Timestamp: 7.435.996.M41

Location: Gorgonid Mine, Sepheris Secundus, Golgenna Reach

Situation: Inquisition team entering the sealed-off section of the Shatters

Body: The human mind is very flexible indeed. It can be bent ever so far, broken even, and still it will repair itself given enough time. Almost as good as before - most of the time anyway...

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The ten-man Arbites team was kitted up in full combat gear, carapace armor, guns, spelunking gear, the works.The team consisted of Chastener Owen Barnes (squad leader), Regulator Kate Flack (flamer specialist), Regulator Mike Mason (melee specialist/shield-bearer), Regulator Clint Langley (melee specialist/shield-bearer), Regulator Darius Hinks (sniper), Enforcer Raynor (medicae), Enforcer Andy Law (demolitions), Enforcer Zoë Wedderburn (vox-operator), Enforcer Marc Gascoigne (regular trooper), Enforcer Rick Priestly (regular trooper).

In addition you brought with you the old miner as a guide - dressed up as an Arbites (for his own physical protection and to avoid him sticking out). Maxi also used the same equipment as the rest of the Arbites squad. Only Haxtes stood out with his own light armor (and no longlas at this point, pistols and swords only). And Jarra of course - hulking above the rest of you in a strange mix of old guard-issue gear and Arbites odds and ends; and her massive adopted Astartes bolter of course...

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Hours passed as the overseer took your through increasingly unused tunnels, ever deeper into the earth. Past partial collapses, through sections that seemed untouched by human hands, along an underground river, past a majestic waterfall, over a vast field of pebbles in a cave so big your lights never touched the walls...and into a tunnel that connected to the closed-down mine.

Haxtes led the way. Unseen, unheard. Scanning his surrounding constantly. No sign of life. None at all. No runaway serfs. No mutants. No wyrds. No 5.000 men of the 577th Scintillan Light Infantry Regiment. Where did they all go? Of course you had yet to fully take in the size of this underground warren - you could hide 50.000 bodies down here and they might never be found...

But wait! An old pick-axe has vermin crawling all over it. Inspection reveals human residue clinging to it. The beetles and centipedes are eating it. Haxtes pushes on, the others following behind, weapons at the ready. Arriving in a tunnel nexus you find another clue - a body, badly mangled, lying in a push-cart, covered by a plastic sheet with rocks strewn on top. A serf miner by the looks of him. Nothing about the regiment or the Sons.

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Approaching the central access shaft through a massive spine tunnel. Signs of struggle. Haxtes moves on, leaving the others to light their illuminators and investigate. They see scorching on the walls. Las-fire. Blood and body fluids that have since dried up. But no bodies. Reaching the access shaft Haxtes finds a multi-laser. It's abandoned, not broken. It sits quietly on its tripod, a half-full clip still attached. A box of replacement cells sits next to it, with half a dozen discarded cells lying about. No Guardsman would abandon his weapon so...not willingly, not whilst still alive...

According to the overseer the shaft is about 800 meters deep counting from the access level, which you should be about 100 meters - or two landings - above your current position. But he hasn't been around these parts much, so he doesn't know the layout anymore than you do.

Haxtes quickly ascends to check. He's correct. Two landings between your entry point and the entrance level. The seal - a great adamantium vault door - is there, undisturbed. Except some blood handprints. There are marks on the rock floor - as if people were dragged away while trying to hold onto the stone with every shred of their strength.

You decide to descend by rope. You're all skilled at that sort of thing - although the dark will make it difficult. Better than the massive rusting basket-cage-elevators though. Turning on one of them would announce your presence to everyone. Might be used to get up again through - if they work at all.

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You stop to investigate each landing. There are signs of struggle everywhere, but no bodies.

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Haxtes reaches the bottom of the shaft first. He lands in keen-deep filth. The stench has become intolerable - it is a good thing your carry re-breathers or you might not have manage to pass into the depths at all!

Lighting reflexes save Haxtes from inglorious death as something comes for him, wading through the muck. Power blade flashes - the blade not even ignited, but the metal deadly enough by itself - once, twice, thrice. There is no more movement.

The others come sailing down their ropes from above, forming a strong defensive circle of Arbites carapace and automatic shotguns. Soon you are all wading through the muck...you risk a little light to inspect your surroundings (infrared vision will only reveal so much).

The dead man seems normal enough at first glance. Emaciated and sickly...covered only in filthy rags. Perhaps not so normal...and how did he hear, let alone see Haxtes in the first place. And why would an unarmed man attack a black-clad assassin? No, not so very normal...but quickly forgotten as the light reveals something far worse - the muck is not much at all. It's body fluids - blood, piss, feces, whatever. Putrefied body fluids - like they have lain here stewing in the damp dark for quite a while...for about ten days Enforcer Raynor - the strike teams medicae - suggests. A veritable lake of it...

So no you know what happened to the dead - they were hurled down the shaft...but where are the bodies?