Suffer The Little Children [Dark Heresy] - IC

[LCP]

Jericus

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"If Mr Hayle keeps any vid-logs, they would be in Mr Hayle's possession," said the Enginseer, a little tetchily. "We are not a surveillance station, brother."

[Etcetera]

Hmmphrmnthmnth. Should have known.

Jericus makes his excuses and leaves, looking for a bin.

[LCP]

Jericus

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There was a large, green-painted waste receptacle along the back wall of the Customs Office.

[Etcetera]

Jericus dug around in the bin slightly, looking for a bottle or similar sealable container.

[LCP]

Jericus

Spoiler

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A plastic bottle was swiftly procured.

[Etcetera]

Jericus swiftly transfers the needle to the bottle from the vial, under his robes, and mutters a quick prayer to the machine god for putting something in the oil. He then makes his way back to the hangar, humming in binary.

[LCP]

Jericus

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The hangar was much as he had left it - the others had gone, but the door they had smashed in to effect their entry was still gaping open. Mr Hayle seemed to have retreated into the hangar's office - the muffled sound of his voice through the front door was audible in some kind of heated telephonic exchange - by the sounds of things, with his insurers, whose policy apparently did not cover "acts of the God-Emperor's Inquisition".

[Etcetera]

Jericus wanders into Mr Hayle's office, bottle in hand.
"You wouldn't happen to know what THIS is, would you?"

OOC: Any moment now I expect another inquisitor to turn up and execute us for invading his ship and threatening his agents or something.

[LCP]

Jericus

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Caught mid-conversation, Hayle gave a guilty start.

"God-Emperor, they're back," he muttered, half to himself. "I'm going to have to call you back."

Putting down the receiver, he turned to look at the bottle in the tech-priest's hand.

"No, can't say I have. Jus' looks like a scrap of bone to me," he said, warily. "If you took it off the lady's ship, I told your friends, I just rent out the space. I've got no business poking around in customers' craft."

[Destro_Yersul]

"Where in the world IS Mister Jericus?"

Hieronymus looks back out onto the street and blinks. I haven't seen him for a while, actually. Do you think he's still back at the port?

[Saldre]

"Maybe: I supposed he went back to play with that machine. Oh well, we might as well plan for our next move ahead of him then. Where too now?" He asks the group.

[Destro_Yersul]

"I'm not sure. I think one of you said something about some sort of scanner, earlier? Maybe we should look into that."

OOC: apologies if no one did, but he was there and he probably would have got a look at it if I hadn't been on vacation. Figured this would be fine.

[Saldre]

"That's true: we did find that squiggly line screen."- He says, before turning towards their map of the sector.

"If we were here..." He points to the Hangar's general location. "Then we'd need to go there to see what it was about." He continues, sliding his finger across until it hits the Infirmary.

"We might as well meet up mister Jericus there: if he's still in the Hangar, he'll get there before we do." He finishes before contacting Jericus and telling him the plan.

"Yes..... you remember the line... and the dots... well they were going that way you know... so I figured... maybe we should go there too?"

[Etcetera]

Jericus pivots on the spot, red robes billowing around him as he leaves the hangar.
"We will be back."
He then shoots Mr Hayle a glare and stalks out.

Jericus makes his way absent-mindedly back to the apartment. He opens the door and walks in, flopping down a a nearby chair.

[Saldre]

"Speak of the... Hummm..." Olympus trails off.

"Now that were all here, we can discuss a plan: these star-children are quite creepy, but what have we found out about them? We were able to trace Merrick's shuttle, and we found that... light... thing... inside: but Mister Jerricus will be able to explain much better then me. There's still that wormy thing in the box... I wonder if that's related... all in all, we have a lead: the infirmary seems our best shot for now." Olympus says, as he lays out the information they had uncovered.

[Thanatos 51-50]

Red swiveled away from his post and spoke up.
"I went to the temple and spoke with Lysenko." he offered, "And he was certainly most helpful in seeking information about the Star Children, but I'm pretty sure all I got was the speech everyone else would get. The big thing he hit on that grabbed my attention was this: The Children believe that the greatest virtue is not the destruction of Man's enemies, but rather, Man's charity towards Man, and that the Emperor - or Great Father, as they prefer to call Him, will return to his Children - Mankind after we realize this. I was also invited to sit in on their next prayer service. I may be able to get more information from that.
Oh, and the Imperial Guard is slated to raise a Regiment here soon, consisting almost entirely of Star Children. This could be... pretty bad."
He paused for a bit and scanned the street.
"I also spoke to a really shifty, kind of mad-seeming guy. Said that the Children were under the control of their 'Masters', alternatively, he calls them "Watchers," There's also something about them hiding their eyes from the Light and the Emperor's Judgment. He describes the Children as a Taint, brought to Sibellus by Father Lysenko."

The riflemen sighs and lets his shoulders droop. "One one hand, you guys should be glad you're getting that conversation second hand, on the other, I'm not smart enough to puzzle out what he said and make better sense of it for you."

[senrath]

"Wait, they want a Regiment of the Imperial Guard to be made up of their members? And yet they don't feel that destroying Man's enemies is the greatest thing they can do? I think I'm inclined to believe this crazy guy you found." Phrenz said, setting down his pack to rest for a bit.

[Thanatos 51-50]

"Wait, they want a Regiment of the Imperial Guard to be made up of their members? And yet they don't feel that destroying Man's enemies is the greatest thing they can do? I think I'm inclined to believe this crazy guy you found." Phrenz said, setting down his pack to rest for a bit.

"They're not pacifists, apparently, it's just that Humanity towards Humanity is the greater virtue" Red's face goes dark. "They won't last a month before the Great Enemy. They'll probably turn Traitor, too."

[Etcetera]

"Odd things have been happening to children and mothers here. Birth rates have shot up. Also, the Administratum may be hunting for me."
Jericus stood up and placed his dataslate in the vid-screen, ready to present his findings.

[Destro_Yersul]

I'm inclined to believe they're up to no good. Especially if whatever Merrick's scanner was focused on is in the infirmary. Do you think they're harbouring psykers? It doesn't seem like a huge leap to Hieronymus. Merrick's trade is in psykers, after all.

[LCP]

The vid-screen crackled into life again under the tech-priest's fingers, taking a moment to adapt to the unfamiliar format of the data-slate before beginning to display its contents.

OOC:
Jericus'
findings
here

[Saldre]

"Only one way to find out: let's get going: we can have Jericus go in to inspect some thing or other inside, while we sneak in from behind. We might not even need any subterfuge." Olympus suggests, as he makes for the door.

[Thanatos 51-50]

Red quickly unstraps and secures his rifle over his shoulder, gathers his bayonet and laspistol and follows the Assassin.

[senrath]

Shrugging, Phrenz snatched up his backpack and followed the other two.

[LCP]

Making their way through the busy streets of the Sector, the Acolytes found a public transit crawler, the rattling vehicle delivering them to the chiral side of the Seaward Sector in a few minutes. Disembarking, Red recognised the district in which he had found the Temple earlier – the Temple itself would only be a couple of streets to seaward.

The broad arterial avenue they found themselves on, however, was dominated by the smooth ferrocrete facade of the Infirmary – clearly a recent construction, a ramp led up to a large pair of plexiglass double doors, its windows rather unusually high and small. The centre of the facade was dominated by a vividly-painted mural, showing a child reaching up towards a semicircle of stars.

[hr]

(EDIT: Completely forgot Olympus' sneaky suggestion, moved things on too far. This is what I get for posting when I should be sleeping - sorry. Edited to remove)

[Saldre]

"So I am guess the Tech-priest and Provost go in the front, while I see what's trough the back door? You want to join me, or walk up the front with the other two?" He asks phrenz and the guardsman.

[Thanatos 51-50]

Red checks down the streets and is already take a wide, circular approach towards the back door.
He flashes a quick, friendly grin at Olympus and his fellow Trooper.
"Let's do this!"

[Saldre]

Olympus follows Red in an attempt to go around the building and get to the backdoor.

[Destro_Yersul]

"Front it is. Jericus?" Hieronymus glances over at the tech priest to make sure he's following, and then sets a good pace for the front door of the infirmary. If it's unlocked, he'll simply push it open and step inside.

[LCP]

The Front Door Approach (Heironymous & whoever goes with him)

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Pushing open the double doors, Heironymous found himself in a brightly-lit atrium – the floor, the walls and the ceiling all seemed to be made of white ceramic tiles, polished to a spotless gleam. To his right, rows of plastic chairs held what must have been patients, waiting patiently to be seen – a young woman in a clean, white uniform sat behind a curved, white desk. The Acolytes were the only people in the room whose heads were not immaculately shaved.

“Hello, sir!” The receptionist gave a bright, white smile – one that wavered a little as she noticed the weapons Heironymous was carrying.

“...can I help you?”

[hr]

The Back Way (Red, Olympus and whoever goes with them)

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The alleys down the side of the hospital were narrow and deep, ventilation ports dumping stale-smelling gusts of steam into the air above their heads. Like all hospitals, the Infirmary was a sprawling structure – it did not take them long to locate a side door, marked “FIRE EXIT”. It did not look like it was alarmed.