The Talon Syndicate

Inquisitor Lang of Helle had conducted considerable investigations (codenamed Operation Birdcage) into the Ragnarok crime syndicate known as the Talon, but with limited success.

As with much organised crime, it's easier to capture and interrogate the muscle enforcers than the brains. And in the Talon is seems the brains know how important that secrecy is even from one’s own soldiers. The syndicate is run on a cell level, with different enforcers often not knowing they're working for the same bosses. Indeed Operation Birdcage seemed to indicate some events which were originally believed to be turf wars in the Fenrir Foundaries seemed to be two cells of the same syndicate unknowingly pitched against one another.

The Talon seem to be very careful about allowing members to fall into Inquisition hands. Many soldiers caught by the Inquisition suffer assassination attempts or die in suspiciously custody. Those who survive have been known to show some level of training in resisting psychic influence.

Operation Birdcage seemed to show that the Talon seem to use a network of illegal psykers to convey communication between the brains and the different operating cells. Each cell is told only what it needs to do to serve it's masters, and nothing less. Yet oddly these psykers do not seem linked to any Chaos cultist or other usual subversives.

Survivors tell of a ranking system within the organisation, with members ranks based on an ornithological scheme …

• Canaries – are new recruits eager to prove themselves
• Ravens – are the main soldier league
• Pigeons – the illegal psykers who carry messages
• Owls – the local cell leaders
• Vultures – a band of highly trained assassins
• The Buzzard – the much feared and brutal hit man who runs the Vultures for the Talon
• The Hawk, The Falcon, The Harrier, The Osprey – member of the Talons High Family, a secret council for the organisation
• The Eagle – the secretive head of the organisation
• The Nightingales - the Eagles personal bodyguard

Little is known but much is suspected about the Talon High Family and The Eagle themselves. They are believed by Inquisitor Lang to be high ranking members of Hellion society, possibly on the Hellion Committee itself. He believed the Talons aims under the High Family was to profit from the black marketing of goods from Jotunheim, together with profiteering from the miners and workers throughout the star system via the provision of narcotics and other illegal practises.

However Inquisitor Lang believed the syndicates aims went far beyond illegal activities, they were in collusion with possible non-terrestrial sources regarding the overthrow-by-arms of the Storm Wolves in Ragnarok. Lang believed this trail lead back to xenos such as the Eldar, the Tau and even the Orks together with some Imperial guard commander known for more mercenary tendencies.

Sadly as both Inquisitor Lang and the evidence from Operation Birdcage perished in an unfortunate powerplant overload which destroyed several buildings together with his offices in Helle, his suspicions have not been able to be investigated further ...