"I will see him now." Roth said, ascending the marble stairs from the observer station to the holding cell. Two guards lowered their standard issue lasguns upon seeing the Inquisitor and saluted smartly before stepping aside. The doors opened with a hiss of pneumatics and the Inquisitor strode in.

The cell was warm, its ventilation and hydration systems failing to cope with the arid climate of what had been designated planet TX55. The locals had another barbaric term for the world, derived from the filthy xeno tongue that had merged with the local dialects. It was a periphery world, barely worthy of Imperial attention but for its use as a forward post for further raids into the newly discovered star system. It was a backwards world, indeed, the entire star system seemed backwards. Man and Xeno alike, working together under the rule of a supreme senate. It was heresy most foul. But that was not why Roth was here. The Imperial Guard under the watchful eye of the Ordo Xenos had cleansed this world and many like it with a fanatical fervour, leaving no signs of the xeno occupants. Roth had watched the genocide from afar, being summoned only once the signs of something more subtle but far more dangerous had been discovered. Warp taint. The Inquisitor unbuttoned his long coat and sat down, casually running his slim fingers through his thick black hair as he scrutinized the prisoner.

The boy was young, his sharp blue eyes piercing out from under the sunburst blonde hair that hung low over his face. Roth smiled, an attractive smile that was designed to disarm. The boy returned the smile revealing a set of pearly white teeth. The guards, at his bequest, had refrained from beating the boy. They had a habit of knocking any sense out of them far before the Inquisitor conducted his interviews. Roth had his doubts as to whether they would have done the same with the boy, he had seen the nervous looks they had shot each other as they had hauled him into the cell. There was something unnerving about his piercing blue eyes.

It had been nearly a decade since the first report had reached the High Lords of Terra. The Astropath who bore the message had died in psychically induced convulsions, his mind burning moments after he had delivered the message through the warp. It had taken another year for the reports to be confirmed and half a decade before the slow grinding mechanisms of the Administratum had established a course of action. Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of inhabited planets had been discovered. Not since the early decades of the 31st Millennium had so many Imperial forces been diverted to a single campaign. It was known as the Sartre Crusade, after the first planet discovered in the system.

Roth daubed his forehead with a finely embroided cloth from his overcoat. He was not unaccustomed to such heat but he preferred the icy cold of his home world or the carefully controlled climate of his own transport ship. He caught the boy glancing at the insignia embroided on the handkerchief and smiled once again. 'The Aquila represents the entirety of humanity.' He said as he offered the handkerchief to the boy who grasped it in his small tanned hands. Roth continued as the boy examined the Aquila. 'Stretched across the stars, we find solace and protection in the knowledge that wherever we are we are not alone.' His voice was smooth and gentle, loud enough for only the boy to hear. He had done this countless times. 'My mother says you are upstarts trying to upset the balance of the Republic.' The bluntness of the comment caused Roth's eye to twitch but he recovered quickly. The Satre system still recognised some archaic form of governance long since abolished by the Imperium itself. They had been quick to respond to the Imperial incursions, sending ambassadors and emissaries to broker peace with Warmaster Freihart and the Imperial fleet. Roth had been surprised at the technological prowess of the Satre engineers. Their ships were as advanced, if not more so than the bulk of the Imperial fleet. Slick, stream lined craft, they had approached the Satre fleet undetected, appearing as a blip on the Warmasters command screens moments before hailing the Flag Ship 'The Conduit of His Will'. The Adeptus Mechanicus had been quick to deem the technology heretical but Roth knew they were impressed. The talks had come to nothing, the Republic had called the terms tyrannical and antiquated before leaving the Warmaster and his retinue as Freihart's temper overwhelmed him. 'I assure you' Roth finally replied as he took the handkerchief from the boy's proffered hand 'The Imperium has come to save you from the bed you have so cheerfully fouled.' The boy shrugged, unconvinced. The smile on Roth's face slowly faded. The resentment from the locals was nothing new to Imperial reclamation but the self-righteousness was becoming an irritation he would rather do without.

'Do you know why you are here?' Roth asked, returning the handkerchief to a thinly lined external pocket. The boy shrugged again. An annoying habit Roth thought as he leaned back against the steel chair. It creaked against the weight of his back, straining under the weight of the augmetics that riddled his body. 'It is for the same reason that, barely a cycle ago, one of your acquaintances sat in that very same chair.' The boy's brow furrowed, the change in his mood was palpable. He muttered some alien word that made Roth's skin crawl. The very names these people had adopted reeked of uncleanness. It was a wonder that chaos had not turned this world and the Republic into a seething pit of abominations. 'That was him' replied Roth as he remembered the tall, lean man that had been chained to the seat before him. A psyker collar locked around his neck to prevent the use of the skills he had proved so adept at. He had lost a good few men, some from his own retinue, in attempting to capture the plainly garbed man and his accomplice. In the end it had taken a fairly high powered psyker and an assault squad to bring the man to justice. Unfortunately his accomplice had managed to escape and was still unaccounted for. The weapon the man had wielded with a skill Roth had seldom seen was still under examination by adepts of the Ordo Mechanicus. It was not unlike the power sword the Inquisitor had strapped to his waist although slimmer and, in Roth's opinion, far more advanced.

The Imperial fleet had plunged head long into the Satre system, liberating dozens of worlds against little resistance. The Warmaster had commented on the lack of planetary defences offered by the periphery worlds as 'A disgusting plea to be conquered.' Shortly after he had ordered the fleet to divide into twelve spear pattern liberation forces under his most trusted generals, himself at the head of the frontal assault. It was only then that the extent and sheer expanse of the Satre system began to reveal itself. Already four more sub-sectors had been named. Erdus Prime, Serebus, Aldriun and Alpha Prime. It was in Aldruin that the Imperial forces met the first heavy resistance offered by the Satre system. An Imperial spearhead under the command of the prestigious General Thabias was ambushed outside orbit of the Aldruin capital planet. A massive star fleet had blinked into being, completely undetected by the ships psykers and scanners. The battle had raged for three days and General Thabias's own ship had been destroyed. It was only thanks to the heroic efforts of the accompanying Black Templars Fighting Company and their counter assault that the day was saved. The Republican ships had beat a hasty retreat and General Thabias's men had been forced to withdraw from the sub-sector in order to reinforce their dwindling fleet. The fighting had become more vicious as the Crusade dug deeper into the system, not just the naval battles of the Imperial fleet but the ground battles waged by the Imperial guard regiments and the mighty battle brothers of the space marine chapters that had joined the Crusade. Rumour had it that the Warmaster had requested more men and war machines from Terra.

Inquisitor Roth lit up a lho stick and leant back further, crossing his legs as he observed the captive. The lho sticks were a filthy habit he had picked up out of sheer curiosity but he had found himself strangely comforted by the pungent taste of the stuff and the habit had stuck. He flicked the ash from the lho stick on the floor and exhaled deeply. This was the sixth interview he had conducted today. The previous one, barely an hour ago, was with a strange creature from a xeno species he had not yet encountered. The Ordo Xeno had been quite baffled by the creature and had recommended immediate extermination. Roth had humoured the creature and its small flapping wings for less than a minute before putting a bolt through its ugly head. The boy was different though. He had some hidden knowledge behind those deep blue eyes and a way that quite perturbed the Inquisitor. 'What did those men want with you?' Roth asked, his eyes holding the boys stare. 'What men?' the boy replied a little too quickly for Roth's liking. 'Now now, let's not play naïve. The warriors, the soldiers.' Reports from the remaining eleven fleets had mentioned men of similar dispositions. Elite warriors who used their brilliant blades to crush entire squads before they knew they were being attacked. Others reported psykic soldiers who had the power to lift tanks with a simple flick of their wrists. They had posed little threat to the elite battle brothers of the space marines but it had played havoc with the morale of the guard regiments who had sensed the taint of the warp upon the men. Roth had given it little thought until he had witnessed the power of these elite soldiers himself. It had been during a routine check through the hab districts of the small city centre. He had brought his psytracker to examine for any elements of psyker activity and had been surprised to find a massive resonating psykic force emanating from one of the hab homesteads. He had sent in a guard squad to apprehend all who resided in the building while he waited outside with his retinue. The shriek of lasguns being discharged and the scream of his men had been overshadowed by the dull fuzz of what he had presumed was a power sword. He had charged into the homestead only to find the corpses of the guard squad and the boy clinging to his mother. Roth sighed and pulled his cloak back, revealing a thick chest plate and webbing. 'I will repeat the question once' he said as he withdrew a pair of excruciators from the inside of his cloak. 'But I will have an answer before this day is up.' The boy gulped, visibly shaken, as he eyed the excruciators that the Inquisitor had placed on the table. He glanced back at the Inquisitor and then to the excruciators again 'They told me I was to be trained, trained to be like them.' Roth nodded slowly; he had expected such a response. The psykic energy emanating from the boy was unheard of for one so young. Under normal circumstances one of the crusading brotherhoods might have taken an interest in him or, if he was really talented, the black ships. As it was, the suspicion of taint had made it impossible for such an action to occur. Roth almost felt sorry for the child.

'Where were they going to train you?' He asked as he returned the excruciators to his webbing. 'Surely not on this backwater planet?' The boy shook his head and spoke again. The remainder of the interview confirmed all that Inquisitor Roth had already learnt from a xeno commerce syndicate that had approached the Imperial Crusade shortly after the reclamations had begun. They had offered neutrality, even allegiance if the Warmaster promised them a significant sector of the system in return. Inquisitor Roth had authorized the use of exterminatus on the xeno home world himself. He had watched from his cabin as the fire raptured the world before the blink of light signalled the end of all life on the planet. A few vessels had made it out of the world ending fire and the brothers of the Black Templars had taken great pleasure in boarding and destroying all of those upon the ships before they could make it out of orbit. An entire species destroyed in a blink of an eye. Roth smiled and rose from his seat, buttoning his coat as the boy looked at him expectantly. 'Can I go now?' he asked as the Inquisitor brushed down his sleeves with the palm of his hand. Roth stared at him for a moment, those strange eyes he thought. He stepped back from the table and shook his head sadly. 'By his glorious name I charge you with consorting with known enemies of the Imperium, with consorting with the warp and with heresy.' The Inquisitor paused, allowing the rage to pump through his veins. His voice took on an angry hiss as he stared at the boy 'But worst of all' his voice was now a low pitched roar 'with being an abomination!' The boy baulked visibly as the Inquisitors harsh words fell upon his ears. 'For this' Roth shouted again 'The punishment is death by summary execution.' Roth's cloak flew back as he withdrew the bolt pistol strapped to his waist. The boy was fast, almost as fast as he was despite his augmetically advanced speed. He pulled the trigger.

The guards beyond the door flinched at the sound of the bolt pistol and the dull thump of a body hitting the ground. It was the sixth time they had heard it just that day. The pneumatic hiss of the door followed shortly after and Inquisitor Roth strode out from the cell, his cloak billowing behind him. He walked back down the marble steps, taking two at a time. He had much left to do before they departed this world. He smiled grimly at the prospect of leaving this damned world behind him. His thoughts were interrupted by the screams of a woman in a room at the bottom of the stairs. Two guardsmen were restraining a crying woman from leaving the room. 'Where's my boy!' she cried as the men pushed her back into the room. The boy's mother Roth realised as he slowed his pace. The crying slowly subsided as he strode past the room. She would have to be dealt with too he thought. 'Where's my boy' she cried again, her voice hoarse from the screams. 'Where's my Annie?' she shouted again 'Where's my little Anakin?'