Without comment or warning the Inquisitor stood up from the table and crossed behind Jhon's back, he heard the door slide open behind him. From the hallway he could hear the Sergeant who had escorted him down to the cell. He could hear the Inquisitor clearly, "Carry out the execution order against Genator Epsilon75 Sergeant. Remove his memory coils for study and eject the corpse into the void. I will deal with the notification to the elders of Graia." He thought for a moment and then added "make sure that he doesn't see it coming, we don't know whether he has established any sort of noospheric link with the rest of the Mechanicus cohort aboard." Jhon didn't hear an acknowledgement, only a sharp snap of boots coming together and the sound of the door sliding shut again.
Jhon felt as if he had been punched in the gut. It had been the Inquisitor's order, but he had provided the final information that had damned the Genator. They had fought through the Alcazar to protect him. 87Quark had died, Phall had died, Estevez had died - all to protect the Genator. It had been their only objective to get him off the planet alive and now they had failed that mission.
The Inquisitor sat down opposite him again without acknowledging anything. Tempestus training had deadened his emotions and he couldn't tell whether the Inquisitor was testing him or just expected him to accept it as a good soldier.
"Tell me Trooper, did you encounter any of what are know as 'Purestrain' Genestealers. That is to say any xenotypes which were much closer to the actual Tyranid Organism?" Jhon had retreated from the conversation and the words came out of him in monotone. "Yes Lord, we encountered Genestealers before we got to the Alcazar. They tore us apart, they killed my squad leader Tempestor Reburrus. Later we encountered what seemed to be an Alpha Genestealer, much larger than the others. I don't know how but it was able to speak low gothic, through it's followers - by controlling them psychically."
The Inquisitor held up his hand to cut him off. "What you encountered, Trooper, is known as a Patriarch. It was likely to be the original specimen which escaped from the Mechanicus laboratory. Please tell me that you were able to kill it, Trooper?" John shook his head, the rebuke from the Inquisitor bringing him back to the room. "I'm afraid we weren't my Lord, there were too few of us left. It killed 87Quark along with two more of our squad."
The Inquisitor shook his head mournfully "I'm sorry to hear that Trooper, that is very unfortunate. The Patriarchs of a cult are rarely seen outside of their lairs and are seldom vulnerable to fire. If you were to have killed it then my research shows that the cult itself would have lost its cohesion and we may have been able to reclaim the planet. As it is, I don't believe that it will be worth the required resources that it will take to dig out both this cult from the cities and scour the surface of Orks. No, instead we shall have to revert to Plan Beta-Ultima."
The Inquisitor paused then pulled out his communicator, he took his inquisitorial rosette and inserted it into the device. A small chime apparently indicated that the rosette had authenticated him and established communications directly with the bridge.
Through the device Jhon heard the voice of the ship's Captain, Vice Commodore Lucas Gideon Christenson the 27th. He had only ever heard him on pre-recorded announcements that were broadcast around the ship to alert the crew and passengers of major ship actions and void translations. The Vice Commodore single-handedly had control over the life and death of tens of thousands on board. He could personally direct more firepower than a Titan Legion. It was incredible to hear such a man speak to the Inquisitor in a respectful tone when he asked what he could do for 'his lord'. "Vice Commodore, please enact Exterminatus protocol against the world below. The taint has progressed too far and the risk of it spreading is now greater than the value of the world." The Inquisitor then followed up the command with a series of seemingly random words in High Gothic - which must have been a single-use Vermillion code phrase. The Vice Commodore calmly acknowledged the command. Then he paused and John heard through the communicator "Should we begin evacuation of ground forces Lord?"