What Lies Beneath
Ash takes Sister Airi, Padraic, Acid and some Stohlbard Dragoons to Ariscone to investigate an outbreak of what turned out to be some form of Plague Zombies or Pox Walkers.
Request for Aid
+++INCOMING TRANSMISSION+++
+++TRANSMITTED: Ariscone Orbital, Ariscone Prime, Ariscone; Achernar Sector
+++RECEIVED: Obelisk, Cetus-Major; Achernar Sector
+++DATE: 4.928.019.M42
+++AUTHOR: Ordinate Urien Falkenrath, Adeptus Administratum
+++DESTINATION: His most Holy Ordos of the Inquisition
+++SUBJECT:Infection on Ariscone
FORM I49D - PETITION FOR INTERVENTION BY THE HOLY ORDOS OF THE INQUISITION
My Lords and Ladies of the Inquisition,
I humbly petition your hallowed selves for guidance and judgement upon a most troubling matter. Perhaps, should you deem it worthy of your attention, a personal intervention.
On the day of our lord 5.907.019.M42 Ardex Mining Corporation HQ, based here on Ariscone Orbital, lost contact with exploratory mining post Gamma Kilo Niner. It is not unusual for the satellite communication dish to have issues in the hostile climate and prevent communications. As per standard practice they dispatched an Advanced Technical Team via shuttle to investigate and sort out the problem.
At approximately 5.909.019.M42 we received a brief message (attached) reporting that the shuttle had been shot down by the AA defences of Gamma Kilo Niner but that survivors had made it to the base. They also reported that the base was empty, there were signs of hostiles and that the AA defences had been shut down. Ardex Mining Corporation reported this to Orbital Command, and the PDF were requested to be deployed. The Departmento Munitorum representative Adept Loredana Pritchard authorised the deployment and a squad was dispatched by shuttle.
Subsequently voice contact was achieved with the survivors (transcript attached). The survivors reported mysterious figures had been observed outside in the Alkaline rain (exposure is considered severely detrimental to health and counter-indicated in all operations where labour units are not considered expendable). They then added that they were under seige in the Gamma Kilo Niner command center. Contact was briefly interrupted before a final transmission indicating that “they” were infected and requesting the site be destroyed from orbit.
I have immediately recalled the PDF squad and warned the other outposts that Gamma Kilo Niner was under quarantine and to be alert for any signs of vehicles or personnel. The nearest outpost is over 2,000km away so this is very unlikely and was taken as an extreme precaution.
We eagerly await your judgement. If you wish us to attempt orbital destruction we could use the SDF to bombard the site, although their ships are not designed or well armed for such an activity. However there were some 148 workers assigned to the Gamma Kilo Niner and various work vehicles which, according to the reports from the survivors, were largely unaccounted for. It therefore seems likely that whatever has happened is not contained merely to the ining post.
We will not act further until we hear back from your divide selves.
Your most humble and obedient servant,
Urien Falkenrath, Ordinate
Adeptus Administratum
+++MESSAGE ENDS
+++TO: Ordinate Urien Falkenrath
+++FROM: Interrogator Ashar Lear
+++SUBJECT: Infection on Ariscone
Ordinate,
Received and understood. Thank you for your diligence.
A team will be dispatched immediately to investigate. Continue to monitor the planet and be alert for any changes or further loss of communication from other sites.
In the meantime, if you have air traffic control records of ships which have entered and exited the orbit of the planet, please send. Flag up if any were bound specifically for Gamma Kilo Niner.
Emperor be with you.
Interrogator Lear
+++MESSAGE ENDS
+++TO: Sister Airi, Padraic Larnock, Acid, Lt. Cdr. Petersen
+++FROM: Ashar Lear
+++SUBJECT: Infection on Ariscone
+++ATTACHED: transmission from Ordinate Urien Falkenrath
Dear all,
See attached report.
We need full armour, all bio-hazard secure and hopefully not immediately compromised by alkaline rain. Plasma, laser and melter weapons only, we don’t want to take anything which will explode an infected body (Padraic, please bear this in mind when selecting tools). No bolt guns. If these things can survive the rain, presumably a flame-thrower will also not stop them from moving.
We need to wipe out the infected, and establish exactly how and when this infection arrived on-planet. All survivors to be treated with extreme caution, and quarantine regulations to be upheld. We will discuss further orders en route.
Petersen, we’re taking the Trojan. I’ll want a small squad on the ground with us, no more than 6, and the rest in the air waiting for deployment. The Valkyries will be dispatched to find the missing vehicles.
Acid, I need you in Salty and the full skull swarm at our disposal. Any extra auspexes you have would also be welcome. I don’t want any blind corners.
Padraic, will your protective dome stop rain?
Sister Airi, I hope you remember your giant termite drill.
Report to the Trojan when ready for travel.
Ash
+++MESSAGE ENDS
+++TO: Ashar Lear
+++FROM: Acid
+++SUBJECT: Re: Infection on Ariscone
Ash,
Salty is currently rigged with a flamer and stub carbine. We made her modular so I can swap them out for pretty much whatever. If I can use the Trojan’s workshop on the journey over I can modify a volley gun to replace the stub carbine? Not sure I’d have time to rig and test both weapons so maybe keep the flamer for cleansing purposes? I could do a plasma or melta but a) I’m not trained with them and b) I don’t have time to do anything clever with the ammo so they’d have to be reloaded externally. The volley gun I can plug straight into Salty’s power supply.
Acid
+++MESSAGE ENDS
+++TO: Interrogator Ashar Lear
+++FROM: Ordinate Urien Falkenrath
+++SUBJECT: Infection on Ariscone
Most Esteemed Interrogator Ashar Lear,
I have attached the data you requested. As you can see most of the traffic is mineral export and ressupply. No traffic is recorded directly between an interstellar vessel and Gamma Kilo Niner. Typically all traffic on and off-world goes via the orbital.
Prior to the crash of shuttle S445, carrying the Ardex Advanced Technical Team, the most recent traffic between the Orbital and Gamma Kilo Niner was 16 days earlier, the monthly supply ship. At the moment Gamma Kilo Niner is only an exploratory outpost so there is no bulk mineral extraction and export taking place.
+++ATTACHED: Datafile 1587923417
Please do not hesitate to request any further information I can provide. We keenly await your arrival.
Your most humble and obedient servant,
Urien Falkenrath, Ordinate
Adeptus Administratum
+++MESSAGE ENDS
The Mission
Ash requisitioned the Trojan and made all haste to Ariscone. There they enacted a quarantine procedure planet wide. Once establishing the infected victims were hostile, and some of the dragoons identifying them as Pox Walkers from their previous experiences, the Inquisition began a program of airborne extermination of the infected whilst searching for survivors.
Having cleansed Gamma Kilo Niner, the team entered it and searched for clues. They discovered evidence that suggested the power had been deliberately cut, although it had later been restored by the survivors of the Ardex Advanced Technical Team. Acid was able to discover evidence that on the day of the power cut, mining teams had expected to reach a new mineral deposit they had been questing towards.
With no better clues, the team headed to the mine and found the three surviving members of the Ardex Advanced Technical Team. From the air, the Inquisition dropped them some food and water and ordered them to return to Gamma Kilo Niner which had now been cleared of infected. Once they had departed, the team investigated the mine by servo-skull. They discovered at the extreme end of the mine a new form of black rock had been broken into. Mining tools had been dropped in the area and all the vehicles were missing.
Padraic entered the mine, with Sister Airi as protection, to see if he could detect anything psychic from this rock. He was unable to sense anything until he realised that the rock was in fact resonating an anti-psychic aura similar to a pariah. Ash, being a pariah and thus well-read on the subject of anti-psychic effects, recognised this material as Blackstone. They also located the missing piece, dropped on the floor nearby.
Reports from survivors found in the vehicles that had fled Gamma Kilo Niner corroborated that this mine had been the original source of infection.
Aftermath
- As Blackstone is generally connected to ancient Xenos artifacts, Inquisitor Michael was asked to investigate and share his knowledge. He determined that there was writing ingraved across the surface of these underground obelisks (nine in all, arranged in a ring). It did not match either Necron or Eldar writings in any dialect he was familiar with, but was quite similar to the former. He set up a task force to investigate and sealed off the entire area for the Ordo Xenos.
- Of the three surviving members of the Ardex Advanced Technical Team, two were found to be infected and ultimately euthanised. Silvio Mendoza studied the infection and found that blessed water did appear to have some effect on retarding the spread of the infection, but it was not enough, or applied too late, to save the test subject. Materials Specialist Lissa Cordova survived.
- Mining operations across the planet recommenced once thorough scans had taken place to ensure there were no further occurrences of buried Blackstone.