Sizzle looks from the Commissar to Asbjorn and back. He covers the far side of the room until the commissar indicates that he won't be shot for doing otherwise.
"The formulation you're looking for is 'requesting permission to have another pair of eyes on the ceiling, Commissar'. Specialist."
"Yes sir, let me try that again.
Requesting permission to have corporal sizzle aid father Bolus in covering the ceiling commissar sir."
"Granted." with that the Commissar turns back to Enginseer Dashkov and catches up with unhurried but long strides.
Sizzle breathes a little sigh of relief and shifts to scan the ceiling with his rifle.
If they were derelict in their duty then they will feel the Emperors wrath through me Commissar. If not then may he have mercy on them. Bolus follows the Commisars instructions to the letter.
Sizzle does as well, but it's more in the spirit as opposed to the letter.
Anatoly nods to the Commissar, "Sir, the micro-leak was located this way." Having already noted the location of oil pump IV, he heads off into the pump chamber knowing that the Commissar will either be right behind him, or will direct him to halt; Commissar Yeta is not an inefficient man, for one so lightly touched by the Omnissiah's gifts.
Commissar. Bolus says, unshakable faith making him confident in what he thought he may have seen. For a moment, I spied a masked humanoid on the ceiling. I no longer see it. I fear HERESY!
"Understood, Father. Keep a watch on that spot. Enginseer - give me a reading of the athmosphere here. Any traces of the drug?"
Anatoly adjusts a few settings on the hand-held Auspex he still carries and, after a few moments utters a sound that, while not exactly human, is most decidedly negative.
Sizzle looks everywhere the Father isn't. He REALLY doesn't want to be ambushed right here...
"Noted. Enginseer continue with the previous task. Father. Detailed report. Where did you see the face? Are there ingresses into the room in the ceiling?"
The priest motions at the exact spot and sends a short burst of flame in that direction. There Commissar. Only by the grace of the Emperor did I catch just a glimpse of the shadowy blight.
The fathers short burst of flame makes everyone jumpy.
Weapons are trained over the full-metal ceiling and walls as well as the deep shadows between the roaring pumps.
One by one, nervous "All Clear!" calls come in.
Nothing substantial is in here beside you and the machines.
The room has only two exits on opposite ends, with the door on the other side of the room being still locked (as was the door you came in through initially).
If you are looking, you may notice the Navy armsmen exchanging skeptical looks between themselves.
Bolus is most definitely not looking.
Clear. Sizzle reports in turn. Permission to get this over with, sir. I don't like these limited sight lines.
Anatoly adjusts a few settings on the auspex before looking back to the Commissar.
Anatoly looks over at the Commissar, "Sir, there are no life signs other than this search team inside Fluid Distribution XXVII. The location that Father Bolus illuminated does show a rapidly dissipating and unidentifiable energy signature. It is possible something was there, but there is nothing there any longer."
"Is that life signs or human life signs? If you have a signature for them check for eldar lifesigns. Otherwise back to your duty Enginseer. I want the work of the group of Enginseers we're after checked so we can continue after them, wherever that is."
"Specialist, define what you want to get over with. If you have an idea how to find our target Enginseers I want it reported."
Sizzle blinks for half a second at the Commissar's density, but clarifies quickly and decides to throw in some Ecclisiarchy-approved vocabulary to spice things up, and cover his exposed butt.
Just expressing my desire locate our culprits so they may be purified by the Holy Emperor's just wrath, sir.
Eldar? Oh great, first Orks, now Eldars.
Last thing I heard, Eldars has better aim than Orks, joy!
Having learned his lessons from before, Asbjörn keeps his griping inside his own head.
As fearsome as the commissar was, he was NOT a mind reader, most likely...
Anatoly makes a few more adjustments to the auspex and scans again, this time for specifically non-human life signs.
"I have completed my analysis of the work of the enginseer team. The repairs here have been effectively completed, though there is some sign that they were made in less time than should have been devoted to this task. There are no life signs other than those of this search team. There is also a 77.863% probability that the fading energy signature that I mentioned was created by some manner of teleportation.
The strength of the residual energy signature indicates that this was very recent. 89.363% probability that the teleportation event occurred since we entered the room."
Tele-what now? More techpriest mumbo-jumbo that hopefully won't get us all killed...
"Commendable zeal, Specialist. Keep it in your heart until an enemy presents yourself. The whining about what cannot be changed will sap your morale and that of those around you. And you don't want me to see you as sapping others morale do you?"
"Enginseer are there any indications where they went from here? Is it possible to track the origin or target of the teleportation? Is the possibility better when we instruct the bridge to do the tracking?"
The female squad leader of the Navy armsmen is speaking up at that point.
"No idea what your cog'ey is rumbling about but if there is a remote chance of a danger to the ship, the shipmaster will want to know about it and as soon as possible... Commissar."
There is a short burst of binary cant from Anatoly's vocabulator before he responds to the Commissar, "Commissar Yeta, this auspex unit is not equipped with translocation-tracking modulators," Anatoly shines a lumen rod into the area where the fading signature was detected, "however the origin point is there."
As the lumen rod lights up the shadowed area, Anatoly continues in his emotionless and mechanically-accented voice. "In an Adeptus Mechanicus voidship, such signatures could not pass undetected. As to the standard operating procedure of the internal sensorium of this vessel in particular I am not informed, but if it follows standard Naval practice there is a very low probability that the energy signature in question would be detected as a matter of course unless it were to occur within close range of a critical region of the vessel, such as an enginarium, munitions deck, sensorium, or the bridge; this should not be viewed as an exhaustive list."
Anatoly has been adjusting several setting on the auspex as he speaks, seeming to have zero difficulty managing his recitation while being involved in recalibrating the sensor, "The internal sensors of this voidship can certainly be configured to detect the teleportation signature wherever they can be focused. While I am not well-versed in teleportation and its attendant technologies and signatures, there is a 67.843% chance that this was a short-range translocation, meaning the one who teleported is not only certainly still within this vessel, they are likely close-by; more precision is not possible at this time. I have re-calibrated this auspex unit to automatically alert whoever is using it should the same energy signature occurr within its standard range"
One of the Navy grunts is looking at the Enginseer, dumbstruck.
"What the feth is he talkin' about, ma'am?"
"Alright. We have ourselves a hunt. You and you - stay at the entrace with your shotguns. Father, Sizzle, you cover the entrance as well with your flamers.
Everyone else: Form up in 2s and sweep the room. We're making sure the 'short range' teleportation wasn't so short range they are still in the room"
When talking about the shotgunners he points at 2 of the navy armsmen.
Then he points at the armsman who spoke just now
"You. Your trap is already yapping. You tell me what rooms are close to this one. All 3 dimensions. Also where is the closest access panel with contact to the bridge?"
The man blinks then answers quickly:
"Ahem, the deck below is the starboard gunnery deck, above ... must be crew quarters, mostly occupied by your dir... soldiers.
This deck is stuffed with secondary and tertiary infrastructure stuff.
Loads of machinery like in here, seldom visited storage cells holding spare plating, pipes n'other stuff for repairs.
Next intercom ... pro'ly next to the elevator we took down here.
I heard that some of da cog'eys shrines have an interlink 'swell."
Sizzle does as inducted and reports, Room is Clear.
Bolus mans his position humming a hymn about the Emperor's light burning away the filthy shadows.
Anatoly consults the cogitator to locate the nearest possible bridge communication option, preferrably one that leads them in the direction of the route the missing Enginseers took.
"Commissar Yeta, the closest point of access to a communication channel with the bridge will be cogitator interface panel Alpha-7-8-2-0-Gamma-Epsilon. It is located 2.3 meters on this side of the access hatch to Fluid Distribution XXVI, which is our next destination in the search for the missing Enginseers."
The room secured and with a lead in front of them, the fireteam and their Navy fellows press on towards the intercom Anatoly pointed out.
The next room beyond is a long but rather narrow room with heavy shelves wielded along the entire length. Atop them, stacked five hight and three deep, are long steel bars with pre-cut notches and hooks which are clearly intended to be easily and swiftly connected and secured with one of the hundreds of fist-sized steel bolts stored in rucksacks. It is easy to determine it being clear and you move on.
The follow up one is an odd mix of storage room, servitor bay and makeshift workshop. The room is large (at least 80²m) and rather confusing due to all the clatter, stacked boxes, workgear and inactive maintenance servitors. Anatoly's auspex chimes a small alarm, having found traces of that energy signature believed to be from past teleportation. The signature is pretty much faded at this point.
"Still here I see. Then there is no need to talk to the ship master yet. We murder that pointy eared xenos and give the ship master the corpse as a trophy. Enginseer keep looking for those teleport signs. Elofsson, you watch the door and make sure nothing gets out." He points at a Navy Armsman with shotgun to keep watch alongside Elofsson.
"Everyone else form up in two squads. We're looking for aliens to punch. Or maybe shoot."
The Commissar leads one squad, the other is accompanied by Enginseer Dashkov - pretty much one guy with huge melee weapon per small squad.
Once the squads form they start sweeping the room. The the second person from the back in each squad gets the order to watch the ceiling
Sizzle falls into Anatoly's squad and keeps his eyes on the ceiling.
The Navy guys look disbelieving at the Commissar. The woman speaking up after a moment.
"You earnestly think that we have a Xeno loose on the ship?
When should this have happened in the first place?
Unless you folk brought a war prisoner with you and promptly lost control of him that is."
Sizzle sees something in the dancing shadows of the ceiling and almost shoots it on reflex, but he recognizes the servoskull just in time and holds back.
Clear. Skull activating its scanner. he reports.
The Commissar stalks towards the questioning woman, grabs her uniform colar and pulls her face really really close to his - and his unnerving red augmetic eye
"Here's the timeline:
It's about three years ago.
You had your shields shot out by Eldar pirates. And then some.
a navy cruiser comes along and rescues your sorry backsides.
Then after the inspection the ghost stories start.
Fast forward to today. We find a mysterious drug in the water and after someone is sent to repair it they vanish.
When we look after them we meet a mysterious teleporting xenos.
Do you know what is usually required to teleport? Shields being down.
Do you know what Eldar pirates like to do? capture people and torture them to death. VERY. VERY. SLOWLY.
Do you know what's really handy to mask people getting kidnapped and tortured to death really really slowly?
Ghost stories. Drug induced ghost stories."
He releases her uniform colar and lets her stumble backwards away from him. "And now if we find something down here I'll have you personally and publicly apologize for your accusations just now. After getting flocked of course."
PURGE the Xenos! Bolus booms shaking his flamer around and tiny droplets of prometheum scatter. We shall VISIT unto them the Emperor's Wrath!
Well by the Emperors bony backside! We're actually chasing something! Sizzle thinks quietly to himself. Outwardly he lets the Armswoman's little talking-to serve as sufficient distraction to share a sideways glance with his brother that says just as much.
As they work their way through the room, Anatoly is frequently pausing to adjust the Auspex and scan for things no human senses could detect.
His silence regarding the Auspex is probably reassuring to his squad, but Anatoly is not reassured; the Auspex is either misbehaving, or there is something to detect.
Anatoly finally seems satisfied with the Auspex settings and begins methodically moving throughout the room, taking readings with the Auspex and moving on again.
As he begins methodically scanning the room, Anatoly opens a com-channel to the Commissar alone.
"Sir! I think I've found a...mine maybe?
I'm not entirely sure, but it reminds me of one."
The woman blanches visibly at the towerglaring Commissar.
She manages a hushed: "Y...Yessir." and a flickered salute before following Anatoly as ordered.
As Sizzle looks across the room to fetch the eye of his brother he notices him standing frozen in place with a pale face looking down at something on the ground.
He looks like a man who just stepped into a really, really deep pit of grox waste and discovered that his boots aren't high enough...