Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Warhammer 40K games, books, or movies. They belong to their creators and/or copyright owners. It is not for sale or rent.
Chapter 9: Storm-front
=ATBS=
Part 5
=ATBS=
Victory Bay
Kronus
As an Inquisitor, torture was something to be embraced. Applied right, it could loosen tongues, reveal secrets, and of course, not only punish the enemies of the Empire but serve as a deterrent for the endless masses of Humanity. Because let us be honest, there were days when it appeared that people were willing to gleefully outdo each other in their race to fall into heresy or the hands of the alien.
Further, it simply wouldn't do to get close and really try to get into the head of a suspect or confirmed traitor – that way lay madness, heresy, and a fate worse than death… and it wouldn't do for people to think you are too soft or chummy with your interrogation subjects. Being open-minded, either about their actions or the reasons behind them, being sympathetic, that was counterproductive at best, endangering your very soul and countless others at worst. An open mind was a fortress with its doors thrown wide open and a battleship-sized blinking sign inviting all kinds of nasties inside, my trainers were very clear and emphatic about that.
Yet, despite all that, there was a small part of me more than uncomfortable with my handiwork, even worse, it kept screaming at me that this was wrong and unnecessary, even when presented with evidence to the contrary. This was a disturbing turn of events, one that didn't increase my chances of survival when we made contact with the Imperium at large.
It didn't help that while pain and threats helped disrupt my interogee's mental defenses so I could ravage his mind, I kept struggling with that damn voice in my head and constant conflict between revulsion, and the satisfaction with a job well done. By the Emperor, I likely needed my head examined and I wasn't looking forward to figuring out what was wrong with me! This simply wouldn't do!
I shook my head in a futile attempt to clear it of pesky distractions and looked around. A Servo-Skull floated in a corner of the interrogation room, chattering excitedly in binary, burning blessed incense and most importantly, writing down what I dictated while browsing through Joachim's mind.
"Let me see what you wrote," I ordered the Servo-Skull, which chattered unhappily at me, floated back towards the ceiling, and gave off the impression it was possessive of the parchment held within its small metal claws. "Don't give me this shit, the parchment now, or no blessed oils for you for at least a week."
The Servo-Skull gave out a piercing shriek of indignation, and I was sure I didn't endear myself with its machine spirit, something it might even complain to the next Tech-Priest it met if it could anyway, but finally complied.
I snatched up the parchment before the Mechanicus toy could change its mind and gave it a look over. Everything looked in order, it was written in a neat precise script that was better than mine ever. I glowered at the infuriating device, which smugly chirped at me and offered the transcript to Weber.
"Make good use of this and make sure we get everyone in Victory Bay or it's vicinity. We've got our work cut out for us."
"I won't disappoint you, Inquisitor!" Weber preened at me.
"I know you won't. Nice work with that blow-torch. It seems you're fond of using cleansing flames." I asked idly, fishing for information. On this one I kind of agreed with that grumbling and offended voice in my head – I needed to know if what I just witnessed on the Commissar's part was merely an act or his true self revealed.
"Thank you, sir!" Charles preened like a peacock…
I had no idea what that was. I needed my head examined post-haste, or better not because doing so might get me shot or worse. Then again, not getting it examined when I knew there was something wrong could be worse in the long run…
"It's because of my mum! She's a Sister of Battle and very fond of flamers, Inferno Pistols, well everything and anything that can bathe heretics in holly cleansing flames!" Weber explained happily. "I remember my first toy, it was a replica Inferno Pistol mum put in my hands in the cradle!"
"Your mother sounds like a good woman…" I said while struggling with conflicting feelings over this morsel of information. Well, it wasn't exactly unknown for Sisters of Battle to have sex, children and sometimes even marry and have proper families, when not running around burning people for sins real or imaginable. On the other hand, others did live up to being Bolter Bitches and self-proclaimed Brides of the Emperor, as if he would have trouble getting laid if he ever got up from the Golden Throne and found a bit of spare time…
I frowned at that weird tangent my mind went on, vowed to get the Magos-Biologis to look at my head and anything wrong with it because, for all I knew, I was under the influence of some weird Eldar shit right now. However, first I had unfinished business here.
"Lord Ignatius Joachim, by the Holy Authority granted to my office by his Divine Majesty the Emperor and the High Lords of Terra, I find you guilty of sedition, corruption, conspiring with the enemies of Humanity and enabling their damned agendas. I find you guilty of leading the servants of the Emperor astray, of wasting the Imperium's resources, and of being an insufferable, arrogant bastard. The sentence is death to be carried immediately by yours truly." With the formalities out of the way, I drew my Las-pistol and shot him between the eyes, turning most of his head into a smoking mess.
"Well done, Inquisitor, I couldn't have done it better myself!" Weber happily announced his approval.
"Don't you have people to arrest, Commissar?"
"I do, my Lord Inquisitor!" Charles saluted and strutted out of the interrogation room a happy man.
Me on the other hand? I put back my gun in its holster and headed for the clinic being investigated to find my kind-of buddy Karom and get my head scanned to the Warp and back.
=MK=
A few hours and a ton of reports to read through later, Karom-Beta-31 ushered me into an examination room full of all kinds of medical equipment, some of which was much scarier than even the most wicked interrogation implements I found below the Arbiter's HQ.
"I understand you need an examination, Inquisitor?" The Martian sounded disturbingly happy at the prospect.
"Yes and now that we're pretty sure this place isn't a hive of cultist activity but just your average incompetence and corruption, you can proceed with it," I confirmed.
As it turned out, this time around we did catch a break – an in-depth, if fast, the examination of the place and a round of quick, for once rather tame interrogations with both chemical and Psyker support, confirmed that the clinic's director and half of his senior staff were merely a bunch of corrupt bastards, who happily closed their eyes when paid, sold medicine to the highest bidder while writing it off as used to treat troopers, especially the Ogryns, who practically did need a lot of drugs when they needed them at all given their size and resilience.
The bastards saw nothing wrong at it because those were only grunts, thus lower than dirt and the Ogryns were fucking mutants you see. Well, fuck them all. I did make a brief check carefully using my powers, and the drugged officials offered no resistance, thus confirming the interrogation results Karom and his people got. After that the outcome was obvious – it was off to the firing squad with the bastards and I made sure that said firing squad would be drawn from our resident Ogryns, who would be using shotguns at long range.
For once, since this damned day began, that infernal voice in my head wasn't muttering off at me, instead, I got the vague sense of agreement, something that caused a lot of mixed feelings…
I explained my issues briefly and succinctly to Karom-Beta-31, who towered above the examination table where he had me sit down. A lot of mechadendrites waved happily around while he consulted a data-slate.
"Lay back, Inquisitor, I need to take a few scans of your brain and run a few more tests on your blood to see if the Eldars managed to tag you with something nasty." Despite his synthetic voice, the Cog-boy managed to sound gleeful at the prospect to play with some nasty alien drug or toxin at my expense. "And if we're lucky, it might be something rarer and stranger still…" He added happily.
And I was beginning to think that taking my chances with not reporting my issues and waiting for the reinforcements to arrive might have been the smarter thing to do…
=ATBS=
Part 6
=ATBS=
Victory Bay
Kronus
Awareness came back slowly, dubiously doubly so because I didn't even remember blacking out, neither a reason for it. This was more than concerning state of affair; a couple of familiar voices my clouded mind could barely make out, were cold comfort under the circumstances.
"This was an unforeseen event!" That was the Magos Biologis I went to examine me.
The same one I wanted to be part of my retinue, I was sure. By the Emperor, was that a bad call on my part…
"Both Hypothesis Alpha and Beta were wrong, in spite of supporting evidence!" Was that a whine I heard in the techno-cultist's synthesized voice?
"We've checked the Inquisitor for Chaos corruption multiple times over the past days, he's as clean as any Psyker stuck on Kronus could be, if not more!" Anteas' voice boomed, clearly announcing the Librarian's displeasure. "There's no Eldar influence I could find in his head, Magos and you're sure he hasn't been drugged!"
"Hypothesis Beta was a logical conclusion!" Karom attempted to defend himself, however Anteas wasn't buying it.
"Then you knocked out the Inquisitor with drugs just to make your life easier and so you could examine him at leisure! You know we can all get shot or worse for this!" Anteas' thundered.
"That sounds like a great idea from where I'm lying…" I croaked, my mouth running off before I could even think about it.
"Inquisitor, you're all right!" Charles exclaimed, and a moment later his relieved face appeared above me. "I've got this place surrounded and locked down right proper! What are you orders?" He asked and eagerly looked at something I couldn't currently see.
"Sit-rep…" I croaked again.
"Certain parties decided that drugging you for in-depth examination was a good idea and in the process almost restarted the infighting, My Lord!" Weber explained hurriedly. "We've got a whole mechanized Battalion surrounding the building, your new Ogryn friends want to beat whoever harmed you to death and then some, elements of our Mechanicus contingent are declaring you either blessed by their Machine God or Heretek in need of purging…" Weber blurted out.
"Whut?" I blinked at him in disbelief. This had to be a bad dream or a hallucination.
"Someone let it slip out that you might not be in your right mind, My Lord and all hell broke lose as a consequence!" My favourite Commissar explained with clear exasperation in his voice. I clearly saw him throw a particularly dirty look at someone out of sight, probably Karom.
"Water, stimulants, proper explanation, in that order…" I croaked in a hoarse voice.
"Here, My Lord!" Weber offered me his canteen and I greedily gulped water, not caring that some spilled over my chin and chest. It was cool, had a light metallic taste and it was one of the best things I've tasted in a long time.
Weber moved aside and a Guard Medicae approached, then jabbed my neck with something sharp and I almost immediately felt the stimulants racing through my blood, giving me a sorely needed kick-start.
"Now, someone explain to me the newest disaster we have to deal with, and make it good!" I snapped in a voice that finally vaguely sounded like my own and slowly got up on the examination table I found myself laying on.
Awkward silence fell over the room and I took the opportunity to look around. It was the same room I went to for the check-up by Karom, very bad idea that, obviously. It now appeared positively tiny, because it was packed with people with the only kinda free space being around me.
There was Karom-Beta-whatever, likely soon to be known as an example of what happens when you cross His Imperial Majesty's Inquisition, two more Tech-Priests and I only vaguely recognized one of them, a whole Stormtrooper squad ready for war and two Astartes… perhaps someone else too, squashed against one of the walls.
=ATBS=
"Explanation, well…" Charles looked around, trying to figure out a proper way to explain recent events to the Inquisitor. Nothing in his experience so far prepared him for this kind of insanity.
Not seeing any aliens around, Weber decided that their part of the unfolding disaster might be a safe point to start.
"As far as I know, events went out of control where our Xeno…" Charles had to bite off a curse, just in case the damn green tin-cans were listening, because infuriatingly enough, angering them even further might not be a prudent idea, "Sent a delegation to uphold their part of the bargain, bringing technology to give us along with schematics or something like that. Things that our exalted Tech-Priests might find in useful if they decide to reproduce said technology." The Commissar explained in a hurry, while carefully watching the present red-robed cyborgs.
"That should have been a good thing." The Inquisitor interrupted Charles in a tone that that would have given even an angry Ogryn pause. "Extrapolate, Commissar."
"A hurriedly set up demonstration showed that the equipment worked as advertised – General Alexander's Psykers and two Adeptus Astartes Librarian found it almost impossible to touch the Warp in the vicinity of the devices…" Weber nodded at the Inquisitor's Blood Raven shadow.
"The Commissar is correct. With that device operational, the barriers between reality and the Immaterium are incredibly strong and it is almost impossible to touch the warp or use it. Such devices would be invaluable if the Adeptus Mechanicus could safely reproduce them in numbers."
At that point, angry Binary came from two close by sources and a moment later, a third one jointed the fray, creating deafening racket.
"SILENCE!" The Librarian thundered, the sheer power of his voice rattling Weber and every other normal human. Fortunately, it gave the red-robes a pause too.
"Explain yourselves!" The Inquisitor's quiet hiss echoed like a cannon shot in the following silence. At that moment, Charles was happier than ever that he wasn't one of those machine worshipers.
"I owe you no explanation, Heretek!" One of the Tech-Priests let out an electronic scream and a moment later, half-a-dozen weapons aimed at him, or her. It was honestly very hard to tell between the robe, full face-mask and all the metal bits and pieces on display.
"Some of our brothers and sisters mistakenly believe that the deal you conducted with the Necrons is a high order of heresy and an offense against the Omnissiah himself. They also believe that even attempting to study alien technology, unless it is for the express purpose for its proper destruction, is a heresy of the greatest order, thus they deem you and those of us who see the potential boons for the Imperium at large, as Hereteks…" The reasonable Tech-Priest explained.
"What our red-robed friend forgot to mention is that the Aliens asked for your presence to confirm they've upheld their part of the bargain and in the middle of that we heard rumors that you've been either killed, critically wounded, or worse, compromised…" Weber continued his explanation, glaring daggers at the Tech-Priest who betrayed the Inquisitor's trust. "Those rumors led to the present troubles. Without you around, the Xenos aren't trusting the rest of us to uphold our… alliance," and didn't that word taste odd in his mouth, "the Ogryns, who I still don't know how they heard, are up in arms, some Tech-Priests are causing all kinds of trouble, and even at least a few Astartes are making sounds indicating that our cease-fire might no longer be in effect…"
Honestly, Weber had no idea how the situation could deteriorate so much so fast…
"Captain Thule is making sure there would be no misunderstandings whatsoever." The Librarian added sheepishly. "There should be no real issues from our side, I have his word on it. This leaves us to deal with 'only' the other clear and present dangers in our midst."
"Like certain Tech-Priests engineering the next best thing to outright mutiny and treason!" Weber glared murderously at the closest offending cyborg, who was in dear need of swimming in blessed flames as a method of a proper attitude adjustment.
"Fuck me sideways!" The Inquisitor uncharacteristically exclaimed, though given the circumstances, Charles couldn't find in himself to blame the man. In the past few hours, he thought of and said a lot of things he wouldn't utter under normal circumstances...
"First things first. Anteas, inform the Necrons that I'm alive, kicking, not compromised by Eldar or Chaos and that I'll be in contact as soon as practical. The last thing we need is to fight on yet another front when the planet is swarming with traitors in sore need of proper purging!" The Lord Inquisitor growled with his face twisted in an impressive, very much not amused, sneer. "Second, someone inform our Ogryn contingent that I'm up and about, and that I'll speak with them soon as well to reassure them, preferably before they begin to break things and people."
With their marching orders given, the Librarian and one of the Stormtroopers made their way out as fast as the gathered crowds allowed.
"With these issues out of the way," The Inquisitor focused his furious eyes upon the Magos Biologis. "What do you have to do with this, Magos?"
The Mechanicus Medicae had the good grace to shift uncomfortable, and augments or not, he did look like he wanted to be anywhere but here. Serves the bastard right…
"I merely did as you bid me, Inquisitor!" The Magos Biologis attempted to defend himself, and it was a very feeble attempt at that.
"Then this is one of the most spectacular fuck-ups I've ever seen or heard about, the Horus Heresy included. Bravo!" The Inquisitor clapped once, derision dripping from every word.
"How could I know your mind have been both physically and Psychically scrubbed of various memories accounting for your issues, Inquisitor?!" The Magos Biologis proclaimed in defense, making everyone stiffen.
No one in their right mind wanted to know what kinds of memories would be bad enough for an Inquisitor to get them removed with extreme prejudices. On the other hand, this indicated that the Lord Inquisitor might in fact not be as green as he wanted people to see him as, which made sense when you thought about it. He did survive that glorious charge against the Orks, and in hindsight, that might have been more than mere natural skill to be nurtured and luck.
Still, this wasn't the kind of information you just blurted out in front of such a mixed crowd… Weber glared at the Tech-Priest, while reflexively placing his arm on the hilt of his chain-sword. By his expression, the Inquisitor wasn't too pleased about the public revelation either…
=ATBS=
If you want to support my writing or discuss this story, see the following links:
Pat re on: Delkatar's writing corner
the space battles forums - this is where most discussion over my stories takes place
the sufficient velocity forums
the alternative history forums
