Jaune awoke with a wince, his face felt terrible, a pulse following along with his heartbeat, along with a constant ache stretching through his entire body. the ache was normal, as an ex-hunter in training and current guardsman exhaustion and soreness was an everyday occurrence.
The blond opened his eyes and was assaulted by a light that had no business being as bright as it was, and a room so sterile it sickened him.
After a moment of adjusting, Jaune found himself in a private room, which was suspicious enough in an of itself, however, that wasn't the most concerning thing about where he'd found himself. That honor went to the large stylized 'I' and embezzled to the only door.
The guardsman's mind went into a panic, what in the Emperor's Golden Throne did the Inquisition want with him? There was no way they could have known about him already, he'd bearly even done anything that could even warrant suspicion, even to the inquisitions standards.
Before Jaune had any more time to think, the "i" split and the door opened, admitting a red-robed individual he'd believed to be a member of the Adeptus Mechanicus.
Three glowing blue lenses stared at Jaune, "You have awakened? The chances of this were six point three seven percent." A feminine mechanical voice crackled, it's head tilted before it let out a long string of binary.
"Uhh, Hello there?" Jaune waved awkwardly, wincing as his muscles objected to the polite gesture.
"Seargent Jaune Arc of the Valyan 143rd Desert Raiders, you're monitors show that the implants did not reject, that is a good sign." The vox assisted voice said with a strange hint of satisfaction. "You are aboard the 'The Unending Flame' of the Inquisition."
Jaune paled as his suspicions were confirmed once again.
The tech-priest tilted her head, "You're heart rate has risen by fifteen beats per minute, you have nothing to fear."
The blond's mind did a backflip, it was the inquisition for fuck sakes, of course, he had something to fear, the single most fucked institution in all of the Imperium was holding him, a man with special powers, on one of their ships. If that wasn't something to panic over, they by the Emperor he didn't know what was.
"You must relax Arc, my Lady is not interested in your power."
Jaune froze, head slowly rotation back to the tech-priest, "What did you just say?" The blond whispered, bearly audibly.
"My Lady is not interested in your powers, quite the opposite actually, she is here to offer you a position within her retinue." The tech-priest crackled out, her voice barely holding a tint of excitement back.
The young man continued to stare wide-eyed at the tech-priest, his eyes completely blank of coherent thought as his mind flew through every single outcome he could think of, a large majority of which did not end well for him in the slightest.
Jaune tried to open his mouth to speak, but was unable to form a coherent sentence, only able to get out strings of gibberish before letting out a simple and desperate "How?"
The sound of static filled the room, the tech-priests approximation of a laugh Jaune assumed, either that or it was Mechanicus for 'kill the heretic', he was going to find out soon.
"My Lady has already sifted through your mind Arc, though it was quite draining." The mechanicus woman stated matter of factly, "I must say, you're mind is quite the plethora of knowledge, I've been sifting through it for the better part of a day now."
The cogs in Jaune's mind continued to turn, "What?"
The tech-priest let out a crackled sigh, "I'm sure My Lady would prefer to speak to you about the details, so let's skip the 'what the frak' part and get straight to the examination."
"The what?" Jaune sputtered
If the tech-priest heard him, then she didn't show any indication of it as a plethora of mechadendrite emerged from under her robe, each sporting a gnarly tool Jaune couldn't see ever being used in any medical profession.
Before he knew it, they all converged on him, each on poking and prodding at his aching body, taking blood samples, temperatures, and scans, before they all withdrew and return under the red robes, whenst they came.
"It appears you are in almost perfect health, and with no signs of chaotic taint to boot." The mechanical woman said before pointing at a folded pair of red fatigues, "You might want to get dressed, My Lady wishes to speak with you, I shall be waiting outside."
The tech-priest made for the door, her mechadendrites carrying her out of the room with nary a sound.
Jaune let out a sigh the moment the door closed, one moment he was fighting cultists planetside and now he was tangled up with the Inquisition.
The blonds head flew up, he had been fighting planetside, with his squad.
Where was his squad?
Jaune ignored his protesting body and jumped out of the medical bed, quickly dressing in the set of fatigues, they were clearly of higher quality than the Valyans were issued, but that was hardly a surprise when on the ship of an Inquisitor.
Without hesitation, Jaune left the medicae office and followed the tech-priest through the tight winding corridors of the voidship, he needed to find his squad, and if anybody knew where they were, it would be the Inquisitor. After what felt like an eternity of wandering through plasteel corridors and dodging past inquisitorial stormtroopers and crewmen alike, he was face to face with the largest door he'd ever seen in his life.
Without a sound, the imposing door swung open, revealing a room with nothing more than a large and equally impressive desk, and a woman clad in pitch black power armor trimmed silver.
"Seargent Arc, Enter." The cold voice spoke simply, Jaune complied, the door noiselessly swinging shut behind him.
Silence reigned through the room, Inquisitor and Guardsman inspecting each other as one would prey and predator respectively.
Jaune inspected the woman's features, smooth dark brown skin, round nose, thin lips, a head of sandy blond hair, and a pair of piercing violet eyes. Her face portrayed no emotions as she looked him up and down before nodding.
"You are of Remnant, correct?"
Jaune nodded, his mind reeling for what felt like the tenth time today.
"Of course I already knew that, I've been awaiting your arrival for a long time." The inquisitor said matter of factly, as she took several power-armored steps toward him, looping behind him and inspecting every detail of his person.
Before Jaune could speak, a loud bang, followed by an impact to the blond's back sent him to the ground with a thud, his aura having absorbed the blow as intended.
"Fascinating indeed." The inquisitor whispered, the bolt pistol in her hands still smoking as she holstered it to her side, "It is at the Emperor's behest that you are brought before me today so that I may extend an invitation to you and you're squad to join the His Holiest Inquisition as a member of my personal Stormtrooper Retinue."
Jaune recovered quickly, standing back up and staring the Inquisitor down with the best glare he could muster, he knew it would do little, but he wasn't exactly happy with getting shot.
"And why should I? You just fucking shot me?" Jaune asked angrily, his face heating up and every ounce of self-restraint keeping him from taking a swing.
"Because it would be far easier for you to get home with my help than without it." The inquisitor answered in a bored tone, her voice cold and face empty of anything that could remotely be called emotion.
Jaune took a deep breath and unclenched his fists, the last thing he needed to do right now was to start a fight he couldn't win. "Where is my Squad?"
"They are settling in their new barracks, as will you be after this meeting."
"I haven't accepted your invitation," Jaune said matter of factly.
"It was never a choice, the Invitation was but a formality, as far as the Administratum is concerned, you and your squad are dead." The inquisitor stated simply, reaching her hand behind her back and withdrawing an inquisitorial rosette, and a data-slate.
"Welcome to the Inquisition Lieutenant Arc, this data-slate will allow you access to authorized parts of the ship, as well as help you to requisition new gear for your squad, use it wisely, I'm taking a risk with you, don't make me regret it."
Jaune accepted the items, and his anger subsiding into something more akin to acceptance before swiftly turning and leaving the enormous room, he couldn't waste time dealing with inquisitorial spooks, he had a squad to take care of, and they came first.
-=Sword Class Frigate - The Unending Flame - Barracks Section=-
Jaune followed the data-slate to his designated squad barracks and stood in front of the warn metal door, a scuffed yellow '#037' painted on it's front.
Jaune's hand hovered over the door cogitator, his mind still in overdrive trying to process the past hour and a half he'd been awake, Inquisitors, promotions, tech-priests, and his future. He'd been given a plethora of information and sent on his way, It was a shock, to say the least.
Everything had changed in the blink of an eye, in little more than a few days, Jaune had gone from boots on the ground guardsman to an equally as boots on the ground Inquisitorial stormtrooper.
With a shake of his head and a hefty tired sigh, Jaune steeled himself and thumbed the cogitator, causing the door to slide up and open with a silent hiss.
The blond took a few steps into the barracks to find three people, in the same fatigues as him, all huddled around a standing locker.
Jaune silently approached, none of them had noticed him yet, as they were all far too engaged with whatever it was they had found in the locker to hear the door open.
"Why the hell does he get a power sword and we don't?" lamented the familiar voice of Aeris, Jaune peaked over a pair of sandy feline ears to see the aforementioned woman holding sheathed Crocea Mors.
The ears folded down a bit before the sandy blond woman spoke, "It's not, Jaune told me it was just a regular old blade from his father."
"Wow, only dead for a few days and you're already pawning off my stuff huh?" The blond now lieutenant said with a chuckle causing all three of the bewildered guardswoman to whip around and stare directly at him.
The room was dead silent, no one moved a muscle, each of them staring at the blond that had been standing right behind them with a mixed look of shock and relief.
"Uh, hey guys," Jaune sputtered nervously, his stone-faced resolve crumbling under the collective gaze of three very concerned, and very angry women, "What's up?"
The moment those words whispered past his lips, Jaune knew he would have a long night ahead of him.
His squad did deserve to know the truth after all.
The whole truth.
A/N
Why hello there, fic still isn't dead, just been in a bit of a financially negative place, which in turn has been keeping my attention elsewhere for a bit.
A lot of people commented on last chapters flashback and how it could have been done better, While I think it was done well enough, I've now edited it so that it is, without a shadow of a doubt a flashback. It won't change anything within the actual story at all, just made the time change more obvious.
Other than that, thank you all so much for your kind words and support with this story. The reviews are one of the big things keeping me going and helping me to get motivated enough to get another chapter churned out at the asscrack of dawn.
Oh, and to all those worried that this story will remain in the Warhammer universe, don't worry, Remnant is just around the corner ;)