Inquisitors Michael and Drake led a mission to rectify a planetary industrial collapse threatening to destabilise the entire world of Pont DuRot.

Letter to Siveter Lund

+++SUBJECT: Pont DuRot
+++AUTHOR: Siveter Lund.
+++DESTINATION: Inquisitor Michael; Inquisitor Drake.

Morning Inquisitor(s).
I got this from an old friend in the family business the other day. I’m not sure how interested you’ll be in it, or what you might want to do about it, but I thought I’d pass it on – if only for information.
- Siveter.

“Hi Siveter,

Just a quick update from my sector – we’re pulling out of Pont DuRot. You’ll be aware that the munitorum has been see-sawing on the issues of the Chrystus pattern vehicles for some years. Well, turns out that a couple of years back they properly pulled the pin on the grounds of reliability, fuel efficiency and repair speed. The mun gave PDR its last 6 month order and then said ‘no-more’.

Trouble is, the factory bosses at PDR didn’t seem to do very much about it – they stuck their head in the sand and kept making the bloody things. It came to a head this summer when it turned out that there are about 400,000 units sitting in air fields, storage areas and bunkers all round the bloody world. The factories ran down this summer when the mun caught up with itself and stopped sending raw materials.

Turns out – no-one in charge did any planning for the run-down and lay-off and suddenly half the population of the planet are out of work with nothing to do. So the world’s gone to shit, crime is through the roof, the remaining functioning factories are spending a fortune on security and getting robbed blind all the time, the streets have turned into a cess pit and no-one seems to be governing. The planetary governor has jumped on a shuttle craft and disappeared, leaving his (somewhat corrupt) aide in charge amongst a sea of vipers and idiots who are also vying for power.

In the meantime, we’ve ended up saddled with 50,000 Chimeras that no-one ordered and a string of unfulfillable contracts, so we ‘re getting out of PDR and we’ll have to sell these Chimeras for scrap or persuade the mun to take crap it publicly said it doesn’t want.

Got to love the Imperium.”

+++MESSAGE ENDS

Mission Planning

The message was sent whilst Drake was giving Max Drent his six monthly review
- Max was generally happy with how things were going
- Max was concerned Michael didn't like him
- Drake suggested Michael was formal and a pretty blank slate and Max was perhaps projecting his own insecurities
- Drake cracked a joke about Michael being perhaps a bit too formal and there were clothes other than Carapace Armour available
- Max expressed horror about a mental image of Michael wearing nothing but nipple tassels
- Michael knocked on the open door, revealing that he was in fact standing in the doorway right at that moment
- With nothing more than a raised eyebrow, Michael apologised for the interruption and drew Drake's attention to the message
Michael and Drake agreed to head to Pont DuRot immediately in the Trojan
They took their current warbands, along with Max, but left some of the more senior Obelisk agents behind

Pont DuRot

Upon arrival Drake and Michael announced their presence to the acting planetary governor and began interviewing notable locals
- Eder Sanchez, acting Planetary Governor
- Majos Julanti, local head of Adeptus Mechanicus
- Orlaith Chan, local head of House Chrystus, interstellar noble house who owned the rights to the Chrystus pattern
- Davin Packard, head of House Packard, local noble house
- Professor Taavi Kuuk, local Operations Director of Ardex Mining Corporation

The Situation

From many interviews and discussions the Inquisitors determine the following:

Approximately 60% of the population of 2.5 billion are involved in the manufacture of Chrystus pattern armoured vehicles
- Employed by private factory owners in a complex manufacturing web overseen by the Adeptus Mechanicus
- Chrystus pattern vehicles are inferior to other patterns
  - Fuel efficiency
  - Gun traverse
  - Reliability
  - Ease of maintenance
Ardex Mining Corporation
-14 months
- Departmento Munitorum informed Governor Tusk they will no longer be taking Chrystus pattern vehicles produced by Pont DuRot
  - Given 8 months notice to wind down production
  - Governor Tusk does not tell anyone but begins making his own plans
- Production continues
-10 months
- Magos Julanti hears about it from her superior, Fabricator General Magos Falen
  - Julanti assured a plan is in place
- Production continues
-8 months
- Fabricator General Magos Falen leaves Pont DuRot for another posting and Magos Julanti becomes head of local Adeptus Mechanicus
- Governor Tusk does not attend any of the scheduled meetings with Magos Julanti
- Magos Julanti assured a plan is in place
- Production continues
-4 months
- Governor Tusk had been making an unknown deal with Ardex Shipping Corporation which falls through
  - Ardex Shipping Corporation paid out huge sums of money which are now missing
- Governor Tusk flees the planet, leaving Ada Sanchez in charge
- Raw materials stop arriving and factories are finally forced to close
- Widespread unemployment and (unfounded) fears abuot lack of food leads to increased crime
0 months
- Ardex Shipping Corporation and Ardex Mining Corporation appear to be unconnected at the local level
- After speaking with the Inquisition and being unable to assist in contacting someone from Ardex Shipping Corporation, Professor Kuuk leaves the planet
- Ardex Mining Corporation had discovered previously unknown rare minerals on Pont DuRot and were trying to get licences to mine the land

The Plan

The Inquisitors decide the following:

Ada Sanchez will be recognised officially as Planetary Governor
- He will oversee the plan as described
- His sexual indiscretion is not something the Inquisition care about
- Neither is his history of petty drug dealing and minor corruption, but both will end immediately
- The Inquisition will be checking up on him so he'd better shape up
- They will leave an agent watching him, so he'd better not try to run away
The Adeptus Mechanicus would provide a new, better, pattern for vehicle production and oversee retooling of the factories as needed
- Some closures and layoffs would be inevitable
- Adeptus Mechanicus gain rights to extract the rare minerals identified by Ardex Mining Corporation
Pont DuRot will raise a Regiment of Imperial Guard to absorb the unemployed
- The Regiment will be shipped to Samalut IX to support the ongoing conflict there and ensure the agri-world continues to provide food to Pont DuRot
- The new equipment being produced would, initially, go to support the Regiment
- A positive cycle is thus created, with the Regiment raised to go keep the planet fed, and the remaining citizens motivated to work hard to support their regiment
Adeptus Arbites and PDF to assist in cracking down on the food rackets and stockpiling Max uncovered
Orlaith Chan arrested for her (poor) attempts to sabotage Ada Sanchez' plans for industrial recovery
- House Chrystus told that the Inquisition are happy to dump he blame solely on Chan, provided the new leadership gets behind the new plan, otherwise it may turn out the corruption went deeper than initially thought and further arrests will be necessary
Michael selected the best detective of the Adeptus Arbites and authorised him as an Agent of the Inquisition to hunt down Ex-Governor Tusk
Ardex Corporation was sent a message informing them that the Inquisition wished to speak with Professor Kuuk

Aftermath

Max went on an independent mission, taking Alpha-532 as backup, and made the command decision to send Alpha-532 in pursuit of another vehicle, his first taste of leadership
Drake and Michael have grown to trust one another and, to Max's horror, refer to each other as Eidan and Gregory respectively.

Personnel Involved

Pont DuRot Crisis

Contents