Chapter 7: War
Integra wasn't nearly as surprised to be summoned by the head inquisitor as she was when the head inquisitor summoned her heretical assistants as well to discuss the growing threat of the emperor's children warband.
She waited uncomfortably, flanked by inquisitor Maxwell and his colleagues, who were guarded by a lone sister of battle with twin bolter pistols, silver hair, and cold blue eyes.
And inquisitor Penwood and his colleagues, who were guarded by Walter.
Behind Integra, detached from the group and sitting atop a throne flanked by black templars was the head inquisitor, Lady Elizabeth Adrastia.
But all eyes were in front of Integra as loud footsteps could be heard behind the door.
The door opened and the inquisitors, who evidently were not informed of who would be joining them, almost jumped out of their skin as they beheld the awesome and horrifying sight of Alucard.
The sister of battle went for her weapons, but out of the corner of eye, she caught the glimpse of the head inquisitor raising her hand, and stood down.
The chaos lord walked into the room undeterred, his plasma gun holstered visibly at his side, flanked by the heretical guardswoman, Ceras Victoria, and the hulking ork boss, Pip Burnagrot, both armed with their usual weapons.
"I have returned, my master." Alucard said, surprising no one, though several of Maxwell's flunkies stared death at the Governess.
"Welcome back my servant, present yourself accordingly, you are in the presence of the head inquisitor." Integra replied, pointing over her shoulder to Lady Adrastia.
Alucard eyed the head inquisitor and proceeded to walk towards her.
The black templars intercepted him and aimed their bolters, whatever happened next was too fast to be described, but it left both space marines unconscious with their helmets broken.
Again the sister of battle took aim at the heretic, and again the head inquisitor motioned for her to stand down.
Alucard stood directly over her, the head inquisitor never moving from her throne or showing signs of fear.
"Kneel to me heretic, I wish to see your face clearly." Adrastia said to him, even Integra was surprised to see Alucard obey her.
As Alucard bent his knee, the head inquisitor reached out and cupped his face with her hands, all present were shocked to see both figures expressions soften.
"I hear you go by Alucard now, heh, you haven't aged a day, since the time you provided aid to my ancestors, witch hunters of the Ordo Hereticus, against your own battle brothers during the Slaughter of the Stars." The head inquisitor said.
"Heh, you make it sound like you changed so much, I can still see the firey young inquisitor who was only as professional as she was ordered to be as she chased after her ancestor, the hero of sub-sector Aurelia, and now look at you, sitting atop a throne that all of your bloodline before you can only envy." Alucard said.
Lady Adrastia nodded with a smile before returning to business. "Give us your report, heretic."
Alucard stood and turned to the assembled inquisitors. "Almost 60 Terran years ago, a chaos warband from the Emperor's Children legion of chaos space marines fought a group of eldar, cutting them off from the webway and hellbent not to kill them, but to sacrifice them to The Prince of Excess."
Alucard remembered the battlefield as clear as day, lavender colored chaos space marines clashed against howling banshees, dark reapers built up an evergrowing pile of dead cultists as they protected eldar soulstones, rangers picking off enemy officers... and any eldar beyond rescue.
"Driven solely by my impulses, I leaped into the fray between the warring factions, slaughtering the warriors of Slaneesh, and convincing the violated eldar to pursue vengeance through the power of the blood god Khorne." Alucard hid some details that were unnecessary at the moment, and focused solely on the business at hand.
"It has come to my attention that the same warband is our current enemy." Alucard concluded.
"So, you are the one to blame for these traitors assaulting us, as I expected traitor." Inquisitor Maxwell made no attempt to hide his smile, but before Alucard could respond, someone else did.
"Oh, I assure you, the chaos lord of Khorne only delayed this attack." All eyes shot to the door, standing before it was a literal hellspawn, a half human child conceived by a herald of Slaneesh, such children are rarely born, and none are permitted to live.
Immediately upon sighting the half daemon, the sister of battle and Pip Burnagrot drew and aimed their bolters at it while Integra and the inquisitors wondered how he got past the guards.
"Calm down, calm down, I come bearing a message from our commanding officer." The child shaped creature said.
The weapons stayed trained on him, but no one fired, the sister of battle because her superiors had not ordered it, and Pip because he was curious. (And wanted the half daemon to put up a fight first.)
The warp child walked up to the table and placed a monitor down, after a moment it flickered to life.
"...Ahhh, so, the imperial inquisition, A hive world governess, and one of the blood god's favorites, my my I do have my work cut out for me." A voice spoke the video feed's static cleared revealing a chaos lord that was much larger than Alucard, as it was more machine than man.
"So, you are the traitorous heretic that has chosen to plague my planet, just who the hell are you?" Integra demanded in a deceptively calm voice.
"Alas, I have long since forgotten my name, but my rank is that of Major, so that will suffice." The Major replied.
"And what, pray tell, has brought you to this quadrant?" Inquisitor Maxwell asked.
"Oh, is that some underhanded way of wondering why we're not acting the way you thought we would after you escorted us to tau controlled space?" The Major smiled as Inquisitor Maxwell looked like he swallowed his tongue, his lackeys staring awkwardly at inquisitor Penwood and his associates, however it was Integra who broke the silence. "Now, what was that about this being Alucard's fault?"
"Ah, but that's all in the past, I am here to talk about the future, in particular, the futility of your struggle." The inquisitors listened to the Major's speech for whatever reason, while those guarding them awaited orders.
"...Miss...miss...hey miss..." Ceras tried to ignore the half daemon whose tail had begun to swing slowly as it pestered her.
"...Yes?" The guardswoman inquired, making no attempt to hide her irritation.
"Have you considered giving yourself to Slaneesh, someone as pretty as you would enjoy herself." The warp child said, causing Ceras to blush before growing more annoyed.
Suddenly, the child was torn off the ground, dangling in the massive green hand of ork boss Pip Burnagrot. "Iz dis boy/girl ting buggin you?"
The thing in question giggled nervously before adding "I'm actually a hermaphrodite like my daemon parent."
"Uh... erma... wut?" Pip tried to wrap his orkish brain around the large word to no avail.
Meanwhile the inquisitors and governess Helsing had had their fill of the Major's inane babbling. "Alucard, Ceras, kill them." Integra ordered.
No one had even noticed Alucard walk beside Pip until he put the barrel of his plasma gun in the half daemon's mouth and literally blew his head off, Pip just dropped the body with a shrug.
"Okay, fine, shoot the messenger, it won't change anyth-" The Major was cut off when Ceras destroyed the monitor.
As soon as the situation calmed down, Integra was surprised to see the half daemon's corpse had disappeared, but her thoughts were immediately pulled to the head inquisitor, who addressed all who were present.
"These heretics have made it clear that they intend to take an imperial world from us, I expect you all to do your part to insure this doesn't happen." Pip was about to say something stupid, but someone else beat him to it.
"B-but Lady Adrastia, surely you do not wish to aid these heretics, and their xenos pets." Maxwell stuttered out, Pip was about to tell him off, (if not attack him) but even he held his tongue when the head inquisitor rose from her seat and stared death at Maxwell.
"NO! I DO NOT! I INTEND TO SEE THESE HERETICS ATONE FOR THEIR SINS, OR BURN FOR THEM!!!" Her eyes narrowed at the lesser inquisitor, daring him to speak out of turn, he did not.
Integra, however heard something more in her words, she was surprised to learn that she and Alucard knew each other, but to what extent, it was obvious she knew that what Alucard called "acting on his impulse" was truly a regretful heretic trying to atone for his treachery, but Integra wondered which between them knew more about the world eater, is it possible that she knew what Integra didn't, his true identity.
Meanwhile
Aboard in imperial warship traveling through the warp, a signal appeared on sonar, the crewmen moved to investigate when suddenly, several members unholstered their laspistols and revealed sacrificial blades of the ruinous powers... it was over before they had a chance to scream.
Author's Note: Okay, so I had a three day weekend and a lighter than normal work week so I'm back in action.
Once again, I'm dividing the buildup and the action in two separate chapters (though this should be the last builup chapter before all hell breaks lose)
I'll be honest, I do NOT remember what the Major was going on about, but I think I did pretty well summing it up.
I don't know if half daemons are a thing, but I thought the hermaphrodinic nature of the heralds of Slaneesh would fit Shrodinger rather well (yes, I fell for the trap, I do that a lot, more than I wish)
I am starting to change some aspects of the story from the Hellsing story line to original content, but not that much.
And in closing, a YouTuber by the username LORD CAEDUS LIVES made a still picture music video tribute to "Hellsing 40,000" feel free to check it out, he takes requests more often than most. (once he made three videos in a row that I requested.)
That about does it, see you next time.
