Valley of the Skulls

You are able to track down castus with little difficulty. He is in his office near the front gate. "Ahh Seum glad to see you up an about" he grins with a glance in Alaric's direction "and Alaric my suspicous little friend. So how can I help the two of you?"

"Thank you comrade, I'm feeling much better thanks to your servicemen here. If you have a moment we would like to be introduced to Venria and gather whatever field data she has on our objective. If you can stay, another head couldn't hurt, though I'm sure you already have a lot on your plate. We are in need of arms as well, but I feel I've stalled us too much already."

"Of course. Follow me" as he leads you out the door, he yells over to another abritor "Let Venria know I will be in planning room 3 with Seum and Alaric." He leads you back across the courtyard, thru the main building to a large room. Walking over to a terminal he punches in several commands and a large map of the city is projected in 3d in the center of the room. A few minutes later Venria walks in.
She is a small woman stand about 5'3 dressed in full highly polished carpace armor. A bolt pistol is strapped to her thigh and a electro whip is coiled in a tight loop on the left side of her waist. She has short red hair that is neatly cut a her chin line. The entire left side of her face has been reconstructed with machinary a glowing green light shows shines from one eye socket. She takes a moment to appraise the to of you before speaking. "I cant say i am happy about your interfernce, but I can not go against the wishes of the inqusition either. So I will tell you what we know and answer any question I can."

She walks over the map touching the virtual lower levels which are quickly zoomed in on, "There appears to be some new death cult opperating in our lowest levels, as of yet they have not ventured out, but have quickly emlinated any one sent in to investigate. We do not have the forces to spare for a full out purge of the area so instead have just made sure they stayed confined to the lower levels. There is little more I can tell you, we have had reports of the walking dead and a few of our arbitors have reported seeing their comrades amongst them."

Alaric takes an immediate dislike for Venria. "We aren't here to 'interfere' with your business. There is a death-cult working against the Emperor and his servants. We are here to eliminate that threat and nothing more."

Alaric sets his jaw.

"Your happiness is fairly low on my priority list, Venria. Once we continue, do not test my patience with polital posturing and half-truths."

With that, Alaric folds his arms across his chest. "How long have you allowed this cult to be blight upon your planet?"

"What you are here to accomplish and what you are ACTUALLY doing are 2 different things. Do Not Insult Me Again...," She responds in slow meaningful warning "Inquistoral agent or not I will not be called a liar in my own offices! This is my planet! My family has protected it with no aid from you and the inquistion for over a 100 years now.." Castus steps up placing a hand on Venria's shoulder.

"Alaric," Castus interupts Venria "We have held no information back. The first signs and reports of the cult started a little over 2 months ago. However,there is no telling how long it went unnoticed before that."

Alaric concedes that she cares for the planet, and the outcome of this mission. His expression softens and he unfolds his arm.

"Obviously you have done an adequate job with the this planet up until now, otherwise we would have been here at an earlier date, dealing with some other threat."

"You already stated you did not have the forces to purge the area, yet when assistance comes, you complain about interference. You are drowning in heresey, yet when a life raft is thrown you complain it is the wrong color?"

"Put aside any pre-concieved notions you have about us. We are here to help."

"You say we are going about this the wrong way, yet all we have requested is information about the threat before we venture into the demon's maw."

"Venria, you are familiar with the planet, and your insights are valuable. Given this situation, what would you suggest the first course of action be?"

"The first course of action I have always advised and taken. Gather information, however, that does not seem to be such an easy task. Every unit we have sent weather disgused or in full uniformed has disappeared. Either dead or corrupted is my guess. Maybe the two of you will have better luck than my men have had. I dont know how much experince the two of you have with hive worlds, but the lower the level the more danger you are in. There is a full gang of scum for ever arbite stationed here and you will have to pass thru their teritory if you plan on finding this cult. We will provide you with maps, but you are on your own getting there. I would keep quiet about who i was and what i was doing though if I were you. Your heads would make great trophies for some gang boss or cult leader. Do you have any other questions?

"Do they appear to be the newly dead walking, old dead, or a mix?"

"Does this infestation compare to any prior incidents which you have handled?"

"Were there any vox communications prior to losing your men?"

"We have not been able to verify the walking dead rumors, it could be lies spread by the cult, mutations, a dead body that spooked someone... any number of things. We have dealth with various cults in the past but never anything that involved living dead. Nor one that was this hard to infiltrate."

"You omitted the vox communications, I take that to mean they added nothing but screams that chill the soul..."

"It appears we've been informed as much as can be for now, unless Seum has anything to add?"

Alaric glances at Seum to see if he has any questions.

"I'm hoping one of you two can label which access points you've tried when sending in previous teams. Are there any level bi-passes that worked with some minimal success? Are there any choke points that are going to prove difficult?
When you went in disguise, what were the disguises? Did one work better than the other?"

Seum begins surveying the layout to see what he can make of the schematics of the layering hives.

"Building on any successes and avoiding failures will keep us from going in at square one. You're men have died for the Emperor and your planet, and I do not wish to see any Arbitrator die in veign."

Fuck, this place has more folds than a harlett's vagina.

"Yes sorry, as to the communications from our teams most made it down to what refer to as the lower 20. Reporting as normal. Our under cover agents all checked in before attempting to make contact with the cult, none ever contacted us again. As for the normal arbites we lost a few to gangers on the way down, but those that made it all checked in again before attempting to make contact. All reports before attempted contact were what we expected the levels are a mess and unfit for anything living there years neglect and waste have made the place unfit and unhealthy for anything living. There were several reports for feral servitors, and some mutants being dispatched. all of them reported a old factory that seemed to be in use, they had observed lights and could seem black smoke leaking from the old vent stacks. That is where all of our agents have attempted to make contact. As for disguises most went as gangers or standard beggar scum, not much else would wander down there.." She agains taps the map about 4 levels from the bottom "best we can tell the factory is located in this quadrant, our sensors equpiment has some problems communication and tracking that far down."

"Castus, I know you're men are capable; could you spare any man-power? At least through a few levels until we approach the cult target layers?

Turning to venria, "venria, would you advise us taking any additional personnel to begin with? Does a particular level show better success if we proceed with just the two us if we do bring additional troops?"

"Sorry brother, but I can not spare any men right now. Or they would already be down there." Castus replies

"Your best chance of going unnoticed would be just the two of you. My recommendation is to cover your valuables and equpiment with the foulest smelling rags you can find, dirty up those pretty faces and keep your heads low as long as possiable. Most of the gangs will leave you alone unless you have something they want, appear as a potential threat, or trophy. And remember while working for as an arbite or for the inqustion may bring some priviledges here down there it will only hinder or kill you. Now, I have other duties I must attend to, you are welcome to stay here as long as needed. Castus will assist you as best he can." With that Venria turns and leaves.

"our thanks Venria. Castus, please show us to an honest merchant that sells arms, munitions, and shit covered hobo disguises."

"There is a place down the street, a short walk from here. Darius's Arms Emporium he should have what you are looking for. He likes to haggle and is a bit looney so dont pay asking price for anything you find there."

"I think I am going to head that way, though considering our current mission, I am not sure what we can sneak in - small arms mostly, it seems."

Alaric turns to exit the compound.

"We can go together, or meet back here before insertion?"

"Let us stay together a while, before insertion."

Alaric nods. "Then lets head out to Darius' Arms."

Alaric walks in such a way as that he can keep an eye on everyone. Its a bit odd, and strange looking.

You make your way down the street to a large warehouse with vegas sytle neon sign reading Darius's Arms Emporium. You enter the warehouse thru a large set of sliding metal doors flanked on each side by indian cigar statues. Upon entering the room your sense of smell is quickly assualted by something that smells of year old cat food mixed with urine. Lights flicker off an on, nothing seems organized in any way Shelves litter the floor half stocked with everything from spoons to assualt cannons. What appears to be a tech priest makes his way from a back room, "Welcome Welcome" he exclaims with a friendly vox "how can I help you fine gentle men today?"

"Greetings, Master Darius - I am in need of some small arms - Something concealable, but deadly."

"I am also interested in your ammunitions - what sorts of ammunition do you stock currently?"

looking Seum up and down he answers you "Well lets see I got zippers and poppers and blowguns too... hmmm how about this?" He shuffles around some merchadise on a nearby self producing something that appears to be a homemade zipgun. "Hmm this one is right powerful how about 300 thrones! A great deal for a great costumer." he nods in a confident manner.

"That is a fine weapon, for sure, Honored Machinist, but I am looking for something with a bit more punch to it."

"I am also looking for man-stopper ammunition, do you have any of that?"

"Also, do you carry any armor, particularly mesh armor, if available."