Following on from gathering our information from last time, Cromwell and Bardason headed down to the precinct's morgue to investigate the corpses. Having been recovered and some restructured in preparation for burial, the adept in the room blocked the two as they approached. Explaining that their situation with the Ecclesiarchy was troubled enough as it was, they were to make as few lasting incisions or markings on the body as possible. This was largely stated due to the work which had to be done on the sororitas, whose featured had been mangled to to the point of being unrecogniable prior to the adept's lengthy efforts.
As Bardason handed Cromwell a few of the blood scrapings he had taken from the scene for analysis they got to work. A few were soon revealed to belong to the victims, with others being inconclusive. This was put down to either a blending of the blood of multiple people or possibly distorted by the factory environment. To put it simply, there was no way to make a concrete match. The same unfortunately went for the blood on the robes, though it was agreed that most likely came from the victims involved.
Examining the sister's corpse, Bardason took a look at the wounds as best he could with his medical knowledge. The damage was obviously horrendous, with the sealed wounds suggesting the use of a jagged serrated blade like the one they found. However, it seems whoever attacked did so in a frenzy, stabbing her beyond death and in a flurry of attacks. The form of the murders certainly wasn't ritualistic. Many were induced post-mortom and the heavy bruising around her face suggests that time was taken with her before being killed. From this is looks as if she was the main target.
Passing on word of this to Guilliman, the psyker considers what this might entail. However, his knowledge of sects and cults does not cover anyone who would harbour a specific hatred for the sororitas. Performing his own investigations, he performs an act of psinicience on the blade they had recovered, discovering the owner is within three kilometers of Gunmetal.
Getting the knife off of him once he had finished, Cromwell examined it and learned that it was of Douru make with the Fane's name stamped in minute letters across the blade. Being partially opposed to the transaction, and one of those screwed over in the new deal between the Ecclesiarchy and Takara, this meant they were now prime suspects. Or at least one of several major ones. Thankfully before any of the group opted to launch a commando style raid on an Douru factory to get answers, Cromwell tracked down the blade's owner: a man known as 'Ard Dave. Yes, every NPC in Gunmetal was apparently called "Dave" by this point. Cue Monty Python Australian sketch.
Approaching Dwr, Cromwell asks about any direct connection between Douru and the Archbishop but she knows nothing. Halmn only appeared five years prior to now and the arbitor with her confimrs that there is no distinct link between the two.
Taking their ground car as far as possible, the trio were eventually forced to leave it and proceed on foot down through some dark foreboding back alleys. Well, shock of all shocks, this somehow left us to get ambushed by ruffians. Less surprising was that a certain man, Mathias Goodgood, no really, leading them was a seeker who had been hired to take back our amulet. His efforts to convince the Inquisition's agents to part with it went badly, especially when they started trying to get information from his employer out of them.
It didn't take long before the bullets were flying.
Going first as thugs emerged around them, Bardason opted to use his favourite thing in the world: Mind altering drugs! Lobbing a hallucinogenic grenade into the four ahead of them, three emerged from the cloud of hippy gas unaffected Another one rolled "I'll take you all on!" on the table, and promptly bit the ear off of his nearest compatriot.
As Cromwell and he ran for cover, Guilliman detected two thugs flanking them, one coming from either side alley either side of the group.
Throwing off his frenzied ally, the first thug took aim at the only target out of cover: Bardason. Despite hefting a fairly high calibre gun, the massive bullet from his hand cannon only whizzed past the fenrisian's face.
It seemed that he had also not realised that the thugs' most dangerous foe was behind them.
Staggering up from the wall he had been thrown into, the drug enraged thug promptly hefted up his chainsword and swung it down at his former comrade's head. He got righteous fury for the attack, and then proceeded to roll ten several times over, finally ending with an 8 on the sixth roll. Rather than the usual rending noises, there was the sound of a wet sponge being town in two and the thug fell to the ground in two pieces. Cut vertically down them middle like some victim of a macabre magician's trick gone horribly wrong.
Another thug oped to fire at Bardason, missing again, and the guardsman drew his bow. The arrow punched through the crate he was lurking behind and was driven into his shoulder. Another thug did the same, but apparently the Emperor was personally protecting Bardason as this bullet went wide as well.
Matthias still cowering behind a crate of his own was jumped by the chainsaw wielding nutjob. Swinging his whirring blade around, the sword managed to just miss the seeker's head and chewed several inches into the wall behind them sticking fast. It was at this point, having corrected his aim, Cromwell fired again with his man portable heavy weapon. This time the beam struck true, hitting the sane thug near Matthias in the abdomen. Punching out his back, the beam detonated the belt of ammo around his waist, which in turn set off the frag grenade he was carrying. The explosion took out Matthias and the madman, killing both instantly and wrecking even more of the back alley.
Seeing this, one thug promptly surrendered while the other ran like hell away from them. Twisting and firing, Cromwell blasted away, taking out the side of another building. Bardason's attempt to bring him down only succeeded in killing someone showering inside the building. Finally, Guilliman brought down the fleeing man with a snap shot of a laspistol which blew open his head like an over-ripe melon.
With most of the place on fire and having caused a degree of collateral damage usually only caused by the exceptionally drunk crew of a Leman Russ main battle tank, the fight had ended. A potentially useful suspect was dead and sirens filled the air...
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