Page 105 - Hunter the Vigil - Mortal Remains

CHAPTER FOUR: THE UNDYING ONES

counter-balanced by the Guardians’ reluctance to deploy their Internally, the Jagged Crescent has tentatively reconnected
relics against the competition. Occasional, internal conflicts with their fellow factions to share knowledge their. Certainly,
have grown within the Aegis Kai Duro over this tactic. Experi- most Ascending Ones would be unaware that mummies have
enced Guardians who are parachuted in to help with retrieval survived this long, until that moment when these hunters are
may attempt to pull rank over more inexperienced local hunt- pulled aside, and made quietly aware that their tasks may have
ers who know far less about the competition, and who are quite deeper implications than they first realized. Slowly but surely, a
understandably far more reluctant to enter combat without body of knowledge may be collected and then compared with
holding big guns in their hands. the thin documentary evidence members have from the very
More experienced hunters are well aware that a hunter who earliest days of the Ascending Ones.
has been identified by a mummy, especially one who has been The picture that is beginning to emerge suggests the time
in direct contact, is a tainted asset and likely doomed. No sense for sleep is over. The Order of the Phoenix must become both
in handing the mummy a useful gift even when it executes its eyes of the Vigil, or the very reason for the existence of the As-
vengeance against a hapless hunter. If a mummy, or its cult, iden- cending Ones may be overturned. The Returning Ones have, at
tifies a human as a hunter, she can no longer rise through the Ae- last, proved to live up to their name.
gis Kai Doru’s ranks. Once targeted, that mummy becomes that
hunter’s responsibility for the rest of his life. There are reputedly The Cheiron Group
whole bands of guardians who have been in conflict with the Lately, several business journals have been running stories
same creature for decades now. They watch and wait and, if nec- about The Cheiron Group more than they normally do. Clas-
essary, move to a different city in line with their prey. They keep sified advertisements have also begun to appear listing several
themselves busy weakening any cult the mummy might have left job postings for mergers and acquisitions specialists with expe-
between the times it’s awake, and distract themselves with any lo- riences in a number of international territories. The messaging
cal monsters who might raise their heads high enough for them is remarkably consistent, as The Cheiron Group does have the
to be removed. But they know that their Vigil is now focused for best PR firms working for them, and claims that they are tak-
the rest of their lives. Mummies seem to sometimes forget who ing advantage of market conditions to increase its R&D arm
they are, and not remember them between encounters, and then through strategic acquisitions. The Group’s members have also
suddenly recall then again a decade later. offered statements to analysts in informal briefings about how
Should the mummies ever discover the Aegis Kai Doru’s the Group hopes to have some exciting news to share in the
central hoard of relic in Athens, or get the slightest whiff of its near future about advancements in life-extension technology.
existence, then all-out war is likely, at a level both sides would As a result of this news, the Group’s share price is rising.
find hard to cover up. A few Guardians pause to wonder why a All signs point to the fact that The Cheiron Group may
cache of powerful artifacts has failed to attract any such notice have made a cutting-edge discovery that has opened up a whole
over time, but the implications of that usually dissuade them new market for them. What could that possibly be? And what’s
from thinking too deeply about it. the connection with the sudden development of a new building
and staff recruitment for one of the company’s long-neglected
Ascending Ones archival facilities in central Europe?
What caused two sects of soldiers to form so very long ago, Those knowledgeable few who have some familiarity with
in ancient Egypt? Why did the Cults of Set and the Phoenix the firm’s standard operating procedures might recall that
come to be? Their own tales, known to few of the modern mem- there’s a very small section in the Field Division Projects Hand-
bership, tell of ancient, undying beings whose influence spread book which outlines conditions for the company or its sub-
across the whole of the country. They were embedded deep sidiaries to execute the hostile takeover of external companies
into the government and markets of Egypt, and little was done when they betray a particular pattern of activity, particularly
without their blessing or direction. around founders, founders’ families, or non-executive direc-
In the modern era, the Ascending Ones regard the mum- tors.
mies, which they commonly refer to as the “Returning Ones”, Not all of The Cheiron’s Group recent activities have been
as a closed chapter in this ancient conspiracy’s history. The un- positive or productive. One report, carried by a newswire, is that
dying’s defeat and banishment is at the heart of the Ascending one of the Cheiron Group R&D facilities in the Midwest was
One’s inner mystery. This is so rooted in their identity, that recently destroyed in a freak industrial accident. The Group’s
these hunters rarely realize exactly what they’re facing when official position is that the explosion that caused the deaths of
they do encounter a returning mummy. After all, The Order of two security guards and the partial destruction of the research
the Southern Temple and the Knife of Paradise both have little facility was caused by an uncontrolled reaction during a highly-
knowledge to share. volatile experiment. The facility in question was a recent acqui-
Amongst the leaders of the Jagged Crescent, however, they sition, constructed after the rapid and hostile takeover of what
are aware their ancient foes still exist. The surges of mummy ac- had formerly been a generations-old brewery.
tivity in recent months, coupled with the re-emergence of crimi- Corporate communications put the incident down to low-
nal organizations thought long gone in the underworld, have er standards at the newly-acquired subsidiary, and made it plain
triggered the alarm. Only now does the Jagged Crescent realize that The Cheiron Group’s standard best practices would be ap-
that mummies might be a greater threat than they ever expected. plied in the future — and that compliance personnel had been

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