Timestamp: 6.045.997.M41

Location: Coscarla Division, Tiergon Spire sub-levels, Northern Quadrant, Metropolitan Area, Hive Sibellus, Scintilla, Golgenna Reach

Situation: Conducting investigations in Coscarla Division

Body: Let's just cut to the chase; by now you should realize what a shitty little place Coscarla is and how unimportant the people who live there are. We don't need to keep repeating that. Nor do we need to remind you about the decay, the burnt-out buildings, the abandoned hab-blocks. You remember.

Checking out Saul's last known address seemed a promising start. The acolytes didn't go there directly of course, that might have aroused suspicion. Instead they wound up in hab-stack 717, quite a distance from the Southern Square with it's train station, market, and enforcer station. It sat almost at the border of no-man's land. Perhaps even a little over the border.

The hab-unit held no clues. Waste of time. Saul's sister, Lili, proved quite useful, however. She was conveniently hiding under the bed when the Assay operatives came barging in. She was quite upset, and quite afraid. Took her a while to settle down and tell her story. How she'd left Coscarla when the troubles began, but checked up on her brother from time to time. She'd reported him missing when she found him gone, but by then he'd most likely been missing for some time.

She didn't say it loud, but we got the impression she was afraid of something. Of whatever had befallen her brother. She didn't know what it was, but she gave us the first clue to something bigger; that which really troubled Coscarla. We didn't know that then of course, for which we would pay dearly. But more on that later. We let her go and advised her not to return. Then we walked out of there. With a name. Evard Zed. Co-worker, co-drinker, friend perhaps. Lili had seen him in the Division Cathedral that very morning. About the time when we arrived.

---

We called it the night. The Coscarla Hostel was the only hotel left in the area. Forty stories covering an entire hab-blcok. How many rooms? Thousands. Not many were still in use though. But we only needed one. The manager was one Maxus Drayclok, a many of odious pron habits, poor personal hygiene, and excessive obscura habits. The room wasn't too dirty and the plumbing worked. Not bad, considering how the only staff we saw was a thin woman (Maxus' wife, or so he said) and a few old servitors.

---

The night passed without incident (the next one would not, but let us not get ahead of ourselves). Haxtes/Little Richard had a little stroll in the market. Picked up some recaff and breakfast - the dining hall at the hotel was closed. Meanwhile Maxi used the time to groom himself for the part of Ben.

Then we had a look at the Cathedral. It was typical enough of such buildings. Monumental, ornamental, oppressive and uplifting at the same time. The resident preacher turned out not to be a Bishop at all. Just the most senior priest still around. Preacher Fayban or some such. He smelled of liquor, but otherwise proved to be a fairly decent man, as preachers go. He confirmed that Zed used to hang around. Let him sleep in one of the annexes in fact. This was something new we learned; Zed had dropped his formerly alcoholic self and found the God-Emperor. Happened right around the time Saul went missing. A coincidence? Not likely.

Zed turned out to be a disappointment. He claimed to know nothing about Saul's disappearance. They'd been out drinking one night, but had then parted ways. That was the last he'd seen of him. He clearly was lying abut something. But we could not push him much further without blowing ur cover. Not with the priest around. So we marked him for later.

After that  we went for a stroll. The Tantalus Alms House frequented by many of those left in the Division. The came for a bit of food, maybe some clothes, that sort of thing. Nothing to gain there. THen there was the 3rd Tantalus Workers Union. Used to be a union hall and watering hole, all run by the Tantalus Coropration for the 'benefit' of its workers. Turned out it was now run by local narc gangers. We had a look around, did some ice-breaking, but left again none the wiser.

---

So far we had nothing concrete. Just a general sense of something wrong. We just didn't know that it was far more wrong then we first suspected (or maybe we did, this was a Big I operation after all; maybe we just didn't connect the dots properly). Anyway, by chance we happened upon a reclaimator named Sikes. He must have been a big, powerful muscle once; his clan tatts were still clearly visible. Now he was older, but probably still dangerous, seeing as he survived what must be a dangerous lifestyle. He's set up his 'yard' in the hinterlands, and was busy scavenging what he could (precious little left). Also did a little trade, but the locals had little of offer he said. It was he who first told us that something was going down in Coscarla at night. He didn't know exactly what, only that the locals were scared and that there had been some disappearances. He'd not given it much credit at first - one got to hear a lot of ghost stories traveling around like he - but now he wasn't so sure anymore. He'd be closing shop soon. Moving on. Better safe than sorry.

But lo and behold. Who comes to visit Sikes? None other than Mr. Zed. With a big-ass pushcart containing the personal belonging -including every peice of movable furniture - of his old friend Saul. We had us a little extra chat with him then. He cracked quickly enough. He'd told the truth, he said. Just not all of it. He and Saul had been to the Union Hall. Drinking as usual. Saul had a bit of money after some lucky draws for factorium shifts. But he'd left early, leaving Zed without the Thrones to get propeprly drunk. So when Zed found out his credit line in the bar had dried up he'd run after Saul. Into the dark. That was before the disappearances really started. He'd seen them then; gaunt shapes in the dark, glowing red eyes. They had taken Saul with them, never to be seen again. Zed had run like the wind to the Cathedral and hid there. He tought he'd be safe there. Until you came along. Then he'd realized that the problem was even worse and that he had to get away before it was too late. Only he was broke, so he figure he' d sell Sauls stuff to SIkes to get a few Thrones. Just to get on the rail and away.

---

Ok, so now we knew there were disappearances. Quite a few of them. Not just Saul. The enforcers were obvious suspects. But again they were hardly behind it all. They would just be muscle, so confronting them would accomplish nothing. In the end we took Zed in and headed down to the Magistratum office. We informed him that we'd gotten us a runner. If they could be so kind as to hold him for us, in return for a few Thrones? Sure they could. Only we saw they didn't like it. Which further marked them as part of the conspiracy; real Magistratum officer ALWAYS take bribes...and real Magistratum cells are not empty. Theirs were.

Feeling somewhat optimistic we made a call to Assay. Requesting pickup for our man. And also sending a cipher to our handlers, advising them abut the situation. Then we headed to the hotel for a good night of uninterrupted sleep...