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Valentin Drusher

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Valentin Drusher was a Magos Biologis, who was contracted by the Planetary Governor of Gershom to draw up a comprehensive taxonomy of the world's fauna.[1]

This long process would take seven long years and an exasperated Drusher was nearly done with the assignment, when he was contacted about a series of killings done by an unknown apex predator. The Planetary Governor then tasked Drusher with traveling to Gershom's Outer Udar, to identify the creature and the Magos was forced to comply. Vexed that he had to spend more time on a world he had wished to leave long ago, and annoyed that he had somehow missed a predator fauna, Drusher journeyed to the Outer Udar and made contact with its Baron, Karne. Unfortunately, there was some miscommunication between the Planetary Governor and the Baron, who thought Drusher was a hunter who would kill the beast that had been preying upon the people of his lands. Though Drusher explained that he was merely there to catalog the creature, the Magos agreed to help in tracking it down and worked beside the Arbitrator Germaine Macks and the off-world hunter Fernal Skoh; who had each failed in finding and killing the creature. Afterwards, the Magos began gathering evidence from the bodies of the predator's victims and learned that despite no one having been reported surviving an encounter with the creature, it was widely described as having no eyes. Skoh later told Drusher, that the description likely spread from the fiery sermons that the Outer Udar's Ecclesiarchal Bishop had started to give, after the predator had begun its attacks on the population. The Bishop claimed that the creature was an emissary of Chaos, that preyed upon them due to their lack of faith and it could only be killed after they reaffirmed their faith in the Emperor.[1]

Despite this proclamation though, when the predator killed yet another victim, Drusher and the others quickly traveled to the murder scene and began tracking the creature. However, the creature soon ambushed the group of hunters Skoh led and killed most of them before Drusher, Macks and the Junior Arbitrator Lussin found them. The lone surviving hunter of Skoh's group subsequently fled, but Skoh lived long enough to warn Drusher that the mysterious predator was a Tyranid, before he then died from his wounds. Luckily one of the hunters had been able to hit the creature with a tracker during the ambush and Drusher's remaining group continued to hunt it. They were able to track it down to an abandoned water-mill, but the creature launched yet another ambush and quickly killed Lussin. It then turned upon Drusher and Macks, who each saved each other's lives in battle with the predator, before the Arbitrator finally killed the creature. Drusher then examined its corpse and confirmed that Skoh had been right, the deadly predator they had been hunting was a Hormagaunt Tyrannid. Further examinations by the Magos, led to the discovery that the Hormagaunt had been implanted with a goad-control, that had allowed someone to use the creature to commit the killings. When Drusher informed Macks of this, he speculated that the Outer Udar's Bishop had been behind the attacks; as he had a lot to gain from something that would reinvigorate his stubborn flock's faith in the Emperor. A full-scale investigation was then launched to determine who had been behind the attacks and as Drusher was a chief witness, to the controlled Hormagaunt's reign of terror, he was forced to remain on Gershom until it was complete.[1]

Drusher would remain on Gershom for far longer than the investigation: over twenty years, in fact. During that time, he married Germaine Macks. However, the marriage lasted only three years.[2a]

Notes

Despite the title of "Magos Biologis" otherwise being used exclusively by the biotech experts of the Adeptus Mechanicus, Valentin Drusher was notably not a member of the Mechanicus. In this sole instance, the title is used synonymously with "Doctor of Biology", as Drusher was an Imperial scholar of zoology and biology.[1]

Sources