Timestamp: 7.436.996.M41

Location: The Shatters, Gorgonid Mine, Sepheris Secundus, Glogenna Reach

Situation: Inquisition-led Arbites team exploring lower levels of closed-off mine complex

Body: Following the trail wasn't exactly difficult...try dragging 5.000 or so dead (and semi-crushed) soldiers AND an unknown number of mutants down your hall and see if you can't follow the trail ;-)

The Arbites team was holding up quite well. As well as could be expected anyway. None of 10-man squad had ever experienced something quite like this - but then again neither had Haxtes, Maxi, or the guide. But somehow they kept going, kept sane, and somehow it all started to seem...normal somehow. Wading the river of rotting human fluids...just another feature, like the heat and oppressive darkness. The human mind and all that...

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Then you came upon a gun position, poorly camouflaged, but expertly trip-wired - the alarm being the directional flechette mines that would have shredded all of you. Good of Haxtes to cut the wires for you and sneak up to the position - unseen and unheard in the dark. A quartet of Guardsmen guarding the post, a multi-laser as their support weapon...a good thing perhaps?

But something subtly wrong...impossible to see in the dark...but for once it pays to have a sixth (or whatever) sense...one man leaves the post and disappears down the tunnel...but three is one too many to take silently...so frag them - literally. Boom - and they are gone, but Haxtes hunching on the other side of the rocks lives, if a little shaken. A very brave man Haxtes...his infiltration skills highly useful...but when happens the day he is spotted moving in the open and the enemy open up? Swift death or hours of screaming agony mayhap. Only time will tell.

Arbites moving up, guns at the ready. Flashes of lasfire light up the dark - the last man returning. He is cut down by bolt pistol fire, but manages to injure one of the Arbites - punching through a weak spot in the black beetle armor - nothing terribly severe, but with these unhealthy conditions infection will be a real danger. But surely a multispectrum shot will take care of that?

You move on. Fortunately no general alert has been raised - good thing the soldier returned to fire on you rather than flee and call for aid - Emperor be praised! If the men had doubts about firing upon guardsmen they are dispelled upon inspection - you risk a little light to look at the downed man. He looks like the one that assaulted Haxtes - hair falling out, heavily blood-shot eyes, loose teeth, pale skin, scabs and sores...not an altogether healthy specimen of the human race. The lights are cut once more and you move on. But one question lingers - such illness, such mutation, after only days...what could have caused it? Perhaps best not to dwell too long on it - the answer might be one that you'd rather be without...

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You enter a huge storage area, where great promethium tanks dominate. Clearly a supply depot where trucks would come to refill their tanks. The Arbites rig the place to blow - in case you have to fall back and need to prevent the enemy from following. It goes without saying that the heat, the loss of oxygen and the toxic smoke will be dangerous to you - but you must trust in your wargear and hope that it will keep you alive (the Arbites and the guide are all clad in fire-proofed carapace, so Haxtes is more at risk).

Another attack! A huge an misshapen mutant makes ready to strike at the men readying the charges. Once again Haxtes proves invaluable, spotting the beast just as it is about to lunge. Doing a lunge of his own Haxtes shows what a powered blade can do against scaly flesh. The beast screams and flails, but to no avail - it cannot seem to lay its wicked claws on the lithe assassin. Soon it lies still on the ground while Haxtes strides of unscathed.

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A company of former guardsmen are assembling in  a nearby nexus. The same sense of wrongness - they work in near-total darkness and speak with grunts and hisses - real guardsmen would not do that. Haxtes keeps them under observation, but there is nothing he can do. When they come for you you must fight and flee, blow the tanks, and hope for the best. But no attack comes - instead they move in another direction! The God-Emperor is watching over you still.

After a quick conference between Haxtes, Maxi and Chasterner Barnes you decide to go after the soldiers (rather than continue along the river of flith). Clearly they are up to no good. A while later you find out what they are up to - a fire-fight erupts between the former guardsmen and...someone else. You hit them hard and fast from the rear, and within a few minutes you have boxed them completely in between your own heavy squad and whatever other force they were assaulting. From there in it is just a question of methodical slaughter - the Arbites prove very good at this, keeping up a steady stream of fire while the shield team prevents any sudden melee attacks on the fire teams.

Commissar-Cadet Castus and his survivors greet you heartily. They all wear re-breathers and have tried to cover themselves up as best they can - makshift precautions against the horrible conditions down here. Turns out that things went to hell about then days ago - before that it looked like a breeze assignment, just holding ground and letting the Inquisitor do the real work. But then one day he hadn't come back from the deeper tunnels - and that was when the enemy struck. Hordes of mutants supported by wyrds of horrifying power.

Some of the men survived the initial attack, but were driven apart and hunted down. Only the Commissar-Cadet's group has managed to keep alive thus far. At least Castus thinks that it is so - they met several other groups during the first few days and joined together their forces, but eventually there were no more sane people to be found. Only sick and half-mutated men with little sanity left - they put those down rather then risk them turning into monsters.

All the while they continued searching for the Inquisitor. Not that they didn't want to get out of this place, but they knew there was no way past the seal without Inquisitor Rykehuss' seal. Castus is certain that the Inquisitor survived the onslaught as well. They move and searched they saw signs of his activity in several locations - down by the deeper parts, down where the mine ends and the caverns begin. Castus was intending to go down there again a look for him when the enemy attacked...and you came to their rescue.

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Somewhat later you are on the move again. Castus has taken his warriors back to their hideout and collected a few non-walking wounded left there (as well as their remaining supplies) and headed to the rear (they are, in all honesty, completely worn out, and can not be relied upon to contribute much to anything). Chastener Barnes (whose knee was shot out during the fight with the mutant guardsmen) and Enforcer Law (also seriously injured) go with him, as does the overseer. They are to leave the main mine area by the same way you arrived and set up position in the great chamber with the gravel-field.

Jarra, Haxtes, Maxi and the rest of the squad head down the trail of filth leading ever deeper into the earth...