Inquisitors order
A 40k Novel
Prolog
Cain Suffergrind lay sleeping on his bed with a lho-stick in his mouth - even in sleep he needed his fix. The smoke from the lho-stick was heavy in the room, and only Bethancore or one of them tech-priests would be able to stay in the room without choking. The room was not all that big but it was large enough for Cain to store his things in: there were his weapons, some clothes and spare parts for his metal leg. Or more like junk parts, after all they were broken. He was old and scarred but one would not think so when looking at him, even if the scars showed, the synth-skin made him look fairly young.
The door to the room opened without a sound, and Solon entered the room. The tech-priest floated into the room and stopped to look down at the meat bag sleeping in the makeshift bed. She had been the one who had "healed" him after his unfortunate run in with a heavy flamer, she had told Inquisitor Graves that he would need lho-sticks to battle the pain. The leg, however, was not her design - Graves had put some servo-skulls on replacing Cain's leg about 20 years ago and Cain had not upgraded it, probably since he did not know that it was possible.
She decided that he had slept long enough, and with a gesture of her hand the lights were turned on and the bed was pulled into the wall. Cain hit the floor with a loud crash. He tried to rise to his feet, but was halted once his gaze fell on Solon. "Did you have to do that?" he muttered.
"Yes." Solon replied as robotically as she could - she loved to have some fun with the meat bags
Graves kept employed.
"Why?" Cain asked, now standing up.
"It was a joke." Solon replied. She was smiling, he knew she was. As a tech-priest, Solon did not have any facial expressions, but there were still some sort of tone in her voice, and from time to time she shifted her body so that you knew she was showing emotions. Now she held an amused giggle position.
"I did not find it all that funny." Cain started putting on his armor - he knew that he was going to leave the ship later that day.
"I found it funny." Solon looked at him. "You are needed at the bridge for briefing."
With that, she turned around and floated out of the room. Cain put a new lho-stick to his lips and lit it. Once it was burning he went to follow Solon.
Cain was an acolyte under the Inquisitor Tyrus Graves in the Calixis sector. He had served the Inquisitor for over 20 years, ever since his first Inquisitor, Globus Scain, turned out to be a heretic. Graves had given them a choice - work for him and hunt Scain down, or leave.
Not interested in finding out what cruel fate awaited those who turned their back on an Inquisitor, Cain and his friends had joined Graves.
5 years later, almost all of Cain's friends had gone missing on a space hulk, code-named "The Twilight". The space hulk had been destroyed and Cain had never heard from them again. They were presumed dead, but labeled as 'M.I.A.' - missing in action.
Over the years they had run into both Scain and a heretical Kaban machine. Scain was supposedly dead now, but who knew - he had been a confirmed kill, twice.