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Skoll's recollection of the Tigguo Cobauc Election

Started by MarcoSkoll, May 29, 2010, 01:14:06 PM

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MarcoSkoll

Yes, this has taken too long to put together, mostly because I couldn't decide exactly how I wanted to do do so. I had originally formatted it in the style of a personal log like I did for Lyra and the events of the 2009 IGT, but while it wasn't bad, some of the information I wanted to fit in seemed a bit weird in that style, so eventually, I settled on formatting it as another "letter" between Marco and Lyra, as I did here. Maybe I'll do the log style again another time, but not just yet.

~~~~~

+++ To: Rhodes, Lyra - FOR/1973/rhol +++
+++ From: Skoll, Marco - WSN/5571/skom +++
+++ Priority: Cerulean X +++


I have to open this message by offering every condolence I have on your being involved in that misfortune on Carthage. To walk out of that alive - as always, it seems the Emperor smiles upon you.

I'm sure I don't need to describe my relief when your name was not amongst the dead. But some of those that fell - some of those names just defy belief. I am told that Inquisitor Hale is finally getting his long earned rest.

If you wish to discuss the events at the Eternity Fortress, then consider me a willing audience. I have read the official reports, but frankly, the clinical wording of the Inquisitorial savants never does any event justice.

On a similar matter, I am sure you have heard much of the events at the Tigguo Cobauc Conclave, but I write to relate my own experiences directly.
Calleia has indeed officially taken office - what exactly that will mean for the Perditus remains to be seen, but his inaugural speech would suggest that he will generally follow in Grolin's wake.

If you will take my own opinions on the matter - while my knowledge of politics is limited, I would however imagine he will relatively quickly reform the...

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... his notes on that were brief, and may not be quite what Byssus wanted, but other than that, he appears to me to be a leader who will be able to maintain the strength of the sector, even with the shortfalls the Carthage incident has left.

Unfortunately, the election, while not exactly corrupt, was not entirely "clean" either - with the scores of Inquisitors present on Tigguo Cobauc, all with their own opinions, there were some violent confrontations leading up to the final vote. The team have all come out of those events alive, although there are still injuries to be nursed.

I have a number of burns which are yet to fully heal (courtesy of an aptly named Inquisitor Prometheus), and I may well be left with scarring as a result of an as of yet unidentified but particularly unsubtle assassin - time will tell as to whether those will fade.

Silva has kept to the mode, keeping both the medicae and Tech-Adept Singer busy. Aside from a moderately nasty chest wound, fortunately the only really major issue was the damage to her bionic leg from a particularly large chainsword. However, while that took some time to repair and reattach, she will suffer no lasting effects.

She wasn't exactly happy about being robbed of mobility for several days - in fact, I'm reasonably sure it's the longest she's gone without smashing the exercise dummies apart in months.
Having had to help carry around her around the Vesuvius for about a week, I can say two things. One, she weighs a lot less without that leg. Two, she still weighs a lot. Anyone who thinks she abuses stimms to maintain the muscle - I invite them to carry around that kind of mass then push themselves as hard as she does. I think I put on a few pounds of muscle simply helping her around.

She eventually ended up doing mostly desk work, and took on lot of the coordination between my various agents and contacts. You know how protective Silva can be of those she cares about, so you can imagine how she felt about being left behind while I was out following leads, but I don't think there are words in Gothic to describe her reaction when I came back after that encounter with the assassin - to be fair, most of what she shouted actually wasn't Gothic, although the volume and quantity of it made up for my inability to tell the exact subtleties of her curses.

The less confrontational tasks I assigned to the others have treated them somewhat better.
Gio received a minor laspistol wound to her upper arm when escorting one of my contacts and Arden only a few bruises and relatively minor scrapes. Jax apparently lost two fingers, but Jax being Jax, that can have lasted no more than a couple of minutes.

Miss Kestel performed, as is to be expected, admirably. Although she was generally assigned special tasks, I worked with her directly on a couple of occasions, and continue to be impressed, if rather terrified, by her talents.
I won't be too specific about her exact assignments, but primarily, she was working to...

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... although she has mentioned an associate of hers who may be worth contacting.

On this occasion, I'd also recruited one of the political liaisons for the planet's commissariat, Shayna Leith. Now, I know you are less keen to associate with "outsiders", but in the environment of Tigguo Cobauc, her political and local knowledge were both invaluable. Not much of a combatant, although she did keep her head in the few fights we got...

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I don't know how closely you've been watching the Inquisitorial data-feeds recently, but it seems the various rumours of an Inquisitor Vendile in the sector are valid. Or at least, that there is someone in the sector claiming to be him.

I tracked down the various facts, and in the interests of investigation, I did what I could to schedule a meeting with him. At the same time, I actually had the opportunity to meet with Inquisitor Cortez. However, our three way meeting turned into the first bloodbath of the proceedings.

As I had gone prepared for the eventuality, I can't say I was hugely surprised, but such an altercation have been better avoided. I was unable to confirm that I was indeed meeting Vendile, and while I believe Cortez will think twice before next attacking me, I'm not sure there are any hopes for future alliances or what might ....

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On the upside, a number of rumours circulated after the event, and lead via a slightly roundabout route to one of the supporters of Calleia believing me sufficiently competent to be the best candidate to round up a group of individuals who might have interests in disrupting the election.

Or, at least, that's who he claimed to be. I have something of a suspicion he had deliberately directed me at Inquisitor Prometheus (who was in the area I had been sent to) in order to try and remove me from the equation.

Either way, things did not turn out too well for me, as my attempts to bring in Prometheus for questioning resulted in him trying to set me alight - for what was unfortunately, only the first time. However, Miss Kestel was present at the time, and assisted me in extinguishing the flames, although at the cost of allowing several persons to escape.
Worryingly, I believe that one of them may have been the heretic Zophar/Sarthuul who Calleia spoke out against at his inauguration.

In this same event, Silva assures me that she was attacked by "the universe's most incompetent bomb maker", who apparently threw an unlit firebomb at her, then himself exploded. Odd though it seems, the facts may even corroborate this - minor shrapnel injury to her leg, as well as considerable blast damage to a door on the site confirmed some form of explosion. Miss Kestel and her extensive experience suggested that it was likely some form of improvised pipe bomb - poorly shaped, but nonetheless rather large.

What concerns me is that Sarthuul has been occasionally reported to travel with an individual who meets Silva's descriptions, but what puzzles me that these reports persist after he atomised himself. Perhaps my identification is mistaken, or it may be that Silva is mistaken about the individual's death. Either way, I have reported the sighting to ...

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... I did eventually track down an individual who had particular influence with several major Inquisitors, but I must confess to a critical error of judgement in apprehending him. I made the mistake of assuming that my attempts to disable his Valkyrie had been successful, and as a result, Inquisitor Goddard's men escaped with the contact.
However, one of his men, Auric Morchai, had been delayed by his fight with Silva - between myself and Commissar Leith, I was able to detain him for long enough to extract the name of his master.

I was hardly keen to let Morchai go after the extent of the damage he had inflicted upon Silva's leg, but pragmatic as always, she made the entirely valid point that Goddard's rapid rise to favour over the recent weeks meant that actually antagonising him by holding one of his staff was a decision I would probably regret.

As I have already explained, Silva had to spend several...

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... to be honest, none of that was actually related to the events of the election, but I'm not the kind of person who'll idly stand aside while entire districts become devoid of population overnight.

The wounds the assassin inflicted while I was there have yet to fully heal, although the Ultramarine's presence did save me from anything worse happening. Miss Kestel complained about her inability to assist any sooner, and has made a request that her fee include a set of blades immune to the destructive effects of power fields.

While I have previously denied almost exactly the same request on the basis that I haven't wished her to have weaponry to allows her to apply her talents against those likely to have power weapons, I have to admit that that decision nearly cost me more than just scars, and that she is not exactly sufficiently limited in the absence of them.
It may take some time and effort, but I believe I can source such items, along with her other requests, even if...

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... hadn't really been left with the time to recover from the assassin before the day of the election, but nonetheless had to attend.

There were a number of votes which Inquisitors unable to attend had left to be delivered by proxy. Having recovered them, I know that Byssus would not have approved of the choices of their voters and likely would have destroyed them. You however know what I would do.

In my attempts to retrieve these votes, I witnessed Prometheus push Necris from the roof of a four storey building. If I had not again seen Necris at Calleia's inauguration, I would have sworn that the injuries I saw were fatal - how anyone can survive a 40 foot fall onto their spine is beyond me.

In my attempts to escape the murderous Prometheus, he again attacked me, this time with an Inferno bolt round. I eventually managed to escape him, but was surprised in the process by Inquisitor Odanodan. It turned out sometime after I had shot him that he was not attacking me, and the laser system on his shoulder was not actually a weapon - merely a motion tracker. He also appears to be some form of minor psychic null, which further confounded my split second judgement - I know you can't quite contemplate quite how differently I perceive someone like that, but in the simplest possible terms...

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I have attempted to extend an apology to him for the misunderstanding, although whether he will accept it is another matter - I am told I did roughly the same favour for him as Orla Riall did for your Sgt Gillmore (I would ask how the scarring is fading, but that might be a bit too personal a question for you to ask of him), so I suspect I may have another enemy amongst the Ordos.

The vote count did not last particularly long, meaning that Calleia was inaugurated within hours, although there was a certain amount of delay while he received medical attention for wound that he had received while present at the ballot. Who exactly was responsible for that is a question that ...

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... which meant by the time the banquet to celebrate the election of the new head of the sector Conclave had begun, I had been rejoined by Silva, although there was something of an argument with one of the guards about quite how many weapons were built into her bionic. She made a less than subtle demonstration of why she didn't actually need them, but I am told that the guard's arm will have recovered sufficiently to allow him to return to duty in the next couple of weeks.

Actually, while I'm on the matter of the banquet, I simply have to relate the joke that one of Inquisitor Levane's staff told while I was there...

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... and he just stands there and says "Wait, was I supposed to shoot the heretic?"

I've probably butchered the telling a bit, but it was still one of the best I've heard in years.

To cover a couple of other matters of importance...

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With that all wrapped up - until next time.

Marco Robert Skoll.

+++ Message ends +++
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

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