Vox-Journal recovered from St. Leng's Castle

Vox-Journal of PDF Sergeant Wilzem Diar

8.349.099.M42 Don’t want to be here in this damned castle. Pohbady told this place is cursed – honestly, I can believe it! This whole damn place sets my teeth on edge. The “blueys” ain’t helping matters. Those up top say they’re our ‘allies’, that they’ll make us rich, and it’ll be milk and honey as far as the eye can see if we stick by them. I say milk and honey don’t matter if you’re dead. Imperium is back and the Big Boys don’t take kindly to consorting with xenos. Well, I don’t make the big decisions - that’s for the nobles in Astalli to make. I just go where I’m told. Just wish it wasn’t here. Don’t care how strategically significant this place is or what the “blueys” say, something ain’t right here.


8.350.099.M42 The “bluey” in charge here - Shas-something something - frak it I don’t care, dunno why the Astalli threw in them. For clever dick educated noble-borns, they sure are dumb. Even I can tell these “blueys” are taking them for a ride. Promising them the galaxy and then robbing us blind. Anyway, where was I?
Oh yeah. The “bluey” commander. Right. He called in to great hall this morning saying that he was “aware of the rumours circulating” and that “they had no basis in fact or science” and “the idea that the castle’s haunted is just primitive gue’la superstitions used to keep us ignorant” …arrogant frakker. This place is off. I can feel it my bones - like an itch you can’t reach, deep in the skin.

8.397.099.M42 Byrde and Joshi have gone missing - they didn’t turn up for their shifts this afternoon. They were doing their patrols and just vanished into thin frakking air. Shas’blue’bastard says they’ve gone AWOL, scarpered but I knew Joshi! He wouldn’t have just buggered off like that, no way.
Shas’no-nose gave the Fivers punishment duty and half-rations. They’ve been moved, bunks and all, to the lower levels. No-one likes the lower levels. It’s even worse down there. The itch is stronger. It makes you tired, makes it hard to think - but the itch is still therem stronger in your head, your bones, and your teeth. Poor bastards.


8.427.099.M42 Poor sods. Barely lasted more than a week down there before they cracked. They didn’t rock up for their shifts, so guess who was told to go and grab them? That’s right, me and my lot. Poor bastards. When we got to the Fivers bunks down in the lower levels. Saints preserve me, the blood, it was everywhere! I don't know what happened down there, and quite frankly, ignorance is bliss. Half of the squad's dead—torn to pieces, battered beyond recognition, you name it. It's as if something just snapped down there. The survivors, those who remained, just sit around in a daze, vacant expressions as if their lights were on but nobody was home.
Shas’frakker has ordered a complete investigation into what happened. So, now I get more time here in the down-deep. Lovely.


8.438.099.M42 Glad I bunk up here and not down-deep where the Fivers did. Every moment I spend there is awful - it drains you, fills your head with fog. Your thoughts feel like they’re swimming through tar and it’s difficult to remember why you’re there. You just want to sit down and stop. It gets worse the deeper you go.
More people have vanished. Even Chief "Bluey" admits this can’t be just desertion, that something else is happening. At this rate the whole castle will be empty before the month is out. How’s that for a “strategically significant” castle - ungarrisoned and down a company!


8.460.099.M42 The "Blueys" obviously taking things a bit more seriously now. They must have got on the horn to "Bluey" command ‘cause this morning we got a special delivery. Some sort of seismo-sensor doodad. Shas’frakker told us how it worked. Like we were morons. I know want a seismo-radar is, you arrogant frak! We were travelling the void when your lot thought fire and shitting in cave was the height of sophistication!
Anyway, turns out there’s a whole warren of tunnels underneath the castle. Me and my lot were the one chosen to go down and have a look. Always the way, where there’s danger "blueys" stay up top whilst we do the dirty work. The old lot before the blueys may have been dicks, but they led from the front at least.


8.465.099.M42 The tunnels are worse than the down-deep. Somehow. You need stims to just think normally.
The whole place is a maze down here. And the tunnels are… wrong somehow, too smooth, too clean, too... I don’t know, too unnatural. The stone is weird and slick to the touch, like oil and I’m convinced we’re being watched by… something.
We found some of the “deserters” - nothing but bones and dust now. Had to identify them by ident-chips. Whatever lives down here has been picking us off bit by bit since we arrived. Turns out this place is cursed after all. I hate being right.


8.517.099.M42 Oh…frak, Oh Emperor…shit, shit, shit. Whatever lives in those tunnels has come up. Throne, they just appeared out the air, walked through the walls and…. Lake, Derleth, Utwud all dead, gone in a flash, just dust now, ashes, armour did nothing! Hiding behind cover, hah, Utwud tried that, didn’t help. Derleth and Lake just stood there blank faced, the itch got them, the slow-thought from the tunnels. I unloaded at them…an entire magazine…nothing! …they just stood there. Even the"bluey" weapons did nothing. I saw one of the things go down to bluey pulse fire but it just got back up! The metal healed itself! How the frak does that happen!?!
Managed to hole myself up in the armoury but I know I’m dead but there’s explosives here. A frak load of them, maybe that take few of them out. Oh…where did that come from?
The doors locked…how? Oh…I can’t feel my legs…oh that’s why…they’re over there…how?
Like a ghost…through the walls…I…
RECORDING ENDS