Chapter 9 Part 1

Chapter 9: Storm-front

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Part 1

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Victory Bay

Kronus

On one hand, the Ogryns of all people sniffing out Chaos infiltration or some other kind of corruption sounded far-fetched. On the other, I could easily see people dismissing them as a threat outside of direct combat and not being as careful as they would be otherwise around them. Add a potentially much smarter than average veteran Sergeant and there might be something to this. That would still be grounds for canning a lot of people for gross incompetence at best, outright treason at worst, but we'll see. At any rate, once we were done here, I would be finding Commissar Weber and through him contacting the Commissariat representatives on Kronus for assistance in discovering what in the Emperor's name was going on here, who needed to be properly interrogated, shot or worse. Perhaps I should add a sane-ish Commissar or two to my retinue as well…

The Ogryns formed in a semi-circle in front of us, with the huge one almost reverently taking the strongbox and then very carefully, slowly and deliberately entering a combination in its lock. The lid popped open with a hiss and he turned the container around, showing us the contents with a proud, toothy grin. By the Emperor, this was like dealing with young, over-eager children with extreme capacity for violence…

I could see a neatly folded parchment sealed with a red wax seal proudly wearing the Aquila, nestled among a lot of medals. Warily examining the contents through the Warp, I could find nothing harmful, which left all kinds of more mundane, yet still lethal threats potentially in play. Yeah, I was growing more and more paranoid by the day…

"Corporal Santos, if you will?" I said, knowing that my suggestion had the power of order behind it. Still, the Stormtrooper had a fully sealed armor and he was certainly more expendable that either me or Anteas.

"Yes Inquisitor, sir!" Was that a bit of sarcasm I heard in his helmet-distorted voice?

The Stormtrooper marched forward until he stood right in front of the Ogryn, looking like a small child with their father towering above them, and pointed at the parchment. The Ogryn, who still hasn't introduced himself, nodded happily and lowered the case so Santos could retrieve the contents more easily. He did so and looked the scroll over, then shrugged and brought it back to us. Private Valencia was beside him in a blink of an eye, scanning the parchment with an auspex.

"There's nothing particularly harmful I can detect, sir."

"Well, let's see what the fuss is all about then." I waved for Santos to bring me the letter.

I took the large parchment from the Corporal's armored hands and cracked the seal. The message was written in large blocky letters, which were nevertheless fully and easily legible.

"To whom it might concern,

I've witnessed disturbing trends and events as of late. Regiment Command has deemed fit to sent a third of my boys to the Deimos Peninsula, a place which should warrant no more than a platoon or two of PDF troopers at best, though some Arbiters to keep the peace should have been sufficient. We've protested but no one has been listening.

The few and far between messages we got from our boys were disturbing, and they soon ceased, before Regimental Command decided to send nearly half of my remaining boys there. My protests fell upon deaf ears and trying to go around the chain of command and contact their superiors was met with condescending disbelief.

I'm going to get two of my best remaining boys and go find out what is happening at the Deimos Peninsula. I've ordered my other boys not to go anywhere unless I'm back and right, or an Inquisitor arrives to clean up whatever this is because I feel it in my bones, it's going to be that bad, I swear by the Emperor's light!

P.S.: I've asked around, no one who is talking knows much about whatever forces are being stationed at the Deimos Peninsula. There shouldn't be anything over there warranting strong PDF presence, much less an Ogryn deployment. Even worse, trying in inquire about my boys through back channels an a few more reasonable contacts we've made since ending up on Kronus leads me to believe that there is indeed something rotten here! Some of those people claim that according to records, all Ogryns on Kronus are here in the capital and accounted for as if two-thirds of my boys never arrived on the planet!

I'm going to find them and get to the bottom of this, the Emperor Protects!

P.S. II!: Below are the names of the few people who tried to help and of the Officers who either didn't care or gave the orders to sent my boys away…

Sergeant Bron"

The letter was surprisingly articulate and if I didn't know better, it would be hard to believe that an Ogryn wrote it. Whatever they did to the Sergeants to make them even smarter, obviously worked… which begged the question, why the regular Ogryns didn't receive the same procedure to make them proper discount Space Marines, just without all the nice additional organs and power armor… Perhaps my two medical contacts might shed some light if they agreed to join my retinue and do something about it… I filed up that thought for later investigation and offered the letter to Anteas.

"Your Bone'ead was right boys, there is indeed something rotten going on. I'm afraid we might not be able to get him back in one piece, however. The Deimos Peninsula is currently in Chaos and Traitors' hands. We'll get to the bottom of this and we'll make all the traitors pay for what they did to you boys and everyone else they've harmed!" I promised to gleeful cheers.

"Why do I have the feeling that I'll have to look after them as well?" Pickos groaned.

"Because you've got great insight, Lieutenant. Meet the new additions to your Platoon!" I waved at the Ogryns. Like hell, I was leaving them under the authority of any of the remaining PDF brass.

"This is most concerning, Inquisitor," Anteas stated gravely after finishing the letter and offered it to the LT, who snatched it up warily as if it might bite and groaned as she read through it.

"LT, you're taking charge of the boys here, get them properly outfitted and ready to go. Anteas, you and the Stormtroopers are with me. We're going to speak with Commissar Weber, then we're picking anyone still alive from this list and having a heart to heart conversation with them."