His hands both dripping red Captain Furian Reneil was an imposing site as he moved down the corridor. His armoured bulk forced ratings and others of the crew on Port Talpa out of the way.
Trentz and Solewitz were among the most experienced of the ratings aboard the ship. Even so they widened their eyes upon seeing the armoured bulk of the tall space marines.
Furian looked down at them as he turned to face the door. It was no different than any other door except it had two ratings guarding it.
Looking back at the Captain it was a moment before either of them got coherent thought back. Then Trentz snapped out of his daze and flipped the switch that opened the portal.
As the door moved to the side, the Astarte warrior moved through it and soon looked down at Inquisitor Duhr as the latter read through information and reports on his data slate.
"You were right about the ones lurking in the hangar deck. They had not gone far enough yet to really corrupt the majority of the ratings and now they never will," said Furian.
"And . . ." Duhr said more than asked.
"And . . . you were right about the Death Guard. When the Bitter Enmity came into system we received your call. I would imagine that it was something you sent that drove Brother Lemaetus to bring us to this system in the first place," the Furian said.
He said, "I threw up a cordon of patrols around the epicenter of the xenos uprising. One of my scout patrols reported seeing the movement towards them and I ordered them to engage and take prisoners if possible."
Duhr looked interested at the prospect of a prisoner.
"They were Death Guard and some of their corrupt minions. The scouts engaged at range, not wanting to expose themselves to the poisonous wind coming from the enemy. Despite this the enemy engaged."
"The fighting was mostly desultory. The Death Guard are notably resilient to our fire power. A few of my men briefly engaged them in melee. No prisoners were taken but we lost no one in the short engagement."
"This raiding party had some objective in mind. They were trying to move to the Kroot. I doubt they planned to engage them in combat, why would they go out of their way to help us put down the rebel xenos?"
Duhr cut in, "I have not yet discerned the intention of the enemy in this. From what I've seen so far their tactics are more in line with what we have come to expect from the Word Bearers or the Aplha Legion than the Death Guard."
"Those were not the only Death Guard on Datros, either, were they Captain?"
Furian pursed his lips ever so slightly before saying, "No they were not. I have had my men patrolling the undercity in the colony hive."
"There was some confusion when two of my patrols met each other after each chased a small group of suspected cultists into the same location."
"How embarrassing," Duhr said.
Furian ignored him and continued, "A number of the cultists were slain while trying to destroy a fuel depot."
"Another group ran into a group of Death Guard in a shantytown. They seemed to be in the process of attempting to mutate the population."
"After a brief confrontation my men were driven off and I sent another force in later only to find the place deserted and all the inhabitants slain."
Duhr rose and typed away at his data slate as he did so. A 3D map of the planet Datros appeared out of the device.
"At this point I believe something like 60% of the Kroot population is in arms against us. We can hold out against them in the main settled areas but the outposts will fall."
"If the rising becomes larger we will lose the colony itself and will have to bombard the planet. That would be a pity, but not my primary concern."
"All we have to do is figure out what the Death Guard want out of all of this and how they plan to achieve it."
