Inquisitor O'Niell pulled a small metal case out from under his coat and flipped it open. Long, thin rolls of fine paper stuffed with narcotic herbs were arranged in a row, and he plucked one from the right end. He examined the small roll in his hand, the drug's faintly acrid, bitter smell wafting along the polluted hivesprawl air. He pulled a dented metal lighter out from his other pocket, flicking open the cap and causing a small jet of superheated gas to form. He placed the cigarette into the blue-orange cone of flame until it glowed with embers, bringing it to his slips and breathing in deeply.
Infiltrating Vigilus had not been easy. Simply setting foot upon the planet without being thoroughly interrogated and searched had been nearly impossible thanks to the frenzied activities of the Ecclesiarchy's forces which had descended upon the planet in the wake of the Cardinal's scandal. The number of Sororitas swarming the streets could've rivaled Ophelia VII, if not Terra itself. Luckily, he had managed to sneak in thanks to the efforts of a rogue trader with close ties to the Ministorum, one that owed him a favor. However, getting onto the planet had only solved one problem. The streets of Vigilus resembled a warzone, much as it had in the years prior when the forces of Chaos besieged it. There were no invading armies on Vigilus now, however, unless one counted the Ecclesiarchal occupation force. With the immensely popular Cardinal Bogomil having been proven an agent of the Ruinous Powers, the hive-sprawls descended into anarchy. The local Arbites and the Ecclesiarchy's forces attempted to enforce law and order against mobs of confused and angry citizens, though it was becoming common to hear of the Ecclesiarchy' zealots fighting against the Arbites on occasion as well. Fires raged in the streets and the sounds of violence filled the night. To say the situation was deteriorating would be an understatement. The only possible silver lining was that, so far, the urban chaos had remained strictly reserved to angry mobs. No hidden chaotic sects or hibernating genestealer infestations had yet to take advantage of the tumult, somehow. This was all, of course, largely irrelevant to O'Neill. Fixing the perpetual trash fire that was Vigilus was someone else's job, maybe even Lord Guilliman's if it got bad enough. His job was much simpler, but no less laborious and certainly no less important.
"Any luck yet?" O'Neill said, flicking the dead ash from his cigarette.
"I'm almost done indexing the local subnets… alright, finished." Anand said, rapid streams of text passing across her optical sensors through the long, thin cabling that ran from the wall into her skull. "There has been a sharp uptick in reports of anomalous and suspicious sightings to local authorities since the Cardinal's ousting, rising over 500% in the last month. Most seem largely uncredible."
"When holy men are revealed as agents of Chaos, scared and confused people start jumping at shadows. Anything worth looking into?" O'Neill said.
"There are a few strange reports that seem to correlate around an… Ogryn saint?" Anand said. O'Neill raised his eyebrow. "I know what you're thinking, but they don't remotely match the description we got on Leprus."
"The deserters from Leprus probably passed through here already, could be they were spreading rumors about their 'saint'." O'Niell said. "Still, it'd be an awfully big coincidence."
"Sources describe the subject as female, features seem to vary inconsistently though height remains semi-consistent at around 9 to 10 feet tall. Most accounts mention she demonstrated the ability to heal through touch." Anand said.
"That's quite a range of variables. Are you sure these are eye-witness accounts and not hearsay?" O'Neill said.
"That's what the reports say. Cloaking tech, maybe?" Anand said.
"No, if this really is the daemon that's following the Wolf around its most likely warp sorcery." He said, exhaling a cloud of smoke. "Makes our job a hell of a lot harder."
"The potential proliferation of this daemon's cult concerns me, Inquisitor. Especially considering the deteriorating state of this world's central authority." Anand said. "Shouldn't we do something about it?" O'Neill rubbed his forehead.
"Enforcing doctrinal orthodoxy is the Ecclesiarchy's job. We're here to track down and find two of the biggest threats to the Imperium outside of Abaddon himself and whatever the hell gives the Tyranids marching orders, not to clean up messes like this. You've seen what this place is like since that whole business with the Cardinal. The Ministorum is flooding this place like a swarm of ants, and the Crimson Fists are calling in reinforcements to help them scour the underhives for any more genestealers. They can handle a few cults without us getting involved. Besides, this is supposed to be a secret mission. Our involvement and the nature of this mission cannot be revealed under any circumstances." O'Neill said.
"Understood." Anand said. She spent a few more minutes sifting through the available data before cutting the feed. "Alright, I've done all I can. If I tried to look any deeper, I'd be hitting the planetary subnet's low-level firewalls and our chances of being caught would increase exponentially." O'Neill rubbed the scruff of his chin.
"I have a contact in upper Storvahl, an information broker in the Mechanicus. He owes me a few favors, so we might be able to wring some information out of him concerning our 'saint'." O'Neill said. "Let's get going."
Inquisitor O'Neill and Anand ascended through the sulfur-choked catwalks of Storvahl, a satellite hive of Megaborealis that provided much of the planet's Mechanicus forges power and resources. The smog and fumes from the immense magma-fueled furnaces and turbines below strangled the air with tar-black ash and heavy metal particles. O'Niell readjusted the heavy rubber breathing apparatus attached to his face, subconsciously wishing he could somehow smoke his cigarettes through it. They walked along a precarious walkway suspended along the side of a large, non-descript complex that jutted out from the rest of the superstructure like a boxy, metallic growth. Entering the building through an almost hidden side-entrance, they proceeded through a long and winding hallway filled with messy bundles of tubes and wires, clearly not designed for heavy foot traffic. Small servitors scuttled back and forth, replacing the need for such a thing. At the center of the complex lay an immense, sphere-shaped room lined with an innumerable and indecipherable layer of technological interfaces and inputs. It was like the nexus of a vast digital mind, one whose sensory organs stretched out across the entire planet. At its center, suspended upon an industrial-strength hydraulic lifting arm, hovered a great mass of wires, mechanical limbs, and biomechanical augmentations adorned with thin drapings of red cloth that could barely contain the tech-bloated adept within.
"Archmagos Hakham." O'Niell said.
"W-w-well if it i-isn't the Lord In-inquisitor of sect-sect-sector-"
"I left that post a decade ago, Hakham. And cut it out with the auditory glitching, I know you're just doing it to piss me off." O'Neill said. The Archmagos played a recording of a disappointed huff. The immense tech-priest descended on his mechanical lift down to their level, settling into a depression in the floor with a hydraulic hiss. Hakham had the uncanny appearance of a giant, mechanical grub. It was strange to describe a being composed mostly of metal as being, well, fat, but that was undoubtedly what came to mind when seeing him. Of course, knowing the tech-adept like O'Neill did, it's possible that it was done intentionally as some kind of bizarre, inscrutable joke on "meat-bags" such as himself. As the huge tech-priest settled into the floor, he extended a number of tendrils and mechadendrites into open sockets and interfaces around him, plugging into the vast store of digital information that surrounded him.
"So, what brings a great Lord Inquisitor such as yourself to my humble data farm?" Hakham said. The array of cameras which functioned as his eyes turned to Anand, and the lenses on his visual sensors began to twist and zoom intensely. "And what's this? He's brought a friend? My goodness, Inquisitor. You're lucky I'm no Orthotek, as I'm fairly certain that if your companion so much as set foot on Mars it could cause a new schism."
"I'm not here to discuss my partner's equipment, Hakham." O'Niell said.
"So, what is the honourable Inquisitor here to discuss, then? Observing the state of Vigilus now, it could be anything. With the fall of the Cardinal, it's as if whatever semblance of peace or harmony existed has completely shattered to pieces, and every faction is looking to gain the upper hand on one another. Mechanicus, Ecclesiarchy, Astartes… even the Administorum has descended from their lofty moon to put their pieces in play. I can see it all, you know. All the data from every corner of Vigilus flows through here, through me." Hakham said.
"I'm not interested in politics." O'Neill said. "My colleague and I are looking for information on a reported anomalous individual." He gestured to Anand, who wordlessly uploaded the information she had scraped on the purported Ogryn saint.
"An Ogryn saint… you don't see one of those every day." Hakham said. "Tell me, what is this about?"
"I can't give any details." O'Neill said.
"Oh, come now. How secret could it be?" Hakham said.
"If word got out, I wouldn't be able to ensure your safety when we exterminatus every planet in the sector." O'Neill said, without hesitation. The large tech-priest jerked back and shuddered slightly, his sensors indicating that the Inquisitor was deathly serious.
"Ah, well, then, let me just… check my databases." Hakhan said, clearly unsettled by the Inquisitor's words. "Well, I'm not sure about a saint, but there was a reported sighting of a female Ogryn in the deep underhives of Hyperia not too long ago."
"The deep underhives? By whom?" O'Neill said.
"A tactical squad of Space Wolves." Hakham said. O'Neill's blood ran cold.
"Space Wolves?" O'Neill said, with a grave expression.
"Yes, assigned to clear a local genestealer infestation. Though, it appears they were redeployed off-planet and the Crimson Fists were brought in to replace them." Hakham said.
"Did they mention anyone with the Ogryn female? A man, perhaps?" O'Neill said.
"Hmmm… no, it was just the Ogryn female. She appears to have had a… dog, however?"
"A dog?" Anand whispered.
"Do any of the accounts mention the Ogryn female having a human companion of some kind?" O'Neill said, rubbing his forehead as he began losing his patience.
"No, I'm afraid not." Hakham said.
"This was a waste of time." O'Neill said, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it. "Come on Anand, we need to find a new lead." He said as he began turning to leave.
"Wait, Inquisitor, I may have something for you… though it only loosely fits the parameters you provided." Hakham said.
"I'm listening." O'Neill said, partially turning back around.
"Well, a few days after the Space Wolves reported their sighting… also a few days after the Cardinal was exposed… hmm, curious how those happened on the same day…" Hakham said.
"Archmagos." O'Neill said.
"Right, right. You see, there was an incident in one the docks on the orbital spire of Megaborealis. Relatively minor, the woman who reported it didn't even call the arbites until the day after… anyway, the woman in question was handing out tickets to an outgoing transport vessel, the Miriam Celeste. Just before the ship could finish boarding, she was accosted by a drunk woman who appears to have been the former Sororitas bodyguard of none other than Cardinal Bogomil himself! So, she bombards the poor woman with questions between her drunken slurring, ultimately pushing her aside and boarding the vessel without authorization as a stowaway. Unfortunately, the ship was already out of communication range when the incident was reported, so they couldn't warn the crew-"
"Archmagos, where is this going?" O'Neill said, his voice dripping with exasperation.
"The important part is that the drunken Sororitas claimed that she was chasing someone onboard the ship, someone who 'framed' the Cardinal. A man who could… walk through walls, breathe ice, wielded a flaming sword and… talked to wolves or something like that. She said that he was accompanied by some sort of she-demon with large antlers and flowers sprouting from her head and a long, furry tail. Of course, none of the other passengers nor even the woman she accosted reported seeing such a thing… and given the heavily intoxicated state of the speaker… this probably doesn't mean anything to you, does it Inquisitor?" Hakham said. He looked up at the inquisitor only to find both he and his companion staring back at Hakham with an intense expression painted upon their faces.
"Where was that ship going, Archmagos?" O'Neill said.
O'Neill and Anand rushed outside of the building, hurriedly arranging transport to Sepheris Secundus.
"It's a longshot, but that description was impossibly precise. There's no way it could have been a coincidence." O'Neill said.
"I'm transmitting the coordinates to our navigators in orbit. They will be ready to depart as soon as we make it back to the ship. Wait…" Anand said, stopping in her tracks. "I'm getting an encrypted transmission. It's… Moloc. He's just arrived in the system."
"Moloc? I thought the Minotaurs were recalled to Terra?" O'Neill said.
"They were… Asterion says that he brings urgent news. The parameters of the mission have been changed." Anand said.
"Changed? How? On whose authority?" O'Neill said. Anand made a wordless gesture pointing upwards, and O'Neill immediately understood her meaning.
"I'm receiving the updated briefing…" Anand said, focusing intensely on the inaudibly and heavily encrypted stream of information as it beamed into her receiver implants. Her expression shifted, displaying hints of confusion and shock.
"Well, what is it?" O'Neill said. Anand turned to him with a slightly bewildered expression.
"The Wolf is no longer the priority target..." Anand said slowly, as if she herself couldn't believe what she was saying.
"What!? Then who-" O'Neill said.
"The daemon… is to be captured alive, and intact, at any cost." Anand said. O'Neill ran his hand through his hair, his cigarette hanging loosely from his lip.
"This just got a hell of a lot more complicated." O'Neill said.