Sand casually dismiss your question as he quickly stride over to the metal frame which hold the body. " Now if you will kindly attend and pay heed, I will take questions afterward." he says calmly and pull aside the gray sheet that cover the body itself. Strapped to the frame is revealed the dessicated and eviscerated body of an adult human.
“The body has been positively identifi ed as that of one Saul Arbest, male, 23 years of age, hive worker, unskilled labourer certified. Formerly of the Tantalus Indenture, registered habitation: chamber 6/23 stack 717# Coscarla Division, southern zone, Hive Sibelius." Sand continue his lecture, gesturing briefly to the corpse as his servo-skulls dip out of your view to gather things in the room.
“Subject found dead on the midhive transit rail three days ago as the car returned to the main depot. Preliminary examination at the scene suggested death by drug overdose. Post mortem performed by the biologis forensic, however revealed certain anomies that necessitated our involvement. The cause of death was in fact total systemic failure brought on by tissue rejection of an implanted synthetic graft organ. Said organ destroyed his central nervous system while attempting to overcome the immune response. In short this…" One of the skulls return toy our view, holding a large glass containers in its brass callipers, and flying close to the window to show you its content --- An approximately ten centimetre long, whitish, cord of still moving, still living, tissue--- and remain in view.
“…crushed the life out of him from the inside. What’s it for? Unknown, but my opinion would be, in a word, ‘control’—neural and synaptic override, perhaps worse." Sand says slowly, pausing a moment to let that sink in, while the second servo-skull float into view carrying more tissue samples preserved in jars.
“There were other grafts and surgery of a less singular kind also; one lung replaced by a concealed storage cavity, possibly for his use as a courier. Also, one optic nerve removed, skin flayed from his stomach, I’ve no idea why. His system’s awash with alchemic traces, clotting agents, panimmune and the like."
“The surgery was expert, but by the lesions and tissue stresses, I doubt any care was given to whether or not it was painless.
In fact, by the damage to his vocal cords, my guess was that he probably screamed as long as he was able to." Sand says cooly, not giving this a second thought, before once more gesturing to the white cord held inside the glass container.
“But this little monster is what concerns us. Oh, you don’t need to know the genelore or the Omnissian edict, just that this is not only illegal, it is forbidden, it is heresy. Merely tampering with this kind of dark tech is enough to warrant a death sentence from the Holy Ordos, the Arbites or the Mechanicus. And I’m sure that you, as well as I, am wondering how such a rare and vile thing ended up wrapped round the spine of some anonymous habprole from the dusty end of the stacks."
“The man has no prior criminal record, he was rendered invalid by indenture—laid off if you will, some sixty days ago now and was reported missing thirtytwo days ago by his sister, one Lili Arbest, resident of the same habstack. More than enough
time to get himself into all sorts of trouble, I’m sure you’ll agree. These grafts are no more than eight or ten days old at most. We
have nothing else on him." Sand continues slowly, to make sure that you all follow, while his servo-skulls return the samples to where they found them.
“This is to be a shadow investigation, no open official involvement and no notifi cation of the local authorities, and no one knows he’s here either. Coscarla’s down hive, so a covert approach will draw far less attention than a boot through the door, and be far less likely to kill any leads to our heretic. Find out why and where if you can, better yet, find out how. Best of all, find out who is responsible.
Go with the grace of the God Emperor, oh and additional samples would be a blessing if you can procure them.” Sand finishes his briefing, taking a step forward as he regards you, awaiting whatever questions you might have. In the background the servo-skulls pull the gray sheet back to cover the body.
