Session 3: A Rude Awakening

After retiring for the night, I found myself plagued by nightmares. I wonder if my mind will find peace before my death, but at this rate I feel as though that is wishful thinking and that the nightmares will persist until I am truly freed of this torment. But that is a story for another time as the adventures of this motley crew continue.
 
As I was tossing and turning falling in and out of sleep, I was startled to hear the voice of C-14 Veck across my vox. While it may seem unusual to keep a communication device on you while sleeping, I do have a bit of a paranoid streak given my past and prefer to be disturbed if something vital has occurred. You will have to forgive me as the details of the initial message were lost in my groggy sleep and I will have to paraphrase the events that proceeded his message until I physically arrived on the scene.
 
C-14 Veck had discovered an intruder in the common room space of the safe house. He alerted whomever was availabe to the situation, and luckily that was me. Veck being the intelligent being he is, left his vox open so that his conversation could be heard and I could help to evaluate the situation, or at least that's what I would like to believe. This person knew way too much information about Veck for my liking and I informed him that I believe he was with the Inquisition. This fear turned out to be correct as he produced credible credentials for Veck to verify. The individual was brandishing a bolter pistol at Veck as well which immediately let me know he was most likely responsible for our dead mutant.
 
This inquisitor was also very interested in C-14 Veck's previous post and was accusing his former master of tech-heresy and indirectly the same of Lady Rathbone. This information was interesting to me and made me take pause and reflect on the situation. Lady Rathbone was instrumental in my salvation and current security within the Inquisition, could she be a heretic like those I was with before her? The time for contemplation on this subject was shortened as I was requested to wake everyone for this situation.
 
As expected Yarn was on top of the situation and making ReCaff for us all, which in all reality, I was in desperate need of as the lack of sleep was detrimental to my ability to communicate properly. Arath did his normal disappearing act, which wasn't that surprising given his timid nature to change and unknown threats. I just assumed he was lurking about trying to ascertain the situation as he had done the day before. Then there was Braxton. Emperor help me for I fear that if he doesn't get himself killed, I might do it myself. He felt that the best way to approach this urgent visit was to take a shower and complete his morning ritual. While he was preening his feathers, I joined Veck and Yarn in the common space to meet our visitor face to face.
 
The gentleman appeared to be the same man I noticed upon our exit from the space port, so my paranoia was justified in that situation. After evaluating how much information he had on all of us by questioning him about myself, I decided that it was time to find out why he killed the mutant outside our window. He then dropped a large bomb on us. The individual that we assumed was a mutant was actually a being called a gene stealer. This revelation was apparently also discovered by C-14 Veck though he hadn't had the time to share his findings with the party at the time. I had heard of gene stealers, but wasn't as versed in them as I probably should be, but luckily Yarn and Veck were familiar with them and the implications of this discovery. Suddenly a clearer picture of what was going on in the town of Lugg City was becoming clearer.
 
It would appear that the miner's guild had been infiltrated by the gene stealer cult some time ago. This may or may not have something to do with the already established cult in the miner's guild but that is beyond our findings at this moment. But the pieces of the puzzle were beginning to fall into place. I believe that the inactivity of the PDF and the unwillingness of the Arbities to act on these murders is a sign that the gene stealer cult has infiltrated both organizations. This was confirmed for the PDF by our mystery inquisitor but given that our location was easily found by the cult and the only parties that knew we were coming and our purpose was the Arbities, it's fair to say that everyone is suspect at this point. This is most likely true for the star port as well so a hasty retreat is definitely out of the question, despite the pleas to leave coming from the ever brave Braxton Vor.
 
Given this new information, going into the mines or approaching the miner's guild would be a suicide mission. In my opinion we have a slight advantage at this point. We know what we're going up against, but they don't know we know. This means we should go about our business as usual and move forward with our investigation, just this time focusing on the Nobles and see how they fit into this Xenos infestation puzzle. But back to our mysterious Inquisitor. He gave us a lot to think about in regards to Lady Rathborne and her activities and motives. I don't want to believe it possible that I have fallen prey to another heretical plot, but the possibility must be acknowledged. And given C-14 Vecks reaction to being told he may have been subject and complacent in tech-heresy, I feel he is also a victim. It would appear that we may have more in common than I realized in that regard. I will have to speak to him about this at a later time as we must hurry to ready for our day. As the mysterious Inquisitor left, he paid a complement to Braxton. "Good thinking with the bomb on the front door" he said as he left through the rear.
 
I distinctly remember Braxton saying he was rigging both the front and the back door. The snake probably took the bomb and put it on his own quarters given his sense of self importance. I truly do not understand him or what he is trying to achieve. His family was murdered and he is the last of his house. They were definitely guilty of questionable actions, but that could be said of almost any Noble family in the Imperium. He is obviously uncomfortable in the role he is choosing to play and falling backwards rather than moving forwards. This fake façade is going to bite us sooner or later. I decided it was time to speak to him about how to best prevent our untimely demise due to his impulsive and reckless actions. Of course my words of warning fell on deaf ears, as expected. I suppose my issues with him go far deeper than I am readily willing to admit. I see a future I could have had and what I could have been had I decided to fall back into old habits rather than move forward with my life and leave that dark place behind me. I have a plan that will hopefully help keep Braxton a bit more controlled in his Noble persona, but only time will tell.
 
As luck would have it, my predictions about his actions causing us trouble came to light as we heard an explosion in the entryway. The only effective and useful contribution Braxton has made to our mission thus far, the tripwire trap he set the night before did it's job and stopped two would be intruders. I made the assumption that they were after Braxton for nefarious purposes yet discovered by us. Why Braxton you may ask? Because he's been parading around town announcing he's a Noble to anyone and everyone willing to listen. And given that Nobles are part of a murder plot that basically brutalizes them, he seems like the perfect target to not cause any waves. The two would-be intruders were killed instantly by the blast and both were unrecognizable in the face. They were wearing rather ornate clothing with a feather motif on their pants. Upon further inspection, I discovered two daggers. As I lifted them, a dark, cold energy ran through my hands and up my arms. I recognized the danger of these articles immediately, they were cursed in some manner. I instructed my compatriots of the danger they held, but their dark magics managed to overcome Braxton, and it appeared that only Braxton was affected. I looked up to him to see an unexpectedly horrific sight. His eyes appeared to be bleeding, and somehow he was unaware. Honestly I almost thought I was hallucinating as no one else seemed to be aware of the streams of blood flowing from his eyes. I was relieved to discover that I was not hallucinating and that the rest were just so fixated on the horrors at the front door that they failed to notice. Once Braxton moved away from the visceral scene, his eyes stopped bleeding. Yarn wanted to verify the connection and nudged Braxton back to the location of the bodies. But nothing happened until he again gazed upon the daggers. Now I knew that the daggers were indeed cursed heretical items.
 
I asked that we not leave the daggers there and bring them to a safer place. Yarn complied and grabbed the thick cloth window dressings and carefully wrapped the daggers in it so that they could be safely transported. With all the excitement this morning, we decided the best course of action was to stick to our original plan of visiting the administratum and investigating the murders further. This would have been an uneventful walk through the streets, except for the smoking cloth in Yarn's arms. Fearful of what would happen, Yarn tossed the daggers, cloth wrappings and all down a storm drain. This of course was not what I would have preferred. I felt that delivering them to a local priest would have been a better option so that they could be properly handled. But given the severity of the events of the morning, this rash decision was understandable.
 
During our walk to the administratum, Veck revealed that there was no physical ailments detected in Braxton, aside from the expected dirty lungs found in those that dwell in Hive worlds. I inquired how he could do such a thing and he revealed that the Magos had gifted him a device that was capable of scanning biological materials and analyzing them. This would turn out to be how he discovered that our mutant was infact a gene stealer xenos instead. This device could be handy in helping discover the mysteries of what happened that day, but it will have to wait for another time as we were to arrive at the administratum soon.
 
There is still one thing that bothers me greatly. While the gene stealer cult explains part of our mystery, it doesn't explain the manner of the murders. I suppose that the brutal murder of the Nobles could be a self culling attempting to prevent infiltration of the gene stealers into their families. But why are the miners being murdered in a sacrificial manner? These murders scream heretical cult activity, but why would gene stealers put their hands in the basket with a heretical cult? So many questions, but we must be careful the questions we ask as to not reveal our advantageous position. Thus I wonder what mysteries will we discover behind those heavy doors? What new links will be unraveled and will we live through the day or become sacrifices ourselves? As the door opens I'm filled with dread and yet have a sense of excitement. But only time will tell if that excitement fades and only dread remains.