Mechashades

The Mechashades are a mysterious organization that
sells their services to the highest bidder. These services
include all forms of industrial espionage and sabotage,
and, as such, they are in great demand from unscrupulous
merchant houses looking to gain an advantage over their
competition. Of course, it is rare that there is any provable link
to the ruling family of the given merchant house. Instead, a
lower ranking member will invariably be used as intermediary
so that, should the authorities investigate, the house can claim
the member was acting on his own misguided volition—
the merchant family would never endorse such despicable
tactics and naturally will do whatever they can to assist with
enquiries. While it is true that, on occasion, minor factions
within a merchant house have contracted the Mechashades’
services without the knowledge of their superiors, it is more
common that the house patriarch, matriarch, or ruling council
(whichever holds the true power in that particular instance)
has in fact sanctioned the decision, whether tacitly or overtly.
While it is impossible to know which of the Lathe Worlds
the Mechashades operate from, it is widely suspected by
Calixian Arbites that they do function from that trio of forge
worlds. Perhaps they have no true central location, and operate
instead through a network on all three planets. While their
services are often purchased by nobility, merchant houses, or
the politically influential across the Calixis Sector, the Lathe
Worlds note the highest propensity for unexplained acts of
sabotage attributed to the group. This may be lax investigation
on the part of the local Fortress-Precinct, however, the sheer
volume of reports lends credence to the accusations.
Once their services have been retained, the Mechashades
will deploy operational teams led by rogue Tech-Adepts. Each adept’s seniority and expertise varies depending on the
specific task at hand. At their command is an army of mech-wrights
and servitors of every kind, equipped with digital
tech or hefty machine tools as required. Most merchant
houses start out by requesting some form of espionage
perpetrated against their closest rivals. Often this is simply
the acquisition of sensitive information that will provide some
profitable advantage. Prior warning of takeover attempts and
marital family mergers allows a house to prepare for trouble
or issue counter proposals. Figures for service bids and trade
costings enable the house to undercut and win new charters. Technical schematics and organizational charts mean the
house can replicate its opponent’s successes, while the joyous
news that a rival is in financial difficulties or even close to
collapse allows the house to be ready to sweep in and claim
the broken pieces when the time comes. 
However, once a merchant house has this valuable inside
information, it is more than tempting to use the Mechashades’
expertise once again in order to make best use of the data. After all, why wait for a rival’s monetary collapse when you
could precipitate it? Why merely copy a rival’s methods when
you could damage or wreck his operations? Even if such things
are not requested by their employers, the Mechashades will
suggest further services that they could perform, illustrating
the huge difference they can make in elevating the fortunes
of one house over another. Indeed, if the employer seems
reticent, they often embark on such operations unbidden,
presenting their acts of sabotage as a fait accompli. No
one would ever believe that the house had not sanctioned
these deeds, and so they can do little about it even if they
wanted to. So, like it or not, the Mechashades will soon be
engaged in widespread activity on behalf of the merchant
house. Their operations will grow in frequency and severity,
designed to cripple competitors and propel the house into a
huge campaign of expansion and acquisition. 
Mechashade operatives blend in easily in any industrial
or commercial setting and the senior Tech-Adepts can easily
overwrite the programming of servitors and machinery
belonging to the target when necessary. As such, they can gain
access to the most critical systems. Authorization codes are
stolen or changed. Requisition requests for vital supplies and
repairs are cancelled or switched. Alarm systems are triggered
to cause huge delays or deactivated to cause serious danger.
Soon, structural problems and accidents will be arranged.
Industrial machinery seizes up after being anointed with the
wrong grade of lubricant. Furnaces overheat and explode
after pressure shut-off gauges are jammed. Hydrothermic
dams suffer catastrophic breaches. Operations on orbital
docking stations are brought to a standstill when docking
clamps lose power. Mineshafts collapse, cranes tumble, fuel
depots catch ablaze. In one case a fully laden cargo hauler’s
anti-grav engines failed and the vessel crashed down directly
onto a rival family’s estate mansion, killing two-thirds of the
house leadership.
It is only when matters are close to irreversible for the
unfortunate competitors of the merchant house that has
employed the Mechashades that the organization makes
their boldest move yet. They initiate contact with those
houses they have been systematically destroying and
offer the chance to outbid their current employers. The
Mechashades will happily play the rival houses against each
other, fostering what amounts to a secret auction as each side
ups their bids, desperate to gain or retain the Mechashades’
assistance. On occasions, merchant houses have refused to
bid and instead sought the aid of the authorities---this is
the main source of intelligence that has made the Adeptus
Arbites aware of the Mechashades. However, so far this
has been to no avail. The merchant dynasties in question
have promptly fallen into ruin---the killing blows already
poised to strike in case of this eventuality. The resulting
investigations have proven fruitless; rogue servitors are
practically impossible to distinguish from the thousands of
others unless they are caught in the act of sabotage. Only
deep analysis of their programming code can identify the
traitors definitively, but such testing requires expert skills
and it is nigh impossible to screen an entire workforce.
As a result, most houses agree to bid and, whatever the
result, the Mechashades gain a considerable boost to their
fee. Should the outcome be that their loyalty switches, their former
employers will be faced with serious problems. All the while
the Mechashades were working for them, trusted as an ally,
they were also quietly acquiring data from their employer’s
systems, learning access codes, and reprogramming servitors
and machinery with hidden sub-routines that would stay
dormant until needed. As such, any organization that has ever
paid for the services of the Mechashades will in turn be severely
vulnerable to their attacks, should they subsequently change
allegiance. What is particularly worrying for the Arbites,
is that the Mechashades have worked on behalf of dozens,
perhaps hundreds, of merchant houses over the decades.
They must have built up a huge amount of information,
and soon will have infiltrated the commercial and logistical
operations of the sector so thoroughly that, should they so
wish, they could cripple the entire infrastructure and bring
Calixis to a grinding halt. Trade and industry would cease,
billions would starve, and, more importantly, tithes would
go unpaid. Whether such calamitous sabotage is indeed their
ultimate agenda, no one knows. Some say the Mechashades
are led by a Heretek Magos in league with the fel powers of
Chaos and striving to weaken the sector prior to some future
military incursion. Others theorize that they are making a
play to destroy or control every major merchant house and
themselves become the dominant commercial enterprise
across the sector. Some even point to a connection with the
Skaelen-Har Hegemony, suggesting that the huge corporation
is their ultimate master. Either way, the Mechashades cause
untold disruption to trade and industry in the Calixis Sector,
whoever they happen to be working for, and the net result
is that the sector’s output in terms of the Imperial tithe is
reduced. It is not surprising then that both Sector Governor Hax and
Lord Marshal Goreman, as well as more than one of the Great Houses, have devoted considerable resources to locating and
purging the Mechashades.
==Catastrophic Designs==
Agents of the Mechashades are currently targeting the
merchant trade Houses Drogar and Pikkofule, situated
within the heart of Hive Sibellus on Scintilla. The two allied
houses previously employed the Mechashades themselves
and enjoyed a tremendous boost in their fortunes as their
competitors and rivals suffered critical problems, failures,
and accidents. However, one of those rivals has recently
succeeded in buying away the Mechashades’ loyalty, and now
Drogar and Pikkofule are learning what it is like to be on
the receiving end of a campaign of disruption and sabotage. Both are already facing serious difficulties, but now the
Mechashades are preparing a monumental blow that will ring
the death knell for the merchant houses and, quite possibly,
many others besides.
They have just acquired a seismic torpedo, an enormous
piece of ordnance that was destined for use on one of the
titanic warships of the Calixian battlefleet. Its warhead is
capable of a massive level of destruction, designed to create
artificial fault-lines in a planet’s crust, causing tremors and
quakes that will level buildings for hundreds of miles. The
Mechashades have a particularly diabolical plan in mind for
the warhead. Deep within Hive Sibellus, roughly half a mile
below the domains of House Drogar and Pikkofule, almost
down to the shattered dereliction of the underhive, they are
nearing completion of a huge industrial operation. The site
is centered about one of the three gargantuan spine-pillars
that support the entire structure of the hive. This enormous
foundation tower is hundreds of meters in diameter, and
constructed from millions of tonnes of steel and adamantium. The outer layer alone is ten meters thick and many more
layers form concentric circles within, bonded together with
mammoth iron-forged girders. Massive, ancient generators
are hidden within its depths, maintaining enormous power
fields to bolster structural integrity. The Mechashades have
spent months drilling, grinding, and excavating a passageway
into the core of the spine-pillar. In order to complete this
monumental project they have re-tasked an army of industrial
servitors and heavy equipment from the two houses above. Once they have reached the center, they will install the
warhead and detonate. 
The result of the explosion will be nothing short of
catastrophic. At the very least, the spine-pillar will suffer
major damage, the factoria, refineries, and warrens of Drogar
and Pikkofule will crash down upon themselves, collapsing
into the underhive, and all the areas in line above will likely
plummet down on top. Millions of workers will perish
and the damage will be irreparable. At worst, if the spine-pillar
is completely severed, and if the remaining structure
cannot cope with the resulting hive quakes, then the entire
mountainous edifice of the spire could collapse down onto
the rest of the hive. Billions would die and Hive Sibellus
would be essentially destroyed. The repercussions would
cause irrevocable damage to the entire Calixis Sector.