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As the dust of combat settled and things grew quiet in the old monastery at Silence, we began paging through the stacks of tomes in the library. One particular stack contained a logbook left behind by my ancestor, Thaadius Lorick. I made sure to secret this away for further study, before sharing any details with our dear friend Havelock.

The logs did mention a techno-construct left behind by the Yu'vath, and hidden by Thaadius in the dust cloud surrounding the gas giant before he left the system. That could explain a lot - however it raises questions about whether the construct slowly began afflicting the system over time, or if it perhaps floated harmlessly until disturbed by someone here.

Havelock did assist in looking through the rest of the books, and indicated that Kaal had apparently pulled journals related to various people and property. It remains unclear how his apparent manhunt relates to recent events, if at all. Possibly someone was digging too deep into the legacy of the Yu'vath, and attracted the attention of the inquisition? There is no sign of Kaal's demise, or of his destination if indeed he left Silence.

I find myself pondering the possibility that we're dealing not specifically with the taint of Chaos, but the effects of Xenotech simply beyond our current understanding. The end result may be the same, but it may be an important distinction. Examining the objects which attacked us (the statues, the lightning gun, etc.) turned up a crystalline, purple mark on all of them. There's not much evidence yet to back this up, but perhaps they served as some sort of 'remote control chip' used whatever malign force is arrayed against us.

At any rate, we were able to recover the bulk of the books, and a great many intact statues for later profit. We also took evidence of the monks' fate, and dealt with their remains as is proper. As we prepared to leave, a ship showed up on our scanners. It appeared to be a crystalline construct of unknown hull type (propelled by 'solar sails') and indeterminate crew - and it seemed to be hostile.

We took fire from a dangerous weapon that seemed able to fire past our shielding, and lost some crew to a hull breach. Fortunately most of their shots didn't seem to be properly sighted in yet, and detonated past our ship entirely. Besides that, some clever maneuvering and deadly accuracy enabled us to destroy the vessel quickly. We took samples of the crystals and tried to scan for a signal that might be controlling it, but gained few details.

Considering that the last unusual crystals we had heard about in the system came from Svaard 7, we made a side trip there - only to find it missing entirely. We spent some time searching the area, to ensure it wasn't a simple miscalculation, and then proceeded on to our next destination - Cog.

Cog seems to have a heavily corrosive atmosphere, caused by centuries of industry. We approached the main installation - a huge hive structure built to move to a different part of the land mass periodically in order to spread out the pollution and reduce wear. It seemed to have three levels: The highest consists of shielding and shuttle bays; the middle houses the welding decks, fabrication area, and weapon batteries; the lowest consists of the train carriage.

Though the hive still seemed active to some degree, there was no response to our hail, and no obvious signs of life. Our scans did turn up a potential way in through the undercarriage. We sent out one of our gun-cutters with a teleport beacon crew - unfortunately the ship was lost during the landing, but servitors made it through with the beacon. Now perhaps we can make it in and discover the state of the hive.

Lord Captain the benevolence of the Emperor has shone upon us and we have discovered the nature of the xeno rot that has tainted your families’ colony. Set in place by no less than your direct ancestor Lord Captain. Will you reclaim your house’s entry into the favor and light of the Emperor or will you continue the centuries of ill fortune brought by the doubt in the power of the Emperor?

You may be the last hope of your family. You have yet to sire an heir correct? I might suggest you make a deposit that will assure your genetic legacy should the xeno taint prove to be a hazard to your genetic viability.

The taint of Chaos may be somewhat reduced but until this device your ancestor describes is brought to the full light of the Inquisition this system’s promise is in peril. You have seen its power. I weep for the loss of the Emperors devoted servants and their works of faith and beauty, do you not as well? Imagine the temple before its corruption. Glorious, absolutely glorious!

You have also observed how the ships guns can be used to cleanse. Not as quick as what a heavy cruiser may have done, but effective. A field of solid glass and desolation is more righteous than any taint of Chaos. Let us hope that the scalpels of our ships capital weapons and our personal efforts are enough to salvage what might be taken for the glory of the Emperor from this system.
We should claim in the system that the source of these “whispers” has been located and destroyed. Then we must be vigilant for their continuation. I suspect we have just begun to cleanse this system of the xeno taint and the corruption of Chaos that followed in its wake. We can report to our traveling companion the demise of his brother can we not?

There is still the matter of the brother. While the decline in this system is years, if not centuries, in the making the whispers seem to be relatively recent phenomena. Do you find the rough correlation between the brother’s arrival and the advent of the whispers curious Lord Captain? I sense we may have lanced the boil of taint and heresy but it remains to see how much puss must be cleansed from the body as a whole.

I will continue to monitor the purity of your soul and the souls of our crew and the people of this system. May the light of the Emperor guide you Lord Captain.

In the Sculpture's Nave of the Saint's Tower on the asteroid of Silence you have defeated a dark force and secured the tower it controlled. A search of that tower turns up a ships log of Thaadius Lorick, founder of the Svard colonies 700 years ago.

There are several interesting accounts that could lead to some potential profit in the future but the most interesting account deals with Svard and the Yu'vath.

The Yu'vath were wiped out during the Angevin Crusade, their xenos slave armies were destroyed, and their techno-constructs scattered among the stars. It was one such construct that Thaadius Lorick found on an abonded battlefield in a remote part of the sector. Unable to return with it to the Calixis Sector where the Inquisition would most certainly destroy it, and too valuable to be abandoned, Thaadius towed it to Svard Prime. There he hid it in the rolling clouds of the particle wash of the gas giant. Here it would remain, considered harmless, until Thaadius could return and learn it's secrets. Unfortunately he never did return...

We arrived uneventfully on Svaard, and proceeded to Svaard Prime. I took the opportunity to familiarize myself with the system. Reports indicate that it was founded by my ancestor Thaddius, as a staging area for the war against Uvoth. It has been hundreds of years since House Lorick had contact with Svaard. The main difference in the interim seems to be the further degradation of the gas giant, but not at an unusual rate, apparently.

The initial meeting with the Crystal Council went as well as could be expected - up until the creepy possessed flower girl prophesied my death. Unfazed by this (my siblings have been doing so behind my back for years), I gave the council head a brief opportunity to explain. He detailed the recent problems with crumbling facilities, lack of fuel & parts, and unprecedented rebellion - attributing them to a scourge he called 'the Whispers'.

It apparently starts with dreams of a dark, overbearing presence, and a wordless whispering. At some later date, those so afflicted begin to carry out acts of apparent terrorism - murders, sabotage, and the like. They can then be identified by their black eyes - the same as the flower girl. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the attacks, though perhaps those settlements closest to the gas giant were affected first. More recently, all settlements in the system have been affected, and many are no longer in contact (including Cog, the forge world, and Ins.23, the Promethium factory).

We learned that Havelock's kinsman Kaal went to Silence, to investigate the order of monks there, and has not been heard from since. Before deciding on our next move, we set our servitors to investigating some of the Whispers, in hopes of uncovering some commonality missed by the council. It turns out there was some evidence of possible psychic tampering, though nothing clear as yet.

As we continued our research in a local library, we were suddenly attacked by a band of armed Whispers. We fought them off with no casualties, though it was close at points. While Havelock was recovering, I was inspired to pull this old routine: "So that guy Kaal was investigating - he must be a Psyker, right? What was his name again?" He stammered back a denial... Then realized he had just confirmed that he knows details about Kaal's mission which he has held back from us. I intend to pursue this further - it seems that Silence is our next stop, and there is no need to go in blind.

The Major contacts you to explain the failed performance of the murder servitor beamed down to the shuttle when you requested one to guard the female child. As you are aware, murder servitors are drug fueled killing machines that are turned loose on enemy combatants. Normally, such control as acting as a guard would not be possible but he took the initiative to have one unit shut down before beaming it down. You need to be aware that activated murder servitors cannot perform guard duty or other complex, non-killing type actions. All your murder servitors are now in operating condition and ready for deployment.