40K Dark Heresy: The Recondite War

[Jaevric]

Darien recovers his shotgun, replacing it in the scabbard across his back and using the action to hide a warning glance at Scar.

[NecronLord]

The indoor areas of the rig that the Proctor led the group to, saying nothing of the implicit threat directed at him, for now, consisted of a small six person bunk room, with attached cleaning facilities, a guardroom, with a kitchen attached, and then a secure control room, into which the Proctor lead the group. On a second floor, accessed from a hatch in the guardroom, was storage and food processing.

This was a narrow room with a table and two control stations. Each station had a auto-palmist to determine the user’s authorisation, ten levers, three in the downward position, seven up, and above the levers, upon the ceilings, ten flick switches protected under glass boxes, only one turned on at each station. The screen that dominated each wall showed nine boxes suspended from lines, two down, and one line missing its box. In the two ‘down’ boxes, lamps glowed behind the glass, indicating that a live prisoner was detected.

The auto-palmists were on opposite sides of the room…

The proctor nodded to the kitchen, “Probably the best place for an interrogation around here. If you want better facilities, we can provide; this, gentlemen, is the reason I insisted on seeing that none of the men here escaped aboard your transport as this one attempted to; the control room requires two to operate, as a measure against possession.

“Each cell can be brought up for access or feeding, or lowered. When the buttons above are pressed, the cell is remotely destroyed; in this instance, I believe that the krak charge on the roof was tampered with, either through sorcery,” he made the sign of the aquila, “or treachery… Either way, I believe there are at least two compromised members of staff in this shift- one was apparently provoked into revealing his guilt by your arrival – obviously sure that he would be discovered – the other, is presumably still with the group on the landing pad…

“If you want to begin interrogating your prisoner, feel free, otherwise, I can give you a brief run-down of the operations here; and the vile crime itself…”

[Balrog]

Mithras looked around the room, taking in every detail down to the smallest button as the Proctor talked. He'd never been here before and wanted nothing of importance to escape his notice. "It would be best to start from the beginning, Proctor LaHare, for the benefit of our witch-hunter friends. Unless their leader wishes his men to begin the interrogation immediately..."

[White Haven]

With a tight-lipped smile, Ajax counters the suggestion of the continued tour, "Barring large quantities of explosives, the facility will be there later. With at least one additional traitor floating around the place, the prisoner might not be. So if my...colleagues agree?" He looks around at the other members of the team, one eyebrow arching upwards in question.

[Jaevric]

Darien nods agreement with Ajax, hiding his doubts behind cold eyes and set features. "If you will not be overly inconvenienced, Proctor, I suppose it is best we get this part of our task done. The information gained can be shared with you during the briefing." Unspoken was the thought that the Proctor doubtless had the interrogation room wired for audio and visual recordings.

This could be...interesting. I don't have a lot of real experience in prisoner interrogations, and it's too bloody easy for a ham-handed interrogator to kill the subject or leave him in no condition to talk. Hopefully Ajax knows what he's doing. Throne, come to that I hope he's not thinking the same thing about me![/i]

[The Yosemite Bear]

Of you want someone to play the sympathetic ear I can lie to the traitor all you want.

[NecronLord]

"Be my guest," the Proctor said, with a wave of his hand back toward his suggested area, a brightly lit kitchen, with space - most of it filled with boxes of supplies - for four or five people to sit.

[Block]

Scar shoved the prisoner roughly into the room. "Speak dog! Why did you take the woman hostage? Why would you run from the Witch hunters of his Imperial Majesty?" With a vicious slap, Scar continued," Who do you work for? Who do you work with? You have about 3 seconds to start talking or you shall find yourself cleansed by flame, one extremity at a time!"

[The Yosemite Bear]

"Mind if I start with the toes? sure they technically count as an extrematy."

[Jaevric]

"Now, now, gentlemen. There's no reason to be rough with the fellow. I'm sure we made our point that we were less than thrilled with his behavior back at the helipad."

Gently guiding the prisoner over to a chair and helping him sit down, Darien arranges his own chair between the prisoner's and the doorway and sits down himself.

Making himself relaxed and comfortable, Darien stares at the prisoner for several minutes in utter silence before speaking in a quiet, calm voice, pitched just low enough to force the prisoner to make an effort to listen.

"Now, the way I see it, you've got a couple of options. You can answer my questions politely, and depending on those answers, you've got at least some chance at winding up in a penal legion or prison. Not exactly the retirement you were hoping for, I'd wager, but it's better than some of the alternatives. Or, if you prefer, one of my associates or I will give you a nice bullet to the back of the head after we're done talking to you.

"The alternative, of course, is considerably worse. My friend here is a feral worlder, and while he lacks the sophistication you might find in an Ecclesiarchy or Arbites facility, he makes up for it somewhat with his enthusiasm. And once he's done with you, if there's anything left, you won't have a penal legion or a bullet in the head to look forward to. Instead we'll hand you over for conversion into a servitor or an arcoflagellant, neither of which has frankly ever appealed to me as a career choice."

Putting the most polite and friendly smile on his face he can, Darien opens his hands with a shrug and says, "So, friend, what's it going to be? Will you answer our questions in a civilized fashion or do we have to be unpleasant about this?"

[Zablorg]

"Interesting bit of trivia" Crom called out to the procession "I think an adept once told me that it takes a very long time to actually die of being set on fire.

"See, the fire first has to burn through all that oily fat, and..." he prodded the man with his knife.

"Well, I think we could get five minutes off you at least. And don't worry, Darien, your suggestion would still be put into consideration. I think even a burnt up body will suffice to be worked into a servitor, yes Mercurius?"

[Zablorg]

Crom hastily spoke not a second before finishing his last sentence.

"Ah, I have an even better idea! How about we put his manhood in a jar, then burn him, then convert him!"

[The Yosemite Bear]

now, now my dear hiver counterpart there is no reason to be crude. you have to give the sinner something to look forward to, start with a slow pain and work at it. Cutting the manhood, results in bloodloss, the sinner dies from shock, before he gets a chance to repent for his sins, we don't want him to faint straight away now do we?

[Block]

"Enough fools. We are here to get information and cleanse a heretic, not torture him needlessly. That way leads to Heresy," Scar said with a glare, making the sign of the Aquila. Turning back to the prisoner Scar glared, "Now talk, or I begin your purification."

[Balrog]

While the others went off to have their fun with the prisoner, Mithras stayed with the Proctor in the control room. "I'm sure they'll have results in no time, I hear these witch-hunters are quite skilled. In the meantime perhaps you could fill me in on everything else..."

[Zablorg]

Crom tossed his knife to Eli before stalking to the control room, muttering.

"That's not what the servitor said. 'Needless torture unto heretics makes the bethroned proud', he said..."

[Lancer]

Mercurius didn't immediately respond, but instead moved behind the restrained prisoner, taking measurements on his dataslate as he went.

[NecronLord]

The prisoner visibly took a moment to decide what he was going to say, but Eli’s brutal and lurid description seemed to be the proverbial last straw, and he finally snapped, “It was for Young Lord Kinge. He offered me a lot of money for it, and then left me sitting here; the witch was some friend of his, his man said, said he was innocent too, then he said that he was harmless; said it’d be bad for my family if he didn’t get out before the Black Ship comes.”


The Proctor nodded at the guardsman, “Certainly,” he said, taking a seat, “the idea of this place is to be inaccessible; somehow, however, when the cell dropped, it vanished entirely. I’ve had a good look around for it, and there’s a beacon in it, and on the psyker, too. We found both, dumped into the sargassum agglomaration ten miles south. Against the currents, too; someone picked the psyker up in a boat, I’d think, an aircraft or space craft would be seen and engaged. It might even be a submersible. As there’s no signs of attack or of psychic breakout, I thought there’d be at least two traitors here, and that bringing a group of witch hunters here first might smoke them out.

“Of course, it was always possible that there was just a rogue psyker here too powerful to be kept, in which case, either the guards would know nothing about it, or they’d be too dangerous to keep.”

[Block]

"And you accomplice?" Scar prompted.

[Lancer]

Mercurius returned into the field of vision of the prisoner, holding up his hand to silence Scar and Eli, and spoke to the Proctor without so much as a glance at the prisoner being interrogated. "Tell me, these beacons, how would they have been attatched to the psyker? Chiurgic implants, or some sort of explosive collar? If you also have telemetry from these beacons, I would like to see that as well."

[NecronLord]

The prisoner contemplating for a moment, and then changed his mind; he'd been considering denying it, because he didn't want to drop any of his comrades into trouble, but his logic suggested that if he successfully resisted torture, the witch hunters would just kill all of them, "Enforcer Troveo..." he said.

"Tracking collars," the Proctor said, "And I think I should be able to show you, yes..." he said, opening a panel in one of the walls, and turning a dial, to show lines of text, time-stamped at each time with a location - when the cell dropped, the third column emptied for several hours, and then re-appeared later at another location, the numbers unlikely to mean anything to Haxtes, unless he were to look up the non-standard local conventions for longditude and latitude.

[White Haven]

"So this...compatriot of yours." Ajax begins, breaking his long silence during the interrogation, "What was your employer's hold over him? Bribery and threats? The same bribery and threats? Or..." he lets the alternative dangle, one eyebrow arching upwards as he turns adei just enough to let the rapier hilt beneath his coat glint in the light. He hopes it does, anyway, it's a great theatric idea, and he'd hate to have it spoiled by poor lighting conditions.

[Jaevric]

Darien stays more or less silent, letting the others ask questions--it was fairly obvious what they needed to know at this stage regardless--and instead concentrating on reading the prisoner's body language and responses, trying to figure out how truthful the man was being.

[Balrog]

Mithras considered the Proctor's words carefully. If it was a submersible or surface vessel, unless it was long-ranged then there must a port close by from which it operated. Perhaps something to check in with the Arbites about. "Proctor, prior to the prisoner's escape, had there been any suspicious activity in the area?"

[NecronLord]

"Not at all," the Proctor said, "worldwide, there's only been the usual subversion and immorality. The church tries to rein it in, but there's nothing notably illegal going on. No more murders than usual or so forth..."

The Enforcer seemed completely geniune in his responses, "I have no idea," he said, "I'd imagine it was the same with him... He put me in contact with the Lord's man, though..."