[color=9e0b0f][h2][center]Pentious[/center][h2][/color]

By the time Rik's shuttle at landed on Pentious, the situation had indeed deteriorated.

Malagra Flux was waiting on the landing pad, a hunter-killer clade organized and clearly entrenched at their call. Knowing what little he did of the Prefecture Magisterium and how it operated, Rik didn't doubt for a second that there was a number of additional forces using stealth tech with the intention of further cementing the safety of their master. 

Considering that Rik had walked down the ramp without being attacked or shots being fired, an outright assassination attempt did not appear to be in the calculations, but there was a thick tension in the air all the same. While Rik was quite confident in his simulations of what might happen if the situation turned violent, slaying the Malagra and forces acting under the command of the Prefecture Magisterium would be him declaring himself a heretek and would herald the start of a civil war unless he could prove without a shadow of a doubt that Vesperium Flux had been acting in bad faith.   

Even if he could achieve that tall order, he very much doubted that would be the end of things; It would just keep other factions neutral and out of the fighting until it was good and over with. 

<[color=9e0b0f]We could engage in rather polite pleasantries, Malagra Flux, but if you're here in force, I suspect that you are here in an official capacity. May I ask why?[/color]> Rik stated in a short burst of holy binary, aware that Vesperium preferred it.

There was a nod of acknowledgement, even as the Malagra stood up straight and tucked their hands behind their back. A hard-line fundamentalist, Verperium Flux was one of the few who had opted to have their emotions completely removed so that they would never be swayed by emotional arguments; Only facts and unflinching protocol. <[color=8882be]Myrmidax Rik Uixien. I am recruiting you and those loyal to you for a matter of the highest security and the safety of Pentious.[/color]> 

...Now that was a scenario that was somewhere lower in the odds of likely-hood, but Rik wasn't above being pleasantly surprised by the development. <[color=9e0b0f]We are having the briefing here then?[/color]> He requested, nodding his head slightly towards the hunter-killer clade that had secured the landing pad he had arrived on.

<[color=8882be]Yes. Recent developments and investigated evidence suggest that escorting you to a location with better security would simply be a waste of time. I understand you were informed of the situation regarding Generator-Y536K1.[/color]> It was stated as a fact, rather then a question. <[color=8882be]We launched our own investigation into the matter, alongside several other independent investigations opened by other interested parties. Magos GC-118 launched hers with the suspicion that either myself or Macrotek Axis Omnicron were behind the detonation of Generator-Y536K1 and the deaths of several of your subordinates.[/color]> There was no accusation in their tone, merely a statement of fact. 

<[color=8882be]She was incorrect, but her misplaced suspicions did result in her uncovering key information that has proven foundational to revealing the truth. The Omnissiah may operate in subtle and mysteries ways, but their works are clearly to the benefit of Blessed Pentious.[/color]>   

<[color=9e0b0f]And the current status of Magos GC-118?[/color]> 

<[color=8882be]Deceased.[/color]>

The silence that followed that word knocked the air out of Rik's lungs, threatening to choke him like nothing had ever done before. Despite that, he couldn't help but notice the way that Flux's forces shifted, as if preparing for him to display a lack of emotional restraint. The emotions were there but they were contained in their vaults... for now.

<[color=9e0b0f]Explain.[/color]>

Despite the fact that Malagra Flux had completely removed their ability to feel emotion, Rik suspected from the way that Flux was shifting that their logic enhancements were working overtime to inform their master that now was the time for speed and clarity. 

<[color=8882be]Magos GC-118 came to believe that in order for events to have transpired while leaving so little evidence or trace, the assets used to kill your subordinate priests, relocate their bodies and trigger the detonation had to be of high quality and well armed, but disposable. There would also need to a highly skilled member of the priesthood had to be involved to cover up the data trail that using such units would create. Her investigation...[/color]> There was an uncharacteristic pause from Flux. <[color=8882be]The exact information she uncovered was destroyed. Our agents caught the last of it being deleted by... what we believe to be an AI virus of some kind.[/color]>

Rik detected shifting from not just Flux's forces, but from his own. The very suggestion that there was abominable intelligence on Pentious, let alone that it was involved with GC's death...

<[color=8882be]Magos GC-118's death was rushed and messy, carried out by a maniple of Vorax Battle-Automata. We were able to disable several of the machines before they could escape. Their machine spirits had been allowed to evolve to dangerous levels of independence, but we were able to extract from them that they had been ordered by Cybernetica Nyx Syncwarden to assassinate Magos GC-118 and equipped them with the virus that purged whatever data she found.[/color]>

<[color=8882be]Myrmidax Rik Uixien, I am requesting your aid in hunting down and bringing Cybernetica Nyx Synwarden to answer for the crimes of treason against Pentious and [i]Heresy[/i] in the eyes of the Omnissiah for the development of Abominable Intelligence and its employment against devote and loyal servants of the Machine Cult. If you wish to see the information we have gathered to confirm it for yourself instead of taking my word on blind faith, in this circumstance it is appropriate.[/color]>