Chapter 64: Chapter 9 Part 3
Chapter 9: Storm-front
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Part 3
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Victory Bay
Kronus
I must give them this much when motivated, the Commissars and any troops they could get their hands on could move with surprising speed and skill. They could be a sneaky buggers as well – there outright arrests and detainment for questioning were few and far between, and came at the end of the sweep too. A few hastily called up meetings about streamlining logistics, discussing the PDF units part in the plant to rid Kronus of its traitor infestation, a Q&A session about how the Administratum might better support the war-effort without undue disruption of vital production, and others, to address local defense concerns among other things... Almost all of them ended up with Guard units bursting in, pointing weapons in the faces of people and not so politely asking them to accompany them so they could answer a few questions.
The local Arbiter's HQ, which had been under close observation ever since our return from the Deimos Peninsula became the unwilling host to an Adeptus Astartes squads and a Platoon of veteran Guardsmen, who backed up by a few Tech-priests, went in searching for any evidence about corruption and collusion with traitors.
In contrast, five people ended up sat in reasonably comfortable chairs, while I sat in front of them, with Anteas towering above my right shoulder and Santos skulking to my left, hands tightly holding his weapon. My guests were the helpful people noted in Sergeant Bron's list, those who were still alive and able to answer questions anyway. One of them was an Armory Sergeant from the capital's PDF garrison, who had drawn the short stick and had to deal with the Ogryns and their equipment. Beside him was one of the few helpful Medicaes looking after them, a pair of Administratum drones and a local priest who had been very happy with their faith and was determined to keep stroking its flames high.
They were colorful characters too – the Armorer was a grizzled veteran, who had good experiences serving with Ogryn units and was determined to do well by those now in his charge, he had almost as much metal in him as the average Cog-boy. Beside him sat one of the two women – a tall, reedy thing, with a haughty expression of superiority, because she was a fourth daughter of the local minor Nobility, who nevertheless was trying not to act like a typical Noble… and more often than not, failing miserably though she got points for effort.
Number three was the first Administratum Adept – who had to go out of his way to look like a stereotypical scholar, complete with dusty robes, receding graying sandy hair and huge glasses.
Next came the second woman, she was from the Administratum too, and wonder of wonders was convinced that her job and that of her organization was to make things happen and help people… which explained why she had been stuck on a dead-end job for years now or so her file told me after one of our Martians pilfered it from the Administratum cogitators.
Last but certainly not least, came the priest. He was a huge burly man who didn't look like he had even a trace of fat on his sculptured figure. He was a hill made of muscle and a "retired" confessor who after slowing down too much for front-line duty decided to dedicate his remaining days on the spiritual well-being of the Imperium's citizenry as a regular priest, instead of going out, spreading the word, bashing in the skulls of heretics and nagging people until they saw the light and accepted the Emperor's Creed.
That was what my people could find in the couple of hours it took to sweep up my guests and deliver them for this meeting. I idly wondered what a network of proper Inquisitorial agents could have dug up about them in the same period… and how many of those five might be informants or even outright agents if I have been proper Inquisitor with the time to set up shop in the first place.
Depressingly, this particular train of thought refused to leave me alone, which was not a good thing – doubt can be as deadly as the sharpest of blades.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm Inquisitor Veil and I have questions." At my introduction, all but the priest froze. The fanatic's eyes lit up with holly glee and he was about to begin a sermon or something before I could silence him with a pointed glare. "The Deimos Peninsula is in traitor's hands, controlled by a full-fledged Chaos incursion. It was engineered by traitors on Kronus, some of whom might still be in our midst as we speak. The five of you have been helpful, or so it appears."
"Born and his laddies." Sergeant Telik nodded in understanding. "He had some well-founded concerns, however, I couldn't help him much besides pointing him in what might have been the right direction, My Lord."
"That's what that was about!" The not so young Noble exclaimed. "That big boy wouldn't stop pestering me for information about Ogryns being shipped away. I remember processing some of the necessary requisition forms about a squad of them being administratively shifted to the Deimos Peninsula Adeptus Arbiters control and signing on the relevant shuffling of medical resources to account for them!"
"When I checked there were no records about any Ogryns being present on Kronus beyond Sergeant Bron and his people here in the capital." The Scholar grimaced. "I've dug in as much as I dared, however, there simply were no records left in the system I could access. I tried to find hard copies, but hit a wall there as well."
"Who has the access and authority to make said records disappear?" I asked innocently.
"That would be a Department Supervisor or even higher authority. I guess that the Enginseer and her Adepts looking after our cogitators should be able to do it as well."
There were two of those on the list of people to be interrogated, a nice start I hoped.
"What could the rest of you add on that topic?"
"The Ogryn have a bit different medical needs compared to most, their large size adds undue stress on the joints, especially ankles and knees for veteran troops. Unless they get replacements, they do need certain medicaments in order to combat and reverse joint damage. With only Sergeant Bron's Ogryn present on Kronus, there hasn't been much need to make a lot of those drugs. They're very strong, too strong to be used for the same purposes among regular humans. And I know for a fact that there used to be a lot more Ogryn on Kronus than the Administratum records show. Ours too now, though I managed to keep a hard copy of an older mandatory examination, before the clinic's director ordered us to erase some of our records." The Medicae shed some light on the matter.
Needless to say, the clinic set up to primary treat PDF-related issues was one of the focal points of the investigation and it's Director should be cooling his heels within an interrogation room waiting for me.
Of course, all of this begged the question, what else did we miss and overlook while dealing with more obvious and present threats?
I turned my attention to the priest, who met my gaze with eyes burning with fanatical light. He was grinning like there was no tomorrow too.
"I told Bron, I told him! The Emperor would provide and here you are, Inquisitor, to make it all right and burn the heretics!"
"That's nice to know. Do you have anything to add? People we should look at and question?" I asked warily. I was pretty sure that we should double, perhaps triple check, before rigorously interrogating anyone pointed by the priest without corroborating evidence. Not being pious enough might be enough for him to point us at someone's direction… On the other hand, considering what we were about to face, such burning faith might come in useful. Once this was done, I was going to ask him to pray for us and if he could gather his fellow priests in Victory Bay and bless our weapons and armor before we headed to face against Chaos.
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