Ghosts of Scintilla

[Cynical Cat]

Duelling was legal and a widely practiced custom on Scintilla, according to the standard briefings. House Yarmon must be powerful indeed. "The equipment and drug data I asked for?" Nihilous asked blandly.

[Karrick]

Solomon allowed himself a smirk as the pair of arbites guided him through the precinct house. It had all worked out so neatly, he thought. By foisting him onto the Inquisition, his family had killed two birds with one stone. They no longer had to deal with Solomon, for which he was sure they were grateful, and had managed to save face where the Yarmons were concerned. Solomon snorted at that. The cocky bastard shouldn’t have pushed him. He would have been perfectly willing to stop after taking the Yarmon’s ear, but that last lunge had been meant to kill. Solomon knew of only one way to deal with people trying to kill him.
He stopped a checkpoint manned by a helmet-less arbitrator behind an armorplas window. He eyed Solomon distastefully. Solomon buffed his nails on his jumpsuit. The man reached for a button behind the window and a speaker piped his voice through,

“Name?â€

[Cpl Kendall]

"You could say that." Atellus grunts, giving the noble a once over, "nice piece by the way."

He turns to the Precinct Manager, "now that we have him, can we get the info and kit we asked for? My stomach isn't getting any fuller waiting here."

[Cynical Cat]

Nihilous said nothing. His words would be superfluous after Atellus had spoken. He approved of the soldier's attitude.

[Academia Nut]

"Of course, it had been such a given to me that I had forgotten to mention it. Now, since there is nothing else, I have more business to attend to. A trooper will escort you to an armoury where a priest of the Adeptus Mechanicus will instruct you in the proper rituals of maintenance and activation for the equipment you will be issued," the Assistant Precinct Magister states while nodding formally to them, indicating that they were dismissed from his presence.

Leaving the office, they found another group of men and women waiting in the antechamber, probably another group of Inquisition acolytes awaiting their turn for an audience with the ranking Arbiter assigned to this case. A trooper quickly collected the trio and led them through the labyrinth of offices, training zones, and cell blocks to a small shrine to the Omnissiah where a wide variety of techno-arcane devices lay reverently upon maintenance altars. Red robed men studded with metal augmetics and wearing the livery of Enginseers seconded to the Arbites moved amongst the rows of machines, performing blessings with muttered prayers in the incomprehensible tongue of the Machine Cult. One enginseer noticed the approach of the trooper and acolytes and walked over with a gliding pace and bowed slightly but deferentially before saying, "You are the representatives sent to recieve tutelage in the ways of the machine the devices necessary to track down and purge the hive of the cancerous drug known as 'blackout' that is disrupting the harmony of operation?"

[Cynical Cat]

"Yes," said Nihilous.

[Academia Nut]

Several hours pass as the tech priest instructs the acolytes in the use of the Mark XI Empyreal Intrusion Flux Auspex, and while much of the theology goes over their heads, they learn enough to kindle its spirit into action to give them some basic information can be gleaned from the device.

Meanwhile, Sebastian made a few inquiries to Liza while Garius and Arl arranged for their egress from the Arbites base with Kyona secured for medical transport. He learned of two things. The first was the identity and location of a merchant on the fringes of what was considered the upper hive who was known for smuggling contraband items and a raid on his location was on the list of things to do once more important issues had been cleared up. By the name of Antonious Ferros, although he also answered to the nickname 'Toothpick', his legitimate business as a pawn broker was far surpassed by his business in moving weapons and drugs about. Sebastian also got from Liza word of a recent rumour that had been circulating about, in that if you went to a certain part of the upper hive at night there was a 'Ghost Saint' that would heal your wounds. A further investigation for heresy or witchcraft was scheduled, but it too had been pushed aside by all the other things competing for immediate attention.

Under cover of Arbites escort, the Munitorum transport escaped the upper hive and returned to the main Arbites base down below to pick up the rest of the team, including the new member, and to shift Kyona to the medical facilities within.

By the time they returned to the PDF base where they were operating the first hints of sunlight were starting to touch the sky. Waiting for them out in the open was Commissar Yalt, wearing an unreadable expression on his face. He just looked over them all and stated, "Report."

[Cynical Cat]

Nihilous couldn't keep the irritation out of his voice. "We have acquired the necessary gear and data to properly begin the investigation."

[fgalkin]

"Not to mention that we made a new friend," Sebastian chuckled.

-----------------------------
Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Academia Nut]

"So I see," Yalt notes while looking over Solomon. He then frowns and says, "I should say that I had a bit of a conversation with the quartermaster..."

The frown then turns into a wry smile and he says, "Good job. The organization we serve can be labyrinthine and contradictory at times, so part of my job as instructed by your master is to ensure that you know how to seek truth behind the lies, to be self-sufficient when need be, and to obey orders to the best of your ability even if they seem strange. When you next see the quartermaster, he will have some more equipment for you, something from your master and somethings I pulled a few strings of my own to get."

Turning away, Yalt then pauses, turns back, and says, "Oh, and don't think the tests are over, or that I am telling you the truth. I recommend you figure out your next step and get some rest. Dismissed."

[Cpl Kendall]

Atellus mumbles something to himself that sounds oddly like "sexual congress with his mother" and heads down to the Quartermasters office, rapping his knuckles on the counter top.

"I hear you have something for us?"

[Academia Nut]

Seeing Atellus coming, the quartermaster nods and says, "Yeah, I've got something that the commissar had apparently been scrounging up for you lot. Let's see here..."

Going back into the armoury for a few moments, the quartermaster returns with three armored cases. Setting them down, he puts one up on a table and opens it up to reveal a set of metallic cylinders marked with blue stripes. He does the same with the other cases, revealing similar cylinders with white and green stripes.

"That's the first lot, a case of stun, choke gas, and hallucinogen grenades each, that's thirty-six for the whole lot. The commissar said not to waste them since it will probably be awhile before resupply, but since apparently the guy you're working for likes prisoners he said you can be generous with them if need be. Speaking of which..." The quartermaster then heads back into the armoury and returns with a trio of long poles, two of which are topped with large claw-like mechanisms.

"A pair of man-catchers and a stun rod, not exactly items you can walk around with without drawing attention, but if you want something alive there are harder ways than using these."

[Soontir948]

Arl saw Atellus leave the room as soon as the Commissar left and smiled, "Someone wants some new toys."

"Welcome aboard, Solomon," he continued on, "all right from what we have learned, the Dying Suns gang must be checked out but I think we should look into the black marketeer, "Toothpick", beforehand and glean some more information the Arbites may not have about them."

[Cynical Cat]

"Quaint," said Nihilous dismissively. Mancatchers? Might as well wear signs that they are thief takers and bounty hunters.

[Academia Nut]

Shrugging at Nihilous' comment, the quartermaster notes, "Hey, I noted they weren't exactly the sort of thing that blend in easily. Oh, and there is one more thing, but I'm going to need someone to accept responsibility to sign for it or it will be my ass on the line. The commissar said that he got these for you because he was fairly certain you lot would have the training to use them properly, but in case any of you had some hidden skills you had not disclosed to him and his superiors... well, there's this big fat case waiting for signing and biometric readings and it is covered in seals that indicate that I don't want it opened until it's out of my hands. I'm pretty sure it's Thrones though, and lots of them, arranged in the sort of manner that makes it hard to tell where they came from, which makes anyone along the line who could potentially be accused of having sticky fingers nervous."

[Cynical Cat]

"I'll sign," said Nihilous. Thank the Emperor, a sign that somewhere someone had an inkling of what they were doing. They needed bribe money, small arms, light body armour, appropriate attire and so on and so forth.

He might not have to kill everyone involved in planning this mess after all.

[Academia Nut]

The quartermaster goes and gets the case, which is indeed marked with several official seals with dire if terrifyingly nondescript warnings about unauthorized users opening it up. The quartermaster pulls out a long sheet of Administratum parchment and a pen and points to several points along the sheet where he indicates a signature is needed. Then he pulls out a biometric scanner and takes a handprint reading from Nihilous. After a few seconds it acknowledges and there is a slight pop from the case, causing the quartermaster to jump a little. Looking over a few things, he says, "That should be it then. Uh... you can open it."

The seals now cracked, the case opens to reveal a large pile of small denomination thrones with a note and a pair of krak grenades sitting on top, the grenades clearly once wired to blow if the case was tampered with. The note reads:

+++
Thought for the day:
Hope is the first step on the path to disappointment
+++

Don't go spending it all in one place and attract attention to yourselves. Otherwise this is your first batch of discretionary money. Perform well and there will be more. Perform poorly and the point is moot.

The grenades are also yours to keep.

+++

All in all, there are twenty-five hundred thrones within the case.

[Cynical Cat]

Disappointing. Considering the number of operatives and the PDF reject equipment they were stuck with, twenty five hundred Thrones wouldn't go far. You could barely equip the team with armoured bodygloves with that amount of money.

It was, however, an improvement. Nihilous passed the krak grenades to Atellus. "Available resources have increased. Let's go hunting."

[Cpl Kendall]

"Sounds like fun." Atellus offers Nihilous a wolfish smile as he gathers up the rest of the equipment, heading for the teams barracks.

"Guess we'll divy this stuff up before we go shopping."

[Soontir948]

"I'll take my cut, thank you," said Arl, "As for hunting, if no one have any objections, I do think we should take a look into this "Toothpick" character first thing in the morning."

[Cynical Cat]

Nihilous turned and glared at Arl. "This isn't loot. These are operational funds and, in case you haven't noticed, we are not well equipped or funded. They will be distributed as necessary."

[Soontir948]

Someone's got his rod up where the suns don't shine, Arl thought. "Fine Mr. Bursar, not like I'm spending for anything anytime soon anyway," Arl continued, more annoyed that a concensus hasn't been reach on what to do next, "unless we're deciding to do something now, I'll be at my bunk."

[Cynical Cat]

Soft, thought Nihilous, soft and weak. Perhaps he should revaluate his condemnations of those in direct authority. "As you see fit," replied Nihilous. "Ganger scum tends to be active at night and I am still fit to serve. Who is with me?"

[Soontir948]

Arl turned around before he left the room, "Oh, so we are actually doing something. Good."

[Academia Nut]

Trooper Garius is at the motor pool for those looking for him, looking about ready to murder someone. To those who seek transport he can only shake his head and say, "Bit of a foul up here. Since the gangs topside are going to remember the transport we rode in, I put in a request to switch, simple enough, but it seems that some boneheaded adept screwed up our paperwork, so we're currently in between vehicles since now they won't even release the one we already had to me. I would rather not tell Yalt since the paperwork I'll get stuck with after he bullrushes some bureaucrat will inevitably fall on my lap, but if I have to I will. If you need a lift immediately, I'll do it, but if you guys could wait an hour or two so I can find out who to throttle that would be a huge help."

For those wearing their comm beads, there is then a crackle of static before Yalt's voice announces, "For those of you listening, tell those who aren't and get up to my office. I have someone you need to meet."