Untouchable Part 1

by ohiodreamz42gmail.com

After his near fatal encounter with the Chaos Marines, Corporal Frost finds himself in the custody of His Majesty's Most Holy Inquisition accused of high treason and conspiring with the forces of Chaos...

Untouchable

Part One – Initiations

Chapter 1

Pain…

Pain is what I awoke to. My whole body hurt. My head was pounding. I tried to open my eyes, but they were greeted by a searing white light that forced me to close them. My left shoulder was on fire. I tried to sit up, but something held me in place. More pain… Every nerve fiber in my body was screaming.

"He's waking up." The voice was unfamiliar to me. It seemed close, but far away at the same time. The words echoed in my head.

"I'm on it."

Footsteps….

I tried to move but couldn't. Tried to see, but was again met by that painfully bright light.

More footsteps….

Something opening…..

A sharp jab in my right shoulder….

Relief….

Blackness…..

I'm running through the rows of corn behind the house I grew up in. I'm seven years old. I'm running as fast as I can with arms spread wide so my fingertips brush against the stalks of this year's crop. I love running, I feel free when I'm running. I can run faster than all the other kids at school. They beat me up again today. I run the fields when I'm upset.

I look to the sky and see the face of my God the Emperor smiling down upon me. I close my eyes and feet the warmth of his light upon my skin.

I am free.

I run faster to show him how fast I can run.

Footsteps….

I hear my father's voice call out to me….

"Mabien!"

He's drunk again. He's always drunk. Drunk and angry… very angry. The kids at school had their turn, now it's his. This beating's going to be worse. Much, much worse.

"Mabien… MABIEN!"

I hear him calling. He's going to beat me again for sure. He beats me all the time, for anything, anything at all. Any real or imagined slight is enough to provoke his anger. I fear the man, him and the kids at school. Nobody likes me. Everyone hates me.

Footsteps… Closer this time… "Mabien, you get back here right now!" He's getting closer…

I cut over three rows and run faster. I run as fast as I can. I run until my lungs burn. I run until my legs are on fire. I run until it feels as if my heart will explode.

But still, the steps…. "Mabien!"

I look back to the sky and the Emperor is no longer smiling. He's now just staring at me, cold and distant. I try to run faster but can't. I'm tiring and the sound of the steps is growing closer by the second.

I'm scared…

The corn starts to wither and die all around me. This scares me even more.

I'm afraid…

I'm afraid of everything. My mother, my father, the kids at school, I'm afraid of them all. But mostly, I'm afraid of tomorrow. I never want tomorrow to come. Tomorrow my torment will begin anew.

I'm tired now, unable to run any further. I try to hide in the corn, but it's useless. It's shriveled away to almost nothing now. I look up to the Emperor, "Please help me I'm scared." His face becomes angry and I weep. There's nothing around me now but the dried dead husks of corn.

"I'll teach you to run from me." My father is standing in front of me now. He holds the club he's going to beat me with in his hands. "You're no good Mabien, it's time to teach you a lesson you'll never forget."

I sit down and curl up, wrapping my hands around my knees. I rock back and forth, shaking head to toe, terrified of the beating I'm about to receive. I cry and beg him not to beat me. He just looks at me and laughs.

His laughter is maniacal, demonic. A thousand different voices join in and it echoes all around me. As they continue something changes inside of me.

That's when I feel it. A new sensation, one I'd never known before. The feeling is small at first but as they continue to laugh, it begins to manifest itself stronger. It coalesces into a fire in the pit of my stomach. The flame burns and grows brighter every second he mocks me. All of my fear and insecurity melts away with this powerful new emotion.

The dead corn spontaneously ignites and I stand up. I look up to my father who's no longer laughing. I look into his eyes and detect a hint of something different. There's something else there now, something I know. Something I've lived with all my life.

Fear….

I understand now. He doesn't hate me, he's afraid of me. Everyone is. My mother, my father, the kids at school, they're all afraid of me. That's the reason he beats me, the reason my mother won't speak to me, the reason the kids at school pick on me. They hate me because they fear me.

I look up to the Emperor and see that he's pleased by this. My confidence building, I look back to my father.

"I HATE YOU" I scream it at the top of my lungs and the flames grow brighter.

I say it over and over again, "I hate you. I hate you!" As I say the words I'm transformed into the man I am today. Fear is now clearly written all over my father's face. I look back to the Emperor and see that he's now smiling.

I'm afraid no more.

I look back and my father's gone. In his place stands the Marine I'd fought with. His face is the same mask of superiority and confidence it had displayed during our fight, but I can now see right through him. And what I see is fear. I can see his fear and I despise him for it.

The rage in my heart boils over. I hate Chaos more than anything in the world now. Chaos took the only friend I'd ever known. All I have left is my rage. It's my new best friend. My only friend.

A bolter appears in my hand. Without hesitation I raise it to bear and pull the trigger. The Marine shattered into a million little pieces when the bullet struck him. All that was left was Gunney, standing where the Marine had been.

The fires around us began to die with my rage. I lowered the bolter and stepped forward, my anger replaced with curiosity. I looked at him quizzically.

"You're special you know," he said smiling, "The Emperor has shown me what you are. He has big plans for you."

I didn't understand, "What am I? What's so special about me?"

"Not yet Mabien, what matters now is what you must do." He replied.

"What will you have me do?"

He pointed to the sky, "What he created you for."

"What do you want from me?!" I screamed. The flames increased in intensity.

"He wants you to continue to do as you have already done," he answered cryptically.

"And what is that?!" I roared, the fires growing in ferocity.

"He wants you to kill them. He wants you to kill them all." He pointed to the broken shards all over the ground.

It took me a minute to realize what Gunney was trying to say. Did he really expect me to kill the Chaos Marines?

"And how am I supposed to do as he asks? The last one nearly killed me!" I screamed, "It was pure luck I even killed him at all!"

"It wasn't luck Mabien. It is who you are. He has given you everything you need to accomplish your task. It's what he's always meant for you to do."

"What?! What is it that he's given me?"

"Not yet. It's not that time, you'll find out soon enough. You have no fear now. He has taken it from you. Start with that. A great man is coming to see you soon. Learn from him all he has to offer. Make yourself into the weapon he created you to be."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"You'll learn when the time is right. I have to go now. My time has come to walk with Emperor."

He started to fade, "No, no wait….."

"Frost, it's time"

"Time for what? What is it time for?"

"It's time for you to wake up."

Chapter 2

Pain again greeted me as I awoke with a start. My shoulder was on fire. I jerked against the restraints holding me to whatever it was I was lying upon. I opened my eyes but closed them again when they met a painfully bright light. I jerked even harder, but it was no use. I couldn't move. I opened my eyes slowly this time and forced them to adjust to the searing white light.

"He's awake again." The voice was male but I couldn't see where it was coming from.

"I'm on it," another voice, this one closer. Footsteps…

I heard a door slide open\from some where behind.

More footsteps.

These were different. They were louder, more purposeful than the others… military.

"Put that fraggin' thing down, I want him awake." The new voice was strangely familiar; the words full of authority.

A form stepped over me and looked down. I squinted, trying to make out the features of the face hovering just above, but couldn't, it was still too bright. The form reached up and touched something over me and the light went out. I closed my eyes and let the after-image fade from my retinas.

I opened my eyes and looked around. The room was still well-lit but I could now see without pain. It took a minute for my eyes to regain focus and slowly, objects began to coalesce into recognizable shapes.

I was in a medical bay. The smell of disinfectant was strong. White and metallic surfaces surrounded me. A bank of machines was off to my left monitoring my vital organs and happily beeping away. I looked down and saw straps across my chest and legs.

I looked to my right arm and saw it similarly restrained. I looked to my left and saw nothing there. I briefly flashed back to my fight with the Marine. The memory of my arm being torn off brought with it the very real pain. My body convulsed and I screamed.

"Give him something!" The now familiar voice said. I could see his face now, but couldn't put a name to it. The pain was preventing my brain from working.

Footsteps… Another person beside me… A hypodermic needle… A sharp jab in my shoulder…

A couple seconds later the pain subsided and my brain started to work again. A man stepped away, taking the needle with him. I looked back to the face of the person standing over me.

"Do you know who I am?"

"Yeah…" I started to drift off.

He reached down and slapped me hard, waking me the rest of the way up, "What is my name trooper?!"

"Captain Drennan, Sir!" I said suddenly remembering my military bearing.

"And who am I Corporal?"

"You're my commanding officer, Sir!"

He relaxed then and smiled, "Welcome back trooper."

I remained silent long enough to collect my thoughts, "Where am I?"

"We're in the medical bay aboard the cruiser you deployed on. You're damn lucky to be here from the sound of things. We almost lost you."

"Why am I strapped down?"

"It's for your own protection. From what I hear, you took one hell of a beating down there. You've been having seizures in your sleep. The fact you're still alive is a god-damned miracle."

"The Marine, he…"

"I know," he cut me off. "I saw the whole thing when I checked your mission log."

"Gunney, Gunney…" I choked.

He cut me off again, "Christoff did his job Frost, and you did yours." He stopped for a second as I composed myself, "And in my opinion, you did one hell of job." He was smiling now, "Three Marines, you killed three Marines!"

"So?"

"What do you mean so?!" He asked incredulously. "I've actually fought the Marines and seen entire companies wiped out by not many more than that." He started laughing, "Corporal Frost, do you know what you are?"

The question made me recall the dream I'd had and I was hoping for a different answer than the one he gave, "No sir, what am I?

"You're my god-damned hero Frost! That's what you are. To hell with your disciplinary problems, you fragged three Marines. All by yourself!"

He looked around the room. "You see this man? Do, you, see, this man?" He hollered while pointing at me, "This man is a hero! A god-damned hero! You will treat him as such."

He looked around the room until his eyes locked onto someone I couldn't see. "You, come here!" He barked. A clearly intimidated doctor walked over to where we were, "Why the hell haven't you fixed his fraggin' arm yet?!" He said still pointing at me. He was leaning over the doctor threateningly. The doctor started stuttering a response but Drennan cut him off, "Don't you even try to give me an excuse. You will fix his arm, and you will fix it, TODAY!" He roared.

I started to chuckle as my CO grabbed him by the lab coat and lifted him to his toes, "You listen here, from this moment forward, you will do whatever you can to get him better... and Emperor help you if I find out you took any shortcuts." Drennan let the man go who immediately backed up a step. "Do you read me?"

Technically the doctor out-ranked Captain Drennan and had every right to assert his authority, but I'll be damned if he didn't snap to attention and yell, "Yes Sir!"

Drennan turned and addressed the room, "And that goes for the rest of you. If I find out any of you gave this man anything but the best the Navy has to offer; I will personally come back here and shoot you all!"

I knew it was an empty threat but none of them did. In no time I was surrounded by nurses looking me over head to toe, double and triple-checking my monitors and IV's.

Drennan looked back to the doctor and asked in an even tone, "Is it safe to unstrap him yet?"

"No Sir," the doctor stuttered, "he had another seizure just shortly before you arrived. I would not recommend it."

Drennan looked back to me, "Sorry trooper, I tried." He again regarded the doctor who had started to relax a little, "When can I have him back to work doc? I've got a medal to pin on his chest and I want him in his dress uniform with an arm in both sleeves, to receive it."

"It'll be a while Captain." He replied with a little more confidence returning to his voice. "When they brought him in, he was in pretty bad shape. Besides losing his left arm, his skull was fractured in four different places. He suffered multiple concussions that caused his brain to bleed and swell. This caused him to have multiple seizures, of which nearly killed him. The frequency of these has diminished along with the swelling, but like I said, he had another shortly before you arrived." The doctor continued, "Two vertebrae in his neck were cracked so severely, I'm surprised his spinal cord wasn't damaged. We repaired those first to prevent further damage from any subsequent seizures."

Captain Drennan remained quiet as the doctor continued, "Not to mention the loss of blood from the amputated limb. Quite frankly I'm amazed he made it here at all. He had almost no blood left in his system. We had to resuscitate him three times before we got enough back into him for his heart to function properly."

"As for the arm, we performed surgery to stop the bleeding and get it ready for the bio-mechanical replacement. He's ready to receive a new arm, but fleet supply is dragging their feet, mostly because of his low rank. I put the order in three weeks ago as soon he got here." The doctor seemed frustrated when he looked down at me, "I can't give him an arm I don't have."

Captain Drennan took all this in before responding, "You'll have it by tomorrow. I'm going to personally head down to supply and straighten them out." The way he said it made me smile as I imagined him pistol whipping supply's OIC into unconsciousness, which is probably exactly what he planned to do. Captain Drennan does not play games when it comes to his troopers.

All this said; I have to make clear the fact that I was totally bewildered by the kindness he was showing towards me. The only times I'd ever spoken to him before this, was when he was either taking my rank or chewing me out for something I'd done. I'd always known him to be a hard-ass, but like I said, I was usually on the receiving end of his anger.

He walked over to stand by me again. He looked down and in a low voice only I could hear, "Frost, I spoke to the Fleet Commissar this morning."

This brought a chill to my spine as he continued, "It wasn't pretty, he was furious. He said the only reason he hasn't come down here and shot you yet, is the Inquisition wanted to question you first."

"But why? What the hell did I do?"

"You nuked that site Corporal." I nearly smiled remembering the Marine's obscene gestures, but the gravity of my situation prevented me from doing so. "I for one, agree with everything you did down there. And the Commissar came around after I showed him the footage. In fact, he was so moved by your actions that he signed an order awarding you the Imperial Cross."

"So, what's the problem?" I asked.

"Don't you get it? Someone from the Inquisition is on their way here and they want to speak with you. Commissar Bowen told me when he informed the Inquisitor you destroyed that site, he nearly lost his damned mind. This is no joke Frost. You're in seriously deep shit."

Chapter 3

Captain Drennan was right, I was in deep. Commissar Bowen showed up later that day and confirmed his supposition. I was unstrapped by now because I the doctor felt it safe to do so. When Commissar Bowen came in he assured me I had his full support and at the same time told me he had absolutely no control over what the Inquisition might do.

Now commissars have great power. They are the most feared officers in the Imperium. They're accountable to no-one except higher ranking commissars. Their job is to enforce the rules and regulations of all branches of the Imperial Military. If they find you in violation of your duties, they can punish you however they see fit. This could be anything from extra duty and confinement, all the way up to and including, execution. Their power is so great, that theoretically, Commissar Bowen could walk up and shoot the Fleet Commander if he deemed it necessary and for the good of the Imperium. Though, I must admit I've never heard of this happening.

The only people I know of with more power than a commissar are the inquisitors. No institution is more feared than the Inquisition. The Inquisition's authority is limitless. They were charged by the Emperor himself with the sacred task of persecuting all the enemies of the Imperium, xenos and domestic. They show no mercy while doing this and could do whatever they deem necessary to accomplish their task. I've actually heard of a single Inquisitor requisitioning an entire naval battle group to track just three or four people. This meant they could do whatever the hell they wanted to with me.

From what Bowen said, what they wanted to do with me wasn't anything good. They were highly upset at my decision to destroy that site. He said they asked him, "What part of, "gather evidence" did I not understand." I countered with the fact that it was just a request; he told me that I knew better. Like I said, any request from the Inquisition should always be followed by the words, "or else."

After the Commissar left me, I was filled with an incredible sense of unease and anxiety. I wanted to get up and do something, anything at all to take my mind off of the god-damned Inquisition. I tried to get out of bed to walk around, but was politely informed by one of the nurses that if I persisted with this course of action I would be strapped down again. Frag that. So to take my mind off the subject, I lied. I told them I was in a great deal of pain, and continued to complain until they happily administered a very powerful sedative into my IV to shut me up.

My plan worked… when I awoke the next day I was informed that my new arm had arrived. My commander, true to his word, had gone down to supply and straightened them out. From what I hear, he caused such a seen they had to call ship security. I guess the guy working the desk rubbed him the wrong way, because when security showed up Captain Drennan was reportedly in the process of choking him to death. I don't know if that's true or not, but the end result of whatever he did, was I got a new arm.

I was sitting in the private room the commissar had ordered me placed when the doctor brought it in. He tried explaining to me how it worked but I had no clue about half of the things he was talking about. All I picked up from our conversation; was that it was the latest in naval technology, ran off the electricity my body naturally produced, and was about four times stronger than a normal human arm. It was going to be wired directly into my nervous system during the surgery and in time would act and feel like a natural part of my body.

Unlike a civilian model, it looked like the machine it was. It was after all naval property, so they felt no need to waste money making it look like a real human appendage. Frag it; I didn't care what it looked like, I was just happy to be getting a new arm.

After the doctor left, two techs came in and wheeled me into the operating room. Upon arrival I was asked to remove my top which I did with the help of a nurse. They then walked me over to the operating table and had me sit on it. I took one last look at the grotesque line of staples that were holding my shoulder together as another nurse proceeded to sterilize the wound. When he finished, he wheeled a cart full of medical tools – all of which were very sharp and dangerous looking - next to me. He then ran a new IV into my right arm and hooked an assortment of wires and monitors up to my body.

"You're one lucky guy," he said, "I've never seen this model issued to anyone as low ranking as you."

"Really?"

"Yeah, besides you, the lowest ranking guy they ever gave this thing to was a captain."

"How bout' that."

"I heard that crazy guy who was here yesterday nearly choked someone to death when he found out they were issuing you a standard model." I laughed when I imagined Captain Drennan choking the hell out of some pencil-pushing bureaucrat. The respect I had for my CO was growing greater by the minute. He was really sticking up for me, but even he wouldn't be able to help whenever the Inquisition decided to show up.

"I've never met anyone who'd won the Imperial Cross before." The nurse said. This caused me to look him in the face. He wasn't much younger than me, twenty-two or three standard, but his features displayed a youthful appearance and sense of innocence I'd lost long ago. His eyes were bright and blue, mine are dark and grey. I could tell this boy had never seen combat as he eagerly awaiting my response.

"It's just a piece of metal," I said nonchalantly.

His eyes grew wide at that, "Are you kidding me? It's the highest award the Navy can issue. Most people it's awarded to, died doing whatever it was they did to get it. It's not just a piece of metal; it's the Cross of the Imperium for Emperor's sake! You should be proud. You should feel honored…

I lost my temper and snatched him by the collar of his uniform, pulling him close with my one arm. "Listen here you little snot, I can name a hundred dead men - one in particular - that deserve that piece of metal more than me."

Fear was written all over his face as I continued, "What do you know of combat? Of sacrifice? Nothing! You sit here in the safety of this ship while men go down to die every day." He tried to pull away but I held on tightly. "You speak of pride and have nothing to be proud of. You speak of honor and know nothing of it. Who the hell are you to tell me what I fragging deserve?!" I released my grip and he fell over backwards before running off with tears streaming from his eyes.

My rage spent, I felt guilty for scaring the kid. I sat back in the bed and thought about Gunney. Give me the damned Imperial Cross. Where the hell was Gunney's Imperial Cross? He surely deserved it more than I did. This train of thought was interrupted by a man's voice, "I'd greatly appreciate it if you kept your hands off my staff"

"Sorry doc, I guess I just lost it for a minute."

"Try not to let it happen again." He administered a sedative into my IV, "If you were to do something like that with your new arm, you stand a pretty good chance of hurting someone."

"I won't let it happen again Doctor."

"I'm glad to hear that. Now let's go ahead and get this new arm on you, shall we?" I was already falling asleep as he lowered my bed.

"Yes Sir…" I said before the drugs knocked me out.

Chapter 4

The drug induced sleep was dreamless and I awoke with a start. There was a strange sensation on the left side of my body. I looked down and was startled at the site of the machine now attached to me. It felt weird, but at the same time, strangely familiar. I looked it up and down, examining the bundles of black electo-plast muscle-fibers and the gun-metal grey of its artificial bones and joints. It looked like an anatomically correct mechanical version of the human arm. The hand looked incredibly dangerous, but it too closely mimicked its natural human counterpart.

I attempted to move it and was again startled as it instantly responded to my brain's command. The arm raised exactly as it was told to. I turned it over so my palm was now facing up. I tried flexing my bicep and it obeyed. I could feel air pass over the machine as I moved it to and fro. I tried balling my hand and was entranced as I watched the artificial muscles in my forearm contract, pulling my fingers into a fist. I clenched my hand as tightly as I could and was again surprised to feel my fingers hurt. I stretched my fingers back out and then attempted to touch my thumb to the tips of each of them. This was difficult. My hand clumsily tried to obey but it just wouldn't get the motion right.

"Dexterity will return with regular use." Broken from the spell I was in, I looked up to see the doctor standing at the foot of my bed. "As you have probably already noticed, the surgery was a complete success."

"It's amazing." I replied, "I can feel it. It feels almost… natural… like it's supposed to be there."

"Yes, every last millimeter is covered in microscopic fibers that simulate the signals real nerve cells would send to your brain."

I ran my hand up and down my new arm causing the hair on the back of my neck to stand up with the strange sensation.

"Older models didn't have this feature. It was added to prevent you from damaging it. You'll actually feel pain when you reach the limits of the prosthetic's capabilities."

"I'll keep that in mind Doctor. Now when can I get out of here and back to my unit?"

"Well, you haven't had a seizure for over forty-eight hours and brain scans are showing little residual damage from the concussions you received."

"That's good I guess."

"Good? It's down-right amazing. When you first showed up I thought you were never going to wake up, and if you did, you'd be severely mentally handicapped at the very least. The fact that you're even talking to me right now is somewhat of a miracle." He let that soak in before continuing.

"I've never seen someone so close to death come as far as you have. I actually expect you to make a full recovery. As far as discharging you back to your unit, it'll be a few days. I want to keep you here for observation. As long as you don't have another seizure, I'll clear you for light duty and send you back by the end of the week."

I never did have another seizure and the next couple of days went by quick. I took the time I had to learn how to better manipulate my new arm. I tested it over and over to find out exactly what its capabilities and limitations were. Everything came quickly except anything that required fine movement of the fingers. I got so frustrated trying to write my name that I slammed it down and broke the table I was writing on. I'm right-handed, but my new arm is definitely the stronger of the two now.

On the fourth day the doctor signed off on my release as promised. Captain Drennan arrived to pick me up as soon as he received the message.

"You ready to get back to work?" He asked as he walked into my room in a highly starched and creased set of fatigues. Captain Drennan was always dressed immaculately in a uniform that looked as if it were brand new with boots that were always polished to a mirror finish. He was bigger than most people, close to my size, though I was broader through the chest and had a couple of centimeters on him. He had a chiseled jawline and sharp rugged features that made him look like he came straight out of an Imperial propaganda pic. I've heard almost that same description used to describe me.

To answer his question, I got out of bed, walked straight up to him, and issued a crisp salute, "Corporal Frost reporting for duty, Sir." He returned the salute and beckoned me to walk with him.

We exited the medical bay and walked the halls of the cruiser I'd originally deployed on, headed towards the launch bay. My legs felt strong as we walked in silence despite the month I'd spent in bed. We were going to board a small transport to return the short distance to my home-ship, "The Pride of Gudrun."

We entered the launch bay and stepped aboard the transport that would take me home. We sat in the back as the transport was already piloted. I looked around and was surprised to see my dress uniform hanging up beside Captain Drennan's. Apparently he'd brought them with him.

"Get dressed." He said offering no explanation. I tried to ask questions but he shot me a look that demanded silence, so I did as I was told. Once finished, I took a seat across from him and he got up and put his own dress uniform on. This was all done in silence as the transport flew us the short distance home.

When he finished, he sat back down and stared at me for a good minute before bursting into laughter, "Frost… that was absolutely priceless."

"What?"

"What you said to that shit-bag Marine before you shot him."

I couldn't remember what I'd said, so I had to ask.

"I'm Force Recon you son of a bitch." He mocked my voice to help me recall the moment. I didn't see anything funny about it, but even saying it caused him to laugh all the harder.

"Sir, I'm confused. I'd taken my helmet off when that happened. How did you see it?"

"It landed on the ground in a way that had it pointed at the both of you. Your recorder caught the whole thing." He stopped laughing after a minute, then got serious, "How did you do it Frost?"

"Do what?"

"Make him stop short like that?"

"I don't know what you're talking about Sir."

He stopped laughing, "The Marine, you did something that scared him so bad he hesitated. I want to know what you did."

"Sir, I honestly don't know what caused him to do that. I just stood there and it happened. All I did was take advantage of it." My explanation was weak and the more I thought about it, the more it bothered me. Why did he pull up short like that?

Captain Drennan looked like he wasn't ready to let it drop. He started to say something else, but thankfully, the pilot picked that moment to interrupt us, "We're here guys, it's gonna take a couple of minutes before everything's ready, so sit tight." The pilot landed the craft and turned the view screen off so I could no longer see what was going on outside in the bay.

Confused, I looked to my CO, "What's going on Sir?"

"You'll see Corporal."

"Why did he cut the view…"

He cut me off, "I said you'll see! Now sit there and shut your god-damned mouth." The tone in his voice discouraged me from asking any more questions, so I sat quietly. I heard a lot of movement from outside the transport which confused me even more. The bay must be pressurized for someone to be out there, so why hadn't the pilot dropped the ramp?

We sat there for a while longer until the pilot received a transmission I couldn't hear over his headset. He then turned back and looked to Captain Drennan, "They're ready Sir."

"Good, give us a second." He turned back to me, "Follow my lead, and do as I tell you when we get out there. You got me?"

"Yes Sir." But in truth, I had no idea what he was talking about.

"Good. Trooper, atten-hut!" I snapped to the position of attention so I was facing my commander, who also took the position. "Left, face!" I turned to my left so that I was facing the ramp at the rear of the craft. Captain Drennan simultaneously executed a right face so that we were now shoulder-to-shoulder. "We're ready Sergeant; open her up." He said over his shoulder to the pilot that was now behind us.

The ramp lowered and I was surprised to see, that standing in formation, where dozens of aircraft should have been; was my battalion, and at least half of the trooper regiment I was a part of, all at the position of attention. There were thousands of them. I'd never seen a formation this big aboard ship before. I'd been part of bigger ones planet-side, but never on a ship. That's when it occurred to me what was happening. This was an award ceremony, and with all eyes locked on me, I was pretty sure who it was for.

"Forward march," Captain Drennan said in a voice only I could hear. I marched forward with him and made the appropriate adjustments to my course with his barely audible commands leading the way. His commands eventually placed us so that we were dead centered on, and facing the formation.

"Regiment, Pre-sent, ARMS!" The Sergeant Major ordered from somewhere off to my left.

Captain Drennan, I, and everyone else in the bay snapped our right hands to the corner of our eye so that we were all now saluting. I heard a door open from somewhere behind the massive formation. I then observed the Commissar escort the ancient looking Fleet Commander, Admiral McGlower into the room. They walked around the staggering mass of humanity towards me and Captain Drennan. As they closed, Commissar Bowen broke off from the Admiral and came to attention a couple of meters in front of and facing Captain Drennan and I.

The Admiral continued on to a podium that had been set up directly behind me. The Commissar was smiling, the first time I'd ever seen him do so, with a polished wooden box under his left arm.

"Regiment, Or-der ARMS!" We all dropped our salutes, resuming the position of attention. I heard a couple of thumps as the Admiral tapped on the microphone he would use to deliver his speech.

"Ah- hem…" He said clearing his throat. "Thank you very much Sergeant Major." His voice was stronger than I thought possible for a man his age, and full of authority.

He began, "When Commissar Bowen first told me he'd signed an order awarding Corporal Frost here the Imperial Cross, I was skeptical to say the least. In my extremely long career, I'd only seen this award given to three people. All three of those people were dead and it was given to their next of kin."

He paused for a second to let that sink in. "All three died in combat. All three gave their lives in order to earn this highest of military honors. So naturally, my first question for Commissar Bowen was to inquire as to the whereabouts of the fallen trooper's remains."

He paused again. "When Commissar Bowen informed me that there were no remains, that Trooper Frost was still alive; I kindly asked him to quit wasting my time and then terminated his transmission without hearing another word."

"Needless to say, when Commissar Bowen then showed up to my office demanding to speak with me regarding Corporal Frost, I was highly agitated. He was persistent and with great effort convinced me to at least watch the recording of the mission in question."

"Reluctantly, I watched as Corporal Frost and the now deceased Gunnery Sergeant Maximus Christoff embarked on a pretty standard mission. I'd just started to lose interest in the recording and was close to turning it off when things went wrong, and I mean horribly wrong.

"Some of the things I saw sent chills up my spine. Some of the things Corporal Frost witnessed, I could barely watch. I'm ashamed to say, that at certain points during the recording of this brave trooper's mission I had to turn away to protect my own sanity." Again, another pause.

He raised his voice as he continued, "But Corporal Frost, in the face of extreme adversity, never faltered. Not once. He showed great bravery in the face of overwhelming odds. I watched in disbelief as he single-handedly defeated a fully armored Chaos Marine in hand-to-hand combat." An audible gasp issued from our audience before he continued, "And I almost lost my lunch when he tore his own arm off to do so."

"I can tell you Troopers are already amazed, but that's not even the half of it. Let me continue. Near death and bleeding profusely, Corporal Frost put the needs of the Imperium ahead of his own well-being and did what I can't honestly say I could have in the same situation. He picked himself up and completed the mission." Even though everyone was at attention, all eyes were now on me.

"During the course of this mission, Corporal Frost killed not one, not two, but three fully armored Chaos Marines all by himself. If you would have told me this without showing me the proof I would have called you a liar. Even with the proof right in front of me, it was still very hard to believe. During the course of that recording I saw a trooper go above and beyond the call of duty in his service to the Imperium." His voice had reached a crescendo and the entire bay was now in the palm of his hands.

"For his gallantry in action above and beyond the call of duty, I took it upon myself to add my signature to Commissar Bowen's order awarding Corporal Mabien Frost the Cross of the Imperium. Sergeant Major, read the order."

I almost lost touch with reality as the Sergeant Major read the details of my mission in their entirety. As he read the words I relived the experiences of that terrible day. It took everything I had to not pass out when he described the events of Gunney's death. I guess Captain Drennan saw this and he placed his hand on my shoulder to steady me long enough to regain my composure.

When he finished reading the order Commissar Bowen opened the box containing the medal. Captain Drennan walked up and reverently took the medal from him and then came to face me. He shook his head no when the Sergeant Major again ordered the regiment to present arms. Everyone in the room was now saluting me. Captain Drennan issued a crisp salute which I returned. When I lowered my hand so did he. He then reverently placed the gold and platinum Cross of the Imperium around my neck and the formation was ordered or order arms.

The colors of the Imperium were then marched to the front of the formation. We were then all again ordered to salute as the Imperial Anthem was keyed up over the bay's loud speakers. I was saluting the colors when out of nowhere the Anthem was abruptly stopped right in the middle of the crescendo.

A door opened from the back and I watched as a dozen armed men dressed in all black, walk in like they owned the place. They were clearly not military, these guys were civilians, but every one of them had the look of grizzled combat veterans. As they approached, one of them disrespectfully shoved the Commissar out of the way before coming to a stop in front of me. The commissar looked as if he were about to kill the man, but pulled up short when a bolter was stuck into his face.

A pale-faced man with long, jet black hair pulled tightly into a pony tail then stepped to the front. He looked right at me and pointed, "Place this man under arrest."

Two of the men started for me. They were just about to grab hold when out of nowhere Captain Drennan stepped forward and leveled one of them with a vicious right hook to the face. I followed his lead and knocked the other one out just as he was pulling his bolter.

The rest of the group drew down on us but quickly had to re-aim there weapons at the circle of troopers that broke formation to quickly surround them. The troopers were unarmed, but I guarantee those guys didn't have enough bullets for all of them. My comrades also knew this. They were tightening their circle in preparation to overwhelm these pricks when I heard the Admiral's voice.

"Hold it, hold it! Everyone calm down!" The guys in black were all looking pretty nervous. All except pony-tail who hadn't even attempted to draw a weapon he just stood there quietly. "If you people don't immediately lower your weapons, I cannot guarantee your safety," said the Admiral. They all looked to pony-tail who simply nodded his head causing them to holster there weapons. The troopers had blood in their eyes and tightened the circle even further. "You troopers will stand down, right now." I heard the admiral say as he marched towards the center of the commotion. The troopers backed up a couple of steps but didn't relax.

The Admiral stepped in front of me, walked straight up to pony-tail, and looked him in the eye. The pail-skinned man had at least ten centimeters on the old officer but that did not intimidate him in the least. "Just who in the hell do you think you are barging in here like this? If I hadn't been here you'd probably all be dead right now."

I could see the anger in his face as he continued to berate pony-tail who simply stood there quietly. "What kind of an idiot walks into the middle of one of my regiments and pulls a gun with just a dozen or so men? Are you out of your god-damned minds?!"

The old admiral was getting angrier by the second, "This man is a hero, under whose authority are you here to arrest him? It damn sure wasn't mine! And the last time I checked, I'm the highest ranking officer in the whole god-damned fleet!" Pony-tail was smiling now, this caused the Admiral to lose it and he started to reach up in an effort to poke the larger man in the chest,

"Just who the hell do you think you…."

Pony-tail snatched the old man by the wrist before he could poke him a single time and simultaneously produced a strange looking rosette which he shoved in his face. Upon seeing this funny looking emblem the old man wilted, visibly deflating in front of my eyes. He didn't look afraid but he was now clearly intimidated by the larger man.

"My name is Damon Shrock," pony-tail stated in a very commanding voice, "And I can assure you that my mind is sound. And furthermore, you will find that I am completely within my rights as my authority was granted me by the Emperor himself. And I can exercise that authority as I see fit in the execution of His Majesty's Most Holy Inquisition." Everyone in the room backed up from the inquisitor. "This man is not a hero, he's a traitor, and I plan to extract every traitorous thought from his Chaos-corrupted brain."

There were well over a thousand troopers in that room but this single man had just out trumped us all. Not one set of eyes were on this Damon Shrock guy anymore. They were all submissively looking to the ground. He had asserted his Emperor given authority. Not even the Commissar or Captain Drennan dared to look this man in the eye.

Frag that! I didn't care who he was, he didn't scare me. My discipline as a Storm Trooper; was the only thing preventing me from choking him to death. That son of a bitch called me a traitor. I've never had a traitorous thought in my life. The Emperor as my witness; I've been fighting for the Imperium since I was twelve years old. Who the hell was this guy to call me a god- damned traitor? The more I thought about it the more I grew angry.

I about said the hell with it when Captain Drennan grabbed me by the collar and said, "Calm down Frost, don't make this any worse on yourself."

Shrock released his hold on Admiral McGlower who immediately backed up a few steps and regained his composure, "I'll defer to your authority for now Inquisitor, but this isn't over, not by a long shot buddy. Troopers, you will all stand down and let this man do his job, and that's an order." He then turned around and looked at me, "Corporal Frost, you will offer no further resistance and do as this man says. Don't worry trooper, I've got friends in high places. You have my word that I will do everything within my power to straighten this out." He then turned and called for the Sergeant Major, "Sergeant Major, I want Commodus Voke on the line by the time I reach my office."

He turned back to Inquisitor Shrock with fire in his eyes, "Come on to one of my ships and make a fool out of me will you?! We'll see about this. You may have won the battle son, but you'll soon find out that I always win the war." With that he turned and stormed out of the bay full of indignation.

Shrock looked around the room, "Anyone who interferes with this man's arrest will be subject to the full prosecution of the Imperial Inquisition." This effectively deflated any remaining thoughts my comrades may have had of trying to stop him. I was all alone now. There was now no one in the room that could help me now and I didn't blame them for it.

The men stepped up and surrounded me. Shrock looked at me and nodded his head, "Take him." My hands were grabbed roughly from behind and cuffed behind my back. A black bag was then put over my head so I couldn't see.

I heard Shrock's voice, "Captain, if you take even one more step, I will shoot you right where you stand." Even now Captain Drennan was trying to protect me.

I turned towards the approximate direction he was in, "It's all right Sir, what's the worst that could happen?" I never would have said that had I known what I was in for.

Chapter 5

They must have known that despite the Admiral's orders and Inquisitor Shrock's threat they were still in incredibly grave danger because I was removed from the bay as fast as they could walk me out. They led me through the ship for what seemed like forever, all the while holding my arms tightly to prevent me from trying to escape. I thought this all very unnecessary as I had already been clearly ordered by Admiral McGlower to offer them no resistance of any kind.

I remained silent as I was led to our unknown destination. When we arrived, my cuffs were removed and I was forced to sit in some kind of chair which they then secured my hands and feet to. After they were satisfied that I was completely immobilized they left me there alone with the bag still on my head.

I sat for hours. I tried listening for clues as to my whereabouts, but could hear only the sound of my own breathing. The room had no noticeable odor to it either, if anything it smelled like a sterile environment. The longer I sat there the colder it became. At first I wasn't sure if it was just my imagination or not, but when the fingertips on my right hand became numb and started to hurt, I knew my mind wasn't playing tricks on me. The temperature had dropped drastically and was continuing to do so. It became so cold I was shivering and my teeth were chattering within my skull. Even worse, as the hours pressed on I had to use the bathroom more and more.

I didn't think I could be any more uncomfortable than I already was. As if just to show me that I could be a lot more uncomfortable, a sprinkler cut on and sprayed me with water until I was thoroughly soaked. This made me even colder and need to use the bathroom even more. I started squirming against my restraints, but it was no use. I was about to call out when I suddenly realized that that was the point of this whole exercise. They were trying to make me beg for mercy. I wouldn't give them the satisfaction, so I clenched my knees together to prevent wetting myself and held on.

I'd just made up my mind that this torture would not break me when a door opened. "Have you pissed yourself yet?" It was Inquisitor Shrock's arrogant voice. I remained silent, "Let's find out." I heard him walk over and sniff the air a couple of times, "I guess not. Let's see if I can fix that for you."

Without warning he kicked me hard in the stomach; driving the air from my lungs and the urine from my bladder. "That's better."

That bastard made me wet myself! I wanted to kill him! I wanted to tear him limb from limb! I was about to start cursing him when I realized that's exactly what he wanted me to do. So I remained silent in my indignity, my only consolation was that the piss had warmed my freezing legs.

"That's strange," I heard him say, "Normally people are telling me what a whore my mother is right now. I salute your discipline, but you'll break. They all do, it's just a matter of time." With that he left without saying another word.

After he left, the room started to warm up. This made me sleepy. I fought against it, but it was no use. I had been in here for Emperor knows how long and was getting more tired by the minute. I was just starting to nod off when the chair shocked me. I'm sorry, shock isn't the word for it; it felt as if I was being electrocuted. It went on for so long, my frozen cloths began to melt and steam. Despite the pain I refused to cry out. I forced myself to grit my teeth and endure until it finally stopped.

I was now wide awake and reeking of urine. The heat in the room continued to increase until it became unbearably hot. My throat dried out and my tongue became so parched and swollen it felt as if I would choke on it. I was covered in sweat and the metal of the chair was burning me. This went on for hours. I was beginning to think I would die of dehydration when the heat died down and the room returned to a comfortable temperature.

The door opened and someone walked in the room and put a bottle of water under the bag and to my lips so I could drink. I drank it all, I had to, if I didn't I would surely die.

After I finished the water he left the room and the entire cycle of torture repeated itself. I would freeze until I couldn't freeze any more. Shrock would come and ask me irrelevant questions I wouldn't answer and then beat me until I soiled myself again. He'd then leave and they'd proceed to cook me alive again. Whenever I came close to falling asleep the chair would electrocute me until I was wide awake. I figured one cycle was roughly equivalent to one day give or take a few hours. I used these cycles to keep track of time.

On the tenth cycle Shrock became very frustrated with me, "Why won't you call out? Beg for mercy?" He asked, "Say anything and we can move on." I remained silent. I'd started hallucinating three cycles ago and was having flashbacks of Subjuga Two. But whenever he came in I forced myself to pull it together and refused to speak a single word to him. I wasn't sure how long I'd been strapped to that chair, but he could keep me in here forever before I gave him the satisfaction of hearing me beg for mercy.

After that, every time he came in he'd wait longer and longer for me to respond to him in any way. I never did. Somewhere between the fifteenth and twentieth cycle he went ballistic and beat the hell out of me. He punched me over and over, screaming for me to admit I was a traitor. I never said a word. The beating just steeled my resolve even more, it actually gave me strength. When he left that time, the cycle did not start again. The room remained a constant temperature and the chair did not shock me as I fell asleep.

I don't know how long I'd been asleep when I was awoken by the bag being removed from my head, "Rise and shine traitor." It was Inquisitor Shrock. "You smell awful, let's get you cleaned up." I was still in my dress uniform from the ceremony but it was now totally soiled and filthy.

Two men in black fatigues came and unstrapped me from the chair. They then picked me up as my legs would not function from the days or weeks I'd been forced to sit in it. They carried me over to a corner where one of them held me up while the other expertly cut my uniform off with a knife. Completely naked, they dropped me on the floor, threw me a bar of soap, and proceeded to spray me down with water from a high pressure hose.

I washed myself with the soap as the painful spray of water ran up and down my body. Upon finishing I was thrown a towel and a pair of cloth pants. After I dried off and put them on I was placed back in the chair and strapped back in. They then gathered my dirty cloths and left the room, leaving me all alone with Inquisitor Shrock.

He was sitting in a chair about two meters in front of me. He sat quietly and stared at me for a good while. I took the time before he spoke to take in his features. He was smaller than me, average sized I guess, with an athletic build. He wore the same all black fatigues as everyone else that worked for him. His face was neither handsome nor ugly. The best way to describe it was nondescript. He had no identifiable markings, and his long black hair was again pulled tightly into a pony-tail. His face was clean shaven, but I could tell he was about ten years older than me.

"I'm impressed Mr. Frost." I said nothing as he continued, "I've never seen anyone hold out as long as you have. Without breaking down, crying, and begging for mercy, that is. The previous record was nine treatments. You've made it seventeen."

I just stared at him, "I'm very sorry for losing my temper yesterday. That was extremely unprofessional of me." He paused. His whole demeanor had changed. He was pleasant now, far from the raging maniac he'd been throughout the rest of my ordeal. But behind his mask of pleasantry was something dangerous, something sinister. The way he was now speaking made me feel incredibly uneasy, like something far worse was about to come.

"If I wasn't before, I'm now absolutely convinced that you are corrupt beyond any salvation." I stared at him coldly, "Only someone completely and totally poisoned by Chaos could have resisted my efforts for as long as you have. Your continued resistance is proof beyond any doubt of the total corruption of your soul. I've now come in here eighteen times and have yet to pull a single thought from your traitorous skull." What the hell was he talking about?

"Granted, I'm not a very powerful psyker, but the treatments should have weakened you enough for even me to pull the secrets from your head."

His voice changed and became menacing, "But not one thought, not one image could I extract. I'm not sure how you're doing it, but I can't pick anything up from you, anything at all. It's like you're not even there." I hadn't a clue what he was talking about as he pressed on. "So let's just talk. It's okay. I've realized I cannot break you through traditional means." I just stared at him blankly.

"Now I'm going to ask you some very pointed questions. I expect the correct answers. Should you fail to answer truthfully, I will be forced to move on to more extreme methods." What could possibly be more extreme than he'd already done to me?

"I have a psyker out there powerful enough to break whatever mental defense it is you're using. The only reason I haven't brought him in yet, is that he'll probably kill you in the process. Voke wants you alive when he gets here so I have been patient, but I will have the answers I want regardless of what the old fool desires. Do you understand everything I've said to you?"

I didn't, but I nodded my head yes anyway.

"Good, let's begin. How long have you been a traitor?"

"I'm no traitor," I choked, my voice hoarse from the previous torture.

"Not a good start Corporal. Keep it up, keep testing my patience. I say again, how long have you been a traitor?"

"We're going to be here a long time if you're just looking for the answers you want." I croaked.

He lost his cool and started yelling at me, "I know for a fact that you're a traitor! And this supposition is positively proved by the fact that you destroyed that site to cover up any evidence of your misdeeds!"

"I nuked that site to prevent them from escaping."

"You lie! How is it that you stared into the face of Chaos without so much as flinching? The answer is clear; you were corrupt long before you went down there."

I lost my cool, "Bull-shit! Just because you're a coward and can't stand the sight of their silly runes doesn't mean that I am. I'm a soldier, it's my job to look the devil in the eye and put a bullet in his face without asking any questions. I don't fear Chaos as you obviously do. I just get paid to kill it."

"You expect me to believe that you're such a hero that you killed three of the galaxy's most dangerous beings all by yourself? I saw your mission log and to me it reeks of conspiracy."

"What the hell do you mean conspiracy? They killed my best friend and damn near killed me. And suppose you're right, that I am some Chaos conspirator, why would I kill my own people? Your argument makes absolutely no sense whatsoever!"

"You think you're clever don't you. Here's how I see it. Being that it's impossible for you to have done what you claim to have. You, in collusion with those marines, staged the whole thing." He was up now, walking circles around me as he explained his version of events. "You let them kill Gunnery Sergeant Christoff to eliminate the only witness to your treachery. You then faked their deaths and nuked that site to explain the fact that there were no bodies to recover and prevent any kind of subsequent investigation." He was leaning over me now, "That's what I think happened, and it seems far more likely than a single trooper killing three Space Marines all by himself."

"You are one paranoid son of a bitch; you know that? You see conspiracy where there is none. You see devious plots where there are none to be…" He shut me up with a punch to my face.

"I will hear no more of your lies traitor; my patience has come to an end. So I will ask you one final time. How long have you been a traitor?"

"How long have you been sleeping with your mother?" I replied. His mouth hit the floor. He couldn't believe what I'd just said.

He quickly composed himself, "Okay, have it your way. I will have my confession one way or the other." He turned and left the room.

I sat there for a minute, wondering what would come next. I didn't have to wait long. The door opened and Inquisitor Shrock came back in escorting a very frail looking man. He was tall and thin and completely bald. His head was bulbous and his eyes had sickly appearance about them. They were milky white all the way through the corneas to the pupils.

Inquisitor Shrock smiled at me with a look of victory on his face, "This is Interrogator Hazimuth, and he is by far the most gifted psyker I've ever met."

"Is that supposed to scare me?" I asked condescendingly.

"It should. He's about to rip every traitorous thought from your corrupt brain. I suspect when he's finished, you'll either be dead, or at the very least, a babbling fool."

They began to move in my direction when all of the sudden Hazimuth doubled over as if some invisible force had punched him in the stomach. He gasped for air as Shrock quickly grabbed hold to prevent him from falling over. "What are you doing to him?!" Shrock yelled.

Before I could say anything the psyker cut me off, "I'm okay Inquisitor, just give me a second. This one's defense is very strong, but I'm sure I can break it. Let me sit here for a moment to collect myself."

Shrock helped him to the chair in front of me where he sat for a while before speaking, "It's very strange Inquisitor. It's like he's creating a dead space all around him. I'm getting nothing from him, or even you sitting this close."

"Can you break it?" Shrock asked.

"I will try. All I have to do is touch his mind once and his barrier should crumble." I was beginning to get really nervous at all this talk of my mind and mental barriers. I wasn't creating any defense I was aware of and I damn sure didn't like the idea of this weirdo getting inside my head.

Hazimuth continued, "You might want to leave the room Inquisitor. The amount of force I will have to use to break this man is likely to kill him and anyone else in the room."

"But can you get the answers I need?"

"I'll get the answers. I've never met anyone from whom I couldn't."

Shrock smiled at me, "Go ahead trooper, keep playing your silly little game. As soon as he cracks your skull I'll be back to pick up the pieces." He patted Hazimuth on the shoulder and left the room. I was now all alone with the psyker.

The interrogator stared at me for a long time before speaking, "Are you ready for what's about to happen to you?"

I shrugged my shoulders, "As ready as I'll ever be."

"No, I don't think you are. Granted, you have a strong mind. So strong I can't even feel you, but I will break you, it's inevitable. The more you resist, the worse it will be. So I suggest you stop doing whatever it is you are and just let me in."

"I don't know what you're talking about, I'm not doing anything. I'm no psyker, so all this talk of my mind and mental barriers means nothing to me."

"Okay have it your way." He sat up in his chair and stared right into my eyes. I watched as his milky eyes turned pure white and beads of sweat formed on his forehead. I could tell he was putting immense effort into whatever it was he was doing, but for the life of me I felt nothing. He continued on for a couple of minutes, visibly straining against some unknown force. He finally stopped when he began gasping for air to catch his breath. I thought he would surely pass out when his breathing unexpectedly calmed and he recollected himself.

"I don't understand," he finally said, "You shut me out without so much as blinking. I can now see I will have to go much further." He stood up and placed his hand on his forehead and redoubled his efforts upon me.

His eyes again turned pure white and even started to glow. He took a step forward and his whole body started to shake. Sweat now poured from his face. The room started to shake in sync with his body, but I still couldn't feel a thing. The temperature in the room dropped drastically and blood started to leak from his eyes and nose. He took another step towards me and the room started to shake violently. He looked at me and spoke through gritted teeth, "I, will, break, you!" I still felt nothing even though I could tell he was trying to touch my mind with all his might.

He continued his advance until he was standing over me. He reached out to touch me, but it seemed as if something was pushing against his hand to prevent him from making contact. He leaned into the unseen force and sparks started flying from his fingertips, growing ever closer to my head. I was worried now, unsure of what was happening. What would happen when he touched me?

It was very cold now and it felt as if the whole ship was coming apart at the seams. With one final effort he forced his hand to touch my head. I felt nothing but his body convulsed violently as if he were being electrocuted. I heard a liquid pop come from within his head and watched as blood gushed from his ears. He was thrown back and landed face down on the floor. He was unconscious and not breathing. All the energy quickly dissipated and the room stopped shaking. I sat there bewildered, staring at the dead man while the temperature quickly returned to normal. Whatever the frag had just happened was completely beyond me.

I was still sitting there completely dumbfounded when the door burst open and Inquisitor Shrock ran in. He leaned over Hazimuth's dead body and checked him for a pulse. He soon gave up and shook his head, "What the hell did you do to him?"

"I didn't do anything!" I yelled.

"I don't believe you." He pulled his bolter, walked up and pressed it against my forehead, "What the hell did you do?!" He screamed.

"Nothing!" I screamed back. He smacked me across the face with the bolter, cocked it, and shoved the barrel into my mouth.

"I'll hear not another word from your traitorous lips. I'm going to end this right now!" He was just about to pull the trigger when I heard someone enter the room.

"Just what the hell is going on here?!"

Shrock looked back at the new voice and started to stammer.

"Shut your mouth, I don't want to hear it." The new voice was unknown to me. "You will remove the gun from the prisoner's mouth and explain to me exactly what's going on here." Shrock hesitated and the new voice became angry, "Do it now! That's my prisoner and as such, only I have the right to execute him. You will remove that gun and give me the respect I deserve."

Shrock removed the gun from my mouth and turned to face the man, "Sir, he's dangerous. He just killed Hazimuth." I could see the new man now and he was old, very old. He even made the Admiral who was standing right beside him look young. He was dressed in a long, very expensive looking black robe with one of those strange rosettes around his neck.

He stepped forward and just as Hazimuth did, gasped for air. Shrock stepped forward to help him, but the man stopped him short by holding up his finger. He caught his breath and when he was ready continued, "Shrock you damned fool, this man didn't kill anyone."

"Sir I saw it myself, he…"

"Shut up." The old man interrupted, "That idiot Hazimuth killed himself trying to touch a man who cannot be touched by any psyker."

"What are you talking about?" The now confused Shrock asked.

"Inquisitor Shrock, the magnitude of your ignorance astonishes me. I felt and recognized what this man is as soon as I walked in here. This man is an untouchable."

"This man is corrupt beyond all belief and nothing more." Shrock countered, "The stench of Chaos is all over him. I deal in reality Inquisitor Voke, and the reality is, is that there is no such thing as untouchables. I've never met one. This man is nothing more than an agent of Chaos. Albeit, a very powerful one I have yet to break. And trust me Inquisitor, I will break him."

"You ass! You haven't broken him because there is nothing to break. This man is no traitor. What you feel to be Chaos is nothing more that the natural aversion any psyker feels in the presence of an untouchable. There is a dead space in the warp that completely surrounds him. Reach out with your mind Shrock. Try to feel my presence, try to feel Admiral McGlower's for that matter. You can't, can you? That's because his mere proximity is completely nullifying all of our psychic abilities. No agent of Chaos can do that. The only possible explanation is that he's untouchable. I doubt he even knows what he is or the effect he's having on us."

He was right I wasn't doing anything. I've never even heard of an untouchable. Now this man was calling me one. There's nothing special about me, I'm just your garden variety leather-neck.

Shrock seemed just as unsure of himself as I was as he walked back to stand beside me. He looked at me for a minute and I could see him trying to figure out what he was going to do with me. Slowly the confidence returned to his face, "Maybe he is as you say." He set his hand back on his holstered side-arm, "But when it comes to Chaos, I simply don't take chances." In one swift motion he drew his bolter and brought it to bear on my head.

Admiral McGlower was quicker. With lightning speed I thought impossible for a man his age, he drew his own side- arm and shot Inquisitor Shrock right through the shoulder of the arm holding the bolter. The gun fell to the ground as did Shrock.

"You… you shot me." He whimpered in disbelief.

Admiral McGlower walked to stand over the fallen Inquisitor holstering his weapon as he did so, "Yes it appears that I have." He smiled as he looked down at him, "Like I said you arrogant little prick… I always win the war." He then looked over to me, "You okay trooper?"

"I've been better Sir." Just then four armed troopers burst into the room, weapons at the ready.

"It's all right troopers, everything's under control." McGlower said, "You two; take Inquisitor Shrock to the infirmary. When he's all patched up you will confine him to quarters until Inquisitor Voke and I decide what to do with him." The troopers obeyed without question. They were from my regiment and were smiling widely as they roughly picked him up and drug him from the room. Admiral McGlower looked at the others, "You two; get this trooper out of that damned contraption and take him to the brig."

He looked down at me, "Sorry Corporal, I have to keep you in custody until Inquisitor Voke clears you. Don't worry, they'll take a lot better care of you down there; I'll make sure of it." He then looked to Inquisitor Voke, "Is this acceptable Inquisitor?"

"Yes Admiral, I just have a couple of routine questions to ask him. I've seen his records and despite his extensive disciplinary problems, I see nothing to indicate that he's a traitor. Give me a couple of days and I'll return him to you."

With that my comrades unstrapped me and helped me from the room.

Chapter 6

The ship's brig felt like a retreat compared to the previous weeks' torment. All I did was eat and sleep the first couple of days I was there. The guards were from my trooper regiment and treated me like a hero. Combat veterans themselves, they kept their questions about my ordeal to a minimum. I had my own private cell and was given more food than any of the other prisoners.

I was bothered by what was said by Inquisitor Voke before I left that room. I had so many questions to ask him whenever he decided to show up. What is it that's wrong with me? Is it possible that my whole life has been affected by this so called untouchability? It would explain a lot, but I still didn't like the idea of being fundamentally different from my fellow man.

Why me?

The questions I had were driving me insane so I forced them from my mind and exercised to keep my thoughts diverted. I did push- ups and sit- ups constantly to keep my mind off of things. I had to adjust the settings on my left arm when doing push-ups to prevent it from over powering my right.

I had been in the brig four days and I was in the middle of another set of push-ups when Captain Drennan showed up.

"Glad to see you're staying in shape trooper," he smiled down at me. I got up and issued a crisp salute which he returned. "Keep it up Frost; I plan on having you back to work as soon as possible and I can't very well have a fat sniper in my outfit."

We both had a good laugh at that. I'm far from fat and even with all the time I'd spent in the hospital and my weeks with Shrock, I still had a well-muscled upper body and a perfect set of abdominals.

"Don't you worry about me Sir, whenever they let me out of here I'll be ready. Speaking of that, Inquisitor Voke said I wouldn't be in here for more than a couple of days. It's been almost a week and I haven't heard anything."

"About that, apparently he and Inquisitor Voke are having it out over you. Word is; your case is being settled by the Lord High Inquisitor himself. I wouldn't worry too much though, Admiral McGlower and he are actually close friends and the High Inquisitor owes the Admiral a favor or two. McGlower is pretty sure he's going to side with us on this one. Sit tight Corporal we'll have you outta here in no time."

"Sir I'd like to thank you for everything you've done for me."

"Frost, I've always thought you were one hell of a soldier. Even when I had to take your rank, I always felt that you were the model of what every trooper should aspire to be. Fearless, highly skilled, and you don't take shit from anyone. Every time you beat the hell out of some jackass for messing with you, I had to collect myself and stop laughing before I brought you into my office."

This surprised me. I really thought my commander always had it out for me. He never gave me any hint that he was impressed by my actions before.

"You're tough as nails Frost. Inquisitor Voke told me that despite that maniac's best efforts, Shrock never broke you. He said he was utterly amazed when he arrived and found out that you hadn't yet signed a confession."

"There was nothing to confess Sir, I just did my job."

"That's just it Corporal, everyone confesses, innocent or not when subjected to an Inquisitor's methods. Voke told me that he's seen countless innocent men sign confessions just to get the pain to stop."

"Sir he'd of had to kill me first to get me to agree to his allegations."

He looked at me thoughtfully, "Trooper I see big things in your future. They don't make em' like you anymore." With that he left and I got back to my work-out.

It turned out to be another week before Inquisitor Voke decided to show up. When he came in he was prepared for whatever was going to happen to him when he came near me. He just paused, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes before stepping into my field of influence. "I must say," he started as he sat down on the other side of my cell's force field, "That you are far and away, the most powerful untouchable I've ever met."

"Sir, I don't get what you're talking about, I'm not doing anything. I can tell I'm having some kind of effect on you, but I don't feel it. I don't even know what an untouchable is."

"I doubt that you do feel anything, or ever have for that matter. Most untouchables go their entire life without learning of their true nature."

"What is an untouchable?"

"An untouchable is a person who naturally creates a dead space in the warp around them, making it impossible for any psyker to use his abilities in their vicinity. Psykers are easy to find as their traits are readily apparent and every branch of the government actively seeks them out. Your ability on the other hand is extremely rare and even harder to find as you don't normally display any noticeable characteristics. Untouchables are so rare in fact that most people assume they don't exist, that they're just something someone made up to scare young psykers. You are very special, very special indeed.

"Yeah, you keep telling me that. How do you know that I'm in fact, one of these untouchables?"

"Well besides the fact that I cannot feel your presence or anyone else's when I'm around you. You display all the characteristics an untouchable is thought to have; extreme difficulty in any social situation, a flattened affect, and a propensity to get into altercations with those around you. All of this is because most humans have a natural distaste for untouchables. The reason being, that on some unconscious level, their brains are telling them that there is something drastically wrong with this person. It triggers an either fear or hate based emotional response from the person in question. I've looked at your personnel file and you fit this description to the letter."

"Are you telling me that the reason everyone's hated me my entire life, the reason my parents couldn't stand me, the reason I get into fights all the time, is all because I'm one of these untouchables?" The unfairness of it all was starting to bother me.

"That's exactly what I'm telling you."

"And there is nothing I can do about it, that I will be this way for the rest of my life?" I was getting very angry now. The hopelessness I felt at what he was saying was beginning to consume me.

"There's nothing you can do about it, it's just who you are and always will be. I know it might not seem like it, but the Emperor has given you a very special gift."

At that I lost my mind, "Well I don't want it!" I yelled, "You call it a gift, I call it a curse! Do you know what it's like to go your entire life feeling like there's something wrong with you? Not knowing what or how to fix it? My father beat the shit out of me every day and my own mother couldn't stand the site of me. Everyone I've ever met has either hated or feared me and I always thought it was just my personality. Now you come in here and tell me this?" He looked at me thoughtfully as I continued my tirade, "I didn't ask for this, all I ever wanted was to fit in. Now you're telling me that will never happen and I should be happy for this so called gift I've been given. Well I don't want it. The bloody Emperor can have it back. All I want is to go back to my unit, where people are finally starting to respect me, and do my job, nothing more." My rage expended, I sat down on my bunk and stared at the floor, growing more and more despondent over my whole situation.

We sat there in silence for a while before he spoke again, "I believe your ability goes much farther than any other untouchable."

I didn't believe things could get any worse so I simply looked at him and asked, "How so?"

"I watched the recordings from Subjuga Two and something has been bothering me."

"What's that? Are you going to tell me that what I did was impossible and call me a traitor now? Cause if you are, me and Inquisitor Shrock already had that conversation."

"That's not it at all. Corporal; I believe everything happened just as you said it did. I believe you did your job to the best of your ability and nothing more. Granted I was a little upset at your decision to destroy the site, but given the circumstances, I have to admit I would have probably made the same decision."

"So what's the problem?"

"What's bothering me is how you stared down a Chaos Marine and showed absolutely no fear. You looked Chaos right in the eye and it had no noticeable effect on you."

"Chaos doesn't bother me, it never has. I don't understand how those silly little drawings they place all over themselves can affect people so much. I just treat Chaos like I do any enemy; shoot first and ask questions later."

"That's what I'm getting at. Chaos affects everyone, me included. Even the other untouchables I've met can't stand the sight of those silly drawings. I think the only reason you survived your ordeal is because you are an untouchable. I believe that you are so psychically dead, that Chaos has absolutely no effect on you. If I'm right, you are the only known human in the entire Imperium that absolutely cannot be corrupted by Chaos. I would like to test that theory."

"How are you supposed to do that?" I asked skeptically.

"I have with me a very dangerous artifact. So dangerous in fact, that simply touching it is enough to corrupt a man."

"What is it?" I said as he produced from his robe a black box with a substantial lock on it. The box looked ancient with very ornate golden engravings all along its edges.

"Inside this box is a cursed object, a book in fact. I confiscated it from a Chaos cult a long time ago. It's an abomination, and I've had it locked inside this box longer than you've been alive. I've never opened the book, for to read it is to be damned. I only held it long enough to lock it in this case, but in the time it took me to do so it nearly corrupted my soul. It's called "The Demonicon", and it was written for the soul purpose of summoning demons from the depths of the warp. It is poisonous beyond all belief and I cannot force you to do what I am about to ask of you."

"You want to see if I can touch it."

"Yes, if I'm right it should have no effect on you."

"And if you're wrong?"

"I will be forced to shoot you."

I thought about it for a minute. After all he'd said there was reason to suspect I'd be okay, but what if I wasn't? What if it did corrupt me? I had to admit that Chaos never did have any effect on me. But was I truly incorruptible as this man believed? My curiosity got the better of me, "Okay I'm game, but under one condition. If I survive this, you will let me out of here and return me to my unit."

"If that's still what you want after we're done speaking, I'll return you to your unit."

"Okay then, give it here."

He stood up and walked to the edge of the force field and hit a button to lower it. He then pulled a key from around his neck and handed it and the box to me. I took them both to my bunk, sat down, and placed the box on my lap. Voke produced a bolter from his robe and leveled it on me. I looked at him and smiled, "I sure hope you're right about this."

"Me too trooper, but if I am, the possibilities are endless."

I placed the key in the lock and turned it, I heard a metallic click as the locking mechanism disengaged. I placed my hands on either side of the lid and raised it open. Inside was the book, it was bound in a type of leather I'd never seen before and had the strange runes of Chaos scrawled in what appeared to be dried blood on the cover. I looked to Inquisitor Voke.

"That's human skin," he said, answering the question before I

could ask.

"Nice." I started to reach in the box. I hesitated for a moment before forcing myself to grab hold of the book. I half expected something dramatic to happen as I removed it from the box.

"Do you feel anything?" Voke asked anxiously.

I sat there for a while holding the book in my hands, trying to detect any difference in the way I felt. But there was nothing, nothing at all. I was relieved and disappointed at the same time. Relieved because I was not going to be shot, disappointed because we had just proved I was as he said I was. "No Inquisitor, I don't feel anything."

"Nothing, you don't feel a thing?"

"I just said no. To me it's just a book. Are you sure this is the right one?"

"Of course I'm sure. Now try opening it."

I opened the book and looked at the strange writing within. It meant nothing to me. I turned the pages and examined the symbols drawn in blood. They were all crude and lacked symmetry. I didn't understand what any of it meant and the only thing I felt was that this all seemed very silly. I looked up to Voke and shook my head, "Nothing, I feel nothing at all."

He smiled and lowered his bolter, "Do you know what this means?"

"Not exactly," I replied.

"It means that you are truly immune to the effects of Chaos. I have kept that book hidden for years. From everyone, even my own colleagues in the Inquisition for fear they might try to read it and become corrupted by its influence. And there you are thumbing through the damned thing as if it had no more power than a child's fairytale. I understand what you are now, what the Emperor created you to be."

I remembered my dream from the hospital and I knew what he was going to say next, but I had to hear it anyway. "What did he create me to be?"

"A weapon, the Emperor created you to be a weapon."

I spat, "Is this some kind of sick joke?" But I knew it wasn't. That wasn't just a dream in the infirmary; it was the Emperor speaking to me. My head was spinning at the gravity of it all and I dropped the book. I had to stand up, I felt sick to my stomach. I stood up and paced back and forth trying to work it all out in my head. My thoughts were interrupted by Inquisitor Voke.

"This is no joke Corporal Frost, this is as real as it gets. Your unique skill set, coupled with your singular immunity to the corruptive influence of Chaos, can mean only one thing. That you, are truly an Emperor-given gift to humanity. All the events of your life have led you to this moment; so that you could meet someone with the knowledge and experience to identify you for what you are. What you were meant to be. There is no other explanation; you were created to be a weapon…" He paused for a second and a very serious look overcame his face, "and I intend to use you as such. Corporal Frost, from now on, you work for me."

I looked up to him quizzically, trying to understand what had just been said to me, "What do you mean I work for you? You said I'd be returned to my unit if I did as you asked. I held your silly book and even thumbed through the damned thing risking my life in the process. I lived up to my end of the bargain, now you will return me to my unit as per our agreement!"

Inquisitor Voke just smiled at me, "You've got me there Corporal, I did make you a promise, and I am a man of my word. If you would just place that book back into the box and give it to me; I will leave and fill-out the necessary paperwork."

I looked at him dubiously, but he just kept smiling, "Go ahead, I will honor our agreement as promised, just give me the book and I will take care of everything."

I reluctantly picked up the book where I'd dropped it and placed it back in the box. I locked it back, then walked over and handed it and the key back to him. "Today, I will be out of here today?" I asked before letting him take it from me.

"You will be returned to your unit today, you have my word." With that he reactivated my cell's force field and left the brig.

Chapter 7

I sat there for hours, alone with my thoughts. I didn't know what to make of it all. Did the Emperor really have such big plans for me? Was I actually created to be some kind of weapon to be used against Chaos? I didn't know, and the questions bothered me more than the answers.

I looked at the chronometer on the wall and started to think Inquisitor Voke had lied when I heard a commotion coming from outside the brig. "Just what the hell is going on here?!" I heard a muffled voice yell out.

The door opened and I saw four men in all black fatigues drag Captain Drennan into the brig. From the look of their bloodied faces he'd not come quietly. They brought him to my cell and he stopped resisting when he saw me, "Trooper, what the hell did you tell them?!"

One of the men pulled a gun and told me to back up while another dropped the force field. Captain Drennan was then thrown in with me. He looked at me with rage in his eyes, "What the hell did you tell them?!"

Before I could answer, he leveled me with a right cross to my face, "You son of a bitch, answer me! What the hell did you tell them?!"

"Nothing Sir!" I said spitting blood from my mouth.

"Then explain why the hell I'm in here!"

"Sir, you've got to believe me, I didn't tell them anything." I started to get up but he kicked me hard in the side, driving the air from my lungs, and knocking me back to the floor.

"You lying son of a….."

"That will be quite enough, Captain." Inquisitor Voke said cutting him off. He'd almost appeared out of nowhere "Corporal Frost hasn't said a thing to incriminate you. Your detainment is all of my own doing. He had absolutely no part in it."

I coughed a few times trying desperately to catch my breath and stood up, "What is this Voke? You promised to return me to my unit, why the hell is he here?"

"He is here because he is your commanding officer. And as promised, you have been returned to his command." Voke grinned as he said this to the both of us.

Captain Drennan was just as confused as I was, "What the hell is the meaning of this Inquisitor?"

"It's quite simple Captain, he has been returned to your command as per our agreement, and you have both been reassigned to me. Technically you are both still in your recon unit, but are now under permanent orders specially placing you at my disposal. Here are the orders signed by Admiral McGlower himself." He waved a data slate in front of us. "You are both now assets of His Majesty's Most Holy Inquisition; and from here on out, you work for me."

"What about my command? Captain Drennan asked.

"Your, company is now in the very capable hands of your Executive Officer. Now I'm sure you both have a lot of questions so I'm going to go ahead and lay it all out for you. Corporal Frost is more valuable to the Inquisition than either of you could possibly understand."

"His unique abilities are indispensable to our cause. For this reason I cannot possibly allow him to be killed by some random bullet on some nameless battlefield. Given his natural inability to assimilate into any kind of social structure, I have brought you in to be his handler and make sure he does what is expected of him." He was looking at Drennan as he said this. "Now I can tell you are confused Captain, but I'm sure Corporal Frost will fill you in on everything we talked about. I just want you both to know that this is how it will be and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it."

"What the hell do you want from me Voke?" I asked; my voice now full of anger.

"Don't look so upset, I'm offering you a rare opportunity to serve your Emperor in a way that will actually make a difference."

"And what is that?" I asked

"Don't be dense Corporal. You are going to be killing agents of Chaos on a full time basis. That's what you were created for and that is what I will have you do. I'm going to leave you both here for the time being to give you some time to think about everything I've just said to you. If I come back tomorrow and you've decided you are ready to go to work, I will let you out and we will go to my ship to begin your training. Oh, and for future reference, you will both refer to me from now on as either Inquisitor or Sir." With that, he turned and left the room.

Captain Drennan looked at me with blood in his eyes, "You will explain to me why the hell I'm in here right now!"

I was just starting to explain things when he punched me again, "SHUT UP! I just lost my god-damned command because of you. I don't know what the hell you did but you really screwed things up this time Frost."

"Captain, I didn't do…" He cut me off with another punch to my face bloodying my nose. He was really starting to piss me off now. A man can only take so much abuse.

"Captain, listen to me….." I had to duck another right hook and instinctively reacted with a vicious left to the body that doubled him over. I realized after the fact that I'd hit him with my new arm and had probably really hurt him. He backed up a couple of steps, bent over, and gasping for air.

"Sir, I'm so sorry, I didn't…" With a roar he charged straight into me and tackled me to the ground. We hit the floor hard with him on top.

"I'll fragging kill you!" He screamed as he punched me in the face again. I tried to throw him but we just ended up rolling over each other. The fight was on. We rolled over and over punching each other in the face repeatedly. He was one tough son of a bitch and at no time was I sure who was winning the fight. It went on for a couple of minutes and he eventually ended up on top of me with both hands wrapped around my neck trying to choke me to death. Up until this point I had tried not to use my left to avoid hurting him, but now I had no choice. I reached up and punched him in the face a couple of times with my titanium hand until his grip loosened and then threw him off of me. I laid there gasping for air and looked over to see him holding his jaw from where I'd hit him with my new arm.

"What in the hell are you two doing?!" I looked up to see an incredibly pissed off Commissar standing in front of our cell. "Look at yourselves!" Captain Drennan and I were both at a loss for words. He continued before either of us could regain our composure, "You two look like a couple of god-damned idiots lying there. Get up… NOW!"

Captain Drennan and I both jumped up and snapped to the position of attention. "Frost, I'd expect something like this out of you. But you Captain Drennan, what in the Emperor's sacred Imperium are you doing in a fist-fight with one of your own troopers?"

"Sir, he caused me to lose my command." Captain Drennan responded.

"He didn't cause you to lose anything Captain. You have both been placed on special assignment working for the Inquisition. The both of you should be celebrating your good fortunes right now, not beating the shit out of each other."

Our looks of confusion prompted him to continue.

"Why are you two looking at me like I'm stupid? You two should be thanking the Emperor right now for getting this assignment. Corporal Frost, how long have you been a Trooper?"

"Fourteen years Sir."

"And what about you Captain Drennan"

"Sixteen, Sir."

"Do you two know what the average life-span of a Storm Trooper in the Imperial Navy is?"

We both looked at each other.

"Three years. Three years from boot until death. You two are both damned lucky to still be alive. Combined, you two have lived ten times longer than the average trooper ever does. Now do you know how many Storm Troopers actually make it to retirement?"

We both looked at each other again.

"Very fraggin' few, that's how many! You guys don't know this because the Navy keeps it a closely held secret. The fact is; becoming a Storm Trooper is tantamount to signing your own death certificate. Now you assholes luck- out and get this assignment and you're pissed off about it?! Don't you get it? You've just been given an opportunity to actually make a difference…" He now looked both angry and disappointed at the same time, "and here you dipshits are fighting with each other like a couple of children."

"Sir, all I ever wanted to be was a Storm Trooper."

"Frost, you're more than that and you always have been. Not only are you the best sniper in the whole damned fleet, you have a gift that makes you immune to Chaos. Get the hell over it Trooper you're not normal. You never were, and you never will be. Now you can sit there and whine about it all day like some pissed off school-girl, or you can take that gift and use it to make a real difference."

"And you Captain Drennan, are here to keep his ass in line and make sure he doesn't screw shit up like he did on Subjuga Two."

I had to speak up on that one, "Sir what are you talking about?"

"I signed the order for your Imperial Cross despite the fact you destroyed that site Corporal; because I agreed with what you did. But did it ever occur to you that there was a twenty millimeter chain gun mounted on the bottom of your Night Hawk? That you could have just as easily killed them all with that and still left some evidence to recover. No, you didn't, cause you're a god-damned hot-head and you act before you think. That's why Captain Drennan is here, he's the only one around you seem to respect. And his command experience will hopefully prevent you from making any more dumb decisions."

The thought of using the chain-gun had never occurred to me. He was right, the anger I felt over Gunney's death had clouded my judgment.

"So here's how it's going to be. You two will get your god-damned heads around this thing and act like the Storm Troopers you are. You will do whatever Inquisitor Voke asks of you without question. And even the Emperor won't be able to help you if I have to come back down here. Do you read me?"

"Sir, yes Sir!" We both yelled.

Commissar Bowen turned and left the room in disgust. We both relaxed and looked at each other. We sat there for a long time when out of nowhere Captain Drennan started laughing, "That's one hell of a left you got there," he said rubbing his jaw. He walked over to the bunk on the opposite side of the cell and sat down, "Frost, I'm sorry for trying to kill you. I know none of this is your fault, I was just pissed about losing my command."

I sat down on my bunk across the cell from him and smiled too, "I tell you what Sir, that Marine I fought on Subjuga Two didn't have a thing on you." We both had a good laugh at that. "You look like shit Sir." I said as he wiped some more blood from his mouth.

"You don't look so hot yourself," He replied as I leaned my head back to stop the blood still dripping from my nose. "Frost, what the hell is so special about you that the Inquisition has drafted us to be a couple of god-damned hit-men."

I relayed everything Inquisitor Voke had told me to him. I told him of Voke's theory that I was the only man alive completely immune to the effects of Chaos. Then went on to explain how he proved that theory by making me hold that cursed book. "So that's how you did it." He finally said as I finished relaying everything I knew to him.

"Did what Sir?"

"Caused that marine to hesitate. I knew you did something to scare him, I just wasn't sure what."

"I guess whenever a psyker gets close to me; I have some kind of drastic effect on them."

"How bout' that; I always knew there was something off about you, but I could never tell what. So Chaos really has no effect on you?"

"No Sir, it never has."

"Not one little bit?"

"Not one little bit."

"Well I can see why Inquisitor Voke wants you to work for him so bad. He can send you places that no one else can go and not have to worry about you succumbing to Chaos. Do you have any idea how many lives we can save, by taking out just a few certain individuals?"

"No Sir."

"Frost, I've seen entire Chaos armies fall apart when there leaders are killed whether it be by accident or on purpose. Chaos is exactly what it sounds like. It is completely unorganized and the only thing that holds it together is the total dominance and will of a few certain individuals. I have personally been privy to missions that's entire focus was the elimination of a single person. But usually whatever operative we send to accomplish that mission just ends up being corrupted by the very target they were sent to kill."

"It sounds like you're beginning to like this whole idea Sir."

"No Frost, I hate it. I think we're on a one-way trip to our god-damned graves. But I can see the possibilities, and given the chance to save lives, I'm willing to give it a shot. I've seen too many good troopers lost to Chaos, and if killing a few people will save just some of them, I'm all in."

I looked at him for a minute before speaking, "Well Sir, I'm sold. If working with him will do everything you say it will, then I'm game. The upside to this whole thing is we'll be getting to frag Chaos on a full time basis. There's just something about putting a bullet in someone's head that just makes my day." With that we both got a good laugh and turned in for the night.

Chapter 8

"All that time in the hospital made you soft." Captain Drennan said waking me up from my sleep, "Wake you're ass up and get dressed." He tossed me a black set of fatigues like I saw everyone else who worked for the Inquisition wear. "They brought them in while you were still asleep."

I put the uniform on, went to the sink, and started shaving. Captain Drennan was already dressed so he sat quietly and waited for me to finish getting ready.

As soon as I finished the door to the brig slid open and Inquisitor Voke walked in to stand in front of our cell. He was wearing the same black robe I'd now come to associate with him. "Well you two look a little worse for the wear, but I trust you've worked out your differences and are ready to go to work." He was referring to the black eyes we both had. "Am I correct in that assumption?"

"I'm ready Sir." Captain Drennan replied.

"And what about you Corporal Frost?"

"Inquisitor, if what we're going to be doing will save lives, you can count on me."

"Very good, rest assured the work we'll be doing will save thousands, if not, millions of Imperial citizens."

He let us out of the cell and beckoned us to follow him. We followed him through the corridors of the ship in silence and eventually arrived in the launch bay. We then hopped aboard a transport that would take us to his ship.

I watched in awe as we approached his light cruiser, "This is my ship, The Emperor's Wrath." He said as we took in the sight of the jet black cruiser, "It will be your home for the foreseeable future." The lines of his battle cruiser were smooth, sleek, and beautiful; but still found a way to remain menacing at the same time. It was brand new, far removed from the centuries old vessels I was used to riding in. "It's the latest design to come out of Mars. It's quite extraordinary; it's one of the fastest ships you'll ever ride in, and its weapons array is enough to give any battleship a run for its money." Captain Drennan and I were both held speechless as we stared at the beautiful beast. "Welcome to the Inquisition, don't look so surprised. Our funding is near limitless so that we may execute The Emperor's most holy cause with utmost efficiency."

The ship's interior was even nicer than its exterior. It felt like we'd stepped into a gothic themed mansion when we exited the transport. Black marble and granite covered every surface of the vessel's interior. It was eerie and beautiful all at the same time with carvings of gargoyles and busts of great men from the history of the Inquisition everywhere. When he showed us our quarters they looked like a suite from one of the high-end hotels of my home-world. I started to count my blessings when I saw my bed. It was massive; you could easily fit three people on it comfortably. I was not used to this level of comfort as I was accustomed to sleeping in a giant bay with hundreds of other troopers.

Captain Drennan put voice to my thoughts, "How the hell do you guys get anything done with all this crap?"

"Don't let the creature comforts fool you Captain; we all work very hard here. Most of your time will be spent in the field dealing with the most-foul enemies man-kind will ever face. We find having a comfortable place to come after the weeks or months spent in the field, to be a vital part of maintaining our staff's moral. As members of the Inquisition, we do the dirty jobs that no one else can or will, and we are very well compensated for it."

"So this whole ship is yours?" I asked.

"This ship has a Captain like any other who's responsible for flying and maintaining its efficiency, but it goes where I say it does. Everyone on this ship, with the exception of one person, works for me. So to answer your question; yes, for all intents and purposes, this ship is mine."

"Who do you work for?" Captain Drennan asked.

"My work is of my own choosing. My job is to relentlessly pursue the enemies of the Imperium wherever they may be. I may take any action I deem necessary in the fulfillment of that goal. I do have a superior, The Lord High Inquisitor, but he rarely interferes with what I'm doing. He trusts me to perform my job without any direct supervision. And I will let you both know now; I take my job very seriously. I do not accept failure under any circumstance from any of my operatives." The tone in his voice as he said that last part sent a chill up my spine. I could tell Inquisitor Voke was not a man to be trifled with.

"So what do we do now Inquisitor?" I asked.

"Now we train. We have a six month journey to get to your first assignment. You will use that time to learn how to operate effectively as operatives of the Inquisition. Seeing as how you are both highly decorated combat veterans, we can forego most of the weapons training. You will however, both be issued a power-sword for close combat situations. Do either of you have experience with a sword?"

Captain Drennan answered first, "Yes Sir, I was first in my class at the academy. It's been a long time since I held one though."

"Very good Captain, a few refresher courses should suffice in your case. We will instead focus your training on how to avoid the corruptive influences of Chaos. How about you Corporal Frost, do you know how to handle a sword?"

"No Sir, but I do know how to shoot someone who does".

Captain Drennan started to laugh, but was cut short by the look Inquisitor Voke shot him.

"Corporal Frost this is not a laughing matter, part of your job requires you to be proficient in the use of a power-sword. It may very well save your life someday. For this reason I have enlisted the help of one of the best swordsman in the entire Inquisition to train you. I believe you have already made his acquaintance. His name is Damon Shrock and he is the only person on this ship that doesn't work under me; he is technically my equal in rank and station. But as part of his punishment for trying to execute you, I've convinced the Lord High Inquisitor to compel him to come here and teach you everything he knows."

"Sir there is absolutely no way I'm working with that mad-man." I stated very firmly.

"Corporal Frost, at what point have I lead you to believe that anything I say to you is up for discussion. You will follow my orders to the letter or you will suffer the consequences."

"Captain Drennan, part of your job is to keep him in line. The next time he speaks out of turn and you fail to correct him, it will be the both of you that find yourselves in more trouble than you can possibly imagine. I will make the time you spent with Inquisitor Shrock seem like a day at the beach. Have I made myself perfectly clear?"

The threat of something worse than my time with Shrock was more than enough to convince me of his sincerity, "Sir, yes Sir" was the only thing I could say.

"Good I'm glad we understand each other. Captain, you will come with me. Corporal Frost, Inquisitor Shrock will send for you when he's ready."

Thoroughly humbled, I sat down on my bed and watched as Inquisitor Voke and Captain Drennan left my room. I didn't like the idea of working with Inquisitor Shrock at all. That guy was insane, but it appeared that I had no choice in the matter. I hated him for the torture he put me through on The Pride of Gudrun, and the mere thought of the time I'd spent in that chair sent chills up my spine.

I was just beginning to nod off when a loud beep issued from a speaker somewhere in my room followed by a female voice, "Corporal Frost, please report to training room three."

"Great, here we go." I said to myself. I walked to my door and pulled up a map of the ship on the screen mounted in the wall beside it. I pressed the necessary icons to have the ship direct me to my destination then stepped into the hallway. There was a series of blinking red lights running along the length of the corridor that indicated the path I should follow. I followed the lights through the ship, around a couple of turns, and ended up in an elevator. I took it down three levels and stepped off, continuing to follow the blinking lights. They finally took me to a set of doors with the words, "Training Room Three" written over the top of them. I took a deep breath and stepped through the entry.

I found myself in a large bay with stiff foam mats covering the floor. On the walls were very large portraits of various Inquisitors slaying the enemies of the Imperium with a variety of different weapons. Power-swords were the focus of many of the images and they were all very graphic.

I saw a rack on the far end of the room holding an assortment of weapons, most of which I'd never seen before. I walked up to it and grabbed hold of one of the swords. I held it in my hand and examined it very carefully. The blade was made of a type of metal I had never before seen and the handle and hilt were both embellished in gold and platinum with various jewels imbedded into them. My eyes settled on a large black diamond in the center of the hilt. I noticed that the diamond was smudged so I used my thumb to wipe it off. As soon as I touched the jewel a blue flame engulfed the entire length of the blade. This caught me so off guard I nearly dropped the weapon.

"What are you doing with my sword Corporal Frost?" I knew instantly who it was by the way he spit my name from his mouth.

I thumbed the diamond again to switch the sword off. I then placed it back on the rack before turning around. I turned to see Inquisitor Shrock standing a couple of meters away. He was holding a long metal rod in his hand that was roughly the same length as the sword I'd just placed on the rack. He was wearing the same set of black fatigues as me and his hair was again pulled tightly into a pony tail.

"Now I know a simpleton such as you; must find it very hard to keep his hands off of shiny things. But I would ask that you to kindly refrain when those shiny things belong to me."

"Hello Inquisitor," I said, my voice dripping with distaste, "But the last I heard, is that it's now going to be your full-time job to teach this simpleton how to use a sword. How ecstatic you must be to be working for me."

He stared me right in the eyes and took a couple of steps towards me. "Yes, unfortunately I have been ordered to train you, but let's get one thing clear," I was completely unprepared for what he did next. He raised the metal rod up and pressed its tip against my chest; violently electrocuting and driving me to the ground with it. He held it on my chest for a long while, smiling as I writhed in agony from the massive amount of electricity pulsing throughout my body. "I work for no one but myself." He said when he finally removed the rod. I lay there gasping for air, trying desperately to catch my breath as he continued, "Lesson number one Corporal; always be prepared."

He calmly stepped over me and walked to the weapons rack as I continued to lie there trying desperately to collect myself. I rolled over on my hands and knees and remained there until I was pretty sure I wouldn't vomit.

He grabbed another rod like the one he'd just shocked me with and threw it on the ground beside me, "Get up Corporal, you look pathetic. How it is you ever won the Imperial Cross is completely beyond me."

I grabbed the baton and slowly rose to my feet. I felt its weight in my hand and swung it back and forth to get a better feel for it. Shrock smiled as I clumsily tested the weapon, "Oh, I'm going to enjoy this," he said mockingly. He walked towards the center of the room and took a position on the far edge of a very large circle on the floor. I followed his lead and took a position within the circle directly opposite of him.

"Your objective is to hit me Corporal. I don't care how you do it and you may take any action you feel necessary to accomplish that goal. The only rule; is that we must remain in the circle at all times. Other than that, there are no rules and the exercise will continue until you either hit me or are unable to continue."

He didn't have to say another word; I'd been itching for some payback for everything he'd put me through. I charged at him with a roar. I unleashed a flurry of wild swings, every one backed with the sole intention of bashing his head in.

He was like was a ghost, easily dodging everything I threw. He expertly ducked and slid away from every one of my attacks until somehow he ended up behind me. He then hammered my kidney with a gut-wrenching punch that dropped me to my knees. To add insult to injury, he then touched the rod to the back of my neck and shocked me until I was lying flat on my face.

He laughed as I tried to get up, "I must thank you Corporal; this is by far the most fun I've had in a very long time."

I got back to my feet and again approached him. This time I used considerably more caution. I tested his defense with a couple of lunges that he parried with little effort, the rods sparked violently whenever they made contact. I was beginning to relax a little and decided to change things up with a swipe to his head. He leaned back causing my attack to miss his face by the narrowest of margins. This left his body open which I instinctively lunged for. He parried at the last possible second and began a spin that brought him towards me. He continued his spin smashing the pommel of his baton into the back of my head as he passed by. My vision went white and I again dropped to my knees. I was just beginning to get up when he sent me sprawling across the floor with a very hard kick to my back.

I was getting very frustrated at my inability to hit him even once. I got back to my feet and again tried with everything I had to land a blow. No matter what I did, the outcome was always the same. I would inevitably end up on the receiving end of his baton or fall victim to another vicious shot to the head or body. He made a fool out of me as he very easily picked apart everything I tried to do with little or no effort. But I refused to quit.

After a couple hours of this he became tired of my continued persistence. "Why don't you just give up Corporal?" He looked as fresh as the moment we'd begun. I on the other hand was completely covered in sweat and bruises.

"I'll never quit. It's not in me to quit." I replied through gritted teeth. My whole body hurt and there was nothing I wanted more than for this lesson in humility to end. But my pride as a Storm Trooper prevented my accepting defeat.

"Okay have it your way." With that he became a blur of motion that ended with him bashing me in the skull so hard I lost consciousness.

When I awoke he was nowhere to be found. I slowly got back to my feet and placed my baton back on the rack where I'd found it. I then limped my way back to my quarters, body and head aching from the dozens of minor injuries I'd sustained during our fight. I was sore from head to toe when I arrived at the door to my room and began entering the code that would unlock it. It had just opened when I heard Captain Drennan's voice.

"What the hell happened to you?"

I probably sounded like the most dejected person in the world when I replied, "Shrock. Damon Shrock's what happened to me." I then limped into my room and headed straight for my bed. All I wanted to do was sleep and I flopped down on my bed as soon as I reached it.

Captain Drennan, unwilling to let the issue drop, followed me in and sat on a chair next to the bed, "That bad huh?"

I didn't answer I just nodded my head and grunted my response.

He sat there for a minute looking at me sympathetically before saying, "Well I'll be damned if you think I'm just going to let him beat the shit out of you every day. Tomorrow morning you will train with me before you see him. I'm going to teach you a thing or two that will hopefully give you a better shot."

I didn't answer I just grunted again and he left me to my sleep.

Chapter 9

I awoke the next morning early with a newfound sense of determination. The only reason that ass had beat me was because I'd never even held a sword. I made up my mind that I would beat him some day no matter what it took. I was showered, shaved, and dressed in a clean set of fatigues when Captain Drennan showed up to my door.

"Good to see there's still a little trooper left in you." He said jokingly.

"Sir, I'm ready to learn, I want to beat that son of a bitch someday."

"There's the Frost I know, let's get to it." With that we left my quarters and headed straight for the training room.

I could tell Captain Drennan was nowhere near the swordsman Inquisitor Shrock was, but he was still far more advanced than me. He was a hell of a lot better teacher too. He took the time to teach me how to properly hold the weapon and some basic defense techniques to start with. He also showed me how to parry, dodge, and feint when appropriate.

We then moved on to strategy. He taught me the best way to defeat a more highly skilled opponent was to defend, evade, and wait for him to get cocky and make a mistake. I took the lesson to heart, the day before I was so blinded by hate I'd simply attacked over and over and made things easy for him. I would not make that same mistake today.

We finished up and Captain Drennan was just leaving when Inquisitor Shrock arrived. They said nothing to each other but Shrock issued a derisive snort in his direction as he passed.

"I really hope he gave you some valuable advice Corporal Frost. Your performance yesterday was quite embarrassing." He said in his usual condescending tone.

"Shut your mouth and let's do this Shrock."

We both grabbed our batons and took our positions within the circle. The next two hours were considerably less painful than the previous day. He had to work harder and harder for each strike and again became frustrated by my refusal to quit. The match ended when he lost his temper and unleashed a devastating combo that finished me with a trio of shots to the body, followed by another hard shot to the head that again left me unconscious."

I awoke this time in a significantly better mood than I had the day before. I was almost smiling as I limped back to my room.

I continued my daily training with Captain Drennan and significantly improved over the weeks we were in transit. I never beat or even hit Inquisitor Shrock, but I eventually reached the point that he would simply get frustrated and end our fight by saying he had somewhere else to be. I knew it was bull-shit and he did too. He never once made me quit and every day my body took less and less punishment from him.

I eventually reached the limits of Captain Drennan's knowledge and was close to equal his skill. I then furthered my understanding of swordsmanship by closely observing and emulating the things I saw Shrock doing. I even pulled up lessons of advanced sword fighting techniques on the ship's computer and studied them religiously. I practiced on my own every night and as a result I eventually surpassed even Captain Drennan's ability. I fell in love with the intricacies of sword fighting and even learned how to anticipate attacks three and four moves ahead of time.

Captain Drennan was busy with his own training during this time. His focused mainly on how to prevent the corruptive influences of Chaos. I could tell it took a lot out of him because he never had much left in him at the end of the day. He told me that most of his day consisted of being forced to look at the twisted symbols of Chaos while somehow keeping the Emperor in the forefront of his thoughts. His training was so dangerous that after every session Inquisitor Voke would check him for signs of corruption with a gun pointed at him. Sometimes he was so spent after his day with the Inquisitor he wouldn't even speak. He would just go to his room and lock the door. I was starting to worry about him, but after a while it seemed he figured things out and learned how to handle it a lot better.

We both went to the firing range regularly to maintain our proficiency with our chosen weapons. To my surprise, Inquisitor Voke had actually brought my precious SK- 43 with us. That bolter and I had been through hell and back on more than a couple of occasions and it never once jammed on me in the heat of battle. When he handed it to me it was like reuniting with an old friend. I did however have to relearn how to shoot using my new arm as a support. It came quickly and after a while, I became an even better shot as the prosthetic would stay perfectly still when I wanted it to. It had none of the barely perceptible twitching of a normal human arm.

As the weeks past I continued to train and research advanced techniques when I had a real breakthrough. I'd reached the end of another lesson when for no particular reason I decided to read the references the video had derived its information from. I wasn't paying much attention as the credits rolled by, but I had to do a double-take when I saw something that jumped off the screen at me. I quickly backed up the recording to make sure my eyes hadn't been playing tricks. My mouth hit the floor when at the very end of the credits I again saw the name I thought I did. It read, "Inquisitor Commodus Voke (Grandmaster Swordsman)."

I used the computer to quickly cross-reference Inquisitor Voke's name with declassified videos of combat footage. What I found utterly amazed me. The videos I watched were of a much younger Voke in the midst of extreme carnage. In one of the recordings, he was surrounded by six enemy combatants, all armed with power- swords. He dispatched every single one of them without getting so much as a scratch. He was absolutely flawless in his technique and his skill with a sword put even Inquisitor Shrock to shame. In some instances he moved so fast that even the pic-source couldn't keep up with him, he was literally a blur of motion on the screen in front of me.

I didn't tell anyone what I'd found. Instead I slowed down the footage and copied everything I saw him do. I repeated his motions over and over until I could keep up with the video at full speed. I learned new moves and defenses I'd never thought possible, but refrained from using them in my fights with Shrock. I wanted to perfect my technique before unleashing everything I'd learned. I eventually mastered how Inquisitor Voke moved his hands and then moved on to learn how he positioned his feet and body to make his seemingly impossible attacks possible. This took longer, in his prime Inquisitor Voke had more grace and speed than any of the fighters I'd watched in my sword-fighting lessons.

The day finally came when I felt I had perfected all of the techniques I'd picked up from Inquisitor Voke's battle footage. I was now ready for Shrock and when I walked into the training room a sense of calm I'd never had when preparing to fight him came over me. I knew beyond any doubt that I would beat him this day and my whole body tingled with anticipation.

Shrock walked through the door with his usual look of arrogance. He went straight for the weapons rack, "Today I will make you quit."

"Really?" I said, "What's so special about today?"

"Today Inquisitor Voke is coming to see how your training has progressed. Though I must admit, you have improved; you are still completely and totally inept. I don't believe it's possible to make a swordsman out of someone as stupid as you. Today I'm through playing games. I plan on thoroughly humiliating you in front of him with the sole intention of granting you a one way ticket back to your Storm Troopers regiment where apes like you belong."

"That's funny Shrock, I had plans of my own for today."

"Oh please, do tell." He replied condescendingly.

"Today is the day I'm going to beat you."

He got a truly good laugh at that, "You?! Beat me?! This, coming from a man who in over three months of training has yet to hit me once? I think I may have hit you in the head one too many times Corporal. It appears you've become delusional. I suggest you report to the infirmary after this beating I'm about to give you to have your head examined."

"We'll see who's headed for the infirmary Shrock."

Inquisitor Voke picked that moment to walk in, ending our banter. He looked at the both of us and nodded his head; he then walked over and took a seat on one of the benches at the side of gym.

As I watched the old man it was hard for me to believe he was the same person I'd seen from the combat footage. Age had robbed him of all the grace and fluidity he had shown in his younger nears. The only thing that remained from his youth was the unspoken confidence and iron will that still showed through in his cold blue eyes. I made it my goal then and there to let him relive his youth through my newfound prowess with the blade.

Inquisitor Voke looked up, "Please, by all means do begin."

Shrock looked over to him and replied, "I hope you're not expecting much from this imbecile. Whatever it is you see in this trooper, I'll never understand. As I've already stated, he is completely incapable of ever becoming proficient in the use of a sword. I hope today's demonstration will finally convince you that he has absolutely no place in the Inquisition."

Before Inquisitor Voke could reply I interrupted, "Shrock, I will beat you today. I could have probably beaten you for the past week now. The only reason I haven't is because I've been practicing under the tutelage of a master far superior than yourself; and I wanted to perfect the techniques I've learned before using them against you."

Shrock laughed heartily, "Who, that idiot Drennan? If he's who you're referring to, you are sadly mistaken. I have seen him practice and he's a rank amateur at best. I am the greatest swordsman on this ship, perhaps the entire Inquisition. There is no one you could have possibly trained with that would allow you to defeat me."

I laughed at him, "You're all wrong Shrock, I know the greatest swordsman in the Inquisition, and trust me, you are definitely not him."

He looked at me with suspicion, "Perhaps I have hit you in the head too many times. You are speaking nonsense. Come now, it's time to show Inquisitor Voke how truly pathetic you actually are."

At that we both took our positions within the circle. Shrock had a look of supreme confidence in his eyes. I knew he was entering this fight with one goal in mind, to completely humiliate me. His arrogance would be the weapon I'd use against him.

I took a deep breath to calm my nerves and slow my heart-rate like I would before taking any long-range shot with my sniper rifle. I mentally prepared myself to weather the storm I knew was about to come. I would wait and play possum until he lost his temper and started making mistakes. Only then would I show him all I had secretly learned from the master sitting mere meters away.

As expected, Shrock rushed me with the most complex series of attacks I'd ever seen performed; before I'd seen the footage of Inquisitor Voke that is. He was incredibly fast, but I'd learned to move at the speed of Voke's youth, which was far, far faster. I dodged, weaved, and ducked under every move he made; most of which, I knew were coming before he made them.

I was the ghost now. I ended up behind him after he took a downward slash that I rolled underneath of. I refrained from attacking because he continued the swing, turning it into a spin that brought him around to face me. I stepped back as the baton flew harmlessly past my face.

We both backed up and circled each other. Inquisitor Shrock now had a look of annoyance on his face. Good, he would start slipping soon and when he did I would make him pay for it.

He attacked with another complicated series of thrusts and swings, punctuated with a couple of spinning slashes. Time slowed down as I perfectly read every move he'd make before he even started it. His technique was nearly perfect but at the same time completely predictable. He launched at least two dozen separate offensive combinations, but I had an answer for each and every one of them. Not one of his attacks came anywhere close to connecting with me. I realized then that I had surpassed even Inquisitor Shrock's ability.

He stepped back, breathing hard and covered in sweat. I'd made a fool out of him and he knew it. He now had a look of rage in his eyes. I knew then that I had him; I was just as fresh as the moment we'd begun. To inflame his anger even more I grinned and nodded my head.

That made him lose it, he charged and let loose a vicious series of attacks. I dodged them all. He continued his attacks for another ten minutes, getting more and more careless with each combination. It was time to make my move.

I unleashed a combination of my own, the first time I had attacked our entire fight. I wasn't trying to hit him, just put some pressure on in an effort to exhaust whatever reserves he still had left. He blocked every attack and thought I had finished when I instead continued on with one of the near impossible combinations I'd learned from Inquisitor Voke's combat logs. To my surprise he somehow managed to evade my efforts with just the narrowest of margins. However, the effort he put into dodging my string of offenses left him gasping for air.

"It's time to end this," I said with a smile on my face. He answered with a truly pathetic combination that I easily avoided and then countered with a couple of thrusts to his body. He parried both of them and I finished with an intentionally sloppy swipe at his head. He leaned back to avoid it just like he did in our first fight, not seeing that I'd repositioned my feet for the counter I was preparing to perform. His lean left his body open and I thrust for it. He parried and just as I thought, entered into a spin that would bring him past me. My feet, already in position, allowed me to enter into my own spin quicker. I spun in the opposite direction lowering my body as I did.

I extended my left arm and slammed it into his abdomen as the pommel of his baton flew harmlessly over my head. The backhanded punch drove deep into his stomach forcing all the air from his lungs. He dropped his baton and fell to his to his knees. I came up behind him and looked down at him. I smiled even wider when he started to vomit from the force of the blow. I reached down with my baton and touched the back of his neck just as he'd done to me in our very first fight. I held it there for a long while, electrocuting and driving him to the ground until he was lying face down in his own puddle of warm vomit.

"That will be quite enough, Corporal Frost." Inquisitor Voke said as he walked up to where I was standing. I held the baton on the back of his neck for a couple of seconds longer, unwilling to let the moment pass. "Corporal Frost," The tone of his voice forced me to remove the baton. I turned to face him.

"Where did you learn to move like that?" He asked, eyeing me suspiciously.

I answered without hesitation, "I learned it from you Sir."

"What do you mean you learned it from me? Explain yourself."

"I looked up your old combat footage."

"You learned all of that just by watching my old logs?"

"Yes Sir, I've watched every single one the computer would allow me to see. I've been secretly studying your technique for weeks now."

He looked at me long and hard before responding, "I'm impressed Corporal. I was beginning to think I'd never again see a truly great swordsman. It's very disheartening for me to know that these days Inquisitor Shrock is the best the Inquisition has to offer."

"What the hell are you two talking about?" Inquisitor Shrock said as he struggled to get to his feet.

"I was just congratulating Corporal Frost on his victory Inquisitor."

"He didn't beat me Voke," he said wiping vomit from his face, "He cheated. He used that damned left arm of his."

"Inquisitor Shrock, he had you beat from the moment the match started. You're just too damned arrogant to admit when you've been outclassed."

Shrock lost it. He hurled his baton across the room. He then stepped forward until he was face to face with Inquisitor Voke, "I'm the best sword fighter in the entire Inquisition! The only way that moron could have possibly beaten me is by cheating!"

"Correction Inquisitor Shrock; you were the best swordsman in the Inquisition. It seems to me that this young man can now claim that title for himself."

Shrock turned to face me, "Trooper, you will tell me right now who it is that's been training you. You damn sure didn't learn any of that from me."

I looked him right in the eye, "Like I said, I learned from the best swordsman in the Inquisition. I believe you've met him, his name is Commodus Voke."

He looked at me with rage in his eyes, "That old man can't even lift a power-sword! Now you will quit telling me lies and tell me the truth. I still out-rank you trooper; now give me the respect I deserve and tell me the god-damned name of the person who really trained you!"

"Inquisitor Commodus Voke," I said again.

He looked at Inquisitor Voke, "Instruct this trooper to tell me who's trained him before I pull out my bolter and shoot him in his fragging face!"

"You will do nothing of the sort Damon," Inquisitor Voke replied. "You see he did learn his technique from me, though I had absolutely no clue that he was doing it. It would seem this clever young man has used the ship's computer to look up the one person in the Inquisition that knows more about swordsmanship than you. That person would be me. You see I wasn't always this old, at one time in my life I was widely considered to be the greatest swordsman alive, some even went so far as to proclaim, that after only the Emperor himself, I was the greatest swordsman of all time. You don't know these things because you care nothing about the history of the Inquisition and can't see any further than the tip of your own arrogant nose."

Inquisitor Shrock remained speechless for a long time. When it finally looked as if he would say something else, he thought better of it, let the matter drop, and stormed out of the room full of indignation.

Inquisitor Voke watched as he left and then turned to me, "I'm really quite impressed that you managed to pick up all that you have simply by watching old combat footage. You have all the strength and speed I once had in my younger years, but your technique is sloppy. If you want to fight as I once did, I will expect nothing less than perfection out of you. From here on out I will be your new instructor."

From that day on, every morning I worked with Inquisitor Voke. We never sparred as his advanced age made that impossible. Instead we worked mainly on improving my footwork. His knowledge of the intricacies of swordsmanship was encyclopedic and most of the things he showed me could not be found in any of the training videos I'd watched.

True to his word, he demanded nothing short of perfection and constantly berated me for even the smallest of mistakes that most people would never even notice. To him a misplaced foot or slightly improper grip was tantamount to sacrilege. Under his supervision my skills increased tenfold. He taught me how to reposition my feet in the middle of attacks allowing me to seamlessly launch into nearly impossible follow-up maneuvers. Whenever I had perfected a new technique and thought I'd reached the limits of his knowledge, he would open a whole new chapter from his vast repertoire.

The day finally did come when I reached the limits of his expertise. He looked at me for a long time after I'd perfectly completed another particularly difficult combination of moves. "Very good Corporal, I couldn't have done it better myself. I'm very proud of your progress; you're every bit the swordsman I once was. Now we begin the difficult part."

I was already drenched in sweat from the hours of training I'd been through and looked at him full of confusion. "What else could there possibly be Inquisitor?"

To answer my question he produced a side-arm from his robe and tossed it to me. "Now we take everything you've learned and add a bolter to the equation." He said with a smile. "You can go ahead and wipe that stupid look off your face right now. Do you really think the enemy is going to put down their bolters just because they see a power-sword in your hand?"

I'd never thought of that. I'd focused so much of my time and energy on learning how to use a power-sword that the practicality of being able to use one in conjunction with a bolter had never occurred to me.

The next couple of weeks went by fast. I'm right-handed so I had to relearn how to shoot using my left. This was very difficult, not only because I was shooting with my off hand, but because I was still getting used to my new prosthetic arm. Every day we drilled over and over until my moves were just as fluid as they were without the bolter and I could shoot just as well with my left as I could with my right. We moved to a different training room too. This one projected holographic images of various combat situations.

The objective of the simulations was to help me figure out instantaneously whether to dispatch an enemy with either my sword or my bolter. These simulations were grueling to say the least and my aim suffered greatly in the beginning. Sometimes he ran me through the training program for sixteen hours at a time. The end result was that I eventually mastered this facet of my training as well.

Chapter 10

I was now a weapon, far more deadly than I'd ever been in the Storm Troopers. I could now shoot just as well with my left hand as I could with my right, and the rigorous training had left me in the best shape of my life. My muscles and reflexes were finely honed to a razor's edge. I set new records in all of the combat simulations and I'm told even Inquisitor Shrock was impressed at my level of performance.

By this time Shrock had come to accept his defeat and even realize that though I may have beaten him, I was not his enemy. That said; he still never passed an opportunity to belittle me. I actually came to enjoy our little verbal exchanges and even began to look forward to them. He had a very keen intellect and I rarely came out the victor, but every once in a while I would silence him with a well-placed quip of my own.

The day finally came when we were approaching our destination. We had been traveling through the warp for five and a half months. Inquisitor Voke had remained tight-lipped and hadn't told either Captain Drennan or myself what our mission would be this entire time. Neither one of us even thought to complain about this because as Storm Troopers we were used to not finding out what our missions would be until the last possible second. Adapt and overcome was how we had operated for most of our careers.

I had just woken up and was preparing for another day of training when my door chimed letting me know there was somebody outside my room. I put my shirt on and went to answer the door. "I know, I know, I'm up already." I said as I opened my door. To my surprise, instead of Captain Drennan, it was Inquisitor Shrock who was standing at my door.

For some reason he was now dressed in the same robe I'd come to associate with Inquisitor Voke. Around his neck hung a golden chain with his Rosette of the Inquisition attached to it displaying prominently. He handed me a robe just like the one he was wearing and indicated that I should put it on. He then came into my room and took a seat while I got dressed. I was confused, Inquisitor Shrock had never once been to my room; now there he was sitting quietly like nothing in the world was out of the ordinary.

"Inquisitor, what the hell's going on here?" I asked.

He looked at me for a long moment before responding, "Today, despite my many objections, you and Captain Drennan are going to be fully indoctrinated as operatives into His Majesty's Most Holy Inquisition."

It took a minute for what he said to fully register within my brain. "What do you mean Inquisitor?"

"I swear Corporal, sometimes I wonder if I'm speaking to a rockcrete wall when I'm talking to you. Let me say this slowly so that I may give that tiny brain of yours a better chance of understanding me. Today… You and Captain Drennan… Will be indoctrinated… As operatives… in His Majesty's Most Holy Inquisition."

"Cut the shit Shrock, you know what I meant."

"It's a formality Corporal. You will swear an oath to the Emperor promising him to perform your duties to the Inquisition to the best of your ability. When you are done you will be considered full-fledged operatives of the Inquisition; granting you all the rights and responsibilities inherent to that position. You will then legally be allowed to arrest people under the authority of the Inquisition."

"Arrest people?"

"Yes Corporal that is what we do." He was being condescending again. "But in your particular case, I doubt you will be doing much arresting. Most of the people Inquisitor Voke will be sending you after will have already been found guilty. Your missions will be mostly that of termination."

"How can Inquisitor Voke find people guilty without a trial?" I asked

"That is our most sacred right as Inquisitors. We are the judge, the jury, and the executioners. We are the only people in the Imperium with this level of authority. It was granted us by the Emperor himself. We take our responsibilities very seriously and when we find people to be enemies of the state; we deal with them with the utmost efficiency. This is to prevent them from corrupting those around them, thus saving innocent lives. We don't have the time, the resources, or even the slightest inclination to allow these matters to be drawn out in public trial."

"But what about people like me who are truly innocent of any wrongdoing? If Inquisitor Voke wouldn't have shown up when he did, you would have surely killed me."

He looked at me for a long time before answering that one, "Yes, you are correct. I had every intention of executing you; Inquisitor Voke and Admiral McGlower most definitely saved your life."

"Having said that, I would like to apologize for incorrectly passing judgment on you. Over the course of the past couple of months I have come to understand that even though I find you incorrigible, you are both very honest and a true patriot of the Imperium. I must admit that in your case I made a mistake, but given the same circumstances I would still have made the same decision. You see, if by chance I found you innocent and you were actually corrupt, you could have then gone on to spread that corruption throughout your entire regiment. I would have then had a highly trained and heavily armed contingent of corrupt Storm Troopers to deal with. Now however unlikely that scenario may seem, it has happened before."

I sat quietly as he continued, "Corporal, there is something I've come to understand about Chaos, and in time, you will too. It is a cancer within the Imperium, an incurable disease that if given the opportunity, will spread and infect everyone and everything around it. We as Inquisitors are the last line of defense against this disease. If we fail in our mission, it will grow and fester until it consumes the Imperium I love from the inside out."

"Trooper, I have actually taken part in missions where the only solution to the problem that is Chaos; was the purging of a planet's entire population, men, women, and children alike. This is called exterminatus; and it's the very reason why, that when it comes to Chaos, I would always rather play it safe, than end up being sorry. If it ever becomes necessary for me to wipe out that many people I have failed in my duties as an Inquisitor."

"So to answer your question; yes, I would much rather kill a few innocent people if in the process it means I never again have to commit planetary genocide."

The magnitude of what he'd just said left me utterly speechless. I realized then, that despite his many faults, Inquisitor Shrock was truly a man of deep convictions. The burden of his responsibility must weigh very heavily upon his shoulders indeed. I now understood why he walked around like he was pissed off all of the time. Because he was. I'd be in a bad mood too if the safety of the Imperium depended upon every decision I made. At that moment I came to understand exactly what being an Inquisitor meant and was very glad that I was just a soldier who would never be asked to make such terrible decisions.

I was just about to tell Inquisitor Shrock how I felt when my door chimed again. I hesitated, feeling I had to say something in response to all he'd just said when he cut me off, "You needn't say anything Corporal. This is just my cross to bear, and I feel honored every day to be one of the chosen few who can call himself an Inquisitor."

I looked at him for a moment longer when he broke the seriousness of the conversation, "Well? What the hell are you waiting for? Answer the damn door. Or have you gone deaf now too?" I smiled, turned, and went to answer the door.

The door opened and I saw Captain Drennan standing there in a black robe exactly like my own. "You ready to do this Trooper?" He had a huge smile on his face.

"Yes Sir." I said as Inquisitor Shrock came to join us.

"I hope you two morons understand the gravity of the oaths you are about to take. This is a very serious affair and I expect you two to be on your best behavior. So I suggest you get your acts together right now before I'm forced to pull out my bolter and pistol-whip the both of you."

"Yes Inquisitor!" We both said.

"I'm serious, now wipe them silly grins off your faces and follow me." With that he started down the hall. He didn't have to tell us how important the initiation we were about to take part in was, we both knew. But at the same time it meant that we had both successfully completed our training and it was very hard for us not to celebrate in some minor way.

As he lead us through the ship we both got a handle on ourselves and mentally prepared for the solemn event that was about to occur. After about ten minutes of following him we finally arrived at the ship's chapel.

Cathedral would be a more accurate description; as it was easily ten times the size of a normal ship's chapel. I've since come to learn that most members of the Inquisition are somewhat fanatical in one way or another in their faith to the Emperor.

We stepped through the door into a massive candlelit room. Every operative and interrogator that worked for Inquisitor Voke was in attendance. Even the ship's Captain who I had never seen before was there, but unlike everyone else, he was wearing a standard naval issue dress uniform. The rest of the congregation was all dressed in the same black robes as Captain Drennan and myself.

The chapel was magnificent. It had high sweeping stone arches that I'd never seen on a ship before. On the ceiling was painted a beautiful mural of the Emperor handing an Inquisitor a parchment containing the holy doctrine of the Inquisition. Along the walls were long flowing black and golden banners with the symbols of the Inquisition embroidered on them. At the front of the room stood a massive statue of the Emperor made completely of polished black granite. His hands were wrapped around a power-sword that was solidly planted into the back of the traitorous war-master Horus. The symbolism being, that the Inquisition would continue the work that he'd begun, slaying the enemies of the Imperium.

Inquisitor Voke was standing in front of the statue with a very large, very ancient looking book in his hands. Inquisitor Shrock led us to the front of the room and instructed us to kneel before the statue. He then took a position right behind us.

Inquisitor Voke then had us all bow our heads as he said a small prayer asking the Emperor to bless this day's ceremony. As soon as he was done, he began to tell the story of the Horus Heresy. Everyone in the Imperium is taught this story from the youngest age possible so I knew it by heart, but he then went on to explain how the Emperor went about creating the Inquisition.

I'd never heard this story and paid close attention to every detail. He then read the order written by the Emperor himself and handed to Malcador the Sigillite that created the Inquisition and gave it it's basically unlimited authority to prosecute the enemies of the Imperium by any means necessary.

So that's how they are able to do everything they can I thought. The Emperor himself had entrusted the Inquisition with the holy task of protecting all that which he created. It was the sacred right and responsibility for them, no…. us. It was our sacred right and responsibility to remain ever vigilant in maintaining the welfare of his empire.

As he explained all of this I began to understand that I too was now personally responsible for the safety and wellbeing of the Imperium. I knew in my heart that I would obey any order given to me that related to the accomplishment of my new responsibilities. I would be the weapon the Emperor had created me to be.

Inquisitor Shrock then stepped in front of us. He had two pieces of parchment in his hands. "In my hands I hold the oath swearing you to perform your duties to the Inquisition; forever, and without fail." He said in a voice that was full of sincerity, "Are you both now prepared to take this sacred oath?"

"Yes Inquisitor." We both replied.

"Then repeat after me." He went on to recite the oath that would forever make us operatives of the Inquisition. We repeated each line as he read it and when he was finished he produced a knife from his robe and handed it to Captain Drennan. "Cut your hand then past the knife to Corporal Frost."

Captain Drennan did as he was told and handed the knife to me. He had cut his left hand but being as there was no blood in my left, I cut my right hand instead. Inquisitor Shrock then placed the parchments with a quill pen in front of us.

"By signing the oath in your own blood you are hereby and forever members of the Inquisition." Shrock said. Captain Drennan took the pen and signed his name then passed it to me. I squeezed my right hand tightly causing my blood to drip on the ground then dipped the pen in it and signed my own name to the oath. Inquisitor Shrock then collected both of the signed documents and handed them to Inquisitor Voke.

Inquisitor Voke had us all bow our heads again as he said a final prayer to the Emperor informing him the names of his two newest servants. Ritual complete, he told us to arise as the Inquisition's newest operatives in the fight against the enemies of the were now fully initiated into His Majesty's Most Holy Inquisition.