StarDestroyer.Net BBS

"If he wants a testimonial about what happened after, wake me up. And someone else should probably take the pict-recorder. I got a few good images of some of the things that happened down there, they might be useful to convince him he needs to hold onto us." Gelt held out the pict recorder and let the first reaching hand take it away from him.

Glancing towards the building where they were to meet Grim, Quintos said, "I suppose this is where we find out if my obstinance earned us respect or if it just annoyed our 'allies'. Unless of course you guys think my presence would be detrimental to further negotiations, in which case I could take a watch over our more exhausted members. I missed out on watch duty anyway."

Camillia took the offered pict-recorder and quickly flicked through the images. They were rather disturbing to say the least. Hopefully, if Grim took a look at them, he would be shocked enough to abandon any possible plans against their little band.

Speaking of negotiations with Grim, Camillia wondered where the preacher was. She saw him earlier during breakfast, but hadn't spotted him since. For that matter, Xerxes and Zakary were missing as well. She hoped they'd get here soon, especially brother Havelock, who was their best bet of having a productive conversation with the gang leader.

While the others were finishing breakfast or looking over the evidence, Cyrine visited Doc Grimmar. His supply of bandages looked as old and re-used as the party's would be before long at this rate, so she didn't trouble him for them. In stead, she got the basic equipment for boiling water and then went about the task of cleaning and redressing wounds, starting with Verum, who was the most badly wounded. The soiled bandages she cleaned in the boiling pot to kill any little sickness demons that might have come to worsen the wounds.

"So they return then?"

Havelock's voice said, coming from outside the group. The preacher was picking at his teeth with a pick, insinuating himself within the group to get a look at the picts.

"How did the overnight hunt go?"

Varnius bedded down and fell asleep almost immediately.

Camillia showed the preacher some of the pictures from the pict-recorder, then said "Apparently they ran into some trouble, and Octavius didn't make it."

She let that hang in the air for a moment, then said "We should probably be going to see Grim now."

Lazarus was not sleeping well. If anyone watched him his body ocaisionally twitched and the guardsman mumbled something. In his dreams he kept seeing the horrid chamber that the cultists had flayed men alive in.

"Yes, we have kept our 'host' waiting long enough, we might as well go and get this meeting over with. Hopefully this won't turn into a firefight," Quintos said while glancing at the picts. Some nasty shit on there, although the chamber with the poor wretches had definitely been worse.

Havelock nodded as he looked at the images, murmuring a quick prayer for Octavius' soul.

"Yes.. yes we should. Bring the pictures of course and perhaps the others should be up and awake in case things get.. messy?"

Nixios waited as Havelock went through the pictures. Once the man was done, the techpriest held out a hand to Camillia.

"If I might borrow the pict-recorder for a moment..."

Camillia handed the pict-recorder to the techpriest, wondering what he was going to do with it.

Sleep did not come quickly or easily to the survivor of the Arbites. His sleep was not only troubled, it was so light that he was roused by the slight noises of the gangers waking and moving around the base. Serghar had always been a light sleeper, but something had changed in him over time. Now he barely slept at all. Maybe it was the leftover adrenaline. Maybe it was some dark things that had taken up residence behind his eyeballs. Whatever was going on, he wasn't going to be caught off guard. The fact that he also wasn't going to get very much sleep like this was only a secondary concern.

Nixios simply looked through the images on the pict-recorder, as he had not been witness to the horrors of the dome. Once he was satisfied he returned it to the psyker.

With the group seeming satisfied with themselves and prepared for the next encounter, Camillia led them to Grim's "office".

I just hope this turns out well, I'd hate to have to shoot my way out of here.

Grim was waiting in what amounted for an office in the underhive. The two guards let the acolytes pass without comment, simply eying them carefully as they entered. Grim was standing in a room surrounded by rough maps of what appeared to be the hive. "Glad you lot decided to come, we've got a lot to discuss. First off, I want to get something clear, this is my house, and you all are but guests in it. I will provide for you so long as you earn your keep. I will not, however, tolerate any challenge to my authority in front of my men. You have a problem, we talk about it here, not out there. Do it again, and you leave, one way or another," His eyes wandered from Quintos to Havelock, looking for a sense of understanding from the pair.

"As for the loot, we'll split it up like all the teams split their shares with me. I pick what I want, about 30% off the top. You keep the rest. More if I feel like you've earned it. If you don't like it, you can find somewhere else to sleep. I'll pick out my share when we leave. Now, unless there is any pressing matters you want to talk about, let's move on to what all happened last night."

"Sounds fair friend Grim, I'm sure there was no disrespect intended," Verum answered with a glare at his two companions. "I assume personal gear is not included in the definition of loot?"

Returning the glare to Verum, Quintos said, "I apologize for attempting to undermine your authority amongst your men, although the point stands that we are 'guests' and the only authority you have over us is what we allow you to have in exchange for you letting us into your 'home'. So if you do not want to show any percieved weaknesses in front of your men, then limiting any discussions such as this where sparks seem likely to fly to this office seems like a smart move."

Grim narrowed his eyes at Quintos. "Mate, it'll do you well to remember that when guests wear out their welcome down here in the Underhive, they don't just go on their merry way. Now let's talk about your current arrangement, since you've brought that up. You're convenient, nothing more. We don't need you, but you apparently need us. You need a place to sleep where you don't need to worry about getting killed, and an easy way to get food. We can supply that. I have men, 'case you didn't notice. More of you means more mouths to feed, more problems I have to solve. So long as you stay more useful than otherwise, we have an accord. Otherwise, well, best to slip away in the dead of night. I have no use for those in my camp what would do me or mine harm, and I will kill any who threatens what I have."

He sighed, taking in a deep breath and removing the sterner look from his face. "Now, if we have no more problems with the basics of give and take down here, let's talk about what you lot can do to help earn your keep down here, assuming you still want to. You have the option of leaving, good for today, where I won't shoot you as you leave, but if I see you again, there's no promise of that. Consider it a gesture of good will for what you've done for me. Otherwise, I have plenty of ways you can make yourself useful..."

"None of us objects to earning our room and board.. within reason anyway. But we've still got wounded from the attack on the Balimek base. The highly successful attack which has brought such a cornucopia of material aid to you.."

Havelock said, once more putting on the mask of that doting priest figure who attributes all his success to the Emperor.

"There are some things we think you should be made aware of however." The priest looked back at the others. "Would someone mind showing our most gracious host the picts from last night we thought he need to see?"

As they walked in and the conversation started, Camillia withdrew from the talkers and stayed out of the way, as was her habit. She didn't pay too much attention to the conversation, instead spending her time looking around at the room, the guards, anything that might be out of place or potentially useful to know.

When prompted, Camillia came forward and presented the pict-recorder. She activated the display and started going through the pictures from last night in chronological order.

Grim looked at the pictures with stern eyes. "You all saw this, did you?" His features hardened as he took in the acolytes expressions. "Do you know what any of this is?"

"Well friend Grim, I'd say it's some rather serious Heresy. What with the human sacrifice, the oppressive aura, the severe mutations. And then there was the psyker. Quite nasty. But then you rather expected us to find it, didn't you? No, no need to get defensive, and you can keep your hand away from your weapon, although I'm quite unhappy with you at the moment you're in no danger. Why don't you tell us what you really know?" Verum said with a slightly bemused grin on his face. His body portrayed complete relaxation, but something in his eyes was unreadable, dangerous, almost alien.

Grim rose an eyebrow at Verum and shook his head. "No, I didn't expect you to find anything more than a few gangers, maybe some of the scavvies. This is a mite more serious. This is something I knew of in general, but not that the Balimeks were this deeply involved. I didn't tell you because I thought you were just going to give them a bloody nose and come back, or most likely, die and be out of my hair. So now you're here, you've seen it, now what?"

"Now, as concerned Imperial citizens, we purge it. Do you have any idea how far this may extend? Any contacts they may have with the surface? Anything we can do to eliminate this threat must be done, or it will spread, I have unfortunately seen this on other worlds. Also, do you have any contacts with the local guard base? We may be able to send an anonymous tip that will bring down something a bit heavier and will keep us from having to get directly involved. Failing that... we purge them ourselves," Verum replied, shifting slightly and clearly looking a bit more agitated. His eyes were unchanging, and he dropped his head for just a moment as if staring at his wound.

Subvocalizing he murmured, "Tech-priest, you must get us in touch with the Captain, it's time he knew what we found, and it's time we got updated instructions."