The smell of oil lubricant and musty candle wax dominated the interior of the battle barges docking port as the rusty mechanical doors cycled open in a painful whine of motors and grinding gears. Two armsmen, dressed in grey oiler suits, saluted an ostentatiously well dressed middle aged man as he stepped forward from the confines of his small rusty red Aquilla Lander.
"Interrogator Fabian Wiles, you are expected on the bridge by the noble Inquisitor Valery de Julles," said one of the assembled armsmen as he held and then fumbled his brisk if not somewhat slightly nervous salute. The middle aged man smiled at the duo of Imperial servants while pushing back his salt and pepper graying hair, all the while ignoring the ornately engraved silver mask which covered the right side of his face.
Yes, the mask, supposedly it was some sort of implant meant to disguise a horrific facial wound earned during the course of Imperial Inquisition duty. Little did these armsmen know that the mask this Interrogator wore actually served a far more…devious purpose?
"Excellent gentlemen," said the Interrogator with a gracious bow, his crimson petty coat sagging around his waist due to his unbound black belts which typically held the heavy coat against the man's large burly frame, "Please do lead the way."
The two armsmen glared at their charge due to his odd accent, something was strange about it, but they couldn't quite exactly place a finger on what… Nevertheless they ushered him into the correct direction of a nearby mechanical lift whose fine metal scissor gate was aptly pulled aside for private usage.
"So, I hear that the Inquisitor is planning to purge the planet down below?" asked the Interrogator to the two armsmen as the lift lurched upward. Under normal circumstances the naval pions running the day to day operations of their respective battle barge wouldn't be given details regarding the Imperium of Man's military planning, but then again these weren't normal circumstances because of the extermintus which was about to be carried out and such actions tended to attract much gossip amongst the crewmen.
"Yes me lord," replied one of the armsmen with his words spoken flatly, "Lady de Julles is displeased with the military campaign being waged below. Given that we cannot best the Tau savages with our current guard compliment plans are now being made to simply eradicate the entire planetary population down below rather than cede this world to those filthy xenos."
"I see…" said Interrogator with a wolfish smile, "But the Tau tend to favor the unorthodox… like…" he stopped briefly while clasping his hands behind his back, pushing his crimson waist coat aside to grasp something in his trousers belt, "Infiltration."
The two armsmen turned towards him in synchronized motion as the shaggily faced man pulled two pulse pistols out from behind his back. Both naval men's eyes widened with surprise and fear as the Interrogator opened fire in the cramped confines of the mechanical lift, the energy projectiles of both hand weapons hitting their targets center mass. The two armsmen hit the sides of the lift with lifeless thuds as the Interrogator reconciled his pistols as the lift abruptly stopped several floors down from the command deck. He opened another ornate scissor gate and inspected the hallway just beyond the lift with keen interests.
The deep dark confines of the human warship went on for miles in a singular direction towards the bow, attaching to the numerous armories and gun compartments running parallel to one another at both port and starboard. The engine room was aft and below the command deck.
This much the pretender knew from a detailed study of the Imperial Strike Cruisers captured design documents. And, so it was that the man pretending to be Interrogator Fabian Wiles looked back, forlorn, at the two dead armsmen crumpled up upon the floor still dressed in their respective blood stained oiler suits.
Had they not intended to deliver him to the bridge, where he would have been found out as an imposter by Inquisitor de Julles, then he could not have needed to kill them. Indeed, their own duties, loyalties to their mandated orders, had forced his hand. This was regretful, but necessary, for the imposter had to discover the location of the cyclonic torpedoes about to used against the war torn world of Ignis Secondus down below.
Crimson waist coat blowing behind his body, the pretend Interrogator ran down the long corridor, inspecting numerical designations for the firing chambers as he jogged past the numerous gun batteries, looking for the main arms deck where the torpedoes would be prepped for firing. The search did not take long despite the excessive size of the human warship.
The main arms deck, M34-K98, was five hundred yards away. The pretender slowed his jog and crept into the service fire door which opened into the main battery deck. What he saw before him was a massive cavity within the Imperial Strike Cruisier filled with autoloaders and servators tending to two hundred artillery breaches. Chains hailing massive munitions rattled as gun crews and servators tended to their charges, loading, firing, and reloading massive artillery cannons.
The pretend Interrogator hid in the shadows as black grit and the scent of spent cordite filled the air, red robed tech priest with censer's, chanting, and walking the lengths of the decks as the gun crews fired their weapons, their small ornate bowls spewing scented mists as the rattling noise ushered forth death into the void outside the warship's hull.
It was now that the Imposture saw them, the cyclonic torpedoes being moved into another nearby compartment, carried by a group of servators, the ugly horrific cyborgs being preached to by a red robed priest speaking verbatim from a large leather bound book. "Be thine most cruel of circumstances, we dedicate the guns of this warship and these offerings of war unto the impure," he rambled, as the mechanical fire door sealed behind him down below
The man pretending to be Fabian Wiles now crept onto the overhead gunnery catwalks, and whilst still hidden by shadows, he followed the cyclonic torpedoes into another loading chamber. This time the tech priest and his entourage stopped before several large firing tubes. Incense filled the air as the tech priest drew the symbol of a cog upon each cyclonic torpedo with oil. The servators remained at attention as a dirge mantra continued to be sung by four additional red robbed priests leaving this firing chamber.
As the other priests left the room, the remaining cyborg human continued his mad ramblings, "And so the divine Emperor raises his fist in rage and fury towards the foul creatures down below and prepares to unleash his wraith upon the wicked which infest our glorious world. And with his blessing, the Omnissiah delivers upon those wretches most foul a judgement of fire and death…"
As the mechanically augmented monstrosity continued to preach his sermon, stopping briefly in pose, so too did the servators start to take one step at a time towards the firing tubes during each pause of his prayers, the cyclonic torpedoes being laid into their cradles like a corpses about to be delivered unto the void.
The fake Interrogator stood tall, drew one of his pistols, and took careful aim. "And it is unto the realm of death the Omnissiah sends thine most foul abominations, thine most foul traitors, and thine most foul xenos. With fire and flame… may the wraith of man be served… May…"
Before the tech priest could continue, the fake Fabian Wiles fired his weapon, blowing a giant hole through the red robed creatures head. The remains of the dead tech priest fell to the ground with a metallic thud while the servators stopped their march towards the firing tubes. With one shot, the man pretending to be Fabian Wiles had stalled the launch of the cyclonic torpedoes meant to exterminate all life on Ignis Secondus.
The same man now leapt over the catwalk, landing with a thump unto the rusty deck plates down below, where he marched over to the torpedoes still held in place by the servitor honor guard. He placed his hand upon one of the large bombs and attached a small explosive device to one of their ignition jets which would activate once the weapons exited past the ship's hull. Then he walked over to the tech priest, picked up the leather bound book, and finished the Imperial Sermon.
"May none judge our actions lacking in faith to the Omnissiah. May the Emperor light the way. May our enemies know us as the rightful bearers of faith, and unto them… judgment is now served."
The servators closed the cyclonic torpedoes into the firing tubes and stepped back, awaiting further orders, but no orders were to come as the imposter Fabian Wiles tossed away the leather bound book and trotted off to the gunnery deck. However, something was off… wrong… as he entered the vast cavity where such prior intense auto loading had been taking place.
There were no longer any chanting tech priests or gunnery serfs firing artillery cannons. Instead, up upon the catwalks stood several Guardsmen in grey trenchcoats and gas masks, 'Kriegmen,' as he had come to know them, each with lasrifles pointed at his body. These men remained at attention as a woman walked out from an above fire door. She was older, dressed in an ornate black bodyglove, with high heeled thigh boots, a red bodice which pushed up her rather impressive chest, and a white fur caped trench coat slacking off of her shoulders. She looked down at him with scorn; emotions chiseled unto a haggard and aged face made all the more eerie from two cold green eyes.
"You are not my Interrogator…" she said matter of factly. The man pretending to be Fabian Willes smiled, bobbed his head, and discarded the silver mask covering half of his face… thus revealing a red Tau firebrand below his right eye.
The Kriegmen mumbled amongst themselves in surprise as Inquisitor Lady de Julles laughed bitterly to herself, "A Tau Gue'vesa… A Foul Traitor…" she snarled mockingly, "And to late I see, now I want you to bear witness to the end of your wretched attempted invasion…" she said while using a hand vox to communicate with the Strike Cruisers bridge, "Captain… FIRE!"
The pretend Interrogator grinned as the cyclonic torpedoes launched in their tubes towards the exterior of the hull, and upon reaching the very edge of space their attached munitions exploded. A massive shutter rocked the Strike Cruiser triggering a hull quake which rippled along its broadside, buckling deck plating, sharding metal, and triggering a massive electrical cascade which crippled critical ships systems.
The Kriegmen up on the catwalk all fell down, some over the guardrails, slamming, dying upon the firing floor down below as red klaxons replaced the prior lighting. Secondary explosions from cooked off munitions now rattled the Strike Cruiser as the infiltrator ran towards the nearest closing fire door, las shots missing his body as he slid under the closing mechanical apparatus, separating him from the other compartment. Behind him, just before vanishing, he heard the Inquisitor yelling, and then he heard her upon the ships vox broadcasting to all personal, "This is Inquisitor de Julles, there is a spy aboard and he has just detonated the cyclonic torpedoes amid-ship. All personal intercept him! DO NOT LET HIM ESCAPE!"
Thunderous explosions started to tare the Imperial Strike Cruiser apart as the Imposter fled down numerous corridors. The shipboard gravity dispersers also started to malfunction as the human warship started to list horrifically to the left.
"This is the Captain!" yelled a voice over the vox, "All hands make ready to abandon ship! This is not a drill! The Tirpitz has suffered a critical shipboard failure and we our shipboard munitions are starting to cook off! All hands abandon…"
The captain was instantly cut-off by the Inquisitor, "Belay that order!" she yelled over the vox, "A spy has sabotaged this warship! Do not let him escape! Do not abandon your ship and this mission!"
The vox suddenly cut out as a massive explosion cut a tremor through the hull. More alert klaxons were set off throughout the human warship as additional secondary tremors quaked from munitions stockpiles in the below decks exploding.
"Fire alert!" yelled a voice over the vox, "We have a fire alert on deck 54! Main systems failure to all fire systems! Fire Doors not responding! The fire is spreading to the main munitions stockpile… ALL HANDS PULL OUT!"
The Imposter entered another mechanical lift and started to ascend to the prior docking deck, as he did so he felt another massive explosion cut through the Strike Cruiser. This time the ship started to list hard to starboard.
"All hands… the munitions stockpile on deck 54 has just detonated! The ship is listing! And, the fire is now spreading to deck 32… I repeat… the fire is spreading to deck 32…!"
The lift ground to a stop on the docking deck and the pretender leapt free from the cage just as the cables snapped and the feeble human made mechanical lift fell downward into flames and thick black smoke. He ran towards the docking bays, more explosions rattling the wounded Strike Cruiser.
And, as expected, he rounded the corner, found his Aquilla shuttle, and closed the docking hatch, "Get us out of here!" he yelled to the pilot in the cockpit. She looked at him with alien blue skin and dark eyes, her blue bodyglove against her small body, and instinctively pulled away from the shuttle docking port. Thus it was that the Imposter departed the human warships hull, and with the aid of a Tau pilot quickly pulled away from the wounded warship.
Before him, the Imposter saw the damage he had caused. The warship was listing hard to starboard, bleeding oxygen into space with a magnificent yellow fireball along its hull. Massive chunks of armor plating had been blow away revealing the ships bent and battered internal frame. As the Aquila shuttle pulled away from the wreck, a massive explosion suddenly sundered the hulk splitting it in half.
The Imposter had little time to marvel at the sight as a shockwave suddenly hammered the shuttle, blowing him off his feet and unconscious against the bulkhead. When he awoke, the Aquilla was adrift and the Tau female pilot wearing her blue bodyglove was leaning over with a look of concern upon that odd alien oval face of hers.
"Well done Agent Blazkowicz," she said while helping him up. The imposter smiled fondly as the shuttle suddenly pitched, rolling the Tau female into his chest. She looked up at his dark eyes and haggard face with a blue tinted blush upon her cheeks.
"You know," he said while taking her oval face by the chin, his other hand wrapped around her body, gripping her firm buttocks which further served to surprise and shame the alien pilot, "Human males have a reputation for virility."
"Is that so?" she asked while a faint smile. The Imposter looked at the burning Imperial Strike Cruiser listing before the shuttles view port before leaning into the pilot's smaller body and kissing her upon the lips.
What occurred next was… very… heretical.