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0913

Phebia's eyes narrowed at Karibi. "Well then, it's a good thing the psyker killed him before we could find out anything else from him. Magnificent investigative work there."

0913, Day Two - "Why?" Milo answered. "You enjoy listening to heresy and evil?" Milo rolled his eyes and muttered, "I silence that filth, and she says she wanted to be its friend."

09:14

"This isn't a case of wanting to listen to such talk." Marco sighed irritably at the psyker. "It's a case of needing to. How do you expect us to find out who these people were if you silence every lead we have? The man clearly knew something about them. What if he knew names of their ringleaders? Locations of hideouts? Dates of meetings? How do you expect us to carry out an investigation if you destroy every shard of evidence we come across?"

0913
"Inquisition you fool, we inquire. It does us little good to kill minions if in doing so it prevents us from finding the source of the rot. Once we cut out the source we wipe out the followers and then our job is done properly. How much farther will this cancer spread now that you've silenced our first solid lead? How many more of the Emperor's citizens will be lead astray?"

Suffering utter boredom. Enrick sat on a crate, his fingers flicking the trigger guard of his shotgun. "How is it I get pulled from a front line Squad and get stick with children? Really! What did I do to deserve this?" Enrick looked around to see if anyone else was feeling the same.

0914, Day Two - Milo laughed humorlessly. "Oh, indeed. One crazed heretic capable of nothing more than nonsensical sing-song litanies was suddenly going to provide you with lucid names, numbers, and locations. If you were so worried about investigation, mighty Sister of Battle, why did you instigate a firefight... and then fail to hold up your end, by the way?" Milo rounded fully on Phebia and went on in a low growl, "Never again tell me to not silence a heresy, nor tell me to allow my fellow acolytes to be subject to corruption! I wonder what your Sisters Superior or the local bishops would think of such radicalism..."

0914
Phebia snorted and turned her back on Milo, heading down the street again. "Delusional imbecile. It's no wonder the Emperor spat you back out, the thought of your stupidity in the choir of the Astronomicon must have appalled him. To think we'll be saddled with your stupidity for the duration of this endeavor."

09:14 - day two

Pahr turned when Enrick made his comment; he shrugged, and resumed drumming his fingers on the hilts of his many throwing knives.

0915, Day Two: "You speak of things about which you know nothing - which I'm sure is a common occurence for you," Milo rejoindered to Phebia. "Where is your piety now, sister? Where is your faith, or your vows of service? All those things would tell you to do as I have done... you are obviously dedicated to the Emperor only when it's convenient for you. Faith of convenience is no faith at all, holy sister. Funny that a witch should show greater reverence for the Throne than you, no?"

0915
Phebia kept walking. "I have no time for simple minded fools. Peddle your false piety elsewhere."

Day two - 0916

Enrick noticed Pahr's shrug. "You too huh... At least I'm not alone." Laying back on the crate, swinging his legs. "I need a drink, a strong drink. To bad we didn't ask any of those guys if there was a pub around."

1003-1005 Day Two


The Seer visibly stiffens at Phebia's slight but makes no comment, he chuckles however at his fellow psykers assessment of her and comments "quite". As he seats himself he replies to Trask "worry not about the Ashleen and the attack on your party, they are a suspicious lot and easily startled."

He lifts a slate from his desk and clears his throat.

"While I'm certain that the mission briefing you received from our honoured master describes in some detail the nature of our purpose here, I have had the benefit of spending a few weeks in this...unfortunate...outpost, and I have not been idle. You see, Iocanthos, for all it's squalor, is near to my heart. The venerated Saint Drusus himself, to whom I have the very great honour of being distant kin, claimed this world for the Imperium, sweeping over the savage peoples and bringing them into the light and glory of the God-Emperor. As you know, the cathedral of Stern Hope is due to consecrated to this great hero, and I would not see the memory of this Saint diminished by heresy and such a holy purpose thwarted by a backwoods witch or some such.

So, Stern Hope...the information I have been able to discover does seem to suggest some psychic phenomena occurring there. While I cannot say, based on the muddled reports we have received, whether this is the result of some reckless, previously undetected psyker or of something far darker, the evidence suggests that all such strangeness has occurred in or around the new cathedral. Bleeding statues, manifestations, haunting noises, sounds of scratching from the walls..." he trails off and stares distractedly a moment into space before scrolling through his slate for a few moments and then continues.

"Ah yes, Stern Hope lies to the North, high in those mountains you may have seen on your way here. On a more civilized world, we would have gone directly to the outpost by air, but that's not possible here, so we have to travel by the Pilgrims Road as they call it, a rutted dirt path is more like it. I've managed to secure us transport, an all terrain flatbed, and I'm hoping one of you drives, as I've never been much of a hand at the wheel. We must pass through the barren shale wastes first though, and this is not a journey to be taken lightly. The locals claim that the wastes have witnessed all of the greatest battles of Iocanthos' long and bloody past and remains to this day a favoured battlefield of the clans. No one knows for certain, but rumours claim that all manner of terrible things lurk out there, although bandits and marauders are the most likely threat, so we ought to be prepared for anything.

To that end, I had requested some additional support for our investigation. A noble Imperial Guard officer has agreed to join us at the behest of our master, one Octavian Naja, I am sure you will find him most helpful. I've already briefed him on our purpose as he has been here a week already and is waiting for you in your quarters.

Are there any questions?"

1005 Day 2

"Yes." Marco said, shifting slightly in his seat. "I know you said not to worry about the attack on us earlier, but I think there may be some cause for concern all the same. Both myself and Milo Trask here" He gestured vaguely at the psyker with a hand. "recognised the markings our assailants were wearing. They were members of a local cult of some sort, tied to the Ghostfire pollen." Karibi hesitated for a moment before continuing.

"Also, before he died, one of them spoke to us. Phebia wrote his words down, and I'd be interested in seeing what you can make of them. Haxta, could you pass that data-slate along?"

1005 day 2

" Just so long as you don't start fighting over it again," Haxta replies, pulling the slate from her robes and scrolling through the data until the words in question lit upon the screen. " Here," she offers, holding it out.

1005 Day 2

Octavian looked himself over in the mirror. He wondered what cocksucker he had pissed off to be waiting on this Emperor forsaken world. But then again, all worlds were forsaken if they would end up shooting at him. Turning from the mirror in his quarters he walked over to his bed where his bag of belongings was set. Octavian grinned at the rough outline of the Creed-9 that could be seen through the fabric of the bag.

He supposed someone would come in soon to introduce him and explain more about the mission. Until then, he thought as he sat on the edge of the bed, he would just wait.