As Inquisitor Ravenor entered the key, the Thinker's low hum shifted in tone, and a recorded video of his grandmaster, Gregor Eisenhorn, facing scrutiny began to play.
"My retinue and I were attacked by unconscious Astra Militarum Soldiers from the 50th Gudrun Rifle Regiment, Imperial Navy security forces, and cultists of the Pleasure Cult."
"Their behavior was strange; they looked as if they were being controlled in some way."
"After suffering heavy casualties in our previous operation, the planet 56-Aiza was destroyed by an Exterminatus, a 'Doomsday Verdict,' issued by a traitor lurking among us—no, to be precise, an Inquisitor who was actually a daemonhost."
"We and the Space Marines of the Deathwatch didn't even have time to confirm whether all copies of the Necroteuch had been completely destroyed."
"Following that, there was first orbital bombardment, then after a baptism of Holy Flames, the Inquisition's Black Ship launched a viral bombardment—a pre-programmed plague hurricane swept across the globe."
"Finally, nuclear explosions induced a core collapse, and by the time we left, the entire world had turned into cosmic dust."
"From then on, the Saruthi xenomorphs, who could grasp forbidden knowledge through taste, ceased to exist, and the defiling glow emanating from the Chaos book, the Necroteuch, was extinguished forever."
"I will not forget the Saruthi and their painful lesson: even a highly advanced civilization can be completely consumed by seemingly insignificant entities of Chaos."
Inquisitor Clarence Ravenor fell into deep thought, contemplating the words spoken by his master's master.
[Were the twisted Saruthi xenomorphs and the Necroteuch truly destroyed?]
[It's so similar. The cultists fallen to pleasure, the unconscious Imperial Navy armed forces attacking their own, the conspiracy within the fleet… ]
In his conversation with Horatio, Inquisitor Ravenor deliberately concealed his true purpose for coming to Abyss Port—to investigate whether this incident was connected to the Necroteuch xenomorph case his grandmaster Eisenhorn investigated years ago.
This was a top-secret matter, the leak of which, even within the Inquisition itself, would be a death sentence.
It was serious enough to warrant the Assassinorum on Terra sending their most capable assassins to personally resolve the matter and deal with those involved.
It was also serious enough to warrant an Exterminatus being launched against Abyss Port, the anchorage of the legendary fleet.
Therefore, he could only remain silent, which also served as protection for himself and Horatio.
In this world, ignorance is often a form of protection; only the ignorant are likely to live longer.
While the desire for knowledge may seem beautiful, it can very well be a trap that pushes one into the abyss.
An Inquisitor, in particular, should adhere to this principle; it is a bottom line.
Most traitors among his colleagues also reached out due to curiosity about unknown creations, eventually leading to an irreversible downfall.
Compared to that, cooperating with xenomorphs is a trivial sin.
Although theoretically, the Necroteuch was completely destroyed under the Exterminatus.
However, the twisted xenomorphs known as Saruthi were widely distributed and bred on as many as 40 planets at the time.
Furthermore, they possessed a peculiar psychic ability: by merely licking an information carrier with their disgusting, greasy long tongues, they could acquire the knowledge recorded on it.
He was unsure if these xenomorphs could draw the destroyed Necroteuch from the ashes.
It is said that since the very founding of the Imperium, even before the Primarchs existed, this wicked work was personally listed as a forbidden book by the Emperor Himself.
He did not know what terrifying and evil contents were recorded in this book, and he had no desire to know.
He only knew that this was a taboo carefully cultivated by the Lord of Pleasure for unknown purposes, to come to fruition.
It even went so far as to create a daemonhost.
Speaking of which, Horatio also mentioned that these Pleasure Cultists had tried to capture him to turn him into a daemonhost.
Was all of this truly a coincidence?
Inquisitor Ravenor shook his head.
Perhaps other colleagues came to Abyss Port to root out traitors who undermined the Imperium.
But he knew very well that his mission was far more arduous than any other Inquisitor's, and its impact could potentially affect the entire Imperium of Man.
After all, the potential harm to the Imperium of Man from a forbidden book personally designated by the God-Emperor himself was naturally imaginable.
If, as he suspected, another copy of the Necroteuch had indeed come into existence, then he must, like his master Gregor Eisenhorn, ensure he personally witnesses its destruction.
The fully armed Inquisitor strode out of the room.
"Alright, lads, get ready. We've got big work to do here."
He checked the cylinder of his Scipio pistol again, ensuring every bullet was in its proper place.
"We are always ready."
Soon, another gaunt figure appeared, with a data-slate embedded in his arm and both eyes replaced by implanted augur-eyes.
Following him was a Voidsmen-at-Arms Officer in various modified armor, holding her gun with extreme proficiency, and behind them were some Imperial veterans who had survived various life-and-death battlefields but were marked as deceased in the Department of Military Affairs' records.
There weren't many of them, but they all looked like tough individuals who had fought their way through mountains of corpses, seas of blood, and countless horrors.
—
Imperial Navy Investigation and Autopsy Room.
"All dead?" Horatio asked an armed Captain.
"Yes, none of the mutineers surrendered during the armed forces' assault on the Sacred Will," he said, looking at the operating table.
"Our only gain is these unconscious, wounded rebel Soldiers."
Horatio sighed deeply; this was within his expectations.
"Medical Officer, have you found anything?" he asked the man inside.
"All physical indicators are normal, and all organs and viscera are functioning normally, with no abnormal lesions. The only issue might be multiple low-density lesions in the cranium. But for someone of this age, especially those who have lived in the void for a long time, it's quite normal."
The Medical Officer placed the X-ray film on a light board.
Horatio looked at where the Medical Officer was pointing.
"Low-density lesions are generally formed when parts of the brain undergo pathological changes or liquefy after necrosis. These locations are not critical; most people of advanced age or those who have lived in the void for a long time will have them, and the necrotic parts can regrow."
"Open the skull and see."
"Investigator, this is actually a very normal and common physiological phenomenon…"
"Please open it and see, thank you," Horatio insisted, maintaining a smile.
Seeing Horatio's insistence, the Medical Officer, for this overly cautious officer, used a skull saw to cut open the deceased's head.
The moment the skull opened, a pool of thick, dark blood flowed out from the opening, collecting in a metal tray prepared beforehand.
Horatio leaned in to observe carefully.
The Medical Officer paid no mind to the blood, put down the skull saw, picked up specialized instruments, and prepared to slice the brain for examination.
"What is this?" Horatio saw the blood pouring into the metal tray, vaguely reflecting silver glints under the shadowless lamp.
"It looks like… a kind of metal filament?" the Medical Officer said uncertainly after examining it with his magnified augur-eye.
However, this kind of augur-eye was ultimately not a high-grade microscopic augur-eye from the Adeptus Mechanicus, and doctors normally wouldn't use devices that were not cost-effective for surgery. The Medical Officer could only determine the approximate form with the equipment at hand.
These silver filaments floated in the blood basin, forming madly twisting spirals.
The Medical Officer tried to pick up a tiny silver filament with tweezers, but the moment the tweezers touched it, it gently broke apart, as if these filaments were not truly connected as a single entity at a microscopic level.
Then, in front of Horatio and the Medical Officer, these twisted silver filaments reassembled into something so small, at a macroscopic level, that it resembled a drop of mercury falling into water.
The Medical Officer scooped it up, drew it into a small pipette, then dropped it onto a microscope slide, and finally placed it under the microscope.
The Medical Officer frowned.
"What's wrong? May I see?" Horatio stepped forward and asked.
The Medical Officer moved aside, and Horatio put his eye to the microscope.
This tiny, mercury-like object slowly 蠕動ed with an almost imperceptible amplitude under the microscope, but the ordinary optical microscope used in the medical examination room could not achieve nanometer-level resolution, only providing a general view.
Horatio recalled the jar he had confiscated from the plague ship incident.
He couldn't help but become vigilant in his heart.
Could this matter also be related to the Dark Mechanicus?
He couldn't be sure, and the associated parties involved in this suspicion clearly exceeded his investigative authority, and perhaps even the authority of several Inquisitors.
Moreover, the various branches of the Adeptus Mechanicus were like steel eggs that couldn't even be pierced; it would be difficult for him to investigate them.
Unless it was the Ordo Machinum, a branch of the Inquisition specifically tasked with overseeing those mechanical modification fanatics.
Otherwise, the three Inquisitors who had arrived likely lacked the authority and capability to investigate the Adeptus Mechanicus.
After all, the relationship between the Imperium and the Adeptus Mechanicus was essentially a cooperation for the unity of the Imperium of Man.
If an 'outsider' from the Imperium wanted to investigate the Adeptus Mechanicus, those mechanical lumps with more iron than flesh probably wouldn't even offer a microsecond of emotional simulation in their gaze.
"Medical Officer, could you please collect this sample for me?"
He couldn't be sure that Father Lati was entirely reliable, but at least her previous investigation had shown no issues.
And at present, it seemed that only she, as an insider of the Adeptus Mechanicus, could help.