Gallus had been sprayed with something, we'd been warned, but oh, by the hells, it boiled him away, he screamed till I shot him, I shot Gallus... The Ritter had run out a back door, so I followed him... The last thing I saw was him being lifted away by sumpvines, it was like how the Omniprophet shows himself on the Fast of the Machine, all these vines reaching out from a hive shaft wall to take away their owner... no, their father, their carer... [Valentin is silent for 74 seconds] I'm told he's left, the psy-scryers can't find him now, and I guess that just means another world has to face him, but I won't say I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't kill him, sure, but I never want to face that again. I crawled out, following the hive shaft, and made contact with the PCG. I'll not sleep now, not again...
+++Fragment ends+++