Chapter 1
In the Schola Progenium, there was no winning the respect of the drill-abbots who served as the teachers and mentors of two thousand, seven hundred, and twenty-four orphans of the Imperium's finest. Nadia had snuck into the administration level one day and read the roster. They were relentless, demanding, punishing, and ever vigilant. Veterans of several conflicts, they each had more to teach than they ever could.
One fateful day, the entire facility was called to muster in full-dress uniform. Sixteen-year-old Nadia Kazapov hurriedly dressed in the blue service dress of a senior cadet, then hurried to the meeting spot. At the time, the young cadet thought that she looked dignified, like an officer ready to lead her men to victory.
The commandant of the Schola, a woman in her early one-twenties named Yvonne Satonnus, called the cadet company to attention. Her voice tasted like rotten eggs in Kazapov's ears, as if she were human filth. It was rumored that she had commanded a push against a well-armed and well-trained heretic faction in the early part of the century, and she had sacrificed most of her men to achieve victory.
"Inquisitor on-deck. Present-arms," came the command. An inquisitor had the power of worlds and sectors. Nadia raised her hand in salute. Why would the Inquisition have any interest here?
A shuttle appeared out of nowhere, as if cloaked by some unknown tech-heresy. Its advanced, possibly heretical avionics made its path into the Schola's hangar almost seamless. The shuttle was black, like obsidian, with a red Inquisitorial symbol displayed on either side. Twin cannons looked menacing, as if they could bring down the entire hangar.
The door slid open. Nadia had never seen an inquisitor before, and she had to hold back her anxiety. The very thought of the Inquisition was enough to make a person vomit. They had unquestionable power, and if the rumors were true, no sense of subtlety or morality.
"I heard inquisitors like their girls rough," said one to Kazapov. "I heard they like em' to fight when they strangle them."
"Who knows," Kazapov said. "This inquisitor could be a woman. She could have heard your joke and she might be coming for you."
Chuckles and hoots. A drill-abbot came into view with his shock whip, and everybody stopped.
A woman of about one hundred and fifty descended with grace; her salt and pepper hair glistening in the limelight of the hangar's safety lights. Accompanied by a burly man and an old, haggard geezer carrying a force staff, she wore a simple charcoal coat and hat. Her Inquisitorial rosette was visible; the device carrying the power to destroy a world or arrest a sector governor.
Nadia could see and hear the inquisitor visibly chastening Commandant Satonnus, reminding her that such ceremony wasn't necessary and actually undermined her position.
Then the burly man swung his power sword to dismember the commandant, severing her head. The Emperor protects, as is the ancient saying.
"Cadet company. At-ease," the inquisitor shouted in perfect parade-drill tone amplified by the dead commandant's laud-hailer. With dignified grace, the inquisitor marched through the crowd towards Kazapov, her two servo-skulls following her.
"Cadet Kazapov," she said. Nadia stood straight to attention. "At-ease."
"You are hereby ordered to report to my ship immediately for reassignment, Explicator Kazapov."
"Yes, Inquisitor," Nadia Kazapov said. "It is my honor and my duty."
Chapter 2
Nineteen-year-old Nadia Kazapov had been through a dozen schools of the Ordos Axarus, learning the basic concepts of xenobiology, the religious doctrines of mankind, both sanctioned and unsanctioned, the workings of Chaos and its followers, the laws of the galaxy, basic sciences, the history of humanity, and mathematics, as well as other subjects.
She had learned to utilize power weapons, las weapons, and bolt weapons as well as the Tempestus cadets in the Schola. And she had learned as well as a cadet commissar to inspire and lead men and women into battle. All skills she would need one day as an inquisitor of the Holy Ordos.
It was a hard life, but the life she had always wanted. She had been discovered as a psychic blank, which had been diagnosed previously as high-functioning autism. Learning to use this was a challenge, but it had proved useful.
One day, Kazapov was called to the inquisitor's office. She had been told that most inquisitors utilized a throne room as opposed to an office, but Inquisitor Vandal was different. She had no delusions of grandeur; she was there to do a job, and once it was done, she deserved no praise other than thanks.
So the inquisitor's office was a small storage closet with soft lighting. Inquisitor Vandal had a terminal that she did work on, and anything she needed was fetched through her assistant, whose office was just down the hall, as opposed to a waiting steward.
Kazapov knocked on the door. "Please, come in," Inquisitor Vandal said. She had a normal voice, unlike other inquisitors, who had elaborate devices to make them sound more intimidating.
Kazapov entered. "Please, turn in your rosette," the inquisitor said.
Kazapov looked down sadly, then unclasped the necklace around her neck, reading Explicator Kazapov and having an eagle with a large E in the center. Given to anyone ranking less than an interrogator, it granted unlimited authority in the name of Inquisitor Vandal. Of course, such depended on each individual's political standing, but it still held more power than most men could ever dream.
She handed it to the inquisitor, who looked happy for someone dismissing her best student. "Congratulations, Interrogator Kazapov," she said. "In the opinion of myself and Interrogator Rosecliffe, you have excelled at your duties in every possible way."
Handing Nadia a new rosette marked with an I symbol, Inquisitor Vandal saw a look of glee in her student's eyes that was hard to find in this broken world.
Chapter 3
A month later, Nadia Kazapov had survived her first mission. She had gotten more drunk than she ever had, entering a drinking contest with the Tempestus squad that she had been assigned. It led to her receiving their unit tattoo and a challenge coin, and a unit of the toughest men in the galaxy who would always be her friends.
She lost her virginity to one of the soldiers later in the six-month cruise back to Merov, where Inquisitor Vandal had laid her home. The two would have a secret relationship for one hundred and five years following this, until they finally married in a beautiful ceremony on the pleasure world Reth.
Kazapov had developed a talent for the sword. Inquisitor Vandal had requisitioned for her a standard-issue officer's power sword, which Kazapov modified to her own preferences. Several sword instructors had remarked on her talent and skill, giving her a boost in confidence.
Twenty-three-year-old Nadia Kazapov had earned a baccalaureate degree from a universitariate on Scintilla in just over two-and-a-half years. Beginning a master's, she felt academia to be sluggish and pedantic.
Kazapov's skill with a sword had advanced to such a level that she was able to use it effectively on its own in actual combat. She no longer carried a pistol, and instead relied on the sword.
Twenty-seven-year-old Nadia Kazapov had earned her first doctorate. While some of her dissertation, New Exploits in Countering the Quantum-Linked Adapting Genotype Hominid Xeno-Hybrid Entity had to be redacted, she was commended for her excellent research etiquette by her professors. Though most of them did not understand what a quantum-linked adapting genotype hominid xeno-hybrid entity was. They believed that it was a purely theoretical exercise, as opposed to a paper on countering the Genestealers.
Later on, the paper would become something of a standard within the Ordos Axarus.
Twenty-nine-year-old Nadia Kazapov had survived numerous engagements with many foes of humanity. She had taken the soldier with whom she had fallen in love with into her own personal service, and they continued to secretly spend nights together in the young interrogator's private quarters or her own log cabin on Zel Tertius. She had also amassed considerable wealth, in the tens of millions of credits. However, her first duty was always to humanity.
Chapter 4
The girl knelt on the floor, having been starved for a week. Her master the underhive crime lord Kaecilius Maximus thought that such an action would be humiliating for a crime such as stealing bread. Now, the serving girl knelt before Maximus, wearing only rags, ready to face her fate.
"Now, girl," Maximus said. "Are you ready to pay your penance for your sins?"
The girl, who, in actual age was really a young woman of thirty-two, looking to be no more than twenty due to the life-extending treatments afforded by her station, looked deeply into the eyes of the heretic, who knew his fate at once.
"You shall address me as Interrogator," the young woman said with utmost confidence, despite hunger and sleep deprivation. The Scholas had done much worse. "And you are the one who will die, heretic."
Maximus raised his crude hand-cannon, ready to fire upon the budding inquisitor. She closed the distance in a blink of an eye, and with a kick to the groin, disabled the criminal three times her size. Taking the gun, she took out the goons before they could react.
Interrogator Nadia Kazapov had single-handedly taken out a band of underhive gangers in a single swoop. Making her way through the compound as chaos ensued, she ducked into an Arbites passageway. If only these criminals knew the real meaning of Chaos, the young interrogator remarked.
Interrogator Kazapov, having found a middlehive clothing store and having to purchase a suit with enough credits to purchase the entire store as the owner didn't believe she had any money at all, found her way to the landing platform, where four inquisitors waited. Inquisitor Vandal was among them, but the other three were dressed in cashmere suits. They wore their rosettes proudly, even in the middle hive, and Kazapov was sure that several sharpshooters were in place for their protection.
They strode up to Kazapov. Inquisitor Vandal introduced them. "Interrogator Kazapov, these are inquisitors from the Axarus Conclave Cabal of Elections."
The first one, a man of two hundred or so years, spoke first. "Inquisitors are chosen from the brightest and sharpest of humanity, then their minds and bodies are trained even further."
"We do not take this election lightly," a second said. "For inquisitors must rise above the rank and file, for they are privy to information that would make a normal man mad. You may think you know the dangers that humanity faces, but you still have much to learn."
"While you may have longed for this position, we grant it upon you with the deepest sorrow. The rank of inquisitor carries many perks, but with those perks a greater burden."
"We wish you luck, Inquisitor Kazapov."