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Chapter 9: Storm-front

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Part 1

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Victory Bay
Kronus

On one hand, the Ogryns of all people sniffing out Chaos infiltration or some other kind of corruption sounded far-fetched. On the other, I could easily see people dismissing them as a threat outside of direct combat and not being as careful as they would be otherwise around them. Add a potentially much smarter than average veteran Sergeant and there might be something to this. That would still be grounds for canning a lot of people for gross incompetence at best, outright treason at worst, but we'll see. At any rate, once we were done here, I would be finding Commissar Weber and through him contacting the Commissariat representatives on Kronus for assistance in discovering what in the Emperor's name was going on here, who needed to be properly interrogated, shot or worse. Perhaps I should add a sane-ish Commissar or two to my retinue as well…

The Ogryns formed in a semi-circle in front of us, with the huge one almost reverently taking the strongbox and then very carefully, slowly and deliberately entering a combination in its lock. The lid popped open with a hiss and he turned the container around, showing us the contents with a proud, toothy grin. By the Emperor, this was like dealing with young, over-eager children with extreme capacity for violence…

I could see a neatly folded parchment sealed with a red wax seal proudly wearing the Aquila, nestled among a lot of medals. Warily examining the contents through the Warp, I could find nothing harmful, which left all kinds of more mundane, yet still lethal threats potentially in play. Yeah, I was growing more and more paranoid by the day…

"Corporal Santos, if you will?" I said, knowing that my suggestion had the power of order behind it. Still, the Stormtrooper had a fully sealed armor and he was certainly more expendable that either me or Anteas.

"Yes Inquisitor, sir!" Was that a bit of sarcasm I heard in his helmet-distorted voice?
The Stormtrooper marched forward until he stood right in front of the Ogryn, looking like a small child with their father towering above them, and pointed at the parchment. The Ogryn, who still hasn't introduced himself, nodded happily and lowered the case so Santos could retrieve the contents more easily. He did so and looked the scroll over, then shrugged and brought it back to us. Private Valencia was beside him in a blink of an eye, scanning the parchment with an auspex.

"There's nothing particularly harmful I can detect, sir."

"Well, let's see what the fuss is all about then." I waved for Santos to bring me the letter.

I took the large parchment from the Corporal's armored hands and cracked the seal. The message was written in large blocky letters, which were nevertheless fully and easily legible.

"To whom it might concern,

I've witnessed disturbing trends and events as of late. Regiment Command has deemed fit to sent a third of my boys to the Deimos Peninsula, a place which should warrant no more than a platoon or two of PDF troopers at best, though some Arbiters to keep the peace should have been sufficient. We've protested but no one has been listening.

The few and far between messages we got from our boys were disturbing, and they soon ceased, before Regimental Command decided to send nearly half of my remaining boys there. My protests fell upon deaf ears and trying to go around the chain of command and contact their superiors was met with condescending disbelief.

I'm going to get two of my best remaining boys and go find out what is happening at the Deimos Peninsula. I've ordered my other boys not to go anywhere unless I'm back and right, or an Inquisitor arrives to clean up whatever this is because I feel it in my bones, it's going to be that bad, I swear by the Emperor's light!

P.S.: I've asked around, no one who is talking knows much about whatever forces are being stationed at the Deimos Peninsula. There shouldn't be anything over there warranting strong PDF presence, much less an Ogryn deployment. Even worse, trying in inquire about my boys through back channels an a few more reasonable contacts we've made since ending up on Kronus leads me to believe that there is indeed something rotten here! Some of those people claim that according to records, all Ogryns on Kronus are here in the capital and accounted for as if two-thirds of my boys never arrived on the planet!

I'm going to find them and get to the bottom of this, the Emperor Protects!

P.S. II!: Below are the names of the few people who tried to help and of the Officers who either didn't care or gave the orders to sent my boys away…

Sergeant Bron"

The letter was surprisingly articulate and if I didn't know better, it would be hard to believe that an Ogryn wrote it. Whatever they did to the Sergeants to make them even smarter, obviously worked… which begged the question, why the regular Ogryns didn't receive the same procedure to make them proper discount Space Marines, just without all the nice additional organs and power armor… Perhaps my two medical contacts might shed some light if they agreed to join my retinue and do something about it… I filed up that thought for later investigation and offered the letter to Anteas.

"Your Bone'ead was right boys, there is indeed something rotten going on. I'm afraid we might not be able to get him back in one piece, however. The Deimos Peninsula is currently in Chaos and Traitors' hands. We'll get to the bottom of this and we'll make all the traitors pay for what they did to you boys and everyone else they've harmed!" I promised to gleeful cheers.
"Why do I have the feeling that I'll have to look after them as well?" Pickos groaned.

"Because you've got great insight, Lieutenant. Meet the new additions to your Platoon!" I waved at the Ogryns. Like hell, I was leaving them under the authority of any of the remaining PDF brass.

"This is most concerning, Inquisitor," Anteas stated gravely after finishing the letter and offered it to the LT, who snatched it up warily as if it might bite and groaned as she read through it.

"LT, you're taking charge of the boys here, get them properly outfitted and ready to go. Anteas, you and the Stormtroopers are with me. We're going to speak with Commissar Weber, then we're picking anyone still alive from this list and having a heart to heart conversation with them."


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Part 2

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Victory Bay
Kronus

How hard could it be to look after a quiet girl who didn't try to get into trouble for a few damn hours?! Commissar Weber's eyebrows twitched and his fingers spasmodically grasped for the butt of his pistol, while he fought with the desire to shoot a few people in order to make an example of them. It was true that being around the child was unpleasant, but this…

"Please explain to me, in small, simple words, so you don't get confused," Weber began, "How in the Emperor's name you managed to leave her without supervision?! It's a miracle and by the Emperor's own mercy she decided to stay put, otherwise I would already have shot you to put you out of everyone's misery! Do you know what the Inquisitor would do if we misplaced her again!?"

"Firing squads, firing squads everywhere!" A familiar, for once very unwelcome voice announced from behind Charles.

The Commissar stiffened, his back straightening up like a steel pole and he went to attention.

"Inquisitor on site!" Weber's voice cracked sharply like a whip and he turned around to salute. "Lord Inquisitor, sir, I'm sorry about this and I'm taking full responsibility!"

"First things first, she is here, safe and unharmed?" The Inquisitor demanded in a deceptively light tone. The four people surrounding the man, three Stormtroopers, and the Blood Raven Librarian showed nothing, because of their sealed armors, however, Charles doubted that any of them were happy with current events – they had that air around them…

"She is right there, eating a ration, sir!"

"Good. You," The Lord Inquisitor looked critically at the troopers supposed to not let the girl out of their sight, "Get out of here before I reconsider forming a firing squad. Valencia, congratulations, you're on babysitting duty. Don't leave the kid out of your sight and make sure nothing happens to her, she is a critically important asset."

"Sir, yes, sir!" A lot of soldiers chorused as one and the former protection detail made themselves scarce with indecent haste.

Weber made a mental note to find some shit detail for them to do so they would reconsider their life's choices, before focusing his full attention upon the Inquisitor and the inevitable fallout.

"Commissar Weber, we've got multiple issues to deal with. I trust you'll ensure that this particular issue won't repeat itself in the future?" The Inquisitor raised a decidedly unamused eyebrow.

"I'll make certain of it, sir! What do you require of me?" Charles hurried to reassure the Lord Inquisitor.

"Gross incompetence, likely corruption and potential treason, Commissar." The Inquisitor's voice was colder than the dark abyss between the stars. "I've got a list of potential suspects we need to gather, interrogate, and investigate. It has been confirmed that the local PDF had an off the books heavy Regiment stationed at the Deimos Peninsula, they've gone traitors and are coming our way. While General Alexander and Captain Thule are preparing to deal with those before we march to eradicate the Chaos taint from that area, we're to figure out how deep the rot goes. I'll need the assistance and particular talents of the Commissariat agents on Kronus to do as much as humanly possible in the time available. Can I count on you and your colleagues, Commissar Weber?"

"We won't disappoint you, Lord Inquisitor!"

"We'll see about that. Call your colleagues, Commissar. We've got an investigation to run and not much time to do it. Anteas here has a list, I want the people on it quietly called in and detained for interrogation. I'm sure that you can find suitable pretexts under Commissariat authority in a way that doesn't make it obvious what we're after."

"I can think of a few things and I'm sure my colleagues will have useful feedback, sir! If that's all, I'll get to it, My Lord?"

"Go."

Hearing the clear dismissal, Weber relaxed a bit in relief and went to pick up the list from the Blood Raven.


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"Do you really think we might be able to do this quietly without showing our hand?" Anteas asked after Weber scampered to contact his people.

"There is a small possibility it will work, though we don't need to be quiet for long. We can't afford to anyway. As long as we get the people on that list and figure out what they know fast and quiet, that might be enough. We certainly can't afford to tear apart the command structure of the PDF units unless we really have to, on the other hand, we can't let them be led by compromised officers!" I ground out in frustration.

Saying that was out of my depth was a charming understatement. This was a job for an experienced Inquisitor, with the relevant training, and support retinue aimed at investigating things, not combat, like mine. The local Arbiters might be useful, if we could trust them, however after what we found at the Deimos Peninsula, they were all closely watched, and obviously not trusted at all. It was just that, considering the other threats we had to deal with, properly investigating them had a lower priority and would ideally be done by specialists who would arrive with the relief force. Barring that, the Guard might be able to do it, however, it would be heavy-handed and require not much in the way of other distractions.

It was a nasty situation all around.

I sighed in frustration and went to check personally on one of the few rays of sunshine in this whole mess. I found her in a small, clean, and well-lit room, sitting on the edge of a bed and munching on a hard cracker from an opened ration pack. The kid grinned when she saw me, showing two rows of food-covered teeth.

"Hi there. I'm glad to see you're staying out of trouble." I smiled what I hoped was a gentle and reassuring smile, however with my disfigured face, I wasn't sure about that. "I don't think we'll be able to find your name in any records anytime soon, and you do need a name to call you." I went on one knee in front of her so our eyes were on the same level. "So unless you want to share, we'll have to pick up one for you."

She kept staring at me with those huge eyes of hers, however, she kept refusing to utter a single word, which was obviously frustrating.

"Not talking, are we?" When a shadow of fear ran through her eyes, I slowly raised my hands in what I hoped was a placating gesture. "Hey, it's all right! You can write if you want, or can for that matter, and if you don't it's all right." For now, anyway.

She shook her head, however, it wasn't clear if it was because she didn't want to write or didn't know how to. Given her nature, I wouldn't put it past people to have failed to teach her how to write and read for that matter. That combined with her being unable or unwilling to speak was going to complicate things, however, hopefully, we would be alive to deal with that in the future.

And find out how to offer her some useful therapy… Perhaps either Lieutenant Pickos or Sergeant Graves? If they could stand to be around her without making a mess of it, might help in the short term. In the long run, I wasn't sure what to do, it would depend if there was a long run for me however that kind of thinking wasn't constructive so I did my best to push that option to the back of my mind.

"Valencia, you can come in now." I stood up awkwardly, while the girl kept staring at me. "This is Private Valencia." I pointed at the Stormtrooper who armor and all looked even more awkward than I felt. "He'll be looking after you for the time being and he'll be behaving, won't you?"

"I'll be good, sir!"

"That's the spirit. I hope you'll be behaving as usual, won't you?" I asked hopefully.

The girl stared at me for a few endless moments, before nodding and returning her attention to the cracker she was munching on.


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