The Judge in charge of the 4th District Armory was not carrying on in some delusional fantasy world like so many Imperial politicians did. His operations command center was a busy hustle of officers poring over maps, communicating over the vox banks, and organizing supply distribution. All of the officers were wounded, I noticed. Even the Judge had not escaped unscathed. His left arm disappeared just below the shoulder. They weren't sparing a single healthy body.
Inquisitor Lord Verne had already made his entrance and engaged the Judge. I was prepared to stand to the side, but he turned and waved me over with a simple, imperious gesture. Not the kind I would ever think of refusing.
"Lord Verne," I said, bowing my head respectfully. The Inquisitor Lord sniffed dismissively and addressed the Judge.
"Judge Kimball, this is my Kasrkin retinue, Senior Sergeant Kane."
"Judge."
The Imperial officer extended his hand. He was an older, grizzled man. Still hale and hearty though, not the soft and brain-addled type that I expected. His handshake was firm too.
"Kasrkin," he asked. "Don't see too many of those around here."
"I can imagine," I said, keeping my tone level. The implication that he would ever see a Kasrkin brought in as a criminal riled me. "Your men are fighting hard."
"It's that or be torn to pieces by the mob," Judge Kimball said. "My men are solid fighters, and loyal to the core."
Interrogator Kairi chuckled under her breath. "Pardon, Judge, but we are not here for you or your men. There is no need to defend your troops."
To his credit, the Judge did not even flinch. "I have no need to defend my troops from the Holy Inquisition, my lady."
The Interrogator smiled grimly. Unsure of what was going on, I waited for the Inquisitor Lord Verne to continue. His eyes swept the command center, noting faces and maps with interest. Finally, he opened his mouth.
"We are looking for a particular criminal, Judge Kimball. He is not from your District, but from the 8th District."
"Give his name, my lord, and we will aid you as we can." The Judge snapped his fingers and an orderly hurried forward. He had a large auspex in his hands. "We can track him with this auspex. It is specially modified to track convict Identifiers."
"Prisoner Shechem, Kyle D. Code 25S7W8362UP."
The Judge blinked rapidly, confused. Inquisitor Lord Verne tipped his head.
"Were you expecting someone a little more famous?"
Judge Kimball shook his head. "No, my lord. There are enough big names on this planet to man a regiment. But you said you are looking for an unregistered psyker? That might be hard. Even before the rebellion, the psykers would use their power to form bands. Now that the majority of our Arbites forces have been overthrown their power has grown. Most possess their own personal armies, some of as many as ten thousand wretched souls. If you are seeking a psyker, you might need more men."
"I have brought with me all I need, Judge. You can locate him with this auspex?"
A small beep rang from the auspex as Judge Kimball typed in the prisoner code. "Already done."
I took the auspex from the Judge and studied it. The device had been modified to cover a far larger area than normal. It also extended the signal past the device range. Staring at the screen, I checked the odometer on the bottom. Twenty kilometers. Two Districts over, maybe.
"You said the psykers have amassed armies?"
"Psykers have power. These convicts only understand one thing. Power. Those who have it use it to grow some semblance of order."
"Sounds no different than any hive planet's gang wars," I muttered.
"I doubt the hive planet gangs are equipped as well as these ones are." His face darkened. "There are twenty districts on this planet. There is only one more still in order."
The impact of his words hit me like a sledgehammer. Each Armory housed a regiment's worth of troops. That included armor and heavy weapons. I would have bet a year's pay that there were some former Tank soldiers in the ranks of the convicts. I breathed a silent prayer to the Emperor, hoping we would not run into any.
"Beg pardon, my lord," I said, drawing Lord Verne's attention. "But Judge Kimball brings up a good point. We are to traverse quite a distance through hostile territory, where the locals are armed and more than eager to shoot us down. A little help wouldn't hurt."
Seeing the Inquisitor's hesitation, Judge Kimball offered his assent. "We will spare whatever you need, my lord. Anything you ask for."
The Inquisitor Lord mulled over the decision for a while longer before shooting me an irritated scowl. He was not pleased. No doubt he would verbally thrash me later for my impertinence. I did not care as long. At least I would be alive to hear it.
"Very well, Kasrkin. At your judgment."
Grateful, I faced the Judge and reviewed my knowledge of how the Adeptus Arbites worked. I would not ask for much. They needed as much as they could keep here.
"A Shock Squad and a second Valkyrie armed with bolters and autocannons."
"Good as done."
Inquisitor Lord Verne's sigh made me shiver. "Is there anything else, Kasrkin? Perhaps a squadron of Leman Russ tanks and a strike cruiser?"
Loose chairs shook as the building shuddered. An orderly shouted a report about a breach on the primary ground floor. The steady bustle of officers erupted in a frantic scramble of vox broadcasts and commands. Judge Kimball excused himself and retreated to the holodeck.
Inquisitor Lord Verne dismissed us with a twitch of his head. "Find their hangar, Kasrkin. Pick out your Valkyrie and let us be done with this Armory. The Arbiters can hold it on their own."
Despite being in the midst of a siege, the Valkyries in the hangar were well maintained. Four of the twenty aircraft had been taxied off to the side, where there shell-ridden hulks were in the midst of emergency repairs. I could still see blood splatters on one of the cockpits.
Apart from that, the others had a dedicated team of servitors keeping the Valkyries in ready-to-go order. Not that they would be sending out many sorties right now. They could not afford to lose one to anti-aircraft fire, apparently. Maybe they were holding their breath for a powerful assault.
"Sergeant Kane?" A chrome-domed servitor approached, bearing a carefully bound volume in his… its… hands.
"Yes."
"The Valkyrie is being blessed by Techpriest Gardis as we speak. The Shock squad is standing by, waiting for your orders."
Motioning for him to lead the way, I followed to the Inquisitor's Valkyrie. The co-pilot, a red-head with a non-regulation beard and streaks of blue paint on his face, shuffled to a modified form of attention before throwing a salute.
"She'll be ready for action in fifteen, Sergeant. We took a frag to the starboard engine. Got some bits and nuts in the fan."
"As long as she'll stay airborne," I replied, eyeing the engine in question. There were some impressive scorch marks on the casing. "Have you spoken with the other crew?"
"What, the Arbites fliers? They're a grand bunch. Run routes in this hive that would make a flee-biter puke. Know the ways like the back of their hands, they do. Wish they'd lighten up a bit though. Cold."
"Good." As if on cue, the crew for the other Valkyrie approached, led by the same servitor that I had spoken with. Not the stereotypical pilot jocks. Sturdily built, with scarred faces and grim scowls, the pilots introduced themselves without any of the expected banter. Jansen and Barnum. "What's your combat time?"
They averaged 100 hours in combat flight. Both had been Space Corps before transferring to the Adeptus Arbites. That suited me perfectly. Space pilots had a certain awareness in the cockpit that land pilots just didn't grasp. Made them even more effective in hive cities.
Having accomplished their purpose in introducing themselves, the pilots returned to their pre-flight prep. The copilot snorted.
"So cheerful. Well then, time to finish putting the spit-shine on my beauty. Lift off in half, Sergeant. Oh look, the rest of the party's here."
I turned to see Inquisitor Lord Verne step out of the lift, followed by his retinue and the Phantine troopers. Sergeant Opryszko wore his now-familiar grimace even more pointedly as he saw the Justicar squad standing near the Valkyries. The rivalry between Guardsmen and Justicars stretched back millennium. I would have been surprised if he had not been bothered by their addition to the mission.
"Lord Verne." I nodded respectfully. Lord Verne returned the gesture with a blink.
"Are the ships ready for launch, Kasrkin?"
"No sir. Ours is finishing minor repairs, and will be grounded for the next half. We should be wings up in that time."
The sigh that passed through the Inquisitor's lips was somewhere between exasperation and fury. "Very well then. I assume you have already shuffled our roster to accommodate your new troops. How are you diluting our forces this time?"
Not bothering to make the comment that the Shock squad was more familiar with the enemy and the terrain, I jerked my thumb towards our Valkyrie. "Half Justicar, half Phantine. Split the retinue as you'd prefer, my Lord. That way if one of us gets shot down, we'll have some soldiers that know the area. And, if we lose one bird the other can continue on combat effective."
He made a show of considering the plan. "I suppose that is an acceptable strategy. Are you planning on being shot down, Sergeant?"
"No sir."
"Then you will board the Justicar Valkyrie. Take Sergeant Cisk and Explicator Munzi with you. For that matter, take Sergeant Opryszko and his best men. If we have two transports, we might as well make full use of them. You shall serve as a rapid assault force if the situation warrants." He turned back to Interrogator Kairi. "You will remain onboard our transport and monitor communications."
She did not appear pleased, but Kairi bowed her head and took a step away from the Justicar Valkyrie. Pulling her hood low over her face, she sauntered off to speak with the copilot. When the Inquisitor Lord turned away to speak with Sergeant Opryszko, she flashed me a pout. I shrugged and started off in the direction of the Shock squad.
"Alright troopers, gather 'round! Form a circle."
I hated flying through anti-aircraft fire. Some group of bastards must have gotten a supply of vox's, and were using them to track our progress as we passed through the 3rd District. They did not have many heavy weapons, but the constant rattle of fire on the hull had my nerves tingling. Eventually we were going to run into someone with an autocannon or a missile launcher. Emperor's bones, that'd be our luck.
"Brace for evasive maneuvers. Banking left." The pilot's voice boomed through the closed hold. I made a show of casually looking towards the hatch seals on the sides. It would have been nice to shoot back, but with the volume of fire it was too large a risk.
"Reminds me of a slow day on Cadia," Adin said, his voice light but strained. If the shooting was making even him nervous, we were definitely in for it. "Remember that time we had to hot drop into the middle of that Titan Legion?"
"Not helping," I grunted. "What's the ETA to locus Aries?"
"…half an hour if we fly straight. With all this fire though, we've been crossing back and forth quite a bit. Fuel's going to be close on this one."
Checking my hotshot lasgun again, I went over each inch of the well-used rifle. Most hotshot's had to be replaced after a few years due to the sheet power output of the rounds. Mine was nearing its tenth anniversary. I had spent a lot of time maintaining it and replacing parts. It had a lot of kills to its name. Three dozen traitor Marines, several lesser demons, uncounted hordes of cultists and traitors. I knew it like the back of my hand.
The trigger felt a touch twitchy. Not something I would be able to fix out in the field. Settling with that, I glanced across the hold to Sergeant Opryszko. He did not appear fazed by the fire. Then again, Phantine's made a job out of getting shot at in the sky. This must be small potatoes to him.
The Shock troopers however, they probably weren't so used to being shot at like this. The occasional small arm maybe, but not concentrated, extended fire like this. They did not show their discomfort though. To a man their faces were grim and determined. Their sergeant was the only one armed with an autogun. The rest had a mix of combat shotguns, suppression shields and power mauls. Perfect for a street fight.
"Got any jokes, Justicar?"
The sergeant shook his head. "Nothing that comes to mind. I don't get funny around the job, sir."
"That's a shame. And I'm sitting here all-"
A violent explosion rocked the Valkyrie. I stumbled forward out of my seat, jolted forward as the flier tilted to the left. Before I could recover my balance the spin reversed, throwing everyone to the right. My stomach lurched in my throat as the spin came faster and faster.
Mayday, Mayday. Eagle One, this is Eagle Two. The pilot's voice remained calm, somehow. We took a shot and have lost starboard engines. Losing altitude. Pedals not responding. I say again, losing altitude, pedals not responding. We are going down.
The only mercy was that we blacked out before we crashed.