The Whispers of a Dark Heresy

[BirryGee]

Part I:
'Among the Missing'

"After being singled out and inducted into the service of the Inquisition, things have not quite gone as you had imagined them. Removed from your past life, you have been tested and measured, questioned and interrogated.
But aside from a few lectures given in darkened chambers that left you sick to your stomach and a seemingly endless stream of codes and ciphers given you to memorize and destroy, you have been left largely to your own devices.
Lodging under a false name in an anonymous habblock in Hive Sibellus, on Scintilla, the capital planet of the Calixis Sector, you have bided your time for weeks waiting for the call from your masters, and perhaps their verdict.

At last that call has come and a bankeyed courier has delivered to you a note featuring the cipher of the Holy Ordos. The message within was simple and perfunctory, containing a time, a date, and a location.
The Instruction to Come Prepared and Expect company is signed off with a single epithet---- The Emperor Protects"

++Make your pre-purchase at this point and continue. We will assume that everyone has made it to the meetup++


"At the appointed hour, you have made your way through the bustling faceless masses of the Administratum quarter to an unmarked service elevator platform set in the rear of a vast and imposing building covered in basreliefs of skulls, half draped urns and other symbools of death, crowned by an immense statue of a weeping saint.
It appears that you are expected; the widened face of the platform's inbuilt servitor studies you and pronounces
'Pass'
as you climb on board. As the note implied, you were not the only person called, and you make for an uncomfortable and diverse looking group standing in tense silence as the crowds throng by. The servitor control chimes active as the last one of you boards the platform and the elevator descends as the hatchway closes above you all with a thunderous boom.
The platform continues downward for some minutes through maintenance levels, deep into the bowels of the government district."


++ Inquisition Notes ++
This is a good time for you to describe your Acolyte's physical description and demeanour. And slight interactions with the other characters.
++ The Emperor Protects ++

[b4huxley]

Marche inspected the rag tag group before him, grimacing in disgust as if trying to swallow a mouthful of bile or discern the hand that held the noose to hang him with. After a momment of gazing at the group he licked his lips in nervous calculation and spoke his voice rasped out electric like currents of lightning from his vocal cords, or severe water deprivation. " So, many are called.. Few are chosen. My name is Marche.. Marche Deluge.. Imperial Psyker." He paused nervously eying the rest of the group then hitched his body up with his cane and leaned against the wall. "Good to meet you all, and look forward to working with you." His final statement ended in a rasping cough which doubled him over nearly unbalancing him to the floor.

[Hey-Zues]

Garrett stands in the back corner of the elevator, standing straight up. He looks around the small room filled with people, and looking towards Marche with a somewhat dead look to his gaze, as Marche begins to speak. Then braking his gaze and continues looking around the room at the others. Keeping one hand in his left pocket, and the other at his side.

"Good to meet you all" Marshe says, "and look forward to working with you" Garrett looks at Marshe once again and gives a small somewhat cocky smirk. He then continues to look at the other people in the elevator, almost as if studying them very carefully.

[kurisute]

Albertina stands to the side of the elevator, one hand resting on her hip, the other to her side. Her eyes flicker around the room glancing at each person in turn, a blank expression on her face. Her gaze hesitates a moment at Marche as he speaks, the harsh sound of his voice nearly making her blink.

"I am Albertina" she replies in a soft voice "I'm sure it will be a pleasure." She gives a slight smile then goes back to scanning the room.

[Colt]

Eaven looks around the small room and studys the people around him. He makes a silent prayer asking the Emperor to protect everyone in this time of need.
Eaven sits back and takes in whats being said. Immediately he feels drawn to these people and understand they are friends.

"I am Eaven Cleric of the God Emperor, I grant you all friendship, for i know that you all have good hearts" Eaven Replies to Albertina's comment

Eaven glaces around the room and continues to take in his environment.
_________________
---
[WS:38][BS:42][Str:32][T:44][Ag:38][Int:41][P:32][WP:34][F:31]
Wounds []/14 Fate []/3
Insanity:4 Corruption:0

[BirryGee]

Zethina stood straight, her mind wandering on things of a troubled past that cannot be remembered. Her jet black hair flowing, a chill went down her spine as the creeking voice, an instant of fear as the mutant spoke.

She kept her silence with a nod.

++-------------------------------------++

The elevator's slow decent finally ended, the acolytes find themselves deposited upon the end of a featureless wide grey corridor, lit by pale lumen globes in the shape of cherubs holding torches. Only the first few feet is lit and the rest trailing off into darkness. As the Acolytes step off the platform and walk forward, more flicker to life before you. While those behind extinguish themselves. There is only a straight path, the air smells faintly of chemical disinfectant.
After 5 minutes, the corridor ends in an armoured metal door, which begins to unseal and unlock with a hiss of pressurised air and opens with a loud grinding of heavy gears. The room inside has a jumble of dusty metal crates (branded with unintelligible symbols) stacked against one wall, while a hospital gurney complete with restraint straps has been left toppled over on one side against the other. A wide mirror which fills the upper half of the wall straight ahead of the entrance, the mirror slowly clears to a transparency, revealing a glittering steel chamber beyond. Inside the chamber looking out is a tall, thinfaced figure wearing white medicae robes with (rather incongruously) a red leather coat draped over his shoulders. Behind him, covered by a mottled grey sheet, is what looks like a body on some sort of frame raised upright for inspection.
Garret zooms his eyes on the figure but fails to notice anything beyond what everyone can tell.
As Eaven cannot tell the markings on the ornate robes.

While above them in the air, a pair of white enamelled skulls, encrusted with a variety of brass instruments and long hypo needles, hover expectantly
Zethina notices the hovering skulls to be medicae servoskulls of the highest quality; machinespirit controlled drones, fashioned from preserved human skulls and fitted with sophisticated medical systems whose secrets are restricted to the highest orders of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

[BirryGee]

The figure in the chamber beckons the Acolytes up to the glass with a gloved hand and after a static rattle, his voice issues from a small grill set into the ceiling,

"Greetings Acolytes, I am Medicae-Interrogator Sand and you are the new blood, are you not? Worthy additions to our holy war? Well we shall see, far be it from me to doubt my betters' judgement, eh?
"Well to the matter at hand. I represent the Holy Ordos of the Imperial Inquisition that we all serve. Our masters have called you here to assist us in the investigation of a matter of interest that has recently and unexpectedly come to light.
"Oh, yes, for your information, you are now in the depths of the Templum Mori, the house of the dead where the Lords Prefecta Mortem hold court and the fallen and the lost of the great city are named and counted. It will not surprise you then to know you are here to view a corpse, I doubt it will be your first, but it is, shall we say, quite singular!"

Sand causally brushs aside any questions and carry on with his lecture, pulling aside the grey sheet to reveal the dissected and eviscerated body of an adult human. As he continues to talk, the servoskulls dips and bobs out of sight to reappear with messy looking organic specimens in tests tubes and jars, clutched in their dextrous brass callipers, isplaying them in turn for the Acolytes' edification;

"Now if you will kindly attend and pay heed, I will take
questions afterward.
"The body has been positively identified as that of one Saul Arbest, male, 23 years of age, hive worker, unskilled labourer certified. Formerly of the Tantalus Indenture, registered habitation: chamber 6 / 23 stack 717# Coscarla Division, southern zone, Hive Sibelius.
"Subject found dead on the midhive transit rail three days ago as the car returned to the main depot. Preliminary examination at the scene suggested death by drug overdose. Post mortem performed by the biologis forensic, however revealed certain anomies that necessitated our involvement.
"The cause of death was in fact total systemic failure brought on by tissue rejection of an implanted synthetic graft organ. Said organ destroyed his central nervous system while attempting to overcome the immune response.
"In short this.. ."

skull displays a sample jar containing a ten
centimetre long whitish cord of waving glassy tendrils, still in motion, still alive.


"... crushed the life out of him from the inside.
"What's it for? Unknown, but my opinion would be, in a
word, control'—neural and synaptic override, perhaps worse.
"There were other grafts and surgery of a less singular kind also; one lung replaced by a concealed storage cavity, possibly for his use as a courier. Also, one optic nerve removed, skin flayed from his stomach, I've no idea 'why. His systems awash with alchemic traces, clotting agents, panimmune and the like.
"The surgery was expert, but by the lesions and tissue stresses, I doubt any care was given to whether or not it was painless. In fact, by the damage to his vocal cords, my guess was that he probably screamed as long as he was able to.
"But this little monster is what concerns us. Oh, you don't need to know the genelore or the Omnissian edict, just that this is not only illegal, it is forbidden, it is heresy. Merely tampering with this kind of dark tech is enough to warrant a death sentence from the Holy Ordos, the Arbites or the Mechanicus.
And I'm sure that you, as well as I, am wondering how such a rare and vile thing ended up wrapped round the spine of some anonymous habprole from the dusty end of the stacks.
"The man has no prior criminal record, he was rendered invalid by indenture—laid off if you will, some sixty days ago now and was reported missing thirtytwo days ago by his sister, one Lili Arbest, resident of the same habstack. More than enough time to get himself into all sorts of trouble, I'm sure you'll agree. These grafts are no more than eight or ten days old at most. We have nothing else on him.
"This is to be a shadow investigation, no open official involvement and no notification of the local authorities, and no one knows he's here either. Coscarla's down hive, so a covert approach will draw far less attention than a boot through the door, and be far less likely to kill any leads to our heretic.
'Find out 'why and where if you can, better yet, find out how Best of all, find out who is responsible. Go with the grace of the GodEmperor, oh and additional samples would be a blessing if you can procure them."


++Inquisition Data++
You may ask Sand questions

[b4huxley]

Marche clicked his tongue inside his mouth as if in rapt concentration, he stopped sullenly and then looked towards the Inquisitor he cleared his throat abruptly and inquired. "Medicae-Inquisitor Sand's, if I a may aquire your indulgence on this matter, you said he was laid off for 60 days and then went missing for 28 days..." He coughed harshly and cleared his throat again then continued speaking. "Is there any report of his behavior before he disappeared, the 28 days prior to him vanishing and is his sisters location currently known or is she available for question at this time."

[Hey-Zues]

Garrett stared at the dead body. In a calm and somewhat raspy voice he says "So he was laid off from his job. probably went looking for some sort of work, and got himself in with the wrong crowd who possibly promised him alot of money for a simple smuggling job." Stops and thinks for a few seconds and asks "Did you find anything within the storage cavity where his lung once was? Was the removed Optic-Nerve replaced with anything?"