Knowledge Is Power [Dark Heresy] - IC

[Thanatos 51-50]

"Include servitors." Red commanded off-handidly.

[LCP]

"Section Alpha contains 7,239 Library servitors of various classes and specifications, plus two foreign units."

[Destro_Yersul]

"Do you know who the two foreign ones belong to?" Hieronymus had been looking around the chamber idly until now, content to let the others ask their questions. As he was asking his question, he had stooped to take a look at one of the terminals.

The provost was making a point of looking at everything but LIRA. He assumed she wouldn't mind.

[LCP]

"Foreign units classify as Mars Pattern Ranged Combat Servitors, Mk IV design." LIRA's unseeing face turned to follow Heironymous as he moved. "Property of Secutor Ferox of the Adeptus Mechanicus."

"Secutor Ferox," said Vale, butting in - "that's one of the fellows who showed up before you. You might have seen his ship, out on the landing pad? Tech-priest. Not very talkative. Set off into the shelves right away." He laughed nervously. "It's been all go, these last few days. More guests than we've seen in months."

Jericus Only:

Spoiler

Show

"Secutor" is a powerful and frightening title among the ranks of the Tech-Priesthood: they are the Machine Cult's lone warriors, seeking out and destroying the enemies of the Omnissiah wherever they are to be found. Secutors have a particularly fearsome reputation with regard to hunting down traitors within the cult, exterminating such rogue elements before they can draw the attention of Imperial officials outside the priesthood.

Secutors are typically heavily armed and augmented, and often have a kill-team at their disposal.

[Destro_Yersul]

"Does that strike you as a little odd, Decatalogue? Lots of visitors showing up shortly after the code was used?" Hieronymus wished he had a few more of the pieces to put together. "It could be nothing, though. LIRA, did you see who it was that used that code? Do you know what they accessed?"

[Thanatos 51-50]

"Firstly, determine if Secutor Ferox is currently under observation." Red leaped into the investigative line, having nipped at some fresh bait.

"Secondly, Excluding requests by those currently present in this room, when was the last time anybody requested information regarding the vessel Byzantium?"

"Thirdly, determine combat capabilities of those Servitors."

[LCP]

"LIRA, did you see who it was that used that code? Do you know what they accessed?"

"Please specify 'that code'," said LIRA - the words 'that code' were played back in an eerily accurate recording of Heironymous' own voice.

"Lectoprioritas 0050," said Vale, helpfully.

"Lectoprioritas 0050 was used to access the Proscribed Vault. No further usages logged. The user is unaccounted for: no visual records available. Diagnostics indicate possible cyber-owl malfunction in the Vault."

"Firstly, determine if Secutor Ferox is currently under observation." Red leaped into the investigative line, having nipped at some fresh bait.

"Secondly, Excluding requests by those currently present in this room, when was the last time anybody requested information regarding the vessel Byzantium?"

"Thirdly, determine combat capabilities of those Servitors."

"Servitors equipped with heavy automatic weaponry and integrated targeting systems."

There was another whirring noise from the machines overhead. "No inquiries regarding Byzantium on record. Secutor Ferox is in visual range of two cyber-owls. Do you require a visual feed?"

[Destro_Yersul]

The provost glanced back over at LIRA when she played his voice back. It was a little unnerving, hearing it come from somewhere other than him. "That would be nice. Could you also tell us what's in the proscribed vault, and what information you have on record for the Byzantium?"

Turning back to the terminal, Hieronymus muttered to himself. "Malfunction. Right. And I'm a grox."

[Thanatos 51-50]

"Stubbers?" Red asked instinctively when the "Rapid-fire" weaponry was mentioned.
"Also, yes. Visual feed, as well as a timestamp on his arrival and a timestamp on the usage of code Lectoprioritas Double-aught five-oh."
At the provost's "I'm a grox" comment, Red gave Heironymous a hearty slap on the back.
"I bet you taste delicious."

[LCP]

Could you also tell us what's in the proscribed vault, and what information you have on record for the Byzantium?”

“The Proscribed Vault contains copies of all Calixis Sector publications deemed unfit for public consumption since the founding of the Library. Approximate content of 0.87 million volumes.”

Vale nodded. “A lot of it’s dross,” he murmured. “Cheap fiction that accidentally made a blasphemous joke, or satirical pamphlets that crossed the line. Shelves and shelves of the stuff.” He shrugged. “Not that there aren’t some genuinely nasty articles in there as well. But the whole vault is high-security. I’m not too familiar with Mechanicus ciphers myself, but this Lectoprioritas thing must be high-clearance to allow unlimited access.”

As the adept finished talking, LIRA finished processing Heironymous’ second request.

“There are four vessels in the Sector history designated ‘Byzantium’. Mentions in trading newsletters and the Naval Gazette are available to the general public. Forge blueprints are available with appropriate clearance.”

"Stubbers?" Red asked instinctively when the "Rapid-fire" weaponry was mentioned.

“’Stubber’” said LIRA. “Slang term for automatic weaponry of varying patterns. Wide usage.”

The owl turned its head towards Red. “Weapons in question match profiles of a Lathe-Pattern MkVIII Rapid-Fire Suppression Device. Lexicon scans indicate this would be referred to as a ‘heavy stubber’.”

"Also, yes. Visual feed, as well as a timestamp on his arrival and a timestamp on the usage of code Lectoprioritas Double-aught five-oh."

“Opening visual feed.”

One of the screens in the wall nearby crackled with white fuzz, and then resolved itself into an image: it was practically a bird’s-eye-view, seen from a perch atop a precipitous canyon of shelving. Between the two cliff-faces of books, an octagonal, wood-panelled grav-platform had stopped: five figures in the red robes of the Adeptus Mechanicus were visible on it, as well as the two Servitors in question.

They had stopped the platform next to a brass-cased cogitator terminal, much like some of the specimens in the Sanctum - one of the red-robed Adepts was accessing it, while the others busied themselves with other tasks. In the centre of the motion, a hulking figure stood – heavily armed and armoured, with thick mechadendrites hanging over his shoulders, his motionless calm contrasted strongly with the busy bustle of his subordinates. The owl’s-eye camera focussed and zoomed in on him, magnifying his image to fill the screen. The glow of a plasma gun’s coil was visible on his right shoulder, the antique weapon tracking of its own volition: a Mind Impulse Unit.



“Time elapsed since arrival of Secutor Ferox: eleven hours, fifteen minutes, forty-three seconds.” LIRA paused. “Time elapsed since use of Lectoprioritas 0050: two months, six days, seven hours, fifteen minutes and twenty-seven seconds.”

[Destro_Yersul]

“There are four vessels in the Sector history designated ‘Byzantium’. Mentions in trading newsletters and the Naval Gazette are available to the general public. Forge blueprints are available with appropriate clearance.”

Only four? That's promising. "Get me the records of what happened to each of them. Unless I'm mistaken, Naval Regulations don't allow for two ships of the same name to exist simultaneously."

[Thanatos 51-50]

"Annotate Lectoprioritas timestamp as 'Timestamp Able', and then tell me how many individuals were not being monitored at that time." Red commanded, sparing a quick, envious glance at the ancient plasma weapon.

[EleventhHour]

"Well, the Mechanicus fellow is a real looker." Katyra comments quietly, "And this Lectoprioritus hasn't been used by him, unless he's been here before." She mumbles a bit more, mostly about how seperated the machine men are seperated from the Imperial Faith, and takes her time in heading over to watch over Hieronymus' shoulder curiously, to see what's on this terminal, the flamer clacking conspicuously on her back, and she brushes her hair back as a stray lock falls over her face.

[Etcetera]

Jericus looked slightly jealous, but concentrated on his work. He plugged himself into the terminal and ran a search for any other mechanicus affiliated access

[senrath]

Feeling that he had nothing to add to the current line of questioning, Ignace closed his eyes and let his senses quest outwards. Although it was highly unlikely that the individual who had used the Lectoprioritas code was near enough to be picked up by his mental probe, it was about all he could do at the moment. This was assuming that the individual in question could even be picked up by mental probe, of course. Ignace had no way of knowing if the target was capable of bending the Warp in any way, but he had to try.

Spoiler

Show

Psyniscience - (1d100)[41] vs 33. Success detects all warp disturbances within (1d10+3)[6] meters (psykers and daemons being the most common). The range is extended by 1d10+3 for each degree of success obtained. See pg 105 for further details.

[LCP]

"Get me the records of what happened to each of them. Unless I'm mistaken, Naval Regulations don't allow for two ships of the same name to exist simultaneously."

“Voidfaring records are in Section Phi, Segment Iota, Sub-Segment 05PQ to Sub-Segment 05PS. Latitude forty-three degrees seven arcminutes fifty point four nine arcseconds north, longitude one hundred and thirty-one degrees fifty-five arcminutes twenty-five point seven eight arcseconds east. Estimated retrieval time three days. Do you wish for transport, or the dispatch of retrieval servitors?”

"Annotate Lectoprioritas timestamp as 'Timestamp Able', and then tell me how many individuals were not being monitored at that time."

“Across all systems, nine individuals unaccounted for at exact time of vault access. Eight subsequently accounted for.”

Ignace Only

Spoiler

Show

The psyker’s unique senses could detect nothing untoward – only the psychic scent of stagnation and machine-worship that swirled in the stale air of the Sanctum.

Receiving Jericus' data-line, the screen of the terminal began to flash rapidly with dull, green characters. Watching, Katyra could make neither head nor tail of what was passing - the information was passing directly from the machine into the Tech-Priest's skull, without making itself comprehensible to the eye at any step along the way.

Jericus Only

Spoiler

Show

Interfacing with the terminal, Jericus was unprepared for the sudden shock of the uplink – the terminal linked directly to the central system, the indexed and catalogued knowledge of a thousand worlds yawning before him. Somewhere beneath the surface of the ocean of information, the intelligence of LIRA moved, vast and distributed, a billion operations a second guided by the fragile, organic brain at the heart of it all.

Clearing his head, Jericus began to search himself: there were no other Mechanicus access codes in the current log – stretching back six months – except for Secutor Ferox, whose own high clearance allowed him to bypass the need for any Library code to be issued. The Secutor’s team had accessed the data-banks twice from terminals, performing deep searches for various peculiar odds and ends – the locations of specific books, with no particular connection between them, and the use of Lectoprioritas 0050. By the looks of things, Ferox’s adepts had been looking for further uses of the code that had been masked in the system – if they had found anything, there was no record of it.

His concentration was disrupted as he began to feel an input from the outside world. The Sororitas woman had approached close behind Jericus - the Tech-Priest felt an intense sensation of discomfort welling up in the pit of his stomach, feeling the urge almost to physically push her away.

[Destro_Yersul]

"Send the servitors, and keep a very close eye on them. I think we'll have things to do in the meantime, but I don't want those records vanishing. Actually, can you tell me how many individuals are in that section? If you have a video feed, I'd like it on this terminal." Hieronymus hadn't actually had anything on his terminal until, maybe, this point in time. He just wanted to avoid looking at LIRA.

[Thanatos 51-50]

Red stood silently, seemingly oblivious to the discomfort of the provost and the seeming disinterest of the Tech-Priest.
"And the identity of the party not accounted for is..." he asked the machine, having grown a little bit more comfortable and conversing with it as if it were human.

[LCP]

"Send the servitors, and keep a very close eye on them. I think we'll have things to do in the meantime, but I don't want those records vanishing. Actually, can you tell me how many individuals are in that section? If you have a video feed, I'd like it on this terminal."

"Two readers registered in Segment Iota." The screen in front of Heironymous crackled and resolved into a split-screen image of two separate people: they seemed unexceptional, well-to-do civilian types, each in their own little pool of light amidst rows of dark reading desks, surrounded by stacks of books they had taken down from the shelves. For all the pictures showed, the two readers could be kilometres apart - and indeed, probably were.

"And the identity of the party not accounted for is..."

"Identity unknown. Clearance untagged. No surveillance records exist."

"That's the man," volunteered Vale, helpfully. "Or woman, I suppose, or whatever. LIRA logs every access protocol and information request, so when the Lectoprioritas code was used, she registered it as someone entering the Library. But we haven't seen hide nor hair of them since."

[Thanatos 51-50]

"Why are the other eight unobserved being discounted as suspects?"
Red asked plainly. It didn't make sense to him to assume the perpetrator was an unknown.
"Were there any offworld visitors planetside at the time? How about cross-hab visitors? Migration? Are you in contact with the other hab-blocks? Planetary population isn't that high, it can't take too long to find out if anybody was missing from where they were supposed to be, assuming proper communication is in place. What about servitors on loan?" Red rapidly bombarded both the Adept and LIRA with these question, with no particular nonverbal form of address between each one.

[LCP]

"Why are the other eight unobserved being discounted as suspects?"

Lira paused.

"Figures given were across all systems. All subsequently-accounted-for personnel would have required hypersonic transport to reach the Vault in between their last recorded position and their coordinates when subsequently located."

"Big planet," said Vale, with his customary nervous laugh.

"Were there any offworld visitors planetside at the time? How about cross-hab visitors? Migration? Are you in contact with the other hab-blocks? Planetary population isn't that high, it can't take too long to find out if anybody was missing from where they were supposed to be, assuming proper communication is in place. What about servitors on loan?"

"I'll, ah, field this one," said Vale, making a staying gesture to the owl on his shoulder. "That's something of a... complex input for LIRA."

"All our visitors here are offworld - that's the nature of the Library, people come here from other systems to dig up things that have been forgotten, or lost. So yes, every reader - every sentient except us Adepts - would have been an offworlder. As for us, there's one of us staffing each Hub. We're not allowed to leave our zones except in exceptional circumstances, which LIRA would have logged." He smiled weakly. "She's quite... particular about the rules being followed. Every adept was in their appointed zone of operations - that was one of the first thing we checked."

He shrugged.

"As for servitors - well, the entire Library is automated. Each Section has its own maintenance and repair facilities. They're as much a part of the structure as the walls." He patted one of the walls in question. "There's no reason we'd be shifting them from one Section to another."

[Destro_Yersul]

"Thank you. Keep an eye on them as well. I want owls watching the servitors fetching those records at all times. Append one to follow them if you must, but I really don't want those books to vanish unexpectedly. Though, if they did, I suppose we'd know where to look..." Hieronymus considers this for a moment. "How many volumes do you keep in the proscribed vault, again?"

[LCP]

"0.87 million volumes."

[Thanatos 51-50]

"So, our only possible suspects constitute of off-world visitors?" Red asked, dumbfounded. Again, this didn't make sense to him. Everybody was potentially their Heretic, even Vale.
"At the very least, we're dealing with an individual who can -somehow - mask his presence in the system, who is to say that he isn't able to also create a 'dummy' of himself, so that he can appear to be somewhere else. LIRA isn't infallible."
Red paused for a moment to think.
"Assuming it's an off-worlder who has been able to hide - what does resource consumption look like? Out of the ordinary in any sector?"

[senrath]

"Note that we may by facing a Psyker. It is a relatively simple trick, hiding oneself from detection." Ignace said, contemplating the possibilities. If they were indeed facing a Psyker, there was a good chance that said Psyker was much stronger than he was, and capable of actually inflicting lasting damage.

[Destro_Yersul]

"Far too many to search manually, or even to know if anything is missing." Hieronymus sighs. "And of course, they might be a psyker... If it's so easy to hide oneself, who's to say they haven't left?"

[LCP]

"Assuming it's an off-worlder who has been able to hide - what does resource consumption look like? Out of the ordinary in any sector?"

Vale shook his head.

"We've scanned for traces like that - but the Library pretty much runs itself. There are units that readers can borrow from the Hubs for mobile accommodation, nutrition and such, but if this fellow has his own supplies then he wouldn't really show up. Heating, lighting, it's all uniform anyway."

"If it's so easy to hide oneself, who's to say they haven't left?"

"There's only one way in or out of the Vault," said Vale. "If he left, he ought to leave a trace in the security systems the same as he did going in. That's our main reason for believing he's still in there."

He looked around at the Acolytes. "I rather thought that was why the Inquisitor sent you - to catch our ghost. Perhaps not?" he said, uncertainly. "We've certainly had a lot of attention in the last few days. Three parties, including yourself - that's the highest frequency of readers at this Hub in years."

[Destro_Yersul]

"We're chasing that thread, yes. I can't tell you much more than that, I'm afraid. If we do find your ghost, we'll be more than happy to take him off your hands."

With that said, Hieronymus turned to the others. "I can't think of any other questions. Unless you all have something more to say, could I suggest we go talk to the Secutor? That gun cutter of his is much more heavily armed than us, and his assistance could be valuable in the future."

[EleventhHour]

"Three parties? Who's the third?" Katyra asks curiously, having wandered around to look at the other terminals, it's not like she was sure what any of them said, if anything, anyways. "Us, the Techpriest, and...?"

[LCP]

"A man called Octavian Rhodes," said Vale. "Arrived not long before the Secutor with quite a retinue of his own - Cantus nobility, I believe. His ship is the other one out there - he's down among the shelves now. Said he was trying to trace some obscure branch of the family tree."