Madalene's Report - Primoday, Gobert 5th 067.M42
Remy reports that he has secured a shuttle, however transit between the residential areas of the hive and the landing docks is being watched. He thinks he has a way through, but we will need to be ready to move immediately on his word in the next day. We are packed and awaiting his say-so.
Rewalt has been in a state of despondency since his "walk" the other day. I fear we've been somewhat necessarily callous in our detachment from this world, but it pays to remember sometimes that this is the man's home. His friends, family and life are all centred on this world - this hive, the few levels that he occupies. He is a talented adept - Kel reports he has a native data-affinity somewhere in the vein of her own, and he could be a boon to the service of the Inquisition - if we handle this sensitively. Which is why I will encourage you to encrypt this record and not allow him access to it if it can be avoided.
Adding to Rewalt's despondency has been the silence from his family. It's been nearly two weeks since they last tried to make contact with him, and by his reporting it's a sure thing that the cult has been in direct contact with them - at the very least they've driven Arlean to open a line to them in the hope of urging him out of hiding. When this was unsuccessful, they appear to have stopped trying for now, at least through their prior avenues. We can be thankful that their saturation of these mid-levels appears to be much lower than they would like. There are enough to ensure that when the uprising comes from beneath it will be met and assisted by sympathisers along the way, but they simply don't have the resources to blanket the area looking for him, and by extension us, thank the Throne.
However his family was a loose end that needed tying up. With Remy's news that he'd secured our way off-world to try to make our way through to the Navy fleet, it's likely that Rewalt would be driven to try to make a final break or appeal for trying to preserve his family - especially his niece Mei. I have to admit a certain selfishness in not wanting him to throw his life away on this. It may be foolish and possibly selfish, but I want him to come with us, I want him to live. He could go so far, he's tenacious and intelligent and as I have already reported, he could be a vital tool and an essential component of your operations. Nate agrees with me, and I was tasked with tying up the loose end before it had a chance to become a bigger problem.
At 0347 I arrived at the Mason family's hab block. Much as suspected, there were hybrids posted to watch the approach to the building. Given the attempts to use psychic powers to locate Mason and myself on our flight from the lower levels, I suspect there may be a Magus at play, though we were unable to locate him on our recent reconnaissance. With the observation of the entrance, it did make finding an alternate method of ingress a priority. Thankfully these mid-hive hab-blocks are only concerned with security up to a certain point - lots of balconies, windows and doors that are only secured with simple locking mechanisms. And while they'd thought to monitor the entrance to the Mason family's block, they didn't seem to have thought to pay the same attention to the observation of the adjoining blocks or the rear of the upper levels of the building. I think they were relying on Rewalt's filial piety to send him marching in the front door like the upstanding citizen and good son that he is.
It was easy enough to find my way up through one of the adjoining hab blocks to the level that Rewalt's family lived on and grapple my way across to one of their neighbour's balconies. It didn't appear that there was a guard posted on the Mason balcony, though I had my own suspicious as to why that would be.
I pray to the Emperor that Rewalt never knows what I found when I finally managed to break my way past the lock on his parents' balcony. I don't know what I'll tell him. Probably that the cult were done with them once they'd tried and failed to coax him to come back to them, and they killed them. It's a lie, but it's a lie that I think he'll need. And not just because I don't want him to think I'm a monster, though that's a lie that I'll tell myself to get through the day.
Everything looked normal. A normal, Imperial family hab. The prayer to the Emperor was still framed on the wall, Aquilas abounded. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. His parents were asleep in their room, Mei in hers. There were no cultists in evidence, no hybrids lurking in the spare room, no purestrain hulking in the corner as a bodyguard. It was the little scrap of fur that first gave away that something was truly wrong. Noodles should have been there. Noodles had been there. A splash of blood on a wall, a scrap of fur on the corner of a doorway were all that I could find of her. Mei loved that kitten, and I couldn't honestly see Bennet or Heidy being so brutal either. But it made me fear the worst. Animals can sense the taint and they respond so very negatively to hybrids and Contagii.
Bennet and Heidy were sleeping in their room. Thankfully the infected don't inherit any of the Genestealer's enhanced senses or any other preternatural "gifts". So it was easy enough to sneak in on a sleeping middle-aged couple without waking them. Moving the covers to examine their bodies was harder to do, but with some care I was able to. Both displayed clear signs of contagion; Bennet had a barely-healed gash on his thorax, in the typical placement for a non-combat insemination, just beneath the ribcage. Heidy's infection was easier to see, the blue pallor to her skin glaringly obvious in the stablight. Her nightgown made it too difficult to actually confirm an insemination wound on first sight, but given Bennet's condition and the tone of her skin I was confident enough to do what needed to be done. A sufficiently high dose of tranq, straight into the bloodstream coupled with a pillow to the face. I gave Heidy her peace first, as it seemed from their breathing patterns that she would be the lighter sleeper. She struggled some, but not enough to wake Bennet, and his despatch was equally swift. Post-mortem I was able to confirm that Heidy bore a similar wound to her husband. There was no question. They'd been infected, and from the advancement of their wound healing it looks very likely that the infection occurred before Rewalt and I had even made our way back up from the lower hive. There was never going to be any saving them.
After that I had to take care of Mei. It was difficult to make myself go into the girl's room. I wanted to believe that not even a Genestealer cult would be so monstrous as to subject a child to their perversion. As well you would know, however, it was at best a vain hope. She was asleep when I opened the door, but she woke up when I entered. I remembered Rewalt saying she'd been a light sleeper ever since his parents had adopted her and I'd accounted for this and taken my hood off before I came in, so thankfully at least she didn't scream at me. At least with her awake, I was able to turn the light on to get a good look at her. She seemed to be feverish, and when I asked how she was feeling, she told me that she'd felt sick for a little bit, her chest hurt and she was having bad dreams. I asked her if I could have a look at where it hurt and she showed me. The implantation site was more raw than Heidy or Bennet's. I don't know if she took longer to heal, or if her infection was more recent, but the outcome is ultimately the same. I told her that I had a shot to give her, that Rewalt had asked me to bring some medicine to make her feel better. She held her little arm out to me, and she didn't even cry when I put the needle into her vein.
I made it quiet and quick, it was the least I could do. For them and for Rewalt both. If he ever finds this report, at least he'll know I did my best to minimise their pain, for all of them. And if he can't ever forgive me, I hope at least that the Emperor will.
