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Simond shoots Teodore a quick glare for his lack of subtlety. But lets him take the lead in this, ready to butt in if he needs to.

Medicae building

While Teodores inquiry somewhat lacks finesse, him being from Skrynne and a paramedic himself - a young one on top of it - seems to gain him some basic sympathies from the nurses. One of them, an older Women with a grey dutt and a name tag of "Orderly Oleana" only takes a glance at Simond and replies in a hushed voice "Weird? It's a scandal! Good thing they could those bastards red handed... A bolt to the head is too god for them. Poor Oliver. Just wanted to get on top of his paperwork in the orthopedic theater. He rests at the emperors table now..." she sighs and makes the half aquila sign with her thumb in her palm, that is common in some parts of Skrynne as kind of blessing and to ward of evil. The second nurse, a younger man of maybe 25 years of age names "Orderly Smith" at her side, still looks pretty shaken and in shock and doesn't reply to your first question, just looking towards you with a blank expression.
"We'll hold a small service in the evening, if you want to join.", Oleana extends as invitation towards Teodore.

Right now both of them don't really make the impression as if they would talk about it further without good cause. It might be an idea to get a bit more involved, maybe by stating you knew Oliver or something similar. Alternatively to sniff around, you would need to convince them, to get Simond checked out in the same area the murder happened.

Roof of the mess hall

Kraitus takes a long look at Njal, who has the impression of being measured and examined like a peculiar museum piece before the Tech priest replies "Indeed, your identity matches to one of the individuals at the refinery." He seems ignorant and disinterested of Malakais and Adamos problems though - that much can still be glanced on his augmented face. He seems on the brink of ordering him to bugger of, as Njal mentions being a fellow advocate for the Omnissiah which makes the techpriest hesitates. Within his enhanced cerebral cortex he loads some protocols and subroutines regarding imperial etiquette to formulate his refusal to get involved in such worldly affairs, as the cooling aggregate behind him suddenly sputters, crackles and lets out a series of splatters of cooling fluid that form a puddle on the roof. Rolling his remaining natural eye the Techpriests exclaims something in binary which Njal does not understand in detail but enough to know its curses and turns around towards the machine. He stops himself in his tracks though and turns back "Guardsman. Your service record state you hail from an ice world. Maintenance protocols from the St. Paulus regiment state all vehicles are fitted with air conditioning. I order you to assist me in resanctifying this stupid piece of... this enraged machine spirit. That should free up time in my schedule to inspect your problem." he seems to check in his databank again for a proverb "One Mechandrite washes the other?"

Njal licked his lips. Well, air conditioning wasn't exactly his specialty, he preferred heaters. That was a lot easier to work and a/c units.

I will do my best, but I am a lowly lay-person. Njal made the sign of the Omnissiah as best he could and kneeled down to take a closer. He pulled his rudimentary tool kit from his pouch and purposefully rolled it out and surveyed the contents. He muttered prayers and incantations as he went.

"Ummm yeah, it only seems proper to pay my respects and all. But I'll have to see to my patient first. He gestures to Simond. He needs to get checked out at [insert wherever the murder happened], can you let us in there?"

[I'll try for a cunning roll or something like that]

Alternatively to sniff around, you would need to convince them, to get Simond checked out in the same area the murder happened.

Simond inwardly glares at Teodore, the man is standing too far away to allow for Simond to step on his foot innocuously. 'Honoured healers,' He says giving a deep bow, 'please forgive us, I think my friend here is confused, he was training to be a doctor, and is always worried for my welfare, which I cannot fault him at. I ask to pay my respects to the fallen. It is always a blow when a healer dies, and it is sacrilegious that one who does the Emperor's work' He says piously clutching the aquila pendant that is over his coat, 'should be murdered by the faithless. If you will I'd not want to encroach on your important time and the sacred duty of saving the lives of the faithful. If you could point us to where orderly Oliver fell so we may pay our respects I would be much obliged.'

Teodore looks at Simond with a bit of confusion but catches on quickly. "Are you sure you feel up to it? I wouldn't want you to over do and hurt yourself further, particularly since we haven't even yet consulted with a machine spirit that can see where the break in your bone might lie. (An X-Ray machine lol)"

"Well if you insist, I suppose we can always entreat that machine spirit tomorrow. You are right about the importance of honoring the dead."

Hospital

The older nurse listens to Simonds story and seems positively moved, touching a pendant that in style reminds the cavalryman a little bit of the ornamentation on the armors of the sisters hospitaler on his planet. As Teodore explains a bit further, that he has to check out Simonds bones she nods and types a bit on her cogitator. "I'll check you in for examination room teta three. Right down this floor, the 5th door on the right. That's were poor Oliver died and we also have the required machine there to check out your fracture. It's empty right now as most of our staff don't feel comfortable there, but if you want to pay your respects and get checked out soon, you might as well use it..." She also hands Teodore a key to open it.


The room is not hard to find, as they are all labeled and soon you find yourself in a relatively large examination room that only differs from the others in being directly beside the room with the medicine cabinets, which might explain why poor Oliver might have stumbled in the way of the suspected drug addicts. You can make out a couple of diagnostors, including one to diagnose broken bones, but also a desk with a chair that - regardless of the work of the cleaning crew - is still stained by some blood splatters.
One thing is odd though. The connecting door between both rooms is locked and doesn't look as if it was replaced recently so the lock must have been picked or opened with a key. Also Oliver seems to have died on his desk. From the report it sounded as if Adamo and Malakai tried to break into the medicine cabinet, stumbled above Oliver and killed him to not get caught. But as you saw, the rooms are labeled and locked even at daytime. Which means there are three ways that could have happened:
1. The two Brontians for some reason broke the lock on the examination room, found and killed Oliver inside and then broke the lock between examination room and medicine cabinet - which sounds unneccessary complicated.
2. They broke into the medicine cabinet, for some reason decided to open the connecting door, found Oliver and killed him at his desk
3. They broke into the medicine cabinet, Oliver got up to look after the source of the noise in the next room, opened the door, then got back to his desk and was killed there.

None of the three options sounds particularly sensible. Instead Teodores gut feeling tells him, that whoever did this purposely wanted to get into the examination room and/or kill Oliver in addition to getting into the medicine cabinet. Or maybe even did the latter just to divert attention from his intentions in the examination room.



Mess hall roof


While Njal did not manage to impress Kraitus enough to adjust his low respect for the common guardsman, his pointers regarding the cooling unit seem to be... adequate. At some points the techpriest orders him to hold something or press something down and in between the two of you, you finally manage to wrestly the unwilling machine spirit into submission. "Your assistance was... acceptable. You freed up 19 minutes and 28 seconds of my schedule. As a gesture of comrady I'm willing to reschedule this timeframe to investigate your problem. Lead the way, Guardsman.

"I will not waste your time. Please follow me." Njal again awkwardly made the sign of the Omnissiah.

He quickly led Kraitus to the back of the sick bay. He gestured at the lock on the door.

"The report claims this lock was broken, and the intruder accessed the location. Can you confirm, and do you know how it was broken?

Njal knew enough about tech-priests. They wanted you to get to the point. No further need to be subtle, just tell Kraitus what was needed.

Simond takes his time at the place where the medicae died. As he appears to contemplate the healer's death.
He scans the furniture and floor for scuffs and checks the shape of the left over blood to get some insight into how he'd died. It should be easy to discern if the healer had been held and had his throat slashed like a hog, or if the killing had been a panicked affair and the healer had resisted in any way. Or if the healer had thought himself safe till the moment the blade cut into his flesh. He mutters a long and heart felt prayer to the emperor and hopes that Teodore can find something useful whist the medicae is preoccupied with him.

'Thank you for your patience healer, I am ready for your examination now.'

Poncho listened closely to the words of the prisoners, nodding along.

''Do you remember who you were drinking with. We could ask them.''

Teodore mutters a quick prayer to the machine spirit of his diagnosticator:

"I'm going to sweep this place for DNA. Also if you notice anything like a hair sample, piece of clothing, or anything like that, let me know."

[Just using my machines to make a sweep for forensic evidence]

Arbites building and holding cells

"We had a drink with Brock, Reilla, Yury and Old Ivankowitch. Just ask around our compound and you'll find them. But we told the Blackhats the same, so they likely have already sniffed them out." Adamo does not seem very happy admitting that they told the names of their drinking buddies, but you assume the Commissars have their methods to make suspects talk. "But when we left... we were pretty clear in the head, believe me. And it was not so late, at least an hour before... you know. Someone else did this. But after we left our friends its just..." Malakai makes a gesture as if stumbling around in a room that suddenly went dark "... just foggy. Next thing I know we wake up in that holding cell."

Back of the mess hall

Kraitus focusses on the mechanical lock, extending his hands, optical mechandrite and other mechanical appendices, that Njal isn't eager to look at too closely. However unused to small talk the tech priest seems to be, when it comes to machines, he is as deligient as any other member of the cult mechanicus. After opening the casing and taking a quick look, a set of pincers on his mechandrite pulls out a couple of wires that only recently have been fixed together and isolated again. Quite likely those were used to short circuit the lock and open it. But the Techpriest does not seem satisfied and rumages deeper in the mysterious mechanism, inserting some kind of adapter into a small socket. For a couple of seconds a series of small beeps emerge from the depth of his hood and Njal can make out lines of code running through the cogitator display on Kraitus chest. Suddenly he turns towards the St. Paulian with a disgusted impression. "This device was needlessly damaged!" Registering the surprise on Njals face, as he specifically already told Kraitus that the lock was broken, he elaborates "This lock was already deactivated when those wires were short circuited. But why?" Njal could imagine why - to cover up how it was truly opened. As he implies as much, Kraitus seems to access some more data from the device muttering to himself for a couple of minutes "No data available... deleted... restoring... files corrupted... checking check sums..." turning back to Njal he informs him "Multikey number E-1047-Rho-243... Attached to Adeptus Munitorum Clerk second class Juan Perez, water purification plant Gamma." That would be near the Arbites building where Wiona and Poncho went. "Clerk Perez willfully damaged this lock. He should be punished for this affront!" Kraitus highlights again, even though it might be less clearcut than that. None the less it should be interesting to have a chat with Perez, why his Multikey was used to open that door and why someone took quite some effort to cover up that it was.

Sick Bay

Simonds Investigation of the last remaining blood traces give him a rough picture of what happened, especially as he finds some the cleaning crew has missed so far. The odd thing that Simond sees are some blood splatters that are at places you would expect when there was at least a bit of a struggle - as in the report that stated that Adamo and Malakai were surprised by Oliver and killed him after a short push and shove. But the splatters... just don't look right somehow. More like someone tried to make it look that way. Instead it seems to him that Oliver was sitting at his desk, he then turned around, facing towards the door that leads to the central floor, not the medicine cabinet. The Cavalrymen is not sure, but it does not look as if Oliver really got up from his chair. Which is weird as he must have seen his would be attacker. The report said his throat was cut, and it would have been hard to get behind him with the chair turned towards the door. If you would have to guess you would think that whoever came in was threatening Oliver, forcing him to remain seated. The lethal cut - the report said to the throat - came from the side. Which might mean there were two, one threathening to remain in his seat, the other standing beside him and killing him with a knife.
This begs the question: if they already decided to kill the orderly, why not just stab him right away? And if they decided spontanously, why did they get into this room anyway? Might they have wanted some information from the orderly before they killed him?

Teodores sweep for DNA at first does not really gain anything of specific interest. Overall the expected, traces of some of the medical personell, minor traces of some patients who went through, almost nothing on the diagnostors and the examination couch which speaks for regular cleaning - good, even if a bit frustrating when looking for evidence. The Paramedic is about to give up frustrated, as he is about to join the gang of team members that notice something odd. Back at the reception desk he had noticed that the nurses don't wear gloves when using the cogitators keyboards. Not a big deal as long as you disinfect your hands and use gloves for the patients. Obviously that would leave some traces of DNA with time in between the keys. Yet the keyboard at Olivers desk is... strange. There are some DNA traces of the orderly on the keys but... just from him. Which is a bit strange as he surely would not have been the only one working at that keyboard. Would the Orderly really have thorougly cleaned the keyboard before using it? Also a little voice in Teodore points him towards the fact that an investigator might have been "satisfied" after finding DNA traces of the victim on the keyboard just checking for himself that the killer did not use it, without worrying about why there were not a lot more traces as there should be. Could it be that someone used that cogitator, then cleaned it and then just... dangled Olivers dead hand a bit along it?

Poncho nods and begins to take notes.

"Maybe there is more to learn from them, Blackhats or not. The Catachans that... I fought alongside of, were much quieter when they were around. Do you remeber if you left your drinks unwatche?d"

Njal thanked Kraitus and flashed him the sign of the Omnissiah.

This Juan Perez clerk seemed like a promising lead. However, before he talked to him he really wanted to make sure the Sarge was in the loop. He didn't want to walk into a blizzard alone.

The trooper pocketed the bits of wire. He flicked on his comm-bead, "Sarge, this if Njal. Can I get your 6? Over."

Arbites holding cells

Asked if they left their drinks unwatched Adamo replies "We were trying to unwind a bit, mate. O'course we left our drinks standing around now and then." Malakai adds "come to think of it, I don't even remember how we left, do you?" to which Adamo shakes his head. So that might also be something worth asking their Brontian friends. Meanwhile Wyona also asks a couple of questions, but overall the two Brontians have scarcely any information that gets you anywhere. They can't point out anyone that would have a specific grudge against them. Sure, they at times rubbed one of their regimental buddies the wrong way, but it seems those things get settled internally pretty soon and they think it to be pretty unlikely for a Brontian to go to these length to settle a grudge. In general there seems to be not a lot of friendship between the Brontian as a whole regiment and the new arrivals from St. Paulus, Krieg, Thoth and Simonds world [Sorry, I forgot the name], but that goes more in the opposite direction, as some Brontians are a bit sour about their reinforcements late arrival and that they get the same credit as the Brontians who held the line together with Skrynnes PDF for so long. So again: not very likely that someone would have set them up just out of regimental rivalry.

Regarding the holes in their memory: if they indeed tell the truth and not only cover up for themselves, those sound fishy as heck. It seems that from around an hour before the break in into the medicae building they are completely blacked out, up until waking up in the holding cell. Also if you can believe them, they had no intention or plan on breaking in up until that time and the scenario described in the report doesn't really sound like a spontanous idea as the murderers of that orderly knew exactly which door to open and where to go to get those meds.

Njal
"I'm listening, Njal. Anything useful on your end?" which also might imply, that Poncho and the sarge did not have much luck on their end.

" Affirmative Sarge. I got something, but it is probably best if we talk about goggles-to-goggles. If you can, can we meet-up near the water purification plants?"

Njal also wouldn't mind a bit of back-up. After all, they were hunting down someone who would not hesitate to kill to cover their tracks.

Instinctively, his hands checked his las-pistol and his Brontian Knife. He was re-assured that they were both exactly where they needed to be.

Simond decides to keep his suspicions to himself till the group can get together. He feels no need to make contact or tell Teodore his thoughts until the group could get together. In his experience it was better to get as many pieces as possible before you could start putting the picture together.

Teodore looks puzzled. "Something isn't right about all this." He looks around. "Let's get back to the rally point and see what the others found out."

By happenstance, Poncho also decides to regroup with the others, the names of the other Brontians in mind, and in writting, just to be on the safe side.

''I gathered some things, I think we should meet up'' He does use the comm-bead to ensure the others would be there, at least.

Simond gives a curt nod, the examinaiton complete there was no more reason to hang around here. His head down cast to where the medicae's body was discovered he scans around for the nearness of the orderlies legs before he replies.
'Yes, let us.'

As Njal proposed to meet up near the water purification plant and no one else mentioned another meeting point, you meet up near that facility. It is a pretty impressive collection of large pond-like water bassins connected by countless large tubes. Mysterious machinery pumps, swirls, filtrates, ionizes, desalts and pasteurizes the waste water coming from the baracks to turn into... something more or less drinkable. But all of you have noticed the metallic notes in the water coming from the faucets. Anyway, at least it's not green, muddy or moving around so when it comes to that, the Munitorum provides for its charges. The whole facility is circled by a 3 meter high wire mesh fence, with two big gates, that are guarded by some security personell. If you want to enter "officially" you come up with some explanation why some lowly guardsmen want to sniff around in there, but climbing over the fence is also not that difficult to do. If you choose that way and get confronted, you might have some explaining to do though.

After a while your whole squad (minus the two Brontians of course) is back together and you can exchange your findings.

Simond nods his greeing to the sergeant and the others.
He glances around disappointed that there is nothing much to drink but his own supply from his flask, and nowhere inviting to sit.
'This isn't the bar.'
He gives a less subtle look around at their surroundings.
'The guards at least are a good touch. We aren't completely secluded but private enough. Or are we onto someone?'

"Maybe? However busted into the medicae through the electronic lock used the identity of a Munitorium Clerk from this water plant. Goes by the name of Juan Perez." Njal vaguely nodded in the direction of the water plant.

He pulled a slightly stained cloth out of his pocket and ran it across his sweaty brow. Why didn't he ask to meet-up someplace inside?

"I don't know but it looks like our friends were set up." He shares what he found out about the odd lack of DNA on the keyboard.

"But it's not like I got a lead as to what to do with it. What did you all find out?"

Tambo nods and seems a bit... indecicive sharing what he knows. Checking that their combeads are off at least for now he mutters "uhmm... I heard around a bit here and there if SOMEONE recently got his hands on some of the medical stuff that disappeared. Just thinking as they didn't find all of the stuff that got lost I though maybe whoever took it and framed Malakai and Adamo already tried to make his cut. But so far that's been a dead end. Might mean whoever we are looking for has stashed it away for later, or maybe the whole theft is just a distraction for something else..." he shrugs. "That Perez guy definitly sounds like someone we should have a chat with, at least one of us."

Wyona chips in, interested in what Teodore had to say "Sounds like someone was using that cogitator... and maybe even the codes of that dead medicae staffer. Any idea what for?"

Simond bit his lip, it seemed like time to spill the beans. 'The medicae did not struggle, he did not try to resist his attackers with living breath. He knew them. Or they were of authority. Either way he did not believe they would kill him.'
He thought for a few moments. He chewed his lip again.
'Unless they threatened to shoot him with a gonne or a laser to make him compliant. But someone went to an effort to make it look like a struggle.'

Teodore runs through some of the nefarious things that someone could do with access to that cogitation terminal. (As Pyroalchi notes).

"The question is though, how do we figure out who had access to that terminal the night of the murder?"

Njal scratched his beard, "Seems pretty clear that something more than what the black hats are willing to admit to is going on.

Let's watch for this Perez guy, follow him until we find some dark alley, and then shake him down and see if we can crack his ice."

Njal flashed a big grin, "Like old, old times eh Tambo!"

''There's the manner of the troopers that drank with those accused, too, perhaps they have seen things, should be split to talk to them?''

Poncho added, after listening to what everyone else had to bring to the table.

Tambo chuckles regarding Njalls comment but chips in "Do you know how the guy looks? Or do we only have a name?"

Wyona on the other hand comments on Njal implying there is more goin on than the black hats admit: "I'm not so sure this really went by the black hats. On first sight this all looked so clear, that I would guess the local peacekeepers were the only ones looking at the scene and they just dropped the finished report on some Commissars desk. At least that's what I hope, 'cause then they might be open to new intel. Especially if we uncover something bigger brewing here."

Teodors thoughts are seconded by M'Gele "Or, if they really did get this poor Medicae access codes, what the poor buggers account has been doing the night he died. Sounds like something a blackhat might have the creds to find out, but do we really want to deal with those now?"