Disclaimer: I do not own Warhammer 40k, GW does. Nor did I coin the term "Invigilator", the British did that. I'm not very sure if they have it trademarked though, but I'm not making any money from this either way.
The conference room was dark, damp, and spartanly furbished. In fact, the only reason why it had been assigned such an honor was because one of the wall partitions had collapsed, making the room twice as large as any other room in the hab-block. As it was, his entourage was more than enough in numbers to make it feel filled, slightly cramped even. Then again, it was part of the underhive.
Commissar Bastian Vincari sighed, giving a mildly annoyed glance at the Chronicler sitting front of him. The vox-operator had foolishly reported the link up with loyalist elements in front of her. So of course, as Vincari was starting to recognize as normal procedure for the Chronicler Corps, she had demanded that she be present for the preliminary interview of their leader. A demand both he and Colonel Tariq had grudgingly acquiesced to.
To think, a civilian kowtowing along with an Imperial Guard regiment, writing reports on every engagement they had and sitting in every meeting held. Blatant oversight and spying. Fething insulting, that's what it was. The Chronicler Corps wasn't even part of the Administratum! It was part of the Planetary Government, an obscure part. Yet, instead of being assigned to the many PDF regiments assisting the liberation of the hive, the high command had allowed her to be assigned to the august Mercava 23rd Assault Infantry Regiment of the Astra Militarum.
Disgusting.
Yet, as much as he disliked being follow by what was essentially a journalist, she did have her uses. The troops seemed to be encouraged by the fact there was someone recording their deeds, and after he played up her role, her presence was effectively a morale booster to any rank-and-file around her. Good thing too, she had an unhealthy fascination for urban combat and had accompanied quite a number of ops. It was a good thing his men went out of their way to keep her safe, as her death was bound cause problems with the planetary government.
"So, Colonel Tariq, I take it that this is truly his first interview, documented or otherwise?" She asked to the colonel, who was sitting at the head of the table, being flanked by the Chronicler and Vincari.
"Yes Chronicler Minnya, I assure you it is. Prior to this, he has spent the night cycle recuperating under guard in hab-block CX-Alpha-13211. We have not made any attempt to converse with him except for the offering of food and water during his stay." The colonel stiffly replied, leaving out that they had sent the regimental psycher to check him for chaos taint. It was the underhive after all.
"The information is appreciated, do you know which housing unit?" She plowed ahead, as a servo-skull hovering behind her jotted down every word said with an auto-quill. In her bionic right hand, another autoquil blazed away on parchment, writing notes of a different nature.
The colonel fumbled with his dataslate, going through it before grunting an affirmative. "Hab capsule 4 of unit 113-#298-NV ma'am." He said politely.
She nodded. "The subject is known as Invigilator Kurtniss, correct?"
"Yes, though I'd recommend we store these questions until the interview." Vincari forcefully interjected. "This is a military-related affair and will be conducted as such. All information we have on him will be crosschecked during the start of the interview before we proceed to a proper and thorough debrief. I assure you that he can certainly provide better answers then we can. After all, we know as much as you do about him." Not fully truthful, as they had garnered some information from the wounded loyalist fighters under the Invigilator's command.
She stared at him, and blinked. More precisely, the large, barrel-like protrusion that served as her bionic eye as well as a pict-taker clicked, as the lenses shuttered before opening again. The left eye, which was normal, eyed him curiously, before nodding "That sounds reasonable."
"It is reasonable."
A knock sounded on the steel door. Colonel Tariq cleared his throat "That should be him."
A guard opened the door, softly announcing the arrival of the guest.
"Let him enter." Colonel Tariq said.
With a nod, the guard stepped back and a moment later a slightly haggard and thin man entered the room. He looked old, but not that old. Late middle or early twilight ages, Vincari mused. His face had their fair share of wrinkles, but a sharp albeit crooked nose and narrow beady eyes made him look ever vigilant, or attentive in general. He wore a hodgepodge mix of armor and cloths, including a grey flak chestplate and a weathered brown flack coat. Cradled in his right arm was an archaic looking iron helmet.
Clicks and sound of squeezing mechanisms were heard as the chronicler snapped of a few picts of him. He, in turn, was warily eyeing her.
"Please, do sit down." Vincari said.
He did so, sitting down on the chair at the only unoccupied side of the table, placing his rimmed skullcap gently next to himself. He looked at the three of them. His eyes regarded the trio, and Vincari felt himself being appraised.
Colonel Tariq handled the introductions. First introducing himself as well as the regiment he commanded, and explained that the Mercava 23rd had been assigned to spearhead the mop-up of the underhive levels of Hive Akatur. He then introduced Vincari and Chronicler Minnya.
"As her duty is to record the major events of the campaign in general and the happenings related the Mercava 23rd in particular, she shall be present in your debriefing while I and Commissar Vincari conduct it." The colonel finished, both informing Kurtniss and subtly reminding Minnya of her agreed role.
"Now to start things off. Is Kurtniss your real name?" Asked Vincari.
"Yes, that is my true name, my full name is Samuel Kurtniss." Kurtniss answered, nodding.
"Offworlder, correct?" Vincari continued.
"Yes" He tried to hide it by turning to the Chronicler, but Vincari knew Kurniss'es eyes fidgeted. He was nervous. Still, it was hard to blame him for being so.
"Where from?"
"Severus Alpha, sir. System Walles." Kurtniss had looked back to Vincari.
"Severus Alpha?" The colonel recalled almost instantly. "That planet is in the same subsector as this one is!"
"Correct, Severus Alpha is the second closest Imperial Planet to Hassen II. It is a highly developed Hive world which is thrice as populated as we are." Chronicler Minnya helpfully supplied.
Vincari grunted. "Your profession?"
"I was an Invigilator sir."
At this, Colonel Tariq perked up. "Ah, yes, you've made that a quite famous word down here. But tell me, what is an Invigilator? It seems to be a word unique to your world."
"You don't have any Praetorians in your battlegroup do you?"
The colonel gave a sidelong glance to Vincari, he nodded; divulging a bit of information would be tolerated in this instance.
"No, though our regiment has served with them a few times in the past. Is that relevant to you?"
"Ha!" Exclaimed Kurtniss derisively "Well, yes, anyone from Praetoria would know what an Invigilator is. We took the term from them, being their colony and all."
"And pray tell, what does that term mean?" Vincari asked, growing impatient. By now though, it was glaringly obvious that Kurtniss had worked in either the military or law enforcement. The way he carried himself bespoke of someone who not only faced trouble but also had to always be on the lookout for it.
"We work for the Planetary Government sir, we are educators and enforcers at the same time."
At this, Vincari blanched. "Educators? Are you telling me you're a teacher?" From the Schola Progenum perhaps?
"No!" Kurtniss responded vehemently, before modulating his tone. "We fulfill some educational roles, but for the most part we remain aloof to it. We are akin to… quality control more so then the education itself."
"So Invigilators are academic enforcers?" Asked the colonel. Images of book burning and dataslate wreaking popped up into Vincari's mind. As far as his experience went academic enforcement typically involved many anti-academic elements.
Kurtniss groaned, his brow furrowing. Then he lightened up, eyeing both Vincari and the colonel. "We are the Universariate version of Commissars! Jolly me! Why didn't I remember that until now? The lads used to joke about that all the time!"
Colonel Tariq stared, astonished. "You are academic commissars?" He repeated.
"Yes. What commissars are to officers, we are to teachers and magisters. Think of it as empowered proctors if you will." Kurtniss was beaming now, pleased that he had come up with a striking analogy. "We oversee major examinations and keep both the student body and the faculty free of laxity. Under our threat of censure teachers are invigilated to keep an iron discipline in their classes and we are duty bound to ferret out any possible heresy, cheating, or other unlawful conduct involving our students or done within the Universariate and Schola gates."
"What is the scope of invigilator authority? Does it include execution?" Chronicler Minnya cut in.
At this Kurtniss smiled, it must have been a familiar question. "No, not under most circumstances. We have the authority to investigate, prosecute, and judge, but unless under dire circumstance we are only authorized to arrest and seize evidence, and give disciplinary actions up to caning. Normally, we are allowed to only carry shock-staffs during our working hours."
His faced sobered up, his lips forming a frown. "In case of demonic possession or any other dire threat that threatens everyone in the area, invigilators are armed and are tasked to protect the building along with any security guards. In truth though, we are only glorified chaperones, and we use our laspistols more as props to herd the faculty and student body then weapons to repel the enemy." He said, self depreciatingly.
"Well, in any case, you've done a good job leading your resistance group." The colonel praised, looking at his dataslate. "Nobles, gangers, enforcers, and other civilians ranging from pretty much every social class. Must have taken quite a lot of leadership."
Kurtniss laughed. "I wouldn't call it leadership, but you certainly get a knack for coercion and intimidation when you're a invigilator!"
"Pardon?"
Kurtniss was grinning widely now. "I was chaperoning a few students from my universariate when the rebellion broke out. We got separated and I ran into some panicking gangers. Thank the Emperor they were juvies." He chuckled a bit before continuing.
"I've been dealing with spoiled brats with overinflated egos for nearly 4 decades by then. Of course, the gangers were a bit different, but work with the angles and they're the same as any juvie. Got them to help me in my search for my students. We ran into a noble and his family, they saw the weapons we had, decided to join us, and…" He flourished his hand lamely. "It all snowballed from there."
A moment of silence reigned as everyone digested the information. Apparently, Vincari had the fastest brain. "I think... that you should start from the beginning. In detail, if you please." Since he was a civilian, Vincari doubted he was proficient in writing after action reports.
The colonel and chronicler both nodded. This would be a long debrief.
But hey, at least now he would have a good story the next time the other commissars held a regicide night.
AN: This Fanfic originated from my discovery of real life Invigilators, thanks to a friend from who hailed from the british education system. My first thought was "That sounds like something ripped straight out of 40k!", it was as if it was a subset of the Arbites, who have ranks like Arbitrators and Investigators (notice the 'tors'?). When my friend described them as 'Creepy fellows who stare down at you from their heightened pulpits during examinations', I pretty much made up my mind to insert them into the 40k verse. Over the course of writing it, the core concept of what an invigilator was got 40k'd (meaner and grimmer).
As one-shots go, I'm pretty contented with how this ended up, especially the pacing and characterisation. I hope its an enjoyable read.