Meetings were held in the Fortress Hall of the Ministry of Justice, which also served as a court when necessary, but today it serves as a reception room.
A huge black hardwood round table was placed in the center of the hall, surrounded by a circle of law enforcement officers wearing black carapace, their faces hidden under their helmets, as if their true faces would never be revealed.
The arbitrator of the local legal department stood behind the table without wearing a helmet. He was a leather-tough old soldier. He was only wearing a simple black uniform at this time, which highlighted the silver-plated artificial prostheses and other artificial limbs implanted in his body. Organs, these devices injected amazing speed and power into his body.
Suddenly, the door was pushed open.
Soshyan strutted into the hall with a group of warriors, and their actions almost caused a whirlwind in the hall.
Finally, he stopped in front of the table and took off his helmet and placed it on the table, revealing his broad, strong chin and frowning cheeks.
"To make a long story short, I think everyone knows who we are."
Soshyan's opening remarks were very succinct. The arbiter nodded and responded:
"Yes, respected Astral Knights Chapter, Soshiyan Chapter Leader."
"I have read your report, but there are still many details worthy of discussion."
"We also have a lot of new things to report."
"Then you go ahead and talk."
The arbitrator recounted to Soshyan what happened after they left the underground mining area.
It turned out that they encountered several more waves of attacks after leaving the mining area. The enemy seemed to know their route of action very well and was always able to set up ambushes at key locations.
However, the ambushes were no longer purebreds underground, but hybrids closer to humanoids. They disguised themselves as local gangs and launched a sneak attack on the team of the Ministry of Justice.
Along the way, the team lost several people one after another. If the people left behind in the fortress hadn't noticed that their action took too long and sent a response, they might not have been able to come back.
Afterwards, a secret investigation into the administration of Safinius was launched.
Although the alien was well disguised, there were still some clues, and soon a shocking fact surfaced.
The genestealers on Safinius apparently found the Home Office to be an excellent hiding place. As one of the largest and most rigid organizations in the Empire, they could use the authority of the Home Office to evade less stringent scrutiny. .
As a result, the verification of the Ministry of Interior could not be carried out until the District Legal Director himself broke through all kinds of red tape and signed a formal authorization order.
But no one knows how long the Genestealers have been there.
The Ministry of Justice only discovered some suspicious persons who disappeared before the investigation, and no results were found for the rest of them without exception.
Safinius is a rich planet with several large hive cities of considerable size, but these have nothing to do with the poor miners. On the contrary, the guilds just try their best to squeeze them? Even without the intervention of the Ministry of Interior And became unscrupulous.
Therefore, apart from working to death in the mining areas, crime has become one of the few viable ways to make a living in the area.
Due to the interference of the Mechanicus, the Ministry of Justice cannot send too many manpower, nor does it have enough resources to maintain the entire planet, and no leadership force has emerged among the people to restore order.
It's not hard to imagine the corruption that grew in the slums after the Genestealers came to Safinius and infiltrated the local Ministry of the Interior.
Maybe the source of corruption lies in the local guild masters? This possibility is so terrifying yet so realistic.
Although the activities of the Genestealer Sect are very secretive, through the unremitting efforts of law enforcement officers, they can still connect all the traced information to construct a vivid picture.
For example, the few state churches on Safinius have been systematically looted one by one in the past fifty years, and all the sacred objects in them have been stolen.
Twenty years ago, a smuggling convoy was intercepted and a batch of stolen holy objects was seized.
At the time, it seemed that these were nothing more than violent crimes stolen by smugglers, but now it seems that the aliens are clearly using violence as a cover to systematically seize these sacred objects.
What's more? These details highlight the conspiracy -- their attempts to infiltrate local religion.
In fact, for nearly a hundred years, there have been murders and kidnappings everywhere in the mining area? The genestealers carried out their horrific plans with impunity.
They randomly select innocent people to attack, and let them disappear directly from the world? Or become the breeders of monsters.
And all this is almost never informed to the Ministry of Justice by the local guilds and the Ministry of the Interior. Most of the time, they let the Ministry of Justice deal with chores such as smuggling and miner riots, as if they are deliberately distracting the Ministry of Justice.
By the time the Ministry of Justice tracked down the investigation and uncovered possible alien corruption in the Ministry of Interior building, they may have been working hard for decades on their master's return, concocting lies to hoodwink the Empire's law enforcement and judicial agencies.
But although the investigation has revealed so much, it is still the tip of the iceberg.
Much of what the genestealers on Safinius were doing represented a slow and difficult-to-decipher plan.
To others, these clues were clueless, but to the Arbiter, the facts were unmistakable.
However, as the investigation deepened, small riots began to occur in the mining area and the nest city. The Ministry of Justice could only keep running between various riot sites, so the progress of the investigation immediately slowed down.
It’s not like the Arbitrator didn’t apply for the local security forces to join in the counter-insurgency, but strangely enough, as soon as the local defense forces joined the suppression operation, the riots escalated.
After questioning a number of captured riot leaders, the Arbitrator found that they were all normal locals, many of whom were leaders of underground miner organizations. The reason for their riots was because there were rumors of monsters appearing underground, and the empire planned to The mine blew up, burying everyone underground.
The appearance of the local defense forces further proved the authenticity of this rumor, so the miners began a collective strike and refused to enter the mines, resulting in large-scale riots.
Although this is indeed the style of the empire, the Arbitrator is keenly aware that this rumor appears at a very opportune time.
After realizing that the local defense forces were no longer reliable enough, he sent out a request for help.
In the end, the application came to the Ascetic Chapter, and then to the Astral Knight Chapter.
After listening to what the arbiter had to say, Soshyan nodded.
"You're doing a great job and a huge conspiracy is being revealed, but I still have a question."
Soshyan took out the report, still on the table.
"How did you come out of that hell down there alive?"
The arbitrator was stunned for a moment, then sighed, put his hands on the table, and said in a deep voice:
"Honestly, it's hard for me to answer this question. It's really too...unbelievable, so I didn't include it in the report."
"What an incredible thing we've all seen, you name it."
"It was a group of people, a group of heretics who believed in the so-called Crow Lord. They fought off the gene thieves... No, I don't feel like that. They couldn't fight against the gene thieves. I feel like it's something else."
