An encrypted report was urgently delivered to Inquisition headquarters that morning.
Terra, Inquisition headquarters, Records Reception Hall.
Thousands upon thousands of messages arrived here from across the galaxy every hour, every minute, every second.
The Imperium's territory was simply too vast.
As a result, the volume of information Terra had to process every day was terrifying, an ocean of data.
The Lord Inquisitors naturally did not wait here to receive messages in person.
Every incoming report passed through layer upon layer of screening and filtering by their subordinates, who then selected the more urgent ones to send up the chain.
An Inquisitor in a long black uniform coat picked up an Encrypted Dataslate from the conveyor belt and gave it a casual glance.
[The Emperor's special envoy, Lin En, is suspected of controlling twelve mothership-class Tyranid creatures and an unknown number of escort frigates in the Bolomite system. Method of control unknown. Immediate assessment recommended.]
Oh, suspected corruption. Moderate urgency. Next...
He failed to register it on his first reading. Just as he was about to put it down, he froze.
Wait.
That's not right.
...Controlling what?
He read it a second time.
Then he carefully turned the Dataslate over and checked the Inquisition insignia on the back.
Once he confirmed it was genuine, he turned it back over and read it again.
For a moment, he thought the Dataslate had been corrupted.
After confirming that the message itself was indeed in order, the duty Inquisitor shot to his feet. His chair slid backward and struck the filing cabinet behind him with a crash!
Every colleague in the Records Reception Hall instantly looked up at him: "?"
Ignoring their stares, the duty Inquisitor immediately stuffed the report into a Cipher Case and hurried toward his superior's office.