[Kynia G'Kal]

Over the vox:

Quote

"Kynia here. The chief may not involve himself with the extraction mission, and if he does, he may play it straight anyway. I consider that chance rather significant, personally, seeing from whom the request came. A corrupt man isn't corrupt in all his dealings, and seeing how the demand for assistance comes from the office dedicated to fighting corruption, I expect him to be forthcoming. However, I do expect him to play down on the thread, maybe he'll only send transport and no combat support."

[Drake Dekko Yarn]

Drake stood there. Kynia had responded and while the news wasn't bad in itself it wasn't great either.

Starsearch on the other hand hadn't responded for over 15 minutes in any shape or form.

He looked up at the Priest:

"Cartinor, do you mind sending a message to Malakai? Starsearch hasn't responded at all. He might be dead or captured and his vox might be in the wrong hands."

He keyed his own vox and sent a message to Kynia.

Vox, Singular Engaement, to Kynia GKal said:

Ms. G, this is Drake. One of ours has lost contact. Suggest you take massive precautions for yourself and future vox use. Thank you though for your previous help.

He still had the water bucket in his hand and was still looking at the Inquisitor. He'd give her another hour, after that if things had gotten worse he'd have no choice but to douse her to try and bring her around.
Sitting down again in his makeshift rubbish chair he simply returned to holding his gun towards the door.
Not the best day he had ever had.

[Faelus Cartinor]

The mist had come out of nowhere. Faelus was no expert on weather, but he was pretty sure the murky blanket was not natural. The assumption that the Daemon his companions had vanquished was the strongest their foes would bring to bear was looking distinctly more wishful by the minute... Even with his augmentation, there was little he could make out. Hopefully that meant there wasn't anything near their position, but his hopes were having a bad time of it today. To formulate any prediction of future events without sufficient empirical was in any case foolish. Instead he focused on a task more suited to his order, analyzing and collating the data he had gathered earlier. Slowly he began to to free his nexus of raw feed, replacing it with relevant snippets and carefully annotated notes.

A rasp from the Pariah below him interrupted him.


"Mr. Cartinor, of what you can see and remember did the side streets around this building seem like a good path to use for an escape?"


Silently, he edged his helmeted head out the window, plotting attack vectors and fields of fire. The Pariah said something further about waking the Inquisitor, followed by the back and forth mumbling of a vox transmission. He absorbed the grim news expressionlessly.


"Cartinor, do you mind sending a message to Malakai? Starsearch hasn't responded at all. He might be dead or captured and his vox might be in the wrong hands."


Calculations complete, he waited for the heavily injured man to finish another broadcast.


"There's a narrow alleyway adjacent to the wall nearest you. Given my limited knowledge of our surrounds I would suggest that be our evacuation route, based on the cover it offers us immediately exiting the building."


"Sure, I will transmit the warning now and ask for a status update."

Singular Vox transmission directed at Travaz Malakai said:

Spoiler

Come in Brother, what is your situation? Captain Starsearch is not answering his vox, are you still in contact with him? Be advised the probability of our communications being compromised are currently 98%. Our situation has not changed, we are awaiting extraction. Assistance is currently not guranteeed, G'Kal reports possible corruption through several levels of the administration. Caution is advised.

[Travaz Malakai]

Vox, singular engagement, Faelus Cartinor said:

Spoiler

Comms are confirmed compromised - have rejoined Bantenhope, Cimsran and Stumpy, unfortunately Starsearch has been isolated. His Inquisitorial tracker is deactivated, but his vox is still receiving, so curtail all non-coded vox traffic. Attempting to reacquire Starsearch now, leading to last known location... Hold a moment.

(quieter)
What's that shape over there? The one by the shack. It's- *static*

[Drake Dekko Yarn]

Drake waited for Cartinor to finish acquiring news when he overheard the uncoded part Malakai's message turn to static.
Seemed like as things stood everyone was in trouble. Malakai's group had encountered something. Starsearch was out of contact. Only G'Kal had avoided combat so far. That might change, he hoped she was watching her back closely.
His brow furrowed as he tried to think of something. With him and the Inquisitor injured they were in no way capable of providing back up, though they might be able to move. What was needed was a regroup. The cutter was the place to be, but it was a long way off with every member of the mission spread over the hive.

He'd need G'Kal's confirmation of Arbites extraction otherwise they'd move on their own. Either way they'd need the Inquisitor awake, or else the Arbites would likely be less compliant.


First things first though. He grabbed a rag he had in his pocket and cleaned himself off as much as possible, to be presentable and more like a viable threat.


When he was finished he got back up, grabbed the bucket.

"Priest, I'm dousing the Inquisitor now."

He threw the water at her. Aiming as much as possible for her face. With only one good hand it was a lot harder.
Luckily it hit square in the Inquisitor's face.


She started, with what was probably the most confused look Drake had seen in a long while. She hadn't screamed. Though she was rather more confused than she looked because when she set eyes on him she tried to scramble back into a corner. Not the best person to wake up as a psyker.
He sat down on the floor in front of her while not approaching letting her take the time necessary to bring herself back together.
It took a few minutes, but her eyes had cleared a bit and she no longer looked confused, well at least not in the existential sense.


Finally she croaked: "Where are we, what happened?"

"You banished the daemon, but you were sent through the wall. Cartinor is here, he cleared out the cultists outside. We moved to another building on the level."

"Everyone else's status?"

"Alens' team is missing Starsearch and seems to have run into trouble. G'Kal has so far had the easiest run. She's confirmed corruption in about every part of the administration here, including the Arbites. Not necessarily via Chaos, but just normal corruption. I might also mention that we're waiting for a potential Arbites extraction which is why we needed you awake."

"Not the best situation to be in."

"No. But we have to move quickly. I think the cultists are off balance, at least Lex probably didn't think he'd be dead which puts on of their leaders out of the picture."

She nodded. She still looked sore.

"Contact G'Kal, confirm the extraction."

"Right."

Vox, Singular Transmission, to Kynia said:

Drake here, need confirmation on extrac. Over.

[Kynia G'Kal]

Quote

K'Gal here. Not much to confirm, I think the Inquisitor is a better judge of Inquisitor-trainee Orlov's character than I am, and he is the one who is doing the political pressuring on the Arbites, however, my opinion is that he will be thorough.
I just had my first run-in with the bureaucratic machine. So far, I''m ahead, but it is on points only, if the enemy has help at planetary level, I may well be looking at a shutdown of my operation.

[Drake Dekko Yarn]

Drake let a few seconds pass before saying anything after G'Kal's transmission. He was slightly irritated but knew it wasn't her fault.

"That seems to be the best confirmation we are going to get." He looked at the Inquisitor who was still trying to somehow lengthen the distance between them.

"If it's what we've got then we play what we're dealt. We wait for what we see arrive."

"Stoic."


She looked at him and raised an exasperated eyebrow on her blood covered face covered in a tangle of hair.
The Priest was still at his vigil, silent as death.