Untouchable Part 2

by ohiodreamz42gmail.com

Mabien Embarks onhis first mission as an operative in the Inquisition Please Note; I am well aware that there are alot of discrepencies between this book and the 40k universe... Please dont get hung up on that... I am currently working fixing it as we speak But please tell me if you find this an enjoyable read and how the action scenes play out in your head

Untouchable

Part 2 – Get Me My God-Damned Interrogator

Chapter 11

!Captain Drennan and I walked in silence. I could tell by his demeanor that the ritual had had a significant effect on him as well. I entered my room, removed the robe, and got back into my fatigues. I then went into the hallway to wait for Captain Drennan. He came out and without speaking proceeded to lead the way to Inquisitor Voke's office where we would learn what our first mission would be. I'd never been there before, but he obviously had. He led us through the ship to Inquisitor Voke's office unaided by the navigational lights I'd expected him to use.

We proceeded to the very top level of the forward-most part of the vessel. We then walked down a very long and dark corridor. When we came to the end of it I saw a set of double doors labeled "Bridge". Captain Drennan stopped at the last door just before the bridge and hit the key that would notify Inquisitor Voke that there was someone outside.

Captain Drennan looked over to me, "You ready?"

"Yes Sir."

"Good, let's show these civilians how Troopers do business."

"Yes Sir." With that the door to Inquisitor Voke's office slid open.

Inside was a room that looked as if it had come straight out of the history books. I was amazed as I took in the sight of it all. The floor was a deep satin-colored wood with a large - very expensive looking - black rug covering most of it. The walls were lined with shelves made of the same kind of wood and they were filled to the breaking point with hundreds, if not thousands, of ancient looking books. There were even more ancient looking portraits of Inquisitors from times long past hanging on the walls between the shelves. In one corner was a very old globe of the planet Earth with a small golden figurine mounted on it marking the location of the Emperor's Golden Throne. The rest of the room was cluttered with scores of artifacts from the history of humanity, some leaning casually against the walls and others sitting on tables or mounted within glass cases.

At the far end of the room was a very large wooden desk with an equally large vid-screen on the wall behind it. Inquisitor Voke was sitting behind the desk and Inquisitor Shrock was sitting with his back to us in one of the three antique leather chairs in front of it.

"I must admit I do have a taste for very old things. I guess I find it comforting to know that no matter how old I get, there are still some things in the Imperium that have been around longer than me." Inquisitor Voke smiled at the both of us. I continued to look around until my eyes settled upon an ancient looking sword sitting on a table in front of one of the shelves. I walked over to it and almost grabbed ahold without thinking. I stopped myself short, quickly remembering exactly where we were and more importantly, who it belonged to. I looked up to Inquisitor Voke, "Please, by all means Corporal." He said with a nod.

I was awestruck, the sword was huge. It was obviously meant to be held with two hands. It was made entirely of steel and the grip was wrapped in some kind of ancient leather. I reached down to pick it up and quickly realized that I would have to use both hands to do so. The weight of the thing was tremendous, but at the same time I realized that it was also precisely balanced. I looked up to Inquisitor Voke as I held it in both hands, "What is it?"

"It's a sword you dumb ape," Shrock said before he could answer. He looked over to Inquisitor Voke, "I swear; it seems he gets a little dumber every day."

Voke paid him no attention, "It's a very, very, ancient artifact from Earth. It's called a broad sword. It was used over forty thousand years ago in something called the Crusades. As you can tell, people were made of a lot hardier stock back then."

"People carried these things?!" It was so heavy I couldn't imagine someone lugging one around all day.

"Absolutely, and not only did they carry weapons as unwieldy as that, they also wore armor that weighed close to forty kilos. They were called knights and they lived their lives according to a code that is very similar to that of the Inquisition. That particular sword was designed with the idea that even if it struck an opponent's armor it would still cause damage to the person underneath."

"Inquisitor, if you are quite through with your history lesson, we do have some very important work to do." Shrock interrupted.

"Yes, yes I know. Come, sit down Corporal Frost. My apologies gentlemen, I tend to have a hard time controlling myself when it comes to talking about items of historical value." As Inquisitor Voke said this I carefully replaced the sword where I had found it, then went and took a seat in the chair between Captain Drennan and Inquisitor Shrock.

Inquisitor Voke looked at us for a minute or two before speaking, "Almost nine months ago, an emergency communication was received from an advanced colonization expedition headed for Subjuga Two. They reported seeing what they described as a, "Twisted Imperial warship" orbiting the planet. As you both know, the ship was never heard from again. This prompted me to call Admiral McGlower and ask him if he could offer the Inquisition some assistance in investigating the matter. He then directed my call to you Captain Drennan, saying that you were by far his best recon unit commander."

"Yes, we all know this part Inquisitor, would you please get on with it." Shrock put voice to exactly what I was thinking.

"Okay, okay, moving on. A little over five years ago, Chaos forces launched a massive incursion into Imperial Space. As you both know they nearly broke through the Cadien defenses."

"Yes Sir, we were both part of the re-enforcements sent from the Helican sub-sector. Our Storm Trooper regiment was specifically credited with turning the tide of the ground-war." Captain Drennan said.

"Yes I'm well aware of that Captain. But what you don't know; is that during that battle, a lone Chaos battleship escaped destruction and disappeared into Imperial held space. No Imperial warship gave chase at the time because they were all still too deeply entrenched in the conflict to do so. When they finally were able to launch a pursuit, all traces of the ship were gone. It's as if it simply vanished. The Imperial Navy looked for the ship for nearly six months before it lost interest and called off the search."

"How does the Navy just give up looking for an entire enemy battleship?" I asked.

"They didn't just give up," he answered quickly. "They realized they were incapable of finding it and asked the Inquisition to take over. We accepted and the Lord High Inquisitor assigned the task to the one person he felt had the best possible chance of finding the vessel."

"Yes, yes, we're all well aware of your outstanding reputation. Could you please get on with the details relevant to the mission at hand?" Shrock was growing impatient.

"I'm getting there Damon. If you would kindly quit interrupting me, this would all go along much more quickly." Voke said admonishing Inquisitor Shrock.

Voke continued, "Needless to say, this is the part of the story where I come in. Being that any trace of the vessel had long since disappeared. I started my investigation by looking for any signs of abnormal activity coming from suspected Chaos cults along the ship's last known heading. It didn't take long to pick up the trail. On nearly every planet on the way to the Helican Sub-Sector I had to stop and deal with Chaos related activity."

"Sometimes this would take a couple of weeks; sometimes it would take a couple of months, all depending on the severity of the local situation. With each and every stop, the trail grew colder. I had been on the case nearly four years when I realized I had to change tactics or risk losing them all together."

"I'd almost lost hope that I would ever locate the missing ship when I received the report of that lost expedition. The description sent, matched very closely to what I believed to be the ship I'd been searching for. I then asked Admiral McGlower to send someone to investigate. He in turn directed me to you Captain Drennan and you both know what happened next."

"After your mission, Commissar Bowen called and told me what you had found, confirming my suspicions that the ship had in fact been to Subjuga Two. Needless to say, I was highly upset when he then informed me that you had decided to destroy the site. I was furious over the fact that you'd callously eliminated any possibility for the recovery of evidence that would allow me to continue my hunt."

"That's when I called Inquisitor Shrock, who was already operating in the subsector and asked him for his help. Recognizing the importance of my task he agreed to lend his assistance and immediately headed to your location to question you. When he arrived at your ship he found out two very important things. The first being; that the cruiser that rescued you had in fact detected a warp signature headed towards the system we are now approaching. And secondly; the uniforms of those Chaos soldiers you killed, matched the ones of the missing ship I'd long been searching for."

"I think you're leaving out the part where he strapped me to a chair and nearly tortured me to death." I said with more than a little bit of malice in my voice.

Shrock responded with that sadistic grin of his, "But you handled it so well. We could have easily gone another week before the torture would have killed you."

"Frag you Shrock! Let's strap you to a chair and see how long you last when I freeze you half to death and then cook you alive just for the fun of it!"

"I think you're forgetting the part where I beat you until you pissed and shit all over yourself."

Now don't get me wrong, I've never considered myself thin-skinned and I'd actually grown to enjoy mincing words with Shrock, but he'd definitely crossed the line with that one.

I stood up and was just about to punch him in his arrogant fragging face when Captain Drennan grabbed me roughly by the collar and jerked me back into my seat.

"Thank you very much Captain, I would have been highly upset had they broken something. Now, if you two are quite done squabbling with each other, we will continue." Inquisitor Voke looked at Shrock who simply smiled and nodded his head in agreement. He then looked to me.

I was still staring hard at Shrock when Captain Drennan slapped me in the back of my head prompting me to look at Inquisitor Voke and reluctantly grunt, "Yes Sir."

"Okay then, where were we?" Voke asked.

"You were just explaining exactly why we're headed to our current destination Inquisitor." Captain Drennan answered.

"Very good Captain, I must say you are growing more useful by the minute. Our current destination is Ophidia Three. It is a highly industrialized planet with a population of over eight billion. It is also very critical to the welfare of the Imperium as they produce a good deal of the new cruisers and battleships the Navy requires to maintain its war-fighting capability."

Shrock spoke up at this point, "As you can both probably imagine; if this planet were to become corrupted by Chaos it would be a highly devastating blow to the Navy's ability to defend against another Chaos incursion into Imperial space. The planet's location is why the Imperium chose to build their shipyards there. It is the farthest habitable planet from the Eye of Terror the Imperium controls."

"How come I've never heard of this planet?" Captain Drennan asked.

"Its location is a very closely held secret Captain." Voke continued, "Only the highest ranking officers in the Navy are even aware of its existence and its inhabitants are not permitted to leave under any circumstances. For those reasons its location has never been discovered by any enemy force."

"Until now…" Captain Drennan interjected.

"Quite right," Inquisitor Voke responded before continuing, "because of this planet's importance to the safety and wellbeing of the Imperium, the Inquisition maintains a full-time presence on this world. The man in charge of that operation is Inquisitor Titus Andoran, who up until a month ago was making regular reports on the planet's status and production levels."

"What do you mean was?" I asked.

"What I mean Corporal, is that he is now dead. This morning I received a priority one astropathic communique from his second in command, Interrogator Lokin Trist. In our brief conversation he informed me that Inquisitor Andoran was dead. He and his entire staff with the exception of Trist were killed in an assault on the Inquisition's planetary headquarters." Inquisitor Voke paused for a minute to let that sink in.

"Now I want you both to understand something. Never before in the history of the Inquisition have one of our headquarters been taken by an enemy force. These are very heavily guarded buildings and their security systems are all state of the art. There is only one group of people I can think of with the ability to do what has been done on Ophidia Three."

"The Chaos Marines," I said without thinking.

Voke nodded his head, "Very good Corporal, Interrogator Trist confirmed it in his communique."

"How did he manage to escape being killed with the rest of them?" Captain Drennan asked.

"That was my first question as well Captain. I almost accused him of cowardice in the face of duty before he told me exactly how it is that he alone managed to survive. Apparently, Inquisitor Andoran had discovered a Chaos conspiracy in the highest echelons of the planetary government and security forces. He was preparing to take action and eliminate approximately one hundred and twenty different people he'd identified as part of this conspiracy to prevent the planet from falling into the hands of Chaos. Before his death, Andoran gave Interrogator Trist a list of these conspirators and instructed him to escape with it at all costs while he made his final stand against the attacking Marines. Thankfully, Trist somehow managed to escape and inform me of the situation."

"Where is he now Inquisitor?" Captain Drennan asked.

"That's the problem Captain, before he could send me the list, Planetary Security found him and placed him under arrest. I contacted the head of Planetary Security, Minister Dorien Hult, and asked him what the hell was going on down there. He offered me little explanation. The nature of our conversation leads me to believe that he is probably going to be one of our targets."

"What makes you think that?" Captain Drennan asked.

"Though I let on as if I believed his story; the truth is that he lied to me, plain and simple. He tried to tell me that he had evidence proving that Trist and not a contingent of Chaos Marines was solely responsible for Inquisitor Andoran's death. This of course makes no sense, because it would be impossible for just one man to do everything he's accused of."

"What about the list?" I asked.

"He made no mention of it; I'm hoping Interrogator Trist somehow managed to hide it before he was captured. This brings me to your first mission. If Inquisitor Andoren had a list of conspirators and was preparing to take action upon them, then they must be getting close to initiating their plan to corrupt the planet. If that happens, we'll have to call in the Navy to completely purge this planet of all human life. This would be the worst possible thing that could happen. Doing so would severely cripple the Navy's ability to rebuild their fleet for the next hundred years or more. Given the fact that Chaos launches new offenses every ten or twenty years, we would be looking at a very serious problem indeed. The very survival of the Imperium may rest on what we do here."

I was absolutely bewildered. The magnitude of what we were about to do was incomprehensible. The fate of the Imperium should never fall upon the shoulders of just a handful of people. And here were Inquisitors Shrock and Voke talking about it as if it were just another day at the office.

Seeing this reaction, Inquisitor Voke continued in his most reassuring voice, "Relax Corporal; I'm fairly sure we'll arrive in time to thwart their scheme. But we all need to do our jobs. We still have one thing going for us, we are the Inquisition and the general population still understands what that means. Inquisitor Shrock and I should be able to move about with impunity for the time being. We will make things very difficult for them while you and Captain Drennan go about your business."

"And what would that business be?" Captain Drennan asked.

"Your first mission is going to be the extraction of Interrogator Trist; he is alive and hopefully still has the list or at least knows where it is. They are using him to cover-up what really happened to Inquisitor Andoren and wouldn't dare execute him before putting him on public trial. Doing so could very well cause a revolt that would put an end their conspiracy before it ever begins. This is where your unique abilities will come into play Corporal Frost. Chances are; they're hiding him somewhere we will not be able to gain access to without setting off alarms. Knowing the Inquisition has the ability to by-pass any form of electronic security, my bet is they have him heavily guarded by one or more psykers somewhere in the vicinity of the planet's capitol city. If Inquisitor Shrock or I were to try and gain access to that site; it is very likely that they will go ahead and execute him the moment we arrive. They would then blame his death on us and say that we killed him to simply silence the only witness to what actually occurred. This would turn the general population against us and make them believe that we're part of the same conspiracy our good friend Interrogator Trist is accused of."

"And you think because I'm untouchable these psykers will be unable to detect my presence?" I asked.

Shrock answered, "Exactly… Inquisitor Voke and I are both psykers and as such our presence will be noticed immediately if either one of us go anywhere near that compound. You on the other hand, will be completely invisible to any psyker and so should Captain Drennan as long as he stays close enough to you. Despite my sincere reservations about sending you two in there alone, I do agree with Inquisitor Voke's assessment of the situation. You two are our one and only chance of recovering Interrogator Trist alive."

"How can you be so sure they won't be able to detect him or even me for that matter?" Captain Drennan asked; his voice full of doubt.

Inquisitor Voke looked at him and smiled, "Captain I understand your skepticism. The reason Inquisitor Shrock and I are so confident that they can't detect him, is because we, ourselves cannot detect him or anyone around him for that matter. The only reason I know he's here right now, is because I'm looking right at him. I can usually detect a man's presence for up to a hundred meters without ever seeing him and I normally know when someone's coming to my office by the time they step off the elevator at the end of the hall. In his case, I can honestly tell you that I had no clue either one of you had arrived to this meeting until you actually keyed my door chime. So you can trust us when we tell you that you will be completely undetectable as long as you stay close to him."

"As long as you two idiots don't trip any electronic security on your way in, that is." Shrock added.

Captain Drennan and I laughed at him.

"I fail to see what's so funny." Shrock said with more than a little annoyance in his voice.

"What I find so funny Inquisitor, is that we've been on this ship for almost six months and you still don't know who the hell we are."

"Oh please, do enlighten me as to who it is you think you are."

Captain Drennan looked at me, "Do you mind if I quote you on this

one?"

I knew exactly where he was going with this, "By all means Sir be my guest."

He looked back to Inquisitor Shrock with a look that could kill, "We're Force Recon you son of a bitch. We wrote the book on circumventing electronic security. The only reason Corporal Frost hasn't broken into your room in the middle of the night and beat the snot out of you, is because he knew it would probably piss me off." Even Inquisitor Voke got a good laugh out of that.

Shrock was absolutely speechless as I continued to chuckle.

Captain Drennan looked back to Inquisitor Voke, "What about the enemy warship you were tracking? What if we run into it when we reach system?"

"I highly doubt that will happen Captain, they are probably staying as far away from the planet as possible right now. If they were to be detected by the wrong people it would lend credit to Interrogator Trist's story and that would also likely cause the people of the planet to revolt. They cannot make their presence publicly known until the planet's corruption is in its final phase." Voke explained.

"Final phase?" I asked.

"Yes Corporal, there are four phases in the standard procedure Chaos typically uses to corrupt a planet." Voke responded, "They are all done in a very specific order to gradually turn the people away from the Emperor and into the hands of Chaos. The first has already been accomplished; the corruption of key members within the planetary government. The second phase is underway right now; creating fear and distrust within the general population. The destruction of the Inquisitorial headquarters on Ophidia Three, not only eliminated the only force around with the capability of stopping their scheme; it also created wide-spread panic within the population."

"So what's next?" Captain Drennan asked.

"They will continue to manufacture phony catastrophes until the people of Ophidia lose faith in the Imperium and their own government's ability to protect them. This usually starts with acts of terrorism then graduates to sabotage of the planetary economy. They usually cap this phase off by poisoning the planet's food supply and creating world-wide famine. Riots will usually begin at this point and this is typically the last chance we will have to prevent the planet from falling into the grips of Chaos." Inquisitor Shrock explained.

"How long do we have before they move into the final stages of corruption?" I asked.

Voke picked up this question, "The good news is; phase two is the longest stage of the corruptive process. It can take anywhere from six months to a year, but I have seen it accomplished in as few as two months. This all depends on how motivated the conspirators are and the general level of malcontent that already exists within the local population. The people of Ophidia have a high quality of life due to the massive amount of money the Navy pumps into their economy. But at the same time the fact that they're strictly forbidden to leave their home-world is a major source of discontent amongst its citizens. Given these factors, and the high level of motivation Chaos has to corrupt this world, I would put phase two's time frame for completion somewhere between four and six months."

"I disagree." Inquisitor Shrock said, "I think we're looking at the possibility of phase two's completion in as little as two to three months. Given the fact that Chaos Marines are running the operation leads me to believe that the corruption of this planet will run with utmost efficiency. I believe it to be in our best interest to get that list and terminate every single person even remotely suspected of being a part of this conspiracy as quickly as possible. Commodus, we can't afford to play it safe on this one."

Inquisitor Voke looked at him thoughtfully before speaking, "Your point is well taken Damon. I hadn't considered the Marines' involvement may speed up the process. Okay I agree; I hereby initiate Protocol Omega One."

"What's Omega One?" Captain Drennan asked eyeing both of them suspiciously.

"It means you're about to earn you paycheck Captain." Inquisitor Shrock began, "Protocol Omega One means that any name we come across in connection with this conspiracy will be terminated, regardless of the evidence, or lack thereof. It also means that you're cleared to kill any person or persons who are either knowingly or unknowingly interfering with the successful completion of your objectives. We've just given you and Corporal Frost a green-light to do whatever it takes to accomplish your missions."

Captain Drennan thought about that for a moment before responding, "So you're telling me that even if a civilian is getting in the way of my mission, I'm cleared to kill them?"

"That's exactly what I'm telling you." The tone in Shrock's voice left no doubt as to whether he was serious or not.

The significance of what had just been said left the room uncomfortably silent. I damn sure didn't like the idea, but I remembered what Inquisitor Shrock had told me earlier that morning. I would make every effort not to, but if it became necessary to kill a few innocent people in order to save an entire planet I believed that I could. Now if the moment actually came, I might feel differently.

Captain Drennan didn't share the same feeling, "I won't do it… I can't… And I won't order Corporal Frost to do it either. I'm a soldier and I am perfectly willing to kill any enemy combatant or target you guys hand me. But I draw the line when it comes to civilians. I'm not going to kill an innocent person just because they're slowing me down." He then looked over to me, "And I'll shoot you myself if you even attempt it Corporal."

Now I fully expected the subsequent eruption to come out of Shrock, but it was Inquisitor Voke who stood up and smashed his fist into the desk making everyone in the room jump. "Captain, just who in the hell do you think you're dealing with here?! We're the god-damned Inquisition!" He screamed. "We don't get to take the moral high-ground around here, there's too much on the line. It's our god-damned job to make the tough decisions that no-one else can."

He opened his desk drawer, produced a bolter, and slammed it onto the desk pointed in Captain Drennan's direction, "Now if I tell you that killing a couple of innocent civilians may very well save the Imperium you just swore to protect; you god-damned very well better do it! Or it will be me, who is shooting you!" The rage in his voice sent chills up my spine. He sat back down and continued to stare at Captain Drennan with those cold blue eyes of his, daring him to say something else.

Inquisitor Shrock broke the tension, "I think what Inquisitor Voke is trying to say; is that we didn't come to this decision lightly. We absolutely cannot let this planet fall into the hands of Chaos, if they complete phase two the planet is as good as lost. The chances of stopping the corruptive process in stages three or four is almost zero. For this very reason, we've already sent a message to Admiral McGlower ordering him to prepare for the possible purging of this planet. Your fleet is on its way here. If we fail in our task we will have no other choice than to eradicate this planet's entire population."

He looked at Captain Drennan, "If it comes to that, it will be eight billion innocent civilians that die and nothing you did down there will have made a damn bit of difference." He paused for a moment to let us think about what he just said.

After a moment he pressed on, "Look troopers, we aren't going to send you to a house full of women and children and order you to kill them. This protocol exists solely for those people who are unknowingly working for Chaos."

"Unknowingly working for Chaos?" I asked.

"Let me explain," Inquisitor Shrock said, "For example; when you two go down there to rescue Interrogator Trist; chances are the people guarding him are all going to be honest, law-abiding, imperial citizens; all of whom have no idea that they're actually working for the side of Chaos. Do either of you really think that they're going to let you walk in and rescue him just because you happen to be the good guys? Absolutely not, they'll shoot you just like they would anyone else simply because it is there job to do so. None of us like it, but there isn't any other way. You're going to have to kill some of them to accomplish your mission. Their deaths will be justifiable in the eyes of the Emperor because it is in the interest of protecting all that which he created. Now, do you both understand the meaning of this protocol?"

Captain Drennan remained silent so I spoke up, "I don't like it, but I'm willing to do whatever it takes if it means that we don't have to kill every man, woman, and child on that planet." I looked over to Captain Drennan, "Sir, we're in the Inquisition now, we have an obligation to do the dirty jobs no-one else can or will. We're talking about the safety of the entire Imperium here, tough decisions will have to be made, and we're the only people that can do it."

Inquisitor Shrock smiled, "There may be some hope for you yet

Corporal. I think you're starting to understand what it means to work for the Inquisition. It's our solemn duty to protect the Imperium from the forces of Chaos at all costs, and we can only remain effective in that fight as long as we remain willing to do whatever it takes to stop them. No matter how distasteful we may find our actions to be."

Inquisitor Voke - who was still seething over Captain Drennan's outburst - looked at him coldly and asked in a very even tone, "Captain, are you now prepared to honor the sacred oath you just took not more than an hour ago?" He placed his hand on the bolter still lying on the desk. The look in his eyes told me beyond any doubt that Captain Drennan was a dead man if he didn't give him the answer he was looking for. I knew then that my original assessment of Inquisitor Voke was accurate; he was definitely not a man to be trifled with.

Captain Drennan looked around the room for a long while. I could see him battling his own moral compass, trying desperately to come to terms with what he might have to do in order to save the Imperium. His face finally began to show that look of fierce determination I'd come to expect from him. "When you put it that way, what other choice do I have? I will obey your orders; I just hope the Emperor can forgive us all for what we may have to do in order to fulfill our duties to him."

"I'm glad we understand each other." Inquisitor Voke placed the bolter back into the drawer he'd gotten it from. "I want both of you to know that the safety of the Imperium is always our number one priority. It comes first, before any and all other considerations; regardless of how those considerations may affect our sensibilities. We all swore an oath to do whatever it takes to protect it, and I will personally kill anyone of you who is not prepared to take whatever action we deem necessary for the continued existence of everything I hold dear. Have I made myself perfectly clear?"

"Yes Inquisitor," Captain Drennan and I both said.

"Good," he continued evenly, "I'm very glad we've had this conversation. Because if for some reason it happened that you were to fail in one of your missions because of some sort of ethical dilemma; I would have had no other choice than to execute the both of you for dereliction of duty." It was very unsettling to see how quickly he'd gone from raging maniac to completely calm and collected.

He continued, "I must however, apologize; most operatives go through years of training that mentally prepares them for this sort of eventuality. The fact you two had no idea of the sort of things you may be asked to do in your service to the Inquisition is no one's fault but my own. But I cannot impress upon you enough how important it is that you successfully complete every mission we send you on. I'm not kidding in the least when I say to you that the very survival of the Imperium may depend on your willingness to obey our orders. Do you both now understand how imperative it is that we do not fail here?"

"Yes Sir," we both said.

"Sir, I don't believe you ever explained what phases three and four were." I said in an attempt to get our conversation back on track.

"I'm glad you've been paying attention," Inquisitor Shrock said. "Phase three is usually the point of no return. In this phase they create one major global catastrophe, this sometimes comes in the form of civil war but is more commonly characterized by the release of some sort of biological weapon within the planet's population. They will create a worldwide plague that will kill millions. This will remove whatever faith the people still may have in the Imperium. They will then be open to anything that has the possibility of putting an end to their suffering. The only way I've ever seen the process stopped in phase three is through massive military intervention. Nothing short of the implementation of martial law through complete planetary occupation can prevent the final phase from occurring. As you already know, the nearest fleet is almost six months away, so this will not be an option."

Captain Drennan picked this moment to rejoin the conversation, "What about the planetary defense forces, can't they implement martial law?"

"That's the entire point of phase two and why it must be completed before they move on to phases three and four." Shrock answered, "Phase two is designed to turn the people against the very forces designed to protect them. It also causes those who are members of the planetary defense to lose faith in their leaders. By the time phase three is implemented the planet's own ability to prevent its further corruption is so severely handicapped that it can be considered completely useless."

"That brings us to phase four," Inquisitor Voke continued, "the actual corruption of the entire planet. This is when the forces of Chaos will make themselves known. They will reveal themselves as saviors and offer the people of the planet the answers to all the problems they'd created in the first place. By this time the people have been so completely turned from the Emperor that they are willing to do absolutely anything to end their suffering. They will flock to Chaos by the masses and the complete corruption of the entire population is now impossible to stop. Those who still have faith will be systematically exterminated by those who have succumbed and we will then have no other option than to purge the entire planet of all human life."

"I see the looks of consternation on both of your faces," Inquisitor Shrock began, "But trust me when I tell you that we will be successful in this operation so long as everyone does their job. However much it pains me to say it, there is no one in the Inquisition more qualified to run this operation than Inquisitor Voke. Though technically he and I are the same rank, I will be deferring all operational authority and decisions to him. I'm doing this because I am certain that he is our one best chance for the successful prevention of this planet's corruption." He then looked to Inquisitor Voke, "Inquisitor, I'm yours to command."

Everyone in the room then looked to Captain Drennan who sat quietly for a moment before standing up, "Well if that arrogant prick believes so deeply in your ability to pull this thing off, that he's actually willing to give up his power and follow your orders; then my mind is made up." He looked Inquisitor Voke straight in his eyes as he placed his hand on my shoulder, "Inquisitor you have my word that we'll follow your orders without question."

Chapter 12

After the meeting, things began to move very quickly. We totally divorced ourselves from the question of whether what we were about to do was ethically or morally justifiable. Having pushed those questions aside it was now business as usual, Captain Drennan and I had a covert extraction to plan.

For us this wasn't anything too far out of the ordinary. As recon troopers, we were the ones who usually got the call when command needed someone pulled out and pulled out fast. I had personally participated in at least half a dozen successful combat extractions, every one of which had been planned by Captain Drennan himself. When it came to saving someone's ass, we were easily the most experienced operatives on board.

This extraction would be pretty standard except for two major differences. The first being that the people holding our objective were nowhere near the caliber of soldier I'd dealt with on previous extractions. The second being, that we had strict orders to not leave any witnesses behind. This according to Inquisitor Voke would prevent anyone from being able to point the finger at the Inquisition for Trist's disappearance. In a combat extraction the elimination of witnesses is never a concern because the enemy always knew exactly who was responsible for the sudden departure of their prisoners.

I wouldn't be able to use my SK- 43 on this mission because suppressing a fifty caliber bolter is simply impossible to do effectively. Instead, I would be using a modified standard issue assault bolter. It packs much less power but can be suppressed to such a point that someone would have to be standing within five meters of me to hear it. Its range would also be greatly diminished from my standard weapon; eight hundred meters would be about the limit. For indoor purposes, my primary weapons would be a silenced nine millimeter bolter and a combat knife for up close and personal situations. I had planned on bringing a power-sword, but unlike Captain Drennan, I had yet to be issued one. I guess even in the Inquisition rank still has its privileges. I wasn't too concerned because I figured if it ever became necessary for me to need one we would have probably failed in our primary goal of remaining undetected.

Our planned mode of entry would be an orbital drop onto the roof of the target compound from low planetary orbit. This had its advantages and disadvantages. The primary advantage would be that it would give us the highest probability of entering the facility undetected. The main disadvantage would be that we'd be unable to use our standard armor as it was not properly suited for atmospheric entry. We would burn to a crisp if we even attempted to enter the planet's atmosphere while wearing our standard issue recon armor.

Instead, we would be wearing drop-suits specifically designed for this type of operation. A drop-suit is made to enter a planet's atmosphere at the highest possible speed. It then self-adjusts its course to let us land precisely at a preprogrammed location. At the last possible second it would then fire reverse thrusters that would rapidly slow our decent so that we could land safely without killing ourselves. It is by far the scariest piece of equipment I've ever had the extreme misfortune of having to operate. On both of my previous experiences, I was absolutely sure it had malfunctioned and I was going to slam face first into the ground before it finally decided to fire its reverse thrusters. Whoever the hell designed this fragging deathtrap was not kidding in the least when he said it would wait until the very last instant to slow you down.

After a drop-suit lands it becomes completely useless and is meant to be discarded. It is bullet- proof, but has no built- in motors that would allow you to move around like normal armor. Its sole purpose is to get you into your target extremely fast and undetected. After landing our only protection would be some bullet resistant soft armor and our own ability to neutralize targets before they neutralized us.

The term Storm Troopers use for this type of situation is, "going soft," which basically means we'd be conducting our mission without the benefit of power- armor. I've never had a problem going soft, because it somehow makes me feel like I'm connecting with the Special Forces operators from days long past who conducted every mission without the benefit of a power-suit. It also forces me to rely more upon my own skills and natural instincts to get the job done.

Getting in would be the easy part, the actual extraction however, is always the most difficult part of any rescue mission. For this reason Captain Drennan had come up with two possible modes of egress. The first and possibly best idea; was to be picked up by a Night Hawk at a location yet to be determined. The second and more dangerous of the two possibilities; would be to walk him right out the front door to a waiting land cruiser and then quickly disappear into the city. We would have to wait until we had better intelligence to pick which would be the better of the two options. For this reason we would have teams on standby for either possibility.

Being that we did not yet know our target's location, this was as far as our planning could go. We would have to wait until the location had been positively identified before we could more fully develop our plan of attack. We did have one thing going for us as far as that went. Every member of the Inquisition of the rank Interrogator or higher is issued a very small sub-dermal micro-burst transmitter that when activated broadcasts a signal positively identifying their position. As long as his captors hadn't found and disabled it; finding him would be as simple as getting within a couple kilometers of his position.

Inquisitor Voke planned to accomplish this by having Shrock ask Minister Hult himself for a guided tour of the city. Knowing Inquisitor Shrock he wouldn't be asking for anything, he would take full advantage of his power as an Inquisitor and order him to do it with the not so silent implication of the words, "or else." As soon as he located our target he would relay the information to us and we would drop after a short evaluation of the site from orbit.

As far as the Inquisitors went, Shrock would be the boots on the ground; Inquisitor Voke would remain aboard The Emperor's Wrath to coordinate the entire operation from orbit. Besides Captain Drennan and myself there would be at least a two hundred other operatives on the planet. Most of them wouldn't deploy until we had recovered Interrogator Trist and the list. Then a good deal of them would proceed to terminate the lower level targets and anyone else the Inquisitors identified in the course of their investigation. The highest level targets would be reserved for me and Captain Drennan.

Our plan of attack was to hit the conspirators hard and fast and take out as many of them as possible before anyone knew what was happening. We would then proceed to drop the full hammer of the Inquisition's power, by forcefully taking command of the security forces whose leaders we had killed.

When Inquisitor Voke explained his strategy to stop the planet's corruption, I came to understand why Inquisitor Shrock trusted in his abilities so much. He was a master tactician and was even more ruthless in the execution of those tactics. I must say I don't believe the Emperor himself could have picked a better man to lead this operation than Inquisitor Voke. Or maybe the Emperor had picked Inquisitor Voke and this was all just some part of his master plan for the human race. I'm just a dumb Storm Trooper so I'll leave those questions for the philosophers to figure out.

The day finally came when we reached the Ophidian system. Inquisitor Shrock invited Captain Drennan and I to the bridge; it was time to contact the planet's head of security and notify him of our arrival. As operatives we would have to position ourselves so the bridge's view screen would not be able to see us. This was to protect our anonymity for all future missions.

Inquisitor Shrock, Captain Drennan, and I were all standing off to the side of the room when Captain Shaw haled the planet's security office. Inquisitor Voke had decided to monitor the conversation from the privacy of his own office. It took a couple of moments but eventually the face of a beautiful woman filled the screen. She had her long blonde hair done perfectly, with make-up that made her look like she came straight out of one of the holo-mags the guys from my unit used to pass around at night.

"Welcome to Ophidia, my name is Terena Hine, how may I be of service to you today?" Her voice dripped with years of practiced politeness.

The Captain looked at her with a smile, "Hello Ms. Hine, my name is Captain Douglas Shaw of The Emperor's Wrath, please inform the Honorable Dorien Hult that I wish to speak with him." His voice dripped with his own practiced politeness.

"I'm sorry Captain, but Minister Hult is not taking calls at the moment, may I please take a message and I will have him return your call at his earliest possible convenience." She said in the same courteous tone.

Captain Shaw looked over to Inquisitor Shrock who shook his head no. Prompting the Captain to look back to the screen, "I'm sorry Ms. Hine, but I'm here on a matter of great importance and I must insist that I speak with him now. Could you please tell him I'm on the line?"

"Yes Captain, one moment please, I'll see what he says." She deactivated her end of the feed. The screen remained blank for a couple of minutes before coming back to life. "I'm sorry Captain; Minister Hult said he hasn't the time to talk to you right now as his hands are completely full with the unprecedented series of terrorist attacks he is currently dealing with. I'm sorry, but you will just have to wait for him to call you back." Her voice was firm but somehow still respectful.

This prompted Shrock to take action. He walked into her field of view and looked at her coldly. "Young lady, do you know who I am?"

"No Sir I do not, but regardless of who you are, Minister Hult is a very busy man and I'm sure he'll just tell me the same thing if you also insist on speaking with him." There was now a certain level of annoyance apparent in her tone.

"Well could you at least do me a favor and pass him a message?"

"Yes Sir I most certainly will. Go ahead whenever you're ready."

"I would like you to tell him, that unless he wishes to see me board the next available transport, come down there, and put a bullet into your pretty little face; then he will immediately get on the line and speak with Inquisitor Damon Shrock." He paused for a second to watch every bit of blood drain from the young woman's face, "Did you get all of that?" He asked very politely.

I almost lost it. I had to place both hands over my mouth to keep from laughing. Captain Drennan was just as bad. I looked over to see him smiling ear to ear, looking at the ground shaking his head, also trying desperately to not laugh.

The woman on the screen didn't know what to say. Fear was clearly written all over her face as she started to stammer. Inquisitor Shrock just continued to stare at her calmly with that sadistic grin only he could pull off.

She finally got her wits about her and said, "One moment please." The screen went blank again.

Inquisitor Shrock looked over to the both of us, "I do believe I've gotten her attention." His face became cold again, "Now get ahold of yourselves, we've got important work to do." Captain Drennan and I were just getting it together when the screen came back on. This time a rotund man, with a perfectly trimmed goatee appeared in place of the secretary.

"Inquisitor, I had no idea you were on the line. If I had…"

Shrock cut him off midsentence, "Shut up!" The man's jaw dropped open, "You will have all the time in the world for apologies when I reach the surface. I'm calling to inform you of my impending arrival. There are things going on here that quite frankly, I find very hard to believe. I'm here to investigate these matters and I expect you to personally be waiting for me when I get down there."

"Pardon me Sir, but I was expecting Inquisitor Voke. I was unprepared to meet anyone else. But I would like to assure you that we have the situation well under control. So as you can see, it is really quite unnecessary for you to bother yourself with coming down here." The man looked incredibly nervous as he said this.

"A headquarters of His Majesty's Most Holy Inquisition has fallen on your watch, and you call that under control?!" Shrock was raising his voice, "Obviously you and I have two entirely different opinions of what the term, "Under control" means."

"I will tell you as I have told Inquisitor Voke." Hult began, "We have the person responsible for the loss of your headquarters in custody and he is currently awaiting trial. So like I said before, we really do have the situation under control and there is no need for you to come down here."

"Well Inquisitor Voke isn't here is he? I regret to inform you that he had more important matters to attend to in the Helican Sub-sector. Having said that, I'm the one here and I'm most definitely the one you should be worried about." He paused for a moment before pressing on, "Mr. Hult, you reek of incompetence, and if you think I'm going to trust in your ability to handle this situation properly, you are sadly mistaken."

The look on Hult's face showed that he was not used to being spoken to in such a manner. Shrock paid him no attention, "Furthermore, your continued insistence that I not come down there, leads me to believe that you have something to hide. Now unless you wish to find yourself on this ship, in my interrogation room, I suggest you recognize exactly who it is you're speaking to and give me the Emperor given respect I deserve. Have I made myself clear?"

Apparently Dorien Hult knew more about the Inquisition's interrogative tactics than I once did, because the mere mention of it completely changed his entire demeanor. "Yes Inquisitor," he said submissively.

"I'm glad we've come to an understanding Mr. Hult. I'll be arriving within the hour. When I land I expect you present to personally give me a guided tour of your capitol city."

"Yes Inquisitor, I will make the necessary preparations immediately." He started to cut the feed when Inquisitor Shrock stopped him.

"Mr. Hult."

"Yes?" he said stopping himself short.

"Emperor help you if I don't see your smiling face when I touch down." With that Shrock cut the feed and hung up on the bewildered man.

He then looked over to us, "I suggest you two start making preparations for your departure. I imagine at this very moment he's calling whoever it is he has guarding Interrogator Trist to order them on high alert. I will keep him occupied as long as possible, this should prevent him from taking effective actions against you, once its discovered that Trist is missing."

"But why did you tell him that Inquisitor Voke isn't here? I asked.

"Because as long as he thinks Inquisitor Shrock is his only problem; the rest of us should have free reign to conduct our operations." Captain Drennan answered.

"I'm impressed Captain," Shrock replied. "And I was beginning to think that you were just as stupid as Corporal Frost." I shot him an obscene gesture as he continued, "But even more importantly, Inquisitor Voke is widely known to be the Inquisition's heavy hitter for this type of situation. If they think he's not here, it may cause them to drop their guard a little, making everything we do much easier."

Inquisitor Voke walked onto the bridge clapping his hands, "Well played Inquisitor Shrock, very well played. I couldn't have done it any better myself. I think you have sufficiently scared Mr. Hult to the point that you will be the only thing he's worried about from now on. Now all you have to do is go down to the surface and keep pouring it on. The only thing I would suggest is that you don't make him feel that he is in too much danger of being arrested. This could very well place your life in danger and I want him to feel relatively safe until it's time for us to have Corporal Frost pay him a little visit in the middle of the night."

There was something about the way Minister Hult had conducted himself in his brief conversation with Inquisitor Shrock that made me look very much forward to the day Inquisitor Voke would give me that assignment. I didn't like him, not one bit, and I was actually surprised to find myself concerned about Shrock's welfare. Before I could stop myself I involuntarily looked to him and said, "You be safe down there Inquisitor."

Everyone on the bridge immediately stopped talking. All eyes were now on me. Inquisitor Shrock couldn't believe what he'd just heard, "I'm sorry Corporal; I do believe I'm hearing things. Did you just tell me to be careful?"

I became red in the face, "Absolutely not, I said nothing of the sort. In fact I hope that bastard does kill you. It would definitely make things a lot quieter around here." I said lying through my teeth.

"That's not what I heard." Captain Drennan said

"It would appear that despite your best efforts, you are beginning to grow on Corporal Frost." Voke said to Shrock with a smile on his face.

"I'm touched Corporal, maybe when I get back you'd like to come to my quarters and share a candlelit dinner with me." Shrock said, causing everyone on the bridge to burst into laughter.

"All of you can go frag yourselves." I said even more embarrassed than I already was. "You know what the hell I meant. You just get your ass down there and make sure you find me a fraggin' target so I can do my job." I said before storming out of the room.

"I'll be sure to take care of that for you honey." Shrock called after me causing everyone to laugh all the harder.

Chapter 13

I went back to my room to cool down. I couldn't believe I'd said that to him, the arrogant prick. I made up my mind that as soon as this was all over I'd once and for all yoke that son of a bitch up and kick his ass.

All of that aside, I really did hope he'd be okay down there. I didn't want anyone to kill him before I got a chance to put my foot in his ass. The more I thought about it, the more I began to see the humor in the whole situation. I'd been sitting in my room for about six hours when out of nowhere I began to laugh at myself. It was a hard, deep-felt laughter. I was laughing so hard that tears began to fall from my eyes.

I was just in the middle of this unstoppable spell when my door chimed. I answered the door to see a very serious looking Captain Drennan standing there.

"What the hell is so funny?" He asked eyeing me suspiciously.

"Nothing Sir," I said quickly regaining my composure, "I guess the humor of our conversation on the bridge finally caught up to me."

"Well get your shit together, it's time."

"He found our target?" I asked.

"He sent me the location an hour ago. It's time to go to work."

"Let's do it then." I said quickly putting myself into full combat mode.

Captain Drennan and I left my room and proceeded to head to the combat control room. As we walked the halls in silence, everyone we came to quickly got out of our way. None of the other operatives said anything as we walked by, but all nodded their heads as we passed. They knew the importance of our mission and I guess it was just their way of wishing us luck. Captain Drennan and I are both bigger than the average man, and as Storm Troopers we have very muscular builds. So I could only imagine how we were perceived as we moved through the ship with the practiced efficiency and sense of purpose that only two lifelong soldiers could possess. Storm Troopers on a mission can be very intimidating people.

We arrived at the combat control room to find Inquisitor Voke, Captain Shaw and four other operatives all sitting around a desk. There was a large view screen on the wall with a three dimensional diagram of our target already pulled up on it. I took a seat with the others while Captain Drennan went to stand in front of the view-screen. This would be his operation to run and we all sat quietly as he began.

"Inquisitor Voke, I didn't expect you to be here," Captain Drennan said.

"Don't worry Captain; I'm quite confident in your ability to run this operation without any interference from me. I'm just here merely to observe how an experienced military man such as yourself would conduct this sort of mission."

"Very well then, let's get started." Captain Drennan changed the image on the screen to show a map of the city with the building's location marked on it by a blinking green dot.

"As you can see, our target is located here; in a heavily wooded area just outside the western edge of the city limits. This is both good; and very bad for us at the same time. It's good because the heavy cover will allow for a much reduced chance of someone seeing us drop into the target. It's very bad because hidden in those trees are three automated anti-aircraft emplacements guarding the building." He enhanced the site's image on the map until only the building and the surrounding area filled the screen. "They are located, here, here, and here." As he said this, three red dots popped up on the map identifying the positions of the anti-aircraft guns.

One of the other operatives dressed in a pilot's uniform spoke up, "Sir, the way those guns are positioned, our Night Hawk stands absolutely no chance of getting into that site without being shot down."

"I'm well aware of that. That's the reason Minister Hult picked this location to hold Interrogator Trist in the first place. He probably feels pretty safe in the fact that because of this site's defense system, it will be impossible for us to launch any kind of airborne rescue attempt. And he would normally be absolutely correct in that assumption. What he doesn't know; is that I'm a Storm Trooper and when someone tells me that something is impossible to do, it usually just means that it's the best way of doing it."

"We're going to rescue Interrogator Trist using your Night Hawk; and we will be successful for the simple reason that everyone knows it's impossible to do." Looks of confusion were now plainly displayed upon the faces of the aircraft's pilots.

"Okay, I'm game, but how exactly do you plan on circumventing those anti-aircraft emplacements?" The pilot asked.

"With drop-suits; Corporal Frost and I will infiltrate that site using drop-suits and we'll land on that roof without having so much as a single bullet fired at us."

"Are you sure about that Sir?" I asked.

"Yes Corporal I am. We'll be coming in way too fast for them to get a positive lock on us. And by the time they do, we will have already touched down and the building itself will prevent them from firing on us. Now I do expect that once we hit that roof, very shortly there afterwards, someone will be coming up to find out exactly what it was that those emplacements had targeted. It is extremely important that upon landing we shed our suits as quickly as possible if we hope to stand any kind of chance of getting off that roof alive." He said, answering my question.

"Now, assuming that we do get off that roof alive," he continued, "Our first priority is locating Interrogator Trist before anyone figures out what's going on. If they somehow recognize what's happening before we gain positive control over him, their first move will be to call our good friend Minister Hult. Who; will most likely order them to execute the prisoner. If this happens we have failed in our mission."

"That's a pretty big building Captain, how do you plan on finding him in time? You surely can't search the whole thing room by room." Another of the operatives asked.

"Very simply," I said, "I'm going put my bolter to the head of the first person I find, and ask him very politely if he happens to know where I can find Interrogator Trist."

That got a laugh from Inquisitor Voke, "Spoken like a true member of the Inquisition Corporal."

"So you find the Interrogator, then what?" The same operative asked.

"We disable the anti- aircraft emplacements." Drennan explained, "Now if this were a combat extraction, I'd just have Captain Shaw blow them all to hell from space. But seeing as how everyone within a twenty kilometer radius will be able to see ordinance dropped from space, this will not be an option. If we went this route, the entire city would know the Inquisition was responsible for the attack on the compound. Instead, as soon as we have the Interrogator in our possession, he and I will proceed to the roof while Corporal Frost disables the building's air defense system."

"But once you separate from Corporal Frost, won't the building's alarm be set off?" The pilot asked.

"Yes it will and that's exactly why Corporal Frost is going to move his ass in true Storm Trooper fashion to disable those guns." He looked at me, "Corporal, I cannot impress upon you enough how important it is that you accomplish your goal as fast as humanly possible. The longer I'm on that roof without you, the greater the chance I'll be discovered and over-run by the enemy."

"I got it handled Sir," I said confidently, "You just get him the hell off that roof alive."

"Now assuming that Corporal Frost succeeds in disabling the air-defense system, you will then be able to do the impossible and fly your Night Hawk in to pick us up. That's when you," he said pointing at the other two operatives, "will unload the thermo and arm it to detonate in however long Corporal Frost thinks it will take him to get clear of the blast zone."

"Corporal, extraction team two will be waiting for you here, in a land-cruiser." As he said this, a red circle appeared on the map marking the bomb's blast zone, followed by a blue dot indicating where my extraction point would be. The bomb was just big enough to completely destroy the building, so I only had to get about a kilometer away to be safe. "Extraction team two will then bring you to Inquisitor Shrock's location where you will await further orders."

"For curiosity's sake," Inquisitor Voke began, "Could you explain to me why it is that you've decided to destroy the building with a bomb?"

"Three reasons, Inquisitor." Captain Drennan replied, "The first being, that regardless of what we do, there will be some security cameras that catch us rescuing Interrogator Trist. The second being; that destroying the site, is the most efficient way of eliminating this evidence, and any witnesses to what actually occurred. And the third and most important reason; is that this bomb will resemble nothing more than another terrorist attack in the dozens the conspirators have already committed." As he said all of this Inquisitor Voke looked at him thoughtfully.

"Captain, I do believe you have engineered the perfect crime." He finally said, "I am very much impressed with your entire plan. The only question I have; is how long do you think it will take you to accomplish the entire mission?"

"I fully expect to have Interrogator Trist on that Night Hawk no more than twenty minutes from the time we touch down. That is also taking into account the fact that he is quite possibly injured and I may have to carry him to safety. So I want you guys to be ready to hit that roof as soon as those guns go down. You got me?"

"He's one of our own. I'll have my bird on that roof in less than thirty seconds from the time those guns go down. You have my word on it." The pilot said without the smallest hint of doubt in his voice.

"Very good then, are there any final questions before we move out?" Captain Drennan asked before turning off the screen. No one answered, "Alright men, we have the element of surprise on our side and the people guarding this site are rank amateurs at best. As long as everyone does their job I fully expect this mission to be a complete success. Let's go to work boys." At that everyone got up and began filing out of the room headed for their perspective areas of deployment.

I was just about to exit myself when Inquisitor Voke called to me, "Corporal Frost, please wait here for a second." I turned around to see him holding a very ornate silver and gold case in his hands, "It's my understanding that you've not been issued a power-sword."

"No Sir, I have not." I said still examining the case.

"Well we very well can't have the best swordsman in the Inquisition heading down there without one, now can we?"

"Sir, you're the best swordsman in the Inquisition, and as far as I know you're going to be staying on this ship." I said with the utmost respect for the old man.

He looked at me and smiled, "Corporal, we both know my days as a warrior are long past. Though I do appreciate the complement, I want you to understand that there is no room for humility in a truly great swordsman such as yourself. I would like you to have this." He offered the case to me.

"Sir, what is it?"

"Quit acting like your stupid Corporal, it's unbecoming. It's my sword of course; and I have used it to slay more enemies of the Imperium than you could possibly imagine. It's been blessed, sanctified by the Emperor himself, and has now sat unused in this box for far longer than I care to admit." As he said this he opened the box revealing what looked to be just a very ornate grip long enough to be held with two hands. The handle was wrapped in all black leather, with a large platinum skull forming the hilt, but there was absolutely no blade to it that I could see.

Before I could ask him if this was some sort of a joke he continued on, "This very sword was carried by one of the Marines who gave his life defending our Emperor during Horus's final assault on his palace. It is very special, for it actually hungers for the blood of the wicked and will only work in the hands of a man who is truly righteous. I honestly believe you to be such a man and that it's you who is destined to be the next person to wield this most holy of swords." With that he handed me the case.

I looked at the thing for a long moment, unsure if I was missing something. Where was the blade? This thing as far as I was concerned would be absolutely useless unless I were to use its hilt to bash someone's head in. I looked up to Inquisitor Voke who finally got tired of waiting for me to figure it out, "Well? What the hell are you waiting for?"

"Sir, it's really very nice, but it seems to be missing a very important piece. Where's the blade? Is there another box somewhere around here that has the rest of this sword in it?" My voice was full of confusion.

Inquisitor Voke looked at me long and hard before bursting into laughter, "My dear boy, you are truly clueless aren't you! You see no blade because there isn't one." He calmed himself before continuing, "Corporal, a long time ago, the human race possessed the ability to produce things that have long since been forgotten. It's humanity's biggest flaw and our greatest curse. You see, given enough time we inevitably forget how to do some of the things that our ancestors could and did do on a fairly regular basis. For example, in the time of our Emperor, we possessed the ability to create weapons far superior than those of today. Take that sword for instance; ten thousand years ago, all swords looked very similar to that one. It doesn't have a blade because it in fact, doesn't need one. When activated, that sword will actually create its own blade made of pure energy."

I looked at him dubiously. I had never heard of such a thing. And to actually suggest that ten thousand years ago people could make weapons that were far more advanced than those of today; was to me, completely insane.

Inquisitor Voke obviously saw what I was thinking and lost his patience, "Ah hell trooper, give the damn thing here!" He snatched the box from me and removed the sword from it. He then thumbed the mandible of the skull shut, causing it to issue and audible click as he did. To my complete and utter amazement, a black flame of pure energy erupted from the top of the skull forming a solid bar of light a little over a meter in length. He then walked over to the desk we'd been sitting at, (which I might mention was made of solid metal), and cut it completely in half with little more effort than would have been needed to cut through a stick of butter. He then held out his left arm and proceeded to lower the sword in a manner that would surely cut it off.

"Inquisitor no, wait!" But he paid no attention as he continued to lower the sword. To my complete surprise, just as he was about to cut his own arm off, the beam of light automatically withdrew itself just far enough to pass harmlessly by without so much as singeing his robe. He then thumbed the skull's mouth open, causing the sword to extinguish itself.

I was totally bewildered as he tossed the sword back to me. I caught it and almost dropped it as I fumbled around trying desperately not to accidently turn it on and kill myself.

Inquisitor Voke found this very humorous and laughed at me, "I swear boy, sometimes I wonder if that Marine you fought on Subjuga Two didn't cause some sort of permanent brain damage. Did you not see what I just did? That sword can absolutely not harm the person who is holding it." I calmed down and relaxed a little as he said this. "It will also not turn on for anyone besides a person who is absolutely devout in his service to the Emperor. Go ahead; let's find out if you are such a man."

Now I've never considered myself to be a very religious man; but in my life, I honestly believed that everything I'd ever done, had been in complete service to my God the Emperor and his Imperium which I'd sworn to protect. So when I thumbed the mandible shut, I was not surprised to again see the black flame erupt from the top of its skull.

"Go ahead, try and cut yourself." Inquisitor Voke said smiling.

I hesitated for a long moment, "Are you sure about this?"

"What the hell are you worried about?" He chuckled, "If it cuts your arm off, we can always run down to supply and grab you a new one."

"Very funny," I replied, failing to see any humor at all in what he'd just said. I went ahead and did as I was told but had to close my eyes when the sword passed right through my arm. I opened my eyes half expecting to see a stump where my new arm had been. But there it was, completely unharmed just as Inquisitor Voke promised. I tried it again, this time with my eyes open and watched as the sword withdrew itself just far enough to not harm me in any way.

Captain Drennan picked that moment to walk back in and holler at me, "Corporal Frost, Interrogator Trist isn't going to rescue himself. Get your ass in gear and let's go already!" He left without even waiting for me to respond.

I turned it off and looked back to Inquisitor Voke, "Thank you Sir. I don't know how I could ever possibly repay you for this."

"You can't Corporal, that sword is worth more than this entire ship, so you better not break it. All I ask; is that you please not tell Inquisitor Shrock that I gave it to you. He's been trying to get that sword from me for years and I'm afraid he might lose his mind if he finds out I gave it to you. And you don't owe me anything; you owe it to the sword. Like I said, it hungers for the blood of the wicked; and it's been far too long since the last time I've fed it."

I looked at him for a very long time. I could easily see the sense of loss he was feeling over having to part with his most prized possession. I stood there for a couple of minutes trying to find the appropriate words to say to him when he broke my train of thought.

"Well? What are you waiting for? Get down there and bring me my god-damned Interrogator!"

Chapter 14

I arrived in torpedo room one to find Captain Drennan already fully dressed in his combat gear waiting for me. My gear was neatly placed on a table right next to the drop-suit I'd be fired from the port side of the ship in.

As I looked at the suit, I silently cursed myself for ever becoming a Storm Trooper. If I were a civilian no one would ever ask me to get into a device meant to be loaded into a torpedo tube with the sole intention of being shot out into the vacuum of space like I was just another piece of ordinance.

Captain Drennan must have seen the look on my face as I stared at the drop-suit, "Don't tell me you're scared of a little drop, Corporal."

"I hate these fraggin' death-traps Sir. And for your information, it's not the drop that scares me. It's the sudden stop at the end."

"Don't tell me you're afraid of crashing into the ground. These things only malfunction about half the time." He said laughing at me.

I knew it was bullshit. Drop-suits hardly ever malfunction. They were actually one of the more reliable pieces of equipment the Navy uses. But every once in a while; you do hear of some unfortunate trooper who crashed face first into the ground going a couple thousand kilometers an hour. "Very funny Sir, could you explain to me again exactly why it is we can't take those guns out from space, like any other sane person would do?"

"Well, besides the reasons that you're already aware of, the only one that comes to mind; is where would all the fun be in that?" He laughed all the harder at my reluctance to get suited up.

I shot him an obscene gesture as I proceeded to put on my combat gear and load my weapons. I put on the jet-black soft armor that was rated to stop most rounds fired from a hand-bolter and then put my all-black LBE (Load Bearing Equipment) on over top of it. An LBE is just a harness designed to carry all of the ammunition and other equipment I would need during the mission. It's an unnecessary piece of equipment when wearing power-armor because power-suits already have compartments built into them that do the same thing.

I then strapped my side-arm holster to my leg and clicked my silenced hand-bolter into it after chambering a round. After that, I attached another holster to my other leg specifically designed to hold my new power-sword. I guess Inquisitor Voke had told Captain Drennan of the gift he planned to give me ahead of time, because he just smiled when I clicked my new sword into it. I then attached the straps meant to keep the holsters from sliding down my legs to the belt on the bottom of my LBE.

To finish getting dressed, I put the soft- armor mask on over my face. It was form-fitted to match the contours of my head and the visor contained a HUD that's good, but nowhere near as nice as those found in power-suits.

It's also bullet-resistant for most ammunition that can be fired from a hand-bolter. The only drawback; is that if a bullet were to strike you in the head, it stands a pretty good chance of knocking you out.

I then grabbed my assault rifle and slapped a fresh thirty-round mag in. I chambered a round, double-checked to make sure it was on safe, and then put it over my shoulder using the strap attached to it. The final piece of equipment I grabbed was my combat-knife, which has a large serrated blade perfectly suited for killing someone in complete silence. I slid it into its sheath on the side of my LBE.

I then loaded all the spare magazines, clips, and counter surveillance devices I could possibly carry into their perspective pockets on my LBE. I made sure to grab at least two mags of armor-piercing rounds for my assault rifle. I clearly remembered how badly I'd been caught short the last mission I'd went on and wasn't about to make the same mistake twice. Having said that; even though I had two mags of armor piercing rounds I highly doubted the assault bolter had enough power to penetrate a Marine's power-armor even if I did happen to run into one. I smiled as I remembered how easily Inquisitor Voke had used my sword to cut the desk in half. It was reassuring to know that if I ran into a Marine on this trip I had something new for his ass.

Now completely ready, I looked to Captain Drennan and realized I was forgetting something. I walked up to him and slapped him hard in the side of his combat-mask.

"What the frag are you doing trooper?!"

Shit… I'd completely forgotten that he knew nothing of me and Gunney's pre-combat ritual. "Sorry Sir, It's good luck. Gunney and I did it before every mission. Now you're supposed to slap me back. After that, we head-butt each other and yell Recon."

"Where in the Emperor's Sacred Imperium did you come up with some dumb shit like that?"

"Could you please just humor me? I won't feel right until it's done."

He looked at me thoughtfully for a moment before responding, "Okay then, if it'll get your ass in that drop-suit I'll do it." As soon as he said that I slapped him in the side of his mask again.

"What the hell trooper?!" He screamed at me, "You already slapped me once, now it's my turn. You can't slap me twice, it just doesn't seem fair."

"Well Sir if you'd get with the program, I wouldn't have had to slap you twice. If you'd quit your bitching and just hit me back already we can move on."

"Okay then, I'm ready."

"Are you sure? Cause I'd hate to start this whole thing over again."

"Just fragging hit me trooper." He said growing annoyed.

"Don't forget to yell Recon after we head-butt."

"If you don't fraggin' hit me in the next three seconds I'm going to get in my god-damned drop-suit without doing your stupid ritual."

With that I slapped him hard, prompting him to slap me back. We then grabbed each other by the head and head-butted.

"RECON!" We both yelled.

"Are you fraggin' happy now. I'm gonna be going into this mission with a headache because of you." Captain Drennan complained.

"I never had you figured for a wimp Sir." I said walking over to my drop-suit that was spread in half like an open book. I leaned into the padding on the backside of the suit and pressed the button that triggered the front part of the suit to swing shut, incasing me within its protective cocoon. The suit's HUD came up and informed me that our target's location was already programmed into it. I then felt my ears pop as the suit pressurized itself.

I heard Captain Drennan's voice come over the suit's speakers, "I got your wimp Corporal. You better hope like hell someone kills you when we get down there. Cause about the first time I see you when you get back I'm going to kick your ass from here to next Sunday."

One of the ship's crewmen came up to stand in front of me. He mouthed the words, "Are you ready?" He wouldn't have been able to hear me through the suit so I nodded my head in confirmation. He then walked out of my field of view to ask Captain Drennan the same thing. I continued to watch as he walked over to the controls he would use to fire us out into space. I saw him look up and mouth the words, "good luck" to the both of us. He then activated a giant robotic arm that unfolded itself from the ceiling. It came down in front of me and moved until its huge robotic hand was around either side of my suit. I involuntarily flinched as the hand clamped down on my suit causing it to jar me from side to side. I was then lifted and simultaneously rotated until I was lying flat on my back. I watched the ceiling go by as the arm moved me over to set me down on the loading rack.

As soon as the arm released and moved out of the way, the rack slid me head first into the torpedo tube. I heard the heavy metal door of the launch tube slam shut and I was now in complete darkness. I had to wait there for a few minutes for the crewman to repeat the process with Captain Drennan and load him into the tube next to mine. After a minute or two I heard the faint metallic sound of the second tube slamming shut. Captain Drennan then came over my headset, "You ready trooper?"

"As ready as I'll ever be." I said with as much confidence as I could possibly muster. I hated this part almost as much as what would come at the end of the ride. My suit shook as the operator opened the door at the end of the tube exposing me to the vacuum of space.

The operator came over my headset then, "My screen says that both suits are holding pressure and all systems are functioning properly; please confirm."

"All good here." Captain Drennan replied.

I double-checked my readouts and saw that they were also reading correctly, "Me too… I'm ready." I forced myself to say. But in all honesty, I was most definitely not ready for what was going to happen next.

"Acknowledgement confirmed. Preparing to launch; in ten… nine… eight… seven… six… five… four… three… two… one… See you later boys!" With that my guts dropped to the bottom of my stomach as the tube violently accelerated me within half a second to a couple of hundred kilometers an hour.

"Woooohoooo! I fragging love this shit!" Captain Drennan screamed over the vox.

I fragging hate this shit.

My stomach turned as the violent g's of the launch gave way to the complete weightlessness of space. I felt a sudden jolt as the suit's rockets kicked in and it turned me to face head first directly over the planet. It was night-time on the side of the world we were entering and I looked up to see millions of twinkling lights from the cities that dotted the surface of Ophidia Three. I couldn't feel the acceleration, but the suit's HUD informed me I was rapidly increasing in velocity. I watched as the planet grew ever larger in my field of vision. My direction continued to change until one group of lights on the planet's surface centered itself directly above.

I flew for a few minutes through the vacuum of space in complete silence until I finally felt the suit shake again as it made contact with the planet's atmosphere. I watched as flames licked around the edges of my helmet and continued to grow in ferocity until they were all I could see. My suit started to shake violently as it tore through the planet's atmosphere at ridiculous speeds. I said a silent prayer to the Emperor humbly asking him to allow my heat shielding to hold up under the immense temperatures that were now assaulting it.

I fragging hate drop-suits.

After a couple of minutes the shaking subsided and the flames died down. As the pocket of ionized gas around me dissipated my suit reestablished vox communication with Captain Drennan, "You still alive over there?"

"You aren't getting rid of me that easy." I said trying to hide the nervousness in my voice.

"Well I got some bad news for you Corporal. I can see your suit from here and it looks to me like you've sprung a leak in one of your reverse thrusters." My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach when he said this.

"Are you fragging serious?!" I screamed over the vox.

"Yeah Frost, it's pretty bad. Well, it's been nice knowing you. Tell the Emperor I said hi when you reach the other side." With that the vox erupted with his laughter.

"Frag off! That shit's not funny! You know how much I fragging hate these things."

He continued to laugh at me over the vox, "Calm down Corporal, everything's gonna be fine. You just get the hell out of that thing as fast as you can whenever we hit that roof. You read me?"

"As long as this thing doesn't kill me, you can trust that I'm getting the hell out of it as fast as I possibly can. Did I ever tell you exactly how much I hate these fragging death-traps?"

"Yeah, you've mentioned it once or twice." He said still chuckling, "Well, get ready, here comes the fun part." As he said this I checked my suit's altimeter and saw that I was now below ten thousand meters and still traveling a couple thousand kilometers an hour.

The ground above me was growing at an incredibly frightening rate and I repeated the words, "Please don't malfunction, please don't malfunction," over and over again. As the roof of our target quickly became identifiable, my entire body tensed up. "Okay suit, now would be a good time to start slowing the frag down." Once again I'd become totally sure my suit had malfunctioned and I was about to die.

I'd closed my eyes tightly and was in the process of kissing my ass goodbye when my whole body jarred so violently I almost lost my lunch. I heard the suit's reverse rockets fire and again about vomited as it suddenly flipped me over so I was now headed for the roof feet first. I was about ten meters up when the rockets shut off, letting me fall the rest of the way to the ground. I hit incredibly hard, but the suit's hydraulic legs did their job perfectly and absorbed most of the impact for me.

The sudden change of direction coupled with that jarring impact left me disorientated for a couple of seconds and I fumbled desperately to find the controls to open my suit up. I finally got it open just as I heard Captain Drennan slam into the ground a couple of meters away. I'd landed so that I was facing the only door leading to the roof from the inside of the building. My head still spinning, I quickly peeled myself out of the suit, stumbled forward a couple of steps, drew my side-arm, took a two-handed grip, and dropped to a knee.

The door swung open and two men came running out of it. The silenced bolter issued two barely audible pops as I shot one of them between the eyes, killing him instantly, and the other in the knee, causing him to fall to the ground. I stumbled to stand over the one I'd shot in the knee as he tried desperately to pull his side-arm.

I stepped on his wrist and pinned it to the ground, "Don't you move a muscle or you're a god-damned dead man," the tone of my voice left no doubt as to my sincerity. I put the bolter to the side of his head and looked the frightened man in his eyes, "In a few seconds, someone is going to come over that vox and ask you if everything's all right up here. You will tell them that everything is fine and that you're on your way back down. Do you understand me?" I asked in the same cold-blooded voice.

"Ya, ya, yeah." He stuttered.

His hand vox crackled to life, "What's going on up there? Is everything alright?"

I nodded and pressed the bolter even harder against his temple. He reached down very slowly and grabbed the vox off of his belt. He then raised it even more slowly to his mouth and in a more shaky voice than I would have liked, "Yeah, everything's fine. It was nothing, probably just a bird or something. We're coming back down right now."

"Are you sure? That had to of been one hell of a bird to get all three guns to target it like that." The voice replied. I pressed even harder, forcing his head to one side.

"Look, I said it was nothing! We're coming back down." He said very forcefully.

"Geez man, what the hell is your problem? I was just checking to make sure you were guys were alright." The voice was now very annoyed.

"It's all clear up here. We're headed down," he said in a more even tone.

"Roger that." The vox died and the man immediately started pleading for his life. Captain Drennan had joined me by this point and was also pointing his bolter at the man's head.

"Shut up!" I barked causing the man to quiet down significantly. "I only have two questions for you. If you answer them correctly, I may let you live." I was very surprised at how little remorse I felt for lying to the man, "Do you understand me?" He violently shook his head yes, "Good, you're doing very good so far." I said in my most reassuring voice, "First question; where is Interrogator Trist?"

"Fourth floor, southwest corner, he's in a cell there." The man spat the information out as quickly as he could. "There are guards, four of them, and security cameras too. Please don't kill me, I have a family." He started sobbing uncontrollably, forcing me to steel my heart for what I would have to do after he gave me the answers I needed.

I reached down with my free hand, grabbed the man by the shirt, and shook him violently, "Stop crying right now! You're not finished yet." Much to the man's credit he got ahold of himself the best he could. "Second question," I pressed as the man continued to cry, though much more quietly, "Where are the controls for the air defense system?"

"In the basement, but they're in a bunker behind a very heavy door. There's two guards posted outside of it. That door is locked from the inside, the only way in is if the people on the inside let you in. You'll never get in there, it's impossible. Now I've told you what you want, please just let me go. I swear I'll never tell anyone what I saw… I promise!" He cried even harder as Captain Drennan turned away, he couldn't watch what I was about to do.

I looked at the man as I stood up, "I know it may not seem like it now, but your death is going to save the lives of your wife and children." His eyes grew wide and he started to say something else but I couldn't hear another word. I pulled the trigger and ended the man's life with a single shot to his head.

I stared at the dead man for a long moment recognizing that some part of me had also died with him. I was very surprised to find that for some strange reason I really didn't feel all that bad about what I'd done. In fact, I actually felt stronger for it. I reasoned that if the Emperor had created me to be a weapon, then he obviously intended for me to kill just as any other weapon would; indiscriminately.

I looked over to Captain Drennan, "Come on Sir, it's time to move."

"I can't believe you did that Frost. Lied to him like that, just to give him enough hope to tell you what you wanted to know. Hell Corporal, the man had a family for Emperor's sake." He said in a very disappointed voice.

For some reason his words really pissed me off, "Well what the frag did you want me to do?! We have a mission that must be accomplished at all costs, or have you already forgotten the importance of what we're doing here? And don't you even look down on me for killing him, because everyone in this building's gonna die whenever you set your fragging bomb off anyway!"

He remained quiet for longer than I would have liked before saying, "You're right… I'm sorry. Let's just get this job done and worry about our god-damned souls later." With that he grabbed the dead man's vox and clipped it to his belt, "This will let us know if they've discovered us a little sooner." He was now entirely focused on our objective. "You take point, be sure to watch out for electronic security."

I nodded and proceeded to the door the men had run out of. Before entering I triggered my HUD to actively scan for electronic security devices.

Upon entering I found myself in a utility room that housed the building's environmental control machines which were all humming very loudly as they regulated the rest of the building's temperature and humidity. Slowly, I swept my head from left to right, giving my HUD a chance to locate any active security cameras. A small red box appeared in the upper right portion of my field of view identifying a camera positioned just opposite one of the giant machines.

I looked back to Captain Drennan and pointed my finger to the location of the camera. He nodded his head, acknowledging that he'd also detected it. I slowly crept up to the side of the machine and poked my head out just far enough to get eyes on the device. It was mounted in the upper corner of the room close to the ceiling, sweeping from left to right so it could effectively scan the entire room. It was just in the process of rotating back to look in my direction and I had to quickly pull back to avoid being seen.

I waited a couple of seconds before poking my head out again. The camera was now in the process of rotating back to the other side of its field of view. I held up my hand to signal Captain Drennan to wait for a minute and then swiftly moved until my back was flush against the wall it was mounted on. I then slid along the the wall until I was directly underneath it.

Now safely in the camera's blind spot, I pulled one of the false-feed devices I was carrying from my LBE. I reached up until I was holding it just below the lens and then very carefully attached it to the underside of the device. When the camera reached the far left of its sweep I reached up and pressed the record button on the false-feed. I then waited for the camera to rotate through the rest of its cycle. As soon as it returned to its starting position, I reached up and pressed the button that would stop the false-feed's record function and trigger it to initiate the broadcast of its phony signal. I waited for a couple of seconds until a green light on the false-feed started blinking, confirming that it had successfully hi-jacked the camera's signal. As soon as I'd successfully by-passed the camera the red box outlining it on my HUD turned green.

Also seeing this, Captain Drennan stepped out of his hide and approached my position. We then moved in complete silence towards the staircase in the opposite corner of the room, passing by the elevator as we did. As we passed by I saw that we were located on the very top level of a ten story building. I already knew the building had ten stories from Captain Drennan's briefing, but what I didn't know, was that there were in fact, two sub-levels. That would make things more difficult for me because the man I'd interrogated had failed to mention which sub-level actually housed the air-defense control system. I tapped Captain Drennan on the shoulder and pointed to what I'd seen. "Try sub-level two first," he said, instantly recognizing the problem.

I agreed with his assessment, the lowest level would most likely contain the fire control bunker. We continued to move towards the door leading to the building's staircase, we would definitely not be taking the elevator on this one. Taking an elevator on a covert mission is about the dumbest thing you could possibly do. There's no telling if it will stop to pick up more passengers on its way down and there's definitely no way of knowing what or who would be on the other side of the doors whenever they did open.

When we got to the door leading into the stairwell Captain Drennan pulled a fiber-optic from his LBE and slid one end of it under the door. He put the view screen to his eye and began to slowly rotate the lens under the door to check the staircase for cameras. He finally stopped and pulled out the cable. He then looked at me and whispered, "Camera, far upper right corner. We can't bypass this one we'll have to scram it."

There are two ways to disable a security camera that don't involve shooting it. The first and most effective, is to sneak up and bypass it like I had with the last one. When that isn't possible, we have to use the second way, activating a device to scramble the signal called a scram-stick. It's just as effective at rendering the camera useless, but its main drawback is that whoever is on the other end of the video feed will immediately notice that they have a camera down. This will usually cause them to send someone to investigate the problem, which means that we would then have to kill whoever that unlucky someone happens to be.

Unnecessarily increasing our body-count is something we always try to avoid while infiltrating a site. This is because with every person we kill, we increase the likelihood of someone noticing that there are people missing. This person will then be forced to send more people to investigate, which we will then, also have to kill. This problem will steadily build upon itself until someone realizes that something is definitely wrong and trip the alarm. If this happens it is no longer a covert action, it's a full-fledged combat operation. If we hoped to recover Interrogator Trist alive we could not let that occur before we had him safely in our possession.

Captain Drennan placed the fiber-optic back in his LBE and removed a scram-stick. This device fires a very small bug completely covered in adhesive through the use of pressurized gas. When fired, the bug will stick to whatever it hits and begin emitting a signal that will disable any nearby electronic equipment. For it to work effectively it must land within a meter of the intended target.

Captain Drennan took a one kneed stance and held the tube out in front of him. I placed my foot in a way that when I pulled the door open, it would stop just wide enough for him to fire the device through. I held out three fingers and counted down, "Three… Two… One…" I opened the door and held it against my toe as Captain Drennan took aim and fired. As soon as I heard the subtle pop of the device being discharged, I immediately shut the door back. This entire process took less than two seconds.

Captain Drennan then extended the fiber-optic camera back under the door to check and see if his aim had been true. After a couple of seconds he looked up and nodded his head in confirmation.

I entered the stairwell with Captain Drennan close behind. I looked up to see the device stuck right above the camera less than a meter away. It was incredibly small and unless someone knew what they were looking for, they'd probably miss it, but you couldn't always count on that.

I held my bolter at the ready and scanned side to side as I quietly proceeded down the steps. When I hit the seventh floor my HUD detected another camera in the stairwell just below on the sixth. I held up my hand telling Captain Drennan to hold up. I slowly descended the stairs one step at a time until I could see around the next turn.

The camera was facing in a downward direction so that it could see anyone coming up the steps from the floors below its position. This would make it easy for me to disable, but also made it impossible to use the bypass device on. I pulled one of my own scram-sticks, took carful aim, and fired. Direct hit, the bug stuck perfectly on the side of the camera. Its outline changed to green informing me that it was now disabled. That was good, but whoever was on the other end now had two cameras down. If he hadn't sent anyone before, he would definitely be sending someone now.

I signaled Captain Drennan to wait at the top of the steps as I positioned myself flat against the wall off to the side of the door by the camera I just took out. I holstered my side arm and removed my combat-knife from my LBE. It didn't take long before I heard Captain Drennan's stolen vox come to life, "Six, this is control."

"Control, this is six, what do you need?"

"We have a camera out in the stairwell on your level. Could you go check it out, and while you're at it, go up to ten and check that camera as well."

"Why don't you send the guy from nine to check ten?"

"He's on break. I was gonna send him when he got back, but since you're already checking yours; I figured I'd have you go ahead and check that one too. Now get your fat-ass in that stairwell and check it out already."

"Fine, I'm on my way now." As he said this I could hear his voice growing closer to the door. I looked up to see Captain Drennan turn off his stolen vox. I flexed my hand on the knife, preparing for the imminent kill. I heard the security guard talking to himself from the other side of the door. I couldn't make out any of what he was saying, but he was obviously not happy about having to come and check the broken cameras.

I heard a couple of beeps come from the other side of the door. The lock disengaged and I watched the door swing open, hiding me behind it as it did. The fat guard walked by completely oblivious to my presence as the door automatically pulled itself shut. He went over and stood right below the camera and stared up at it. As he did, I silently moved in from behind. He continued to examine the camera for a couple of seconds until he pulled his vox up to his mouth, "Control, this is six."

"Go ahead six," the vox replied.

"I'm looking at this camera and I can't see a damn thing wrong with it."

"Well it's definitely broken. Can you try and fix it?" The voice asked.

"How the hell do you expect me to do that? I'm no fragging tech, and it's at least three meters up. Even if I could fix the thing there's no way to reach it." He was now extremely annoyed but still staring at the camera.

"Well go on up to ten and see if you can find anything wrong with that one."

The man let out a groan before responding, "Roger that." He was starting to turn around when something caught his eye. I silently stepped with him to the side as he struggled to get a better look. "What the hell?"

He was staring right at the tiny bug. He stood up on his toes trying his hardest to get a better look at it. Before he could do anything else I violently snatched him from behind, placing my left hand over his mouth as I did, and pulled him tightly towards my chest. I then reached my right arm around his body and planted the razor sharp knife hilt-deep into his chest, puncturing his heart as I did so. He dropped the hand-vox and brought both hands up to fight against me, but it was too late. I held him there firmly as his beating heart involuntarily shredded itself on the blade. I twisted the knife hard in his chest to speed up the process. He squirmed violently, but within a couple of seconds all of the fight left him and his body fell limply against mine. I quietly lowered him to the ground removing my knife from his chest as I did so. I then reached down with my left hand and ripped off a piece of his shirt and used it to wipe my blade clean of his dripping blood.

"I see why they call you the Ice Man," Captain Drennan muttered. He passed by without even looking at me.

"What the hell is his problem?" I quietly followed him down the steps and eventually arrived at the door to the fourth floor. My HUD picked up another camera in the stairwell, but it was below us on the third looking down just as the one on six had been. It wouldn't be a concern so we let it be.

Captain Drennan again had out his fiber-optic and was looking under the door. He scanned the inside of the room for about a minute before turning back to me. He gave me the signals letting me know that there were six enemy combatants in the room and three security cameras. There would be no possible way to get through this room without being noticed and very little chance of getting through without setting off the alarm. He pulled a small round device just a little smaller than a typical frag grenade off the belt of his LBE. I knew exactly what he intended to do.

The ball was a miniaturized EMP device. EMP stands for Electromagnetic Pulse. When an EMP ball goes off, it completely shorts out any active electronic equipment within a ten meter radius. The only downside to detonating an EMP is that very soon after it goes off someone would definitely know something had happened. Being that that something was about to happen on the fourth floor where there prized prisoner was being held, I would not be surprised in the least if the alarm went off shortly there afterwards.

Captain Drennan removed the fiber-optic and placed it back into his LBE. He then withdrew a cable from another pocket and connected it to a socket on his HUD. As he did this, I pulled my combat-knife back out and use it to pry the face from the keypad by the side of the door. Once I got it free, I unplugged the wire harness from the back of it and stepped out of the way. Captain Drennan then spliced the cable from his mask into the now disconnected wire harness and sat still for a couple of moments.

I eventually heard the metallic click of the door's locking mechanism disengage. I took this time to deactivate my HUD and any other electronics on my body as Captain Drennan removed the cable and deactivated his own HUD and electronics. When I was finished I told him I was ready. I guess he disagreed because he shook his head no to me. I didn't understand what I was missing until he reached down and tapped my left arm.

Frag, he was right; if left on the EMP would definitely short it out. I reluctantly took the glove off of my right hand and rolled the sleeve of my left arm. Using my combat knife I pried open the metal hatch on the back of my forearm that contained the power switch. I held out my arm and Captain Drennan carefully reached into the small compartment and flipped the switch to the off position.

I instantly lost all feeling in my arm and watched as it fell limply to my side. It was an incredibly weird sensation; to go from having a fully functional limp one second, to having absolutely nothing the next. All I could feel was the dead weight of the machine hanging uselessly from my body. It was the first time it had been turned it off since the day it was attached to my body over six months ago.

I had a small moment of panic when the thought that it might not turn back on popped into my head. I pushed that sickening idea as far from my mind as possible and instead focused completely on the task at hand.

I would be going into this room with one arm. We wouldn't have the time needed to reactivate it until we had killed everyone inside. To top it off, my aim would suffer because I would have to fire my bolter with just one hand. For this reason, Captain Drennan signaled that he would take out the four on the left and leave the others for me.

This was all very new; I was usually the one assigned to take out the lion's share of targets. Now I would have to rely on my partner to do that job for me. I didn't like it, not one bit. I'm used to placing my life in my own hands. Now I had to place it the hands of someone who wasn't too terribly thrilled with me at the moment.

What am I thinking? Captain Drennan is the most professional soldier I'd ever met. He wouldn't let a little thing like the fact he was pissed off with me get in the way of the mission. Would he? I pushed that unsettling thought far from my mind too.

Captain Drennan slapped me softly in the side of the head to bring me back to the task at hand. I looked at him and gave him a sharp nod to let him know I was ready. He then pointed to let me know which side of the room his and my targets would be located on. He would go left while I went right. I watched as he primed the EMP to detonate on impact and took a stance off to the side of the door. I stacked up behind him and tapped him on the head with my bolter to let him know I was ready. I then raised my hand to the right side of my mask preparing to turn it back on as soon as the EMP detonated.

Very slowly, he pulled the door open just far enough to stick his hand through. He then tossed the EMP through the crack and shut it back. I heard a soft pop which was followed very shortly by shouts of confusion. I flipped the switch on the side of my mask and followed Captain Drennan into the now totally dark room.

My mask instantly turned its night vision on and I scanned the room from right to left, quickly locating my targets. I heard Captain Drennan pop off multiple rounds in very quick succession. I shot my first target with two well-placed rounds to the chest. I was just about to shoot the second who'd already pulled his sidearm when a bullet struck him in the head.

I scanned the room and quickly realized that all six targets were down; all but one of them had been shot by Captain Drennan. I looked over to see that he was quickly walking over the only man in the room who was still moving.

The injured man was trying uselessly to get his broken hand vox to work so he could call for help. Captain Drennan dropped his expended clip, slapped a fresh one in, and finished the dying man with a single shot. This entire process had taken less than ten seconds; in that time four of the five men Captain Drennan killed had been hit in the head. I realized then that I'd severely underestimated my commanding officer.

Without any hesitation Captain Drennan turned around, came over to where I was standing, grabbed my arm, lifted it up, and flipped its power switch. Instantly, I had two arms again. I was again struck by a weird sensation, but this time it was from going from no arm to having one back again. I flexed it back and forth, then opened and closed my hand a couple of times. Once I was completely satisfied it was functioning properly I snapped the power hatch closed and pulled my sleeve back down.

"Quit wasting time, we've got to keep moving."

I stole a look at my chronometer and realized we'd now been in the building eight minutes. He was right; we were starting to run behind. I dropped my half empty clip, slapped a new one in, and moved with purpose to a door at the far west of the room.

Captain Drennan's pilfered vox sprang to life as soon as he turned it on, "Four, this is control, what the hell is going on up there?"

"I don't know, but we've lost all power. I heard a lot of commotion down the hall. I'm headed to check it out right now." A clearly nervous voice responded.

"The gig's almost up Corporal. We've got about a minute before someone sounds the alarm. We need to move our asses." He said as I reached the door. I didn't even check for security devices, everything within a ten meter radius of the EMP would be dead.

I kicked the door in to see a very surprised person with a flashlight headed in my direction, he had a bolter in his hand and was just starting to take aim when I shot him.

I moved quickly through the corridor approaching an intersecting hallway. I paused and took aim when I saw another flashlight coming towards us from the hall on the left. As soon as it rounded the corner I shot its owner with a couple of well-placed rounds to the chest. I heard Captain Drennan's bolter pop and a bullet whiz right by my head. I looked up to see he'd shot someone coming out of one of the doors ahead of me even farther down the hall.

I turned left having reached the west side of the building and was now headed south. As soon as I made the turn I heard a loud pop from an un-silenced bolter. I felt a strong punch to my chest as the round struck my soft armor. I instantly identified the shooter and put a bullet into his face.

With Drennan at my back I continued down the hall moving as fast as possible until I finally hit an area that still had power. My HUD automatically turned my night-vision off and I looked up to see a security camera at the end of the corridor. It was looking right at me. I quickly took aim and fired, but it was too late. They had definitely seen me. This supposition was positively confirmed when the alarms went off just as I reached a heavy set of double doors with the word, "Detention" written over top of them.

Captain Drennan quickly produced the hacking cable but I waved him off, "It'll take too long." I pulled my sword from the holster on my left leg and clicked the mandible shut igniting the black flame. I stabbed it through the center of the double doors causing an inferno of sparks to fly as I did. I then forced it downwards severing the locking mechanism that held them shut. I deactivated my blade and stepped back. Captain Drennan stepped up, drew his own sword, and slid its unlit blade through the gap I'd created. I drew my bolter again as he pried the door open. He had forced it about twenty centimeters when it finally gave way and slid the rest of the way open.

The first thing I saw upon entering the cell block was two completely bald men, doubled over, and gasping for air. Psykers… Without a moment's hesitation I shot them both in their bulbous heads.

"I don't give a damn if he is sleeping! Get his ass on the line right fragging now!" A man screamed frantically into a computer screen. As he saw me he ducked behind the desk it was sitting on. He reached his bolter over top of it and began firing wildly.

I holstered my bolter and swung my assault rifle off of my back. I flipped the selector lever to auto and sprayed the desk he was hiding behind, killing him instantly. Captain Drennan brushed roughly against my back and fired off three rounds from his side-arm, killing the last guard in the room.

"Interrogator Trist! Operatives of the Inquisition! Where are you?!" Captain Drennan hollered out.

"Oh thank the Emperor, I'm back here!" I heard a voice call out.

Captain Drennan and I both ran to the cell at the far back of the block and peered through the small window in its door. I saw a man lying in a bunk, his face was horribly bruised and swollen, "Oh heavens, thank the Emperor! I thought you guys would never come."

"We're here now. Can you walk?" I asked.

"Yes, I think so, but not very quickly, they've beaten the hell out of me trying to force me to sign a confession. I didn't though. Now could you please just get me the hell out of here?!" As he said this I tried the handle and quickly realized I would need a key.

Frag that, we didn't have the time. I reached down with my left arm and twisted the handle with all the power I could force into it until it finally broke. The door swung open and Captain Drennan ran in to help him out of bed, "Let's get you the hell out of here."

Chapter 15

Captain Drennan helped Interrogator Trist to the door. He could walk but just barely, this prompted Drennan to snatch him up and throw him over his shoulder.

"What the hell are you doing? I said I can walk!" Trist yelled.

"Not fast enough Interrogator. Just be happy you're not that big and enjoy the ride." Captain Drennan said. Trist wasn't very big; he was a full head shorter than my CO and very thin. This was very good news because Captain Drennan was going to have to carry him up six flights of steps before this was all said and done with.

"Corporal, you take point and don't you slow down for shit, I'm a' ride your ass all the way to the stairs. You got me?"

"I got you Sir. Let's roll!" As alarms continued to blare, I put my rifle to my shoulder and led the way out. I turned to the left and sidestepped through the door leading into the hallway. I saw three flashlights at the end of the corridor heading in my direction. I flipped the selector lever to semi for greater accuracy and pulled the trigger six times in very quick succession. All three lights hit the ground.

I kept my body in a combat effective posture as I moved quickly down the hall. I continuously swept the barrel of my bolter left to right, actively scanning for hostiles. Another man rounded the turn at the end of the hall just meters away. I didn't hesitate; I put three into him without slowing my advance.

My HUD switched to night-vision when I again entered the area where the power was out. I slid over to the left side of the hall and slowed as I approached the turn that would take us back to the staircase. I saw another light coming from the direction I planned to go and waited for it to round the corner… it never did. It stopped right before making the turn, stuck a bolter out, and fired in my direction.

I flipped my selector lever back to auto and emptied my magazine into the wall he was hiding behind. I dropped the expended mag and had a fresh one slapped in its place before it or the body hit the ground.

Changing back to semi; I sidestepped around the corner and a guard running full-on in my direction almost bore right into me. With lightning speed, I whipped the stock of the rifle off my shoulder and brutally smashed it into his face.

I stepped over the toothless guard, pulled my weapon back to the ready, and continued towards the stairs. I took a quick glance back to make sure Captain Drennan was still with me. He was and he put a bullet into the man I had just knocked out as he also stepped over.

I looked back just in time to see two more flashlights burst through the door at the end of the hall. I dropped to a knee and killed them both with two perfectly placed shots to the head. I pressed on with all possible speed until I reached the room that led to the staircase. I stopped short when I heard hushed voices coming from the other side of its door. I listened carefully; from the sound of it there were more than a few.

I held my hand up to Drennan, telling him to stop. He came up beside me and whispered, "What's up?"

"Ambush," I replied. He turned, carried Interrogator Trist to one of the open offices, and set him down.

"What are you doing? I'm more than capable of helping you; just give me a gun." Trist said.

"Sorry Sir, we're here to get you out alive. Now you can either hide in here awake or lie in here unconscious; it's your choice." With that he shoved him into the room and shut the door.

"Sir, how are we going to get through this?" Opening the door and sneaking a grenade through would not be an option. If we even tried they would just shoot through the door and kill us both.

"Adapt and overcome Corporal," He replied, "I'm going through that door and up them steps exactly as planned. I'll be damned if I let these jerk-offs stop me."

"Sir it's impossible…"

"Shut up," he interrupted, "what did I tell you about that word?" He grabbed one of my LBE straps and hauled me into the office directly adjacent to the room the men were waiting to ambush us in. He went over to the desk and flipped it on its side. We then both dropped behind it to use as cover.

"I'm a' shoot that wall, and I want you to shoot right where I do. You got me?"

"Sir, I don't understand."

He slapped my face, "Just fragging do it!" I could tell he wasn't about to offer any further explanation. He pulled his assault bolter off of his back, flipped it to auto, and took aim. I followed his lead even though I was still unsure of what the frag he was planning.

I heard the staccato pop of his suppressed bolter as he fired it at a singular point on the eastern wall. I did likewise and opened up on the same spot. A cacophony of deafening fire erupted from the men on the other side of the wall, all of it ripping right through the door we needed to get through.

"Hold your fire!" I heard a man call out from the other side. As if the man's order were meant for us we also stopped. We both dropped our mags, and slapped fresh ones into place; as I did this I looked up and saw that we'd created a small hole in the wall. I took aim at the spot again but Captain Drennan stopped me.

"Hold it Corporal, you may need the ammunition." He slung his rifle back over his should and drew his side-arm. He then unscrewed the suppressor from the tip of its barrel. He took aim at the hole and looked over to me, "Watch and learn."

POP! POP! POP!

He fired the now extremely loud bolter at the hole we'd created one shot at a time. After the forth shot I saw a beam of light pierce through from the other side. When he saw this, he dumped the rest of his clip.

"THERE!" I heard yelled from the other side. Once again a massive onslaught issued from the adjacent room, all of it was now directed at the spot we'd been firing at.

I watched in amazement as the hole grew. It continued to grow steadily until I could see clear through and into the other room. "Get ready Corporal." Captain Drennan pointed me towards the hall.

As the onslaught continued I slid along the ground until I was in the doorway. I then stood up using the doorframe as cover and readied my rifle, utterly clueless as to what he planned to do next. I looked back and saw that while I'd been sliding, he'd been pushing. He'd pushed the overturned desk all the way across the floor. It was now just about a meter away from the wall we'd put the hole in.

"What the hell is he doing?"

As if just to answer my question he reached down and grabbed a couple of frag grenades from his belt.

"Why you sneaky son of a bitch," I said mostly to myself, now fully understanding the true genius of his plan. He didn't need to tell me what to do next, I already knew, but he sent the appropriate hand signals anyway.

"Hold your fire! Hold your fire!" I heard from beyond the wall. As soon as the gunfire stopped, Captain Drennan pulled the pin from one of his grenades and chucked it through the hole.

"Holy shit!" I heard someone yell just before it exploded. As soon as it did Captain Drennan ruthlessly tossed the second into the room now full of screaming men. The overpressure caused by the second explosion blew the door completely off its hinges and I burst through milliseconds later. I pulled my bolter up to combat position and quickly scanned the area.

My CO's diabolical plan had worked better than he could have possibly hoped; the room was a dismembered and bloody mess. Severed limbs and mangled bodies littered the entire area; those who weren't dead were very badly injured and begging for it. I granted their wish and finished them quickly before giving the all clear.

I walked to the far end of the room and pressed the button to call the elevator. I took a position directly in front of it and waited.

"What the hell are you doing?" Captain Drennan asked as he walked in with a now very unconscious Trist draped limply over his shoulder. I guess they'd had a serious difference of opinion over how the Interrogator would be exiting the building.

"Buying you some time." The doors opened. Thankfully it was empty. I entered the elevator and waved to the camera in the corner. Once I was sure it had seen me I pulled up my bolter and shot it right through the lens. I then turned around, pressed the button to send it down a level, and stepped off, pulling my combat knife as I did.

When I saw it had reached level three I wedged my knife into the doors and pried on them enough to get my fingers in between and then pulled them the rest of the way open. I then stepped in between and held them open with my feet, drawing my power-sword as I did. I ignited it and reached into the shaft and severed all the cables holding the elevator up. I watched it drop a couple of meters before its emergency breaks caught hold, stopping it short. I waited a couple of seconds and smiled as the elevator's massive counterweight whizzed by on its way to the basement.

Now satisfied that the quickest way to the roof had been effectively disabled I holstered my sword and looked back to Captain Drennan who was still standing in the same spot, dumbfounded over what I'd just done. "I know Sir; you can tell me I'm a genius later. Now get your ass out of here!" I didn't wait for a response; I stepped off the ledge and dropped into the shaft.

I landed hard atop the broken elevator and hastily made my way to the service ladder at the rear of the shaft and began my decent.

When I reached the bottom I checked my chronometer. I'd now been in the building for seventeen minutes and was running very short on time. Any minute reinforcements would be arriving from the city and they'd definitely be more difficult to deal with than these half-wits. "Where are you Sir?" I said over the vox link.

"Seventh floor and climbing," he responded. I could tell from the sound of his voice he was winded from carrying Trist's dead weight up the stairs. "How about you?" he asked in between labored breaths.

I crossed to the other side of the elevator shaft and hopped up onto the ledge of the door leading to sublevel two. "Preparing to enter sublevel two," I said. I pulled out my fiber-optic and slid it through the gap at the bottom of the door. I quickly scanned the room from side to side until I was satisfied that it was empty. I then used my combat knife as I had before, forced the door open, and stepped through.

I found myself in a large storage area full of various boxes and old, no longer functioning computer banks. I saw a security camera and again waved to it before using my side-arm to shoot it out like I had the one in the elevator. I wanted whatever remained of the building's security force to be headed in my direction. I reasoned if they were coming after me, they wouldn't be looking for Captain Drennan. Not having to find and circumvent electronic security should also make my search go faster.

I moved to the door on the other side of the room and kicked it open. Behind, I found much more of the same. Just a bunch of old and dusty junk that was no longer needed to operate the building. I cautiously moved to a door on the right of the hall I was now moving down. I turned the handle and opened it. Inside was just a bunch of maintenance supplies and cleaning equipment. I was beginning to think I wasn't on the right floor. I checked four more rooms and found more of the same in each.

"I'm almost to ten, what's the word Frost?" Captain Drennan asked over the vox, now clearly out of breath.

"Two's a bust; moving to Sublevel one." I turned around and quickly retraced my steps, headed for the room the elevator and stairs were in.

I was halfway down the hall when suddenly three masked soldiers in full combat gear burst through the door at the end of the hall.

I dived into a room on the left as they immediately opened up with their assault bolters. These guys were definitely not building security, they were commandos; sent in from the city and many more would be arriving very shortly. I had to do something quickly.

"Where are you Frost? I'm on the roof and those guns are still live." Captain Drennan hollered over the vox.

"I'm a little busy right now." I poked my head out the door and had to pull it back as they instantly fired on me. They were in the middle of a tactical advance. Bullets tore through the wall all around me as they steadily advanced on my position.

I knew the tactic; I had used it myself. They were going to keep me pinned in this room until one of them could get into position to throw a grenade in with me.

I poked my head out. More gunfire erupted and I pulled back just before they could shoot me. I was right; two had posted up; the third was low-crawling along the wall with a frag in one hand. He'd soon be in position to kill me.

Adapt and overcome.

I stood up and drew both my power-sword and bolter. I ignited the blade, stepped up, and stabbed it through the wall. I cut the narrow divide that separated us in a downward arc until I heard a bloodcurdling scream.

I removed the sword went back to the door. I could hear the others charging straight for my position. Instinct took over. I executed a Voke-inspired spin that brought me through the door and into the hall; simultaneously dumping half my bolter's clip into their unarmored legs.

They both tripped and fell face- first in my direction. I continued the spin until it brought me the rest of the way around, swinging my power-sword in an upward motion that very neatly cut the one on the right in half.

The remaining hostile's assault bolter went sliding down the hall as he landed face first at my feet. He quickly rolled over to face me pulling his side-arm to bear as he did. Before he could fire a single shot, I turned the upward arc of my last maneuver into a downward slash that cut both his hands off at the wrist, instantaneously cauterizing the wounds shut as it did. The man let out a horrible scream as I deactivated my power-sword.

He continued to scream until I shut him up by bashing him in the face with the heavy skull-shaped hilt of my sword. I reached down and pulled his mask off so I could now see his very bloody face. "Who are you?!"

The man spit blood and teeth at me, "Frag off!"

"Look," I said very calmly, "We can do this the easy way, or we can do it the hard way. The easy way is I kill you quickly after you give me the answers I need. The hard way; I take this sword and dismember you one piece at a time."

The man looked back up to me, steeled his resolve, and refused to say anything. "Okay," I reignited my power-sword, "Have it your way." I stepped on his chest and pinned him to the ground then slowly brought the sword down in a way that would cut his arm off at the shoulder. His whole body started to shake and he craned his neck in a manner that moved his head as far from the searing blade as possible. It had just barely made contact with the top of his shoulder when he started screaming.

"Okay! Okay! Just don't cut me anymore… please!"

"I take it you've had a change of heart," I said, pulling the blade away. "Sergeant Johan Metian, Special Operations, Planetary Security."

"Where's your identification Sergeant Metian?" I asked coldly.

"Upper-right breast pocket," he said very quickly. "Please, I have a family." He pleaded now realizing that his life was about to end.

"Yeah, people keep telling me that Sergeant. How many operatives came in with you?"

"There were ten of us. Two teams of three entered the building, the rest stayed outside to make sure no one escapes. We came down to get you; the other team is headed for the roof." I immediately opened a channel with Drennan.

"What's going on Frost? I'm waiting and those fragging guns still aren't down." He was clearly annoyed.

"I'm working on it Sir, but you've got three highly trained commandos headed for your position right now. I was barely able to take out the ones that came after me, so do not underestimate these guys."

"Roger that Corporal, I'll handle it. You just take care of those god-damned guns already." With that he cut the link.

I looked back to Sergeant Metian, "When you came in, did you check in with security? Do they know who you are?"

"Yeah, we went to the security office just upstairs from here. They were the ones that told us where to find you."

"Were you wearing your mask when you did?"

"Yes, why would you want to know that?" He asked clearly confused.

I didn't answer him, "How long until more reinforcements show up?"

"Minister Hult ordered us on standby just in case something like this happened. There are two more squads suiting up right now, but they won't get here for at least another ten minutes." Having all the information I needed, I pulled my bolter and leveled it on his face, "No, no, wait!" He said right before I pulled the trigger.

I reached down with my sword and cut his body armor open to reveal the fatigues underneath. I then deactivated the sword and clicked it and my side-arm into their perspective holsters. I grabbed the man's identification, pulled my mask off, and put his on. I then took my own mask and forced it on over his head. Our armor was both similar in appearance so it was unnecessary to trade that out as well for what I was planning. I also highly doubted this building's security was smart enough to notice the differences in our LBEs so I didn't bother changing those out either.

Confident my disguise would work; I placed the man's identification in my back pocket. I then reached down and threw his body over my shoulder. I headed for the stairwell. I'd just reached the door to the stairs when two security guards burst in with bolters at the ready. They both drew down and told me to freeze.

"We killed him! I got the sorry bastard right here," I said, trying as best I could to sound like Sergeant Metian. "Take me to the security office."

They both hesitated.

"Look, this guy just killed two of my buddies and he's got a partner somewhere in this building ready to do the same to the others. If you two don't take me to the security office right fragging now, I'm going to pull out my god-damned bolter and shoot the both of you!" I set a hand on my sidearm.

The threat worked. "Sorry Sir. It's just you guys are just dressed so similarly that we weren't sure if you were him or not."

I pulled the man's identification out of my pocket, flipped it open, and shoved it in his face, "Are you fragging happy? Now move it!"

Upon seeing this they holstered their weapons and started for the stairs. I followed and said from behind, "This guy said something about an airborne assault on its way here, how are your air-defense systems working?"

"You can see for yourself Sergeant; they're in the same bunker as the security office." This was good news; now I wouldn't have to come up with another lie to get into the bunker.

We stepped out of the stairwell and they led me through a couple of doors and down a hallway. Along the way I passed some very frightened looking security guards, all of which thanked me greatly for coming so quickly. We finally came up to a heavy metal door which one of my escorts keyed a code into. The lock clicked open and the guard opened the door for me. He held it while I carried the real Sergeant Metian through.

Upon entering I saw the entire southern wall of the room was made of reinforced rockcrete. There was a very heavy door in its center that I was absolutely sure would be too thick for even my sword to cut. There were also two more guards standing on either side it.

Great, just what I needed. I now had four more guys that I would definitely have to kill; not to mention however many more were waiting inside the bunker. "Open her up, Sergeant Metian needs in to monitor the cameras." One of my escorts said to the men guarding the door.

"Sorry Sir, we can't do that. We still have a hostile loose in the building. Standard operating procedure says; that in the event of a hostile attack on this facility we are absolutely not supposed to open this door until it is confirmed that the threat has been neutralized." The guard said.

I threw Sergeant Metian's body and it landed in a heap at their feet, "Well what the hell do you call that?! He looks pretty fraggin' dead to me."

"I'm sorry Sir, I just can't open…" I shut him up by forcefully throwing him against the wall.

"How many of your friends did this bastard kill before I got here?" I pointed to the body as I leaned threateningly over him, "Twenty? Thirty?"

The man started stuttering before I cut him off, "Shut up! He killed two of mine and his partner just may kill the others. Now if you actually had someone with an ounce of competence in that room none of this shit would of happened."

The man continued to hesitate and I knew if I wanted in that room I'd have to do something drastic. "Perhaps I haven't made myself clear," I grabbed him by the throat and slammed him back into the wall. I pulled my sidearm and placed it against his head, "If even one of my friends die because you didn't let me in there; I will fragging kill you! And that's a promise."

That got his attention. He immediately pulled his vox to his mouth, "Control, open it up. Sergeant Metian's taking over." We waited for a couple of moments before we got a response.

"Roger that. Let him deal with this fraggin' mess." A clearly relieved man said over the vox. A second later I heard a series of very heavy metallic mechanisms disengage and the door slowly started to cycle open.

I released my grip on the man's throat and helped him straighten out his uniform. "I want all of you men to come inside this bunker with me. It will be the safest place for you." I didn't have to ask twice. They immediately started squeezing themselves inside as soon as the door was open far enough for them to fit. As soon as the last man went in I removed the stolen mask, dropped it on the floor and pulled mine off poor old Sergeant Metian's dead head. I then put it back on, grabbed my power-sword, and marched into the now very crowded bunker.

I stepped inside to see the looks of nine very confused men. Three sat unarmed in front of a huge bank of computer screens monitoring the security cameras throughout the building. Another two; also unarmed, were sitting off to the left monitoring the air-defense systems. The men continued to stare at me for a long moment, unsure of what was going on.

I ignited my power-sword just as one of the morons figured it out.

Before he even got a hand on his bolter I ruthlessly cut him and the two standing next to him in half. I spun with the slash moving further into the room, turning it into a two -handed thrust that impaled the last armed man just as he was grabbing for his bolter.

I slowly swept my power-sword around the room; pointing it to each of them, "No one fraggin' move." The tone in my voice left no doubt as to what would happen if any of them did.

"You two will disable the air defenses," I pointed to the men sitting at the ADS fire control panel. They hesitated, so I decapitated one of the men sitting in front of the monitors. "I say again, disable the air defenses." No further encouragement was necessary; they immediately initiated the shutdown sequence. I watched the air-defense system go off-line and opened a link with Captain Drennan.

"Where the frag are you?!" I could hear automatic gunfire in the background.

"The ADS is down… are you alright?" An explosion ripped off over the channel.

"No I'm not fragging alright! I'm hit… in the leg… what the hell took you so long? Never mind… I know… these bastards are good." More automatic gunfire. "Interrogator Trist is fine too, but we won't be for long."

Just then the pilot's voice came over the vox channel, "We're coming in hot and heavy Captain. You just get your asses down when we get there."

"You hear that Corporal?" Captain Drennan came back, "It's time for you to get the hell out of here." I heard more gunfire over the vox. Captain Drennan grunted in pain, "Shit!" He gasped for air. I heard what sounded like his rifle hitting the ground and then the sound of him coughing.

"Sir… Are you alright?!" No response. "Sir?!" I waited for a couple of heart wrenching seconds before a new voice came over the link.

"Captain Drennan is down!" It was Interrogator Trist, "He's hurt bad… I think he'll make it… as long as that bird..." His voice was drowned out by a massive barrage of heavy caliber machine gun fire.

"Somebody call for a Night Hawk?" I breathed a deep sigh of relief when I heard the pilot's voice, "Don't worry Corporal, we've got him. How long will it take you to clear the blast-zone?"

"Six minutes," even though I wasn't totally sure if that would be enough time or not. I holstered the sword, drew my sidearm, and shot everyone in the bunker who was still alive. Satisfied they wouldn't reengage the ADS, I continued, "I'll be out in six… count on it." I pulled an EMP ball from my LBE and set it to go off in sixty seconds. I then dropped it on the ground, triggered the massive door to cycle shut, and walked out of the room with bolter at the ready.

"We got em' Corporal, good job. You now have six minutes to get clear of the blast zone." The pilot said as I stepped out of the bunker's anteroom.

"Roger that, you guys just make sure he doesn't die on me. I still owe him one hell of a beating when I get back." I shot another two guards. I continued to move through the floor as fast as I could safely do so.

"Roger that. And good luck down there. Extraction team out." The pilot cut the link.

I rounded a corner and dropped another three guards, moving past them with all possible speed. I continued on towards the stairwell and only had to kill one more person before stepping through its door. I took the steps two at a time, holstered my sidearm, and readied my assault bolter.

I had five minutes left when I exited the stairwell on the first floor. I entered the massive lobby that covered much of this level and immediately scanned the room. My eyes settled on four guards standing around a huge reception desk. I pulled the trigger multiple times in quick succession; all four of them dropped without ever seeing me.

I moved towards the huge glass facade that made up the front of the building and quickly headed for the doors which were also made of the same material. I was about two steps from freedom when the façade exploded, spraying shards of broken glass all around and over top of me as automatic gunfire ripped through.

A bullet tore through my sleeve and grazed my right arm as I quickly did an about-face and ran for the reception desk, diving over the top of it with dozens of rounds zipping by. Luckily, the desk was made of steel. I heard multiple bullets bounce off of the front of it. Frag! I'd completely forgotten about Sergeant Metian's backup.

I low-crawled towards one side of the desk and peered around the corner; I couldn't see anything. It was too dark outside and they were all well-hidden behind pretty good cover. I checked my chronometer and saw I only had four and a half minutes left. If I didn't get out of here fast I was a dead man.

The sniper in me woke up. It told me that my survival depended upon my ability to get to higher ground. Only then would I be able to see the enemies' position. The sniper was right; I pulled a frag from my belt, popped the pin, and chucked it over the desk in their direction.

As soon as it went off, I exploded from behind the desk and headed straight for the stairwell. I'd just pulled the door open and stepped through when bullets started ripping into the walls on either side of me. I didn't hesitate; I ran up the steps and drew my sword. As soon as I reached the door to the second floor I checked to see if it was unlocked, it wasn't. I immediately ignited the blade, slashed the lock, and ripped the door open, hoping like hell this floor was empty.

Thankfully it was. By now there were probably very few guards left alive in the building. I proceeded with all possible speed until I found an empty office with windows that provided a good view of the area the commandos were posted up in. The lights in the office were all out but I stayed low anyway; these guys were good and I damn sure wasn't going to underestimate them again.

I reached the desk, flipped it over, and turned it to face the front of the building. I then changed my assault-bolter to auto and shot out the windows. It didn't take long for them to locate me and I had to duck behind my cover for a good couple of seconds as they lit up the entire office from the ground. As soon as they stopped firing I dropped my magazine and replaced it with one of the mags of armor piercing rounds I'd brought.

Three and a half minutes before I'm toast. I triggered my HUDs infrared function. My entire field of view changed to hues of yellow, red, and purple. Half-expecting a bullet to the brain, I slowly poked my head over the desk. Good, they can't see me; I was too far back. I scanned from left to right until I located my first target by the heat of his body that glowed brightly in the infrared spectrum. He was using the front side of his land cruiser as hard cover. I lifted my bolter and rested its barrel on the desk I was using as cover. I continued to scan until I located my second target, also behind the cruiser, but at its rear.

I kept on looking for a long moment trying desperately to locate the other two. I couldn't find them. Frag; they must be coming in after me. Those two were just meant to hold me down so they're buddies could sneak in and shoot me in the back. These guys were good all right.

But I'm better. I locked the assault bolter's sites on one of the men hiding behind the land cruiser and pulled the trigger three times. I watched him drop as the armor piercing rounds tore straight through the vehicle and killed him. I quickly took aim at his partner; who'd immediately realized his current cover was no longer any good. I gave him the appropriate lead and shot him right in the head just as I heard his friends coming up the hall to the rear of me. I flipped my selector lever back to auto and dumped the rest of the mag into the wall behind me. I didn't even wait to see if I'd hit anyone; I'd only done that to slow them down. I hopped over top the desk and ran straight for the broken glass. I jumped from the second story window just as they rounded the corner and opened fire.

When I hit the ground I rolled in an effort to dissipate some of the fall's kinetic energy, but I still ended up hurting my ankle. As soon as I stopped rolling I dropped my mag, slapped another in place, and took aim. I lined up the shot just in time to see the commandos above take aim. I dumped the entire clip and killed them both just microseconds before they could do the same.

I slapped in my last mag of armor piercing rounds and winced in pain as I struggled to move towards the road as fast as I possibly could. I could hear sirens in the distance and I knew that very shortly two additional teams would be arriving. I looked down to my chronometer; three minutes remained.

I was moving for the tree-line as fast as I could when another land cruiser squealed around the bend in the road ahead of me. I readied my rifle, changed it to semi, and placed five well-aimed shots through the wind-shield. The driver lost control halfway through the turn and careened off the road. I watched as the cruiser slammed head-on into a tree going at least eighty kilometers an hour. The back end flipped up and it rolled onto its side.

I put the flaming wreck behind and forced myself to run through the pain until I finally hit the tree line. Just as I reached cover, I saw another cruiser full of commandos speed by at a very high rate of travel. I kept moving. I'd just under ninety seconds and would be incredibly lucky if I made it clear of the impending detonation. I moved as fast as I could, but the condition of my ankle was worsening by the second. It was badly sprained and every step I took only inflamed it more.

I'd reached the point where I could barely put any weight on my right foot when I finally saw the extraction team off in the distance. Apparently one of the cruisers had dropped a couple of guys off to investigate who these guys were and why they were just parked there on the side of the road.

There were two of them; and they had my extraction team up against the side of my only way out of here. I had to get out of the trees if I hoped to make it in time. So I took a chance and stepped into the road. Thankfully neither one of them saw this as both their attention was totally focused on their newfound prisoners. I could hear one of them screaming profanities, demanding to know what the hell they were doing there.

Thirty seconds remained when I dropped to a knee and lined up the shot. The one nearest me had finally had enough and was getting ready to shoot one of my team members when I pulled the trigger.

The armor piercing round struck him in the side of his chest, passed straight through, and hit the man standing beside him. They both dropped immediately, one dead, the other writhing in agony. Both members of my team immediately dropped to the ground also, desperately trying to seek cover; both unsure of what had just happened.

I continued to hobble towards them as fast as I could. I had just cleared the blast-zone when they realized what had happened and who I was. They were just on their way to help me when very suddenly night turned to day. The blinding flash of light was accompanied shortly there afterwards by the sound of a huge and thunderous nuclear detonation.

The brilliant flash of light forced them both to shield their eyes. The shockwave from the thermo hit me hard in the back and caused me to stumble forward a few steps. I caught myself, regained my balance, and kept walking towards the shocked men without ever looking back. I continued my advance as fast I could, and paid absolutely no attention to the small pieces of debris that were now raining down all around me.

I threw the rifle over my shoulder as I closed the last couple of meters, pulling my side-arm from its holster as I did. Without saying a word I walked right past the stunned operatives to stand over the last commando lying on the ground. He was still desperately clinging to life when I pointed the bolter at his head, pulled the trigger, and blew his brains out all over the pavement.

I then stepped back to the cruiser, slid the side door open, and hopped in the back.

Mission complete, I pulled the mask from my head and looked over to the speechless operatives, "Let's go boys, I'm all done here." I then slid the door shut and leaned back in the seat to get some much deserved sleep.