Okay, this is my first major fic.

It's the ongoing story of my Inquisitor in a campaign, so please, if the plot seems a little odd, I'm trying, but I don't have control over everyone's characters. Sometimes I feel I have no control over Gorsch…

But that's another story.

Anyway, please enjoy, review if you like, I would appreciate it. I have a previous humorous fic which fits into this one, between chapters 1 and 2. It's called Picking up Harry, a little down the previous page. I've parodied my own Fic. I've just realised how weird that is. (

Disclaimer; You know how it goes, I don't own, yadyadayada…….

Inquisitor Acolyte Gorsch stood motionless before the podium on which sat the high Inquisitor Lords who were set to evaluate him.

A robed and deeply cowled figure on the right of the podium spoke. It did so with a voice that half synthesised, and which seemed to emanate from it's neck:

"The...Device into which you were placed is...to some degree untested. It is a glorious relic from the dark age of technology, not fully understood by any mortal, and the more...detrimental effects were largely unforeseen." The figure's habit of using overlong sentences, unencumbered as he was by breathing, was enough to make many unsettled. It would take much more to shake Gorsch. "We have deemed it necessary to...suspend its use," the hood continued, "Until further tests can confirm its safety."

Gorsch stared straight into where he thought the eyes of the inquisitor would be, although all that could be seen, even by his augmented vision, were vague shapes of tubes and wires.

A mention of the simulation machine, Gorsch's hand twitched towards his head, where the skin had not healed over the freshly inserted metal plates.

"Yes, it appears the reality inside the machine is closely linked to our own." This voice was much more human, and a voice used to being obeyed. "The accident was...unfortunate."

Memories flashed of awaking in agony, of being blinded by light and his own blood running freely into his eyes. "Other than that, the program went marvellously. Saving of course, your eventual failure and incapacitation."

The words of Inquisitor lord Kryptman were, of course, true, but Gorsch could hear the unspoken challenge in them.

"I was disappointed by the events of the ambush in the tomb of the techno magi. It could be said that your almost fanatical attack on Inquisitor Eisenhorn was foolish." Kryptman was being rhetorical as Gorsch was forbidden to speak in this place, at this time.

"I must, to some point disagree" Another figure leant into the half light of the chamber, his bionic eye glinting. This man, as surely he must be, was massively framed, and dressed in heavy black and gold robes covered in heraldic devices. His voice was booming, and although he spoke quietly, his speech filled the room.

"To die in the defence of the Emperor-"

"And an STC Database."

"-From a heretic is hardly a failure. It is better to die for the Emperor than to live for yourself. The blood of Martyrs is the seed of the Imperium" Tyrus was an imposing figure, even without the hulking armour he wore when expecting resistance.

"Speaking of heretics, the part was well played by Inquisitor Eisenhorn. Thank you, most esteemed colleague." Kryptman nodded to Eisenhorn, who nodded in return, turned and left. The sound proof door shut behind him with barely a whisper

"The time has come to make our decision," Tyrus said after a moments pause. "Do we grant the full title of Inquisitor on Acolyte Gorsch? My vote is Affirmative. Lord Inquisitor Falkar?"

After a split second pause, the hood nodded; Yes.

"Lord Kryptman?" The senior inquisitor sat in the centre of the podium looked down into Gorsch's remaining eye. A unanimous vote was needed for Gorsch to obtain the rank of Inquisitor. Kryptman seemed to be considering Gorsch, deeply, and it seemed for the first time. After a few seconds which seemed to stretch for hours, Kryptman breathed in deeply and said simply:

"Yes."

Tyrus rose, the hem of his robes brushing the floor. Deceptively quick for a man so big, he crossed to an alcove and removed something from it that shone dully in the half light. He stepped next to Gorsch, not more than a few inches taller, but seemingly twice as wide as the newly raised Inquisitor.

"We now bestow on you the rank of Inquisitor in the Holy Order of his Imperial Majesty's Inquisitors, and all the responsibilities and duties pertaining to it." Opening the small metal case he had carried across the room, he removed a gold coloured plaque on a sturdy chain. Tyrus laid this in Gorsch's hand, and the former acolyte's fist closed slowly around it, the chain hanging over the back of his hand.

Kryptman spoke up again;

"We charge you to protect those unable to do so from the dangers of the galaxy."

"To Know, and save the blissfully Ignorant."

"To move among the Imperium like an avenging shadow, striking down the enemies of humanity." finished Tyrus.

Inquisitor Gorsch turned and walked toward the door, his metal soled boots clicking on the marble floor, feeling the eyes of the other Inquisitors on the back of his head.

Waiting outside for him was Barbaretta, and surprisingly Inquisitor Eisenhorn, and as Gorsch looked into his lined face, Gorsch wondered, not for the first time just how much Eisenhorn knew about the link between the machine reality and this one, and the results of any 'accidents'.

"Inquisitor Gorsch, I trust that your ascension to the rank of Inquisitor brings you more wisdom than you had previously." The room was entirely sound proof. "The acts you perceived me performing in the machine were false, and I hope you will not judge me on them. You strike me as a man likely to hold a grudge most vehemently. If you do, I must warn you, I do not take kindly to others prying into my business. Good day." Eisenhorn glanced at Barbaretta as he left the corridor, dismissing her from his mind. She bristled at this and turned to Gorsch noticing the plaque on the chain around his neck.

"Congratulations, my lord, on-" She stopped and paled as she met his gaze.

"Is there something wrong, Barbaretta?"

"N-No my lord, nothing is wrong."

"Good. Come, the offices of my Ordo will be waiting to Indoctrine me into their ranks. I assume you wish to visit the city near the Citadel? It has been some time since we were on an inhabited world."

"That would be most agreeable my lord." Gorsch nodded, and the enforcer strode off, her cyber-mastiff clicking along beside her on the smooth floor.

Gorsch continued to walk the corridors of the citadel, until he came to an ornate archway, inscribed over the top with; Ordo Malleus.

Barbaretta hurried toward the inquisitorial shuttle for a change of clothes. She had a feeling her enforcer uniform would not go down well in the large city. Ordering her mastiff to stay in the room she slipped several concealed weapons in and around her non-descript clothes. This was, strictly speaking, illegal, but she could produce her enforcer ID, and besides Gorsch could get her out of any trouble.

She suppressed a shudder as she thought of her employer. In her years as an enforcer she had seen many horrible sights, and had stared into the eyes of any number of crazed chainsaw wielding lunatics, but never before had she seen such eyes as on Gorsch just now. His bionic eye was bad enough, a blank blue orb, but it was his real eye that was the worst. An eye that bored straight into you, an eye that seared, an eye so full of anger and desire for vengeance and justice that it had turned her spine cold.

Closing the door of the shuttle, she hurried to catch a nearby mag- lift train into the city.

His cane clicking loudly on the marble flooring, Eisenhorn considered his options. The man had the eyes of a zealot, and now that he was an inquisitor, he would prove very difficult to have simply disappeared.

It seemed Inquisitor Gorsch was going to become a problem, but Eisenhorn had overcome many problems in the past.