At Honour’s End
+++Access Granted+++
+++Welcome, Lord-Inquisitor Enoch+++
+++Precis: The War of Broken Bones+++
+++Locis: Neo-Jove+++
+++Status: Forgeworld; Fides Restitui+++
+++Unspooling Telemetric Data+++
+++Vid-Feed: Immortal-Praevian Dragan+++
+++Fraternitas: Unguis Rubrum+++
+++Locis: Neo-Jove; The Cleften Deep+++
>>>UNSPOOL_FEED<<<
>>>MISSION_BRIEF: OPERATION_ELDER’S_FALL<<<
>>>RETRIEVE_BROTHER-ANCIENT_BJOTHON<<<
>>>MISSION_PRIORITY: ABSOLUTUM<<<
>>>PROJECTED_ARRIVAL: 00:29 STANDARD TERRAN MINUTES><<
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| [//Dragan and Domitar XX-24+] [//almir_h/@count-hodo+] |
‘Lord-Praevian,’ VOX-TRANSMIT; IDENT: Brother Egent, ‘We have spotted fragments of the drop-pod. Ident matches with Brother-Ancient Bjothon’s cipher. It crashed through the manufactorum over there.’
‘Understood,’ VOX TRANSMIT; IDENT: Brother Dragan, ‘Auspex reveals no present bio-signatures. Advance; Directiva Praxadia. I want the building surrounded and covered from all angles. Any partisan presences is to be quashed. No prisoners.’
‘DIRECTIVUM CICLICATUM,’ INTERNAL TRANSMIT; IDENT: Cybernetica-Domitar XX-24, ‘PRAXADIA ACTIVATUM.’
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[//appendnote: Operation Elder’s Fall saw the deployment of twelve full cohorts of Telerak-Pattern Domitar Battle Automata, each numbering four machinae. The force would later be diverted to the site of a tripartite battle at Loren’s Fall where the Red Talons would face the Wormwood Sons and the Star Wardens in a battle for Compound Colostrum./+]
[//It is to be noted that the Domitar-Telerakum, a sub-pattern of cybernetica pioneered by Forgeworld Telerak in the far northern reaches of Imperial space, is one rarely utilized by both Legio Cybernetica and Astartes forces. Rumours and investigations regarding their overactive cortices are abound and currently a subject of interest to the Order Dragon.+]
[//The aforementioned incident will be made available for further study in short order.+]
‘Squad Bakr, Squad Kher, to me.’
‘Present, Lord-Praevian.’
‘What is the meaning of this?’
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[//Pict-capt of Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought carcass; presumed to be Brother-Ancient Bjothon. Note: several devotional tokens and parchments have been placed upon the derelict sarcophagus of the machine-tomb, their aesthetics wholly incongruent with Raikanii culture. Cross-reference suggests a connection to the Star Wardens’ Ancestor Cult.+]
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‘Scrolls, offerings of astartes-rations, prayer bowls...’ The rustling of paper as a scroll is detached from the broken prow, ‘And this?’
>>The seal breaks, what follows is a fragmentary transcript<<
Blessed be He that He is, trapped in iron, bound in steel
Blessed be He that He is, now released into a softer slumber
Blessed be He that He is, child of elder times and foreign father
Blessed be You, who walked in days halcyon
Blessed be Cousin-Ancient, for we too weep for you
We, the Three that we are, the true Wardens of the Stars
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‘Brother-Ancient Bjothon lies dead. His sarcophagus is beyond critically damaged.’
‘Slain by the enemy?’
‘No. Telemetric interference; his drop-pod went swerving and crashed into the plasma battery. He was dead before the capsule had any chance to disengage.’
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>>Parchment sways in the wind, brass reliquaries clatter against ceramite<<
‘Hrm. No desecration. The scroll was written in High Gothic; it was intended as a message to us. But the prayers and the sigils – that I cannot read. Star Wardens, seems like.’
‘Why didn’t they plunder the sarcophagus? The Arachnus Array is still intact as far as I can tell.’
‘I don’t know – but I bet the Maimed will want to hear of this. Lyras?’
‘Yes, Lord-Praevian?’
‘Secure the position. I am leaving squad Bakr as well as XX-24 and XX-37 with you.’
‘Understood, sire.’
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| [//Dragan & Bjothon+] [//almir_h/@count.hodo/] |
+++Vid-Feed terminated+++
+++Significance currently unknown+++
+++Fare well, Lord-Inquisitor Enoch+++
+++May He-Upon-Terra protect+++