After our near death experience in the initial den I accompanied the juvies in, Goblin Slayer, Priestess, Jurgen, and I spent the next few days purging the remaining goblins from the surrounding area before being forced to make a tactical withdrawal. Over the course of our stay in the village that requested our assistance, the villager's opinion of us quickly soured with every day we failed to retrieve their missing women and brought tales of more greenskin abominations.

This unsurprisingly culminated in the majority of the villagers abandoning their homes during the night of our final stay there, although I am positive some were far less willing to leave their livelihoods behind than others. If it hadn't been for the occasional splatter of blood or goblin footprint that we discovered in the dirt streets outside of the building we took turns sleeping in the past three days, I would have thought they had finally grown tired of our slow progress and decided to frak off. There was the very strong possibility of the missing villagers allying with the Ruinous Powers, it wouldn't have been the first time my supposed allies revealed themselves to be in service to Warpspawn, but the signs of a minor scuffle gave me some hope that the taint of Chaos hadn't spread to many of the villagers, if at all. Only time would tell whether or not I was right about my assumption, and with the hobgoblin deviant that Goblin Slayer suspected to be the true leader of the goblins plaguing the village nowhere to be found, I knew it was only a matter of time until the greenskins surged with even greater numbers than before.

That was why I took great pains to wake up early to give my quest report to Guild Girl the day after we returned to Frontier Town. I would have given her my full debriefing the evening my squad arrived in the Guild Hall, but I thought it would have been best to deliver the two unfortunate allies we had managed to save from a life of sodomy and other horrors. They were still in a daze from their ordeal by the time I dropped them off at the temple Guild Girl recommended for them, and at that point I was happy to let those two be someone else's problem. Something about those two made my skin crawl after they suddenly woke up during our return to the Guild Hall, so I was happy to let them terrorize an Emperor-botherer who should be more than prepared to handle them if it turns out my tingling palms weren't worrying me over nothing.

I could hardly be blamed for wanting to recuperate after fighting what felt like an army of goblins and then playing babysitter to a juvie and man that makes the Death Korps of Krieg look emotional. I collapsed in my bed feeling quite content that night, and surprised myself by rising back to my feet early enough in the morning to see a few familiar faces gathered in the crowd that eagerly awaited the day's quests to be posted. I gave Witch a nod from where she was waiting from the second floor beside that annoying twerp she called her partner and the two adventurers who challenged me to a duel. She reciprocated my gesture with a tilt of her hat that would have made a man without any prior commitments swoon, but I didn't allow myself to be visibly swayed the modest movement of her arms and less than modest sway of her figure from beneath her tight fighting robes as I approached the quest counter to give my overdue report.

As it turned out, Jurgen seemed to have had a similar idea, and being a natural born early riser, it sounded like he was already a few hours into his debriefing. It was with a small amount of worry and satisfaction that I saw my long time companion retelling his version of events, no doubt further embellishing my undeserved reputation in the process, while Guild Girl took notes and Padfoot Waitress listened beside him.

The beastman girl seemed to have fallen for him badly, as she was well within the range of his pungent aroma and was still staring at him with starry-eyed adoration plastered all over her face. As much as I wanted to insert myself between him and Guild Girl, Jurgen seemed quite content retelling our minor misadventure and I couldn't bring myself to do anything that might take the spotlight away from him when the abhuman infatuated with him was there next to him. Emperor knows my aide could use a bit of companionship, and I would do anything to ensure I would never catch him with his pants down and a porno slate in each hand again.

It was with the glorious potential of my aide finally finding an alternative outlet to his carnal urges that I listened to what turned out to be the ending of his report. "...the last goblin tried to jump on me from behind after I took out the other five with my lasrifle, but thankfully Cain was there to carve it into pieces with his chainsword just in time. We couldn't find any other goblins after that and Goblin Slayer figured that any greenskins we might have missed would have fled a long time ago, so we decided to return to Frontier Town after clearing out the last cave. We never did find those kidnapped girls, poor things are probably with The Emperor now, but we killed one hundred and fifty of the little blighters for sure and at least another hundred on top of that."

"Oh? Why aren't you sure, Gunner?" Inspector asked, suddenly appearing at Guild Girl's side to criticize my aide's report.

I knew my aide was impeccable when it came to keeping track of things that no one else would ever consider to think about, whether it was how many greenskins we have faced in battle in a particular campaign or a quartermaster's inventory. If Jurgen said we killed over two hundred and fifty goblins, then there was no doubt in my mind that we truly did send that many Chaos worshiping goblins back to their sadistic masters.

"Because we weren't able to count the bodies once we were finished clearing out each nest." I said, surprising all three women with my sudden interruption. "You'd be surprised how hard it is to tell a puddle of molten slag from melted goblin in a dark cave once the fighting is over, Inspector."

The annoyance that had been trying to antagonize my aide immediately straightened out after seeing me, a reasonable reaction from someone afraid of potentially angering a foriegn noble. I had no intentions of clearing up this minor misunderstanding about my position within the Guild, as my position as a commissar combined with my ridiculously overblown reputation left many planetary governors treating me as their equal in the past. While I was ordinarily opposed to having people throw themselves at mercy in order to appease me, I must say that I always made an exception for those I felt deserved to fear for their livelihoods, especially whenever they failed to show Jurgen the same bare modicum of respect he would offer them.

"I didn't think you were keeping track of our adventure Jurgen. I'm glad to see you're still on top of things as usual." I said, quickly changing the conversation before Inspector could bring it down by worrying about the impression she left on me.

"Thanks sir. I always do what I can." Jurgen replied, throwing me a quick salute and sly smile for my assistance.

"Yes, I know that quite well. It seems that filing my report for me is just one of the many duties you've decided to assign yourself." I joked. "At this rate, it looks like I'll be your aide by the end of the month."

"Sorry commissar, but I thought-"

"No need to apologize, Jurgen." I interrupted, momentarily cursing myself for remembering how literal minded he could be at times. "Your assistance is always appreciated."

Jurgen gave me a beaming smile afterwards and finished recounting the remainder of our quest to Guild Girl and Inspector, the latter only having recently recovered from the scare I gave her a few scant moments ago. There wasn't much for him to discuss, and aside from answering a few question that Guild Girl asked us about some of the strange growths we had seen on those mutant goblins, I kept mostly silent in the few minutes it took for Jurgen to finish his report.

"That matches with what Goblin Slayer told me in his report. I'll still need to hear from Priestess, but I think it is safe to consider your quest a success." Guild Girl said as she started to dig underneath the counter for something.

"You're considering our quest complete?" I asked her. "Even though we failed to defend the village or kill all of the goblins that were living there?"

"Yes." She replied, both her and Inspector adopting a strained smile. "Although you couldn't complete your main objective, you did manage to thwart an army of goblins before they could become too much of a threat for any one group of adventurers to handle."

Just imagining an army of those depraved lunatic orks sent a shiver down my spine that I was only able to conceal thanks to deciding my greatcoat loosely this morning. The Munitorum would have been far less merciful than the Guild had been when determining the completion of our mission, and I know for certain that I would have been up to my neck in goblins for days until I could find proof that every last greenskin had been purged from a planet or until I needed a regiment or two of Guardsmen to prevent the entire planet from being lost.

"Here is your reward for the quest, Commissar Cain, Gunner Jurgen." Guild Girl punctuated her words by throwing two palm-sized bags overflowing with bronze and silver coins on the counter in front of us.

I appreciated the gesture, although not nearly as much as the funds themselves, but I refused the payment she offered me. "Thanks, but I would prefer you to give my portion of the reward to the rookies who I accompanied on the quest." I told her.

Not only did two of those juvies certainly need it with how badly the quest had gone for them, but unless there was a hidden layer of gold coins somewhere in those coin purses, the paltry sum Guild Girl offered me and my aide would have been laughable compared to the amount the Guild had been paying me daily for drafting up plans for their training facility. Besides, refusing payment for a heroic deed was exactly the kind of thing that was expected of a hero of the Imperium, and far be it for me to risk my fraudulent reputation for some meagre pocket change.

Guild Girl retrieved the bag she offered me far sooner than she should have if she didn't expect me to immediately refuse the reward. She and the other two guild employees didn't bat an eye when I denied their payment, but when my aide pushed aside his own reward, even I could help but to raise an eyebrow at him.

"If Cain is donating his reward to those cadets, then I will too." My malodorous assistant declared.

Now that he had given a reason for denying additional funds to be funneled into his porn stash, I found myself laughing at how Jurgen was once again doing his best to follow the example I set out for him, even if he was doing the exact opposite of what I was trying to do. I don't know why I expected anything else from my aide, but I suppose seeing a reminder of how lucky I was to have an assistant like him could still get a reaction out of me after decades of working together.

The girls also seemed to be somewhat touched by his sudden philanthropy, most of them not expecting such a filthy looking man willing to think of anything but himself. That at least seemed to be what Inspector was thinking as she stood there with her mouth opening wide enough for a ripper to crawl into it, while Guild Girl offered him a moment to reconsider his choice before noticing that his determination was about as unshakable as his general stubbornness and returning yet another bag of money to its previous position.

As for Padfoot Waitress, if she hadn't swooned for him yet, then the deep sigh she made after witnessing his unintentional generosity made it painfully obvious that she was enamored with him. The choking noises she made immediately after getting a nose full of eau de Jurgen at least told me that the girl wasn't so blinded by her infatuation with him that she was immune to his repulsive hygiene habits. With some luck, if anything does happen between the two, she might be able to convince him to bathe until the perpetual layers of grim covering him from head to toe revealed the man hiding underneath them. It was about as likely as Horus himself leading the next Black Crusade, but I still had some hope that I could see my aide meeting Imperial hygiene standards for a change.

"You don't have to refuse your reward just because I am, Jurgen." I told him.

"Nah, it's fine. I can't think of anything I would want to spend it on anyways." He said.

Padfoot Waitress seemed to have thought about something, because she was quick to make a suggestion on his behalf. "But what about those tea-"

"NOPE! I DO NOT NEED ANYTHING ELSE!" My aide suddenly shouted in quite an uncharacteristic manner for him.

Now, in all my years if disciplining the rank and file troops of the regiments and troops within them that I have had the honor of serving with during my long and eventful career, I was quite familiar with the sight of guardsmen far too worried about someone discovering one of their many infractions only to realize the reason I knew about them was because they were about to pass out from the very sight of me. From their beady eyes darting between me and their accomplices, sudden nervousness, and inability to bluff their way past a servitor even with the proper clearances, I knew what a guilty guardsman looked like very well. At that moment, Jurgen was the spitting image of one of the many fools who couldn't act innocent enough to save me a few hours of paperwork, something I would have happily done if they weren't so paranoid about me finding about whatever frakking nonsense they had been up to or caring about it.

My aide was clearly hiding something, and it was with utmost certainty that I could say that Padfoot Waitress shared Jurgen's secret. Since there was only one secret I could possibly imagine the two of them to be so awful at keeping, I decided it would be best to pretend not to have noticed anything was wrong between them. There were many things I did and didn't want to know about my aide. What he got up to with Padfoot Waitress whenever I was away fell firmly in the latter category.

"If that is everything, then I suppose I will head back to my room." I said, allowing my aide a moment to relax. "Padfoot, if you wouldn't mind bringing me my usual when it's ready?"

"Sure thing, Commissar! I'll bring one up for Gunner too!" The abhuman woman gleefully ran off to the kitchen to prepare our steaks the moment it became obvious neither of us had any more business in the main hall, and both Jurgen and I were about to depart before Guild Girl spoke up.

"Commissar Cain, were you planning on taking any more quests this week?" She asked, her once bubbly attitude filled with a sudden hesitation that made my hands tingle and my eyes wander over the crowd of nearby adventurers in search for yet another group of terminally brave rookies.

"No, I don't. Do you have another request for me?" I asked her, careful not to reveal my own nervousness in front of her.

"Why yes, I do." She said, confirming my fears to be true.

"Very well. What if the request this time?"

"The noble governing Frontier Town and several of the surrounding villages has requested an audience with you and several other adventurers for a special quest." Guild Girl said.

The very mention of a noble interested in me caught my attention immediately. With some luck, there was a chance that, while they might not have heard of me, they could at least know about the Imperium. It was a slim hope, one that was completely unfounded in reason, but a hope I was still willing to cling onto if only because it was my best chance of leaving this backwater planet I was stuck on behind. "What kind of job has this noble requested me for?" I asked her, wanting everything I could about this quest before I agreed to anything.

"They wouldn't say, but they were insistent that you and your aide act as the representative for the four other adventurers that they have also made a special request for, even though you are only Porcelain rank and the others are all Silver." She explained, confirming at least one of the fears had already managed to come up with.

"So in other words, this aristocrat only wants to hire me as an excuse to talk with me." I surmised.

That was what I assumed at least, as I could firmly recall at least one woman that was insistent on monopolizing me for the sake of her own political career. Guild Girl seemed to have a different opinion on the matter. "No, not at all! He heard about your reputation as a war hero and dem- daemon slayer after inquiring about the members staying here. From what he wrote in the portion of the letter asking for you specifically, it looks like he believes you are the perfect person to complete his quest, despite what other people might say about you." Which meant that whoever wanted to hire me for a quest obviously didn't care about my rank, rather something else I, and I alone, could provide him.

That of course was even worse than what I had been expecting. This noble didn't want to spend a few hours sipping on amasec and trying to worm his or her way into my and the Imperium's good graces, but they wanted me to go on an incredibly dangerous mission for them instead. I don't know why I didn't expect anything different. Then again, perhaps it could be for a bit of both. It wouldn't have been the first time a quiet night of entertainment with an aristocrat turned unexpectedly messy if I truly was being invited for more formal business.

Although I wanted to back down and refuse this request on the spot, doing so would have tarnished my already fragile reputation on this planet. Not only that, but I would be throwing away my best chance to earn a close ally with powerful connections. Only a fool or someone with the luxury to take far less risks than me could afford to snub such an individual, so against my better judgement, I decided to at least hear what job this noble wanted me for before I could prove that the other adventurers would be able to handle whatever enemy they were facing on their own.

"It would be nice to see what else this county has to offer." I mused, stalling for a moment to give Guild Girl the illusion that I was struggling to make a decision.

"Jurgen, pack our things. It looks like we will be going on another quest sooner than expected." I ordered.

"Right away, sir!" My aide chimed in before marching to our room to prepare our weapons and a few other supplies for whatever disaster we would surely find ourselves in.

"So, who are our companions on this quest?" I inquired now that there was only one last thing for me to worry about.


The answer turned out to be as disappointing as I thought it would be. To my knowledge, there were only five Silver ranked adventurers registered in Frontier Town and Goblin Slayer was one of them. That strange man was what the people of the Guild referred to as a 'solo adventurer' in case his grungy appearance and mind numbing obliviousness towards others didn't make that obvious enough.

It was because of this that I was able to prepare myself to enjoy a long ride in an enclosed space with the only person I have wished to avoid as much as Jenit Sulla, the idiot in question looking just as bothersome now as when he accosted me during my memorable first appearance in the Adventurer's Guild. Luckily, I wasn't the one that had to sit across from the insufferable bluefeet for the majority of our ride to the governor's estate where all six of us would learn more about our quest.

That honor belonged to Heavy Warrior, and the ogryn sized man was quick to put down whatever witty comments the cocky boy came up with whenever he spoke, providing the rest of us with plenty of entertainment during the first hour of our ride. Female Knight and Witch sat next to their respective partners, the former taking the opportunity to antagonize both of the other men in the carriage with childish glee while the latter acted as a barrier between me and Spearman. Witch and I spent most of our time watching the other three argue with each other, only whispering a few jokes between each other whenever there was a lull in their battle of wits. We had plenty of opportunities to speak as the three combatants lacked any real weaponry to engage each other with.

After the rowdy adventurers finally grew tired of spitting insults at each other, we all fell silent and lost ourselves in our own thoughts as best we could. Most of us tried to think about what we would need to do during our upcoming quest. Spearman was the only exception, as he was determined to get a response out of me after Witch reprimanded him for his childish antics once again. What she saw in that childish fool, who somehow made the average ork look smart, I couldn't tell, nor did I ever intend to find out.

Rather than answer whatever question Spearman was trying to pester me with, I instead tried to focus on how to approach my initial meeting with the governor of Frontier Town and how to keep Jurgen from showing off his talent behind the wheel… or reigns, considering this planet's most prevalent mode of transportation. The governor's name was no less disappointing than most other people's on this backwater planet, but I still found myself wondering who in their right mind would name their son Frontier Town Governor and still be sane enough to rule over their territories. Despite how obvious it should have been to me after speaking without countless other denizens of this planet, the governor's name left me completely speechless at the creativity of this primitive world once again, making me wonder if I really will meet Cow Girl and Frakking Idiot someday.

With some luck, it would happen before Jurgen had the chance to drive any sort of carriage or another rickety vehicle that could turn into a hazard for both his passengers and any bystanders unfortunate enough to be sharing the road with him. My aide's skill behind the wheel was nothing short of lifesaving on dozens of occasions, even if it resulted in plenty of ruined gardens, crushed cars, and flattened pets in whatever city he would quite literally end up driving through. He never did quite manage to master sharing the road with anyone or anything that was in between him and his destination, and I'm sure that my insistence of making a Salamander my designated command vehicle had saved both our lives from his liberal approach towards oncoming traffic and garden shrubbery.

When the carriage hired to take us to the governor's estate first arrived, my aide insisted on being the one to drive it. I made sure that the driver knew that under no circumstances in which our lives weren't in danger and a quick death from either my laspistol or Jurgen crashing the carriage should my aide take the reins from him. Watching and learning how to command the horses pulling our carriage I allowed, as despite my hesitation of letting my repugnant aide anywhere close to the driver's seat of any vehicle I was a passenger of, if I ever needed him to take us away from a hostile force then we would both benefit if he knew how to control a carriage without immediately crashing it. That was why my aide was sitting beside the carriage driver, whose name was more than likely Carriage Driver if I were to take a guess, rather than sitting underneath the tarp covering the rough wooden benches of the carriage like the rest of us.

It was only when I had thoroughly terrified myself with a few scenarios in which Jurgen would need to drive for us, most of them involving goblins and only a few where we were fleeing from some 'nids, that I could no longer ignore the man-child that was doing everything he could to grab my attention. I never noticed him get up from his seat to stand up a few inches away from my face, but I know that I will never be able to forget how the smell of his breath was somehow worse than Jurgen's tear gas quality halitosis.

"Hey Commissar, what're you thinking about?" Spearman asked me, forcing me to wave away his foul breath away from me.

"Why am I here?" I answered, hoping the idiot would finally shut up if I gave him an answer.

I should have just kept quiet, as he took my attempt to make him shut up as an opportunity to ramble freely. "Oh. You know, I never really thought about it before. All my life, I've been thinking about where I'm going so I never really had a chance to think about where I've been. I guess you can say-"

"No, I mean, why am I here stuck in a carriage with you of all people?" I clarified. Witch raised an eyebrow at me as the other two adventurers laughed as Spearman started sputtering with incoherent rage, so I decided to say a bit more to appease her. "I can't imagine why anyone would want to meet with the both of us at the same time considering how little we have in common."

This was enough to satisfy the idiot, but Witch was still giving me an icy look knowing just how little effort I put in trying to treat him as something other than the incompetent fool he was. "I was… wondering that too." She purred.

Female Knight also decided to throw in her own concerns as well. "Yeah, something about this doesn't seem right. It isn't every day that some noble requests a couple of silvers and a diplomat from a foreign nation to their home. Whatever this quest is, it has to be important." Hearing her opinion did little to lighten my quickly souring mood, and her partner didn't do much better when he joined the discussion.

"We'll be fine. You have nothing to worry about, Commissar. We already know that you can handle yourself just fine, and I'm sure Gunner is more than capable of protecting you from any harm." He said.

"If anyone should be worried, it's you big guy." Spearman snickered.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Heavy Warrior said, cracking his knuckles knowing that whatever it was that twerp was laughing at couldn't have been good.

"You were beaten by a Porcelain ranked adventurer a couple weeks ago, remember?" The cocky bastard taunted, earning a chorus of laughter from everyone in the carriage except the giant man.

"At least I didn't forfeit my duel." The giant swordsman grumbled, ducking his head just in time to avoid being slapped by the armored gauntlet of his partner.

"Hey! You saw what that magical weapon did! There was no way I was going to fight against Gunner while he was using that thing!" She shouted in a desperate attempt to save face.

"You could have just asked him to use his other weapon." I volunteered, Female Knight's face turning pink from embarrassment at having something so obvious pointed out, something that the other two men riding with us wasted no time in laughing at.

"Oh, hah hah hah. Very funny you two. At least I didn't get embarrassed in front of the whole Guild because I felt like showing off." She suddenly fired back at the duo.

Heavy Warrior and Spearman shared a quizzical look between each other, both them and I myself unsure of who she was talking to, before they seemed to agree that Female Knight's insult was meant for both of them. With lines being drawn in the sand almost as quickly as they were being crossed, the rowdy trio soon devolved into yet another round of petty arguments while Witch and I watched our allies for the upcoming quest with mournful anticipation of the struggles to come.

"Oh dear… not again…" Witch nestled her head in the palms of her hands, giving me quite the generous look at her ample chest which I was in the perfect position to examine along with the scuffle happening just beyond them.

"Are they always like this?" I asked her.

"It depends… on the day." She groaned, her fanciful way of speaking turning it more into a sensual moan instead.

"I see." Their argument had already turned into a small fist fight between them, causing both of us to slide a little closer to the driver's seat at the front of the carriage so as to avoid any friendly fire accidentally sent our way. "Do you think we should do anything to stop them?"

Witch didn't answer immediately, instead waiting to see Female Knight deliver an armored heel directly to Spearman's nads, smiling in his direction as he crumpled to the floor of the carriage with a look of pure agony written across his face. I couldn't help but to shiver at the way she let out a playful little giggle that would have attracted the immediate attention of any men that heard it, although I personally found the subject of her amusement and a small pang of sympathy to be enough of a deterrent to keep my mouth shut.

"No. It will be… better if they… vent their anger… before we arrive." She purred as we watched the fight between our companions continue, both of us making no attempt to break up the brawl that was only just beginning.

Our quest was already off to a rough start before we had even met our quest giver. If I had known our journey to the governor's estate would have been one of the better parts of the quest, then I would have never have agreed to meet Frontier Town Governor.


Author's Corner:

Ciaphas Cain, HERO OF THE IMPERIUM, is at it again! Goblins aren't the only minions of Chaos lurking on this planet, and it will only be a matter of time until the glorious man himself purges them on behalf of The Emperor and all of humanity.

'Aight, now that that's over with, I figured it was about time we gave Cain a chance to fight something a bit different this time, as well as working with a few other adventurers to build up some relations he can easily exploit in the future. I'm sorry for those of you that thought this would be exclusively focusing on Goblin Slayer and Cain working together for the whole story. There will be them and their respective allies coming together once Cain gains a little more notoriety, but for now, it is time for a few other heroes to enjoy the limelight.

One last thing before moving onto the comments: I am currently looking for a Beta Reader for this story. The only requirements I ask of any of any volunteers is that they give me their feedback in a timely manner, and are occasionally willing to hear out the occasional snippet of an unfinished chapter. As I am more than willing to admit that some of my ideas or batshit crazy, it would be nice to have someone criticize my stupidity before I waste an hour writing something that should never see the light of day. Send me a PM if you're interested.


"Noone": (Can't be arsed to rewrite this magnificent review in its entirety.)

Thanks for the kind words! As for the constant referrals to the past… yeah, looking back I did go overboard quite a bit in recent chapters. Now that I have found my footing with this story, I'm making an effort to tone down on those moments. I also hope that if I do ever manage to find a Beta Reader, they are willing to help me out in that department.

misterfishy: Huh. After that weird totem, I half-expected the party to run into the Genestealer cult. Which is still a possibility, come to think of it. Oh well, as long as it isn't Skaven. Not that there is such thing as Skaven.

To answer all Genestealer related comments as well as your own, let me answer your question with a question. Why would a duo that have never seen goblins before, that appear to be devout Chaos worshipers, outside of one adventure think that any 'deviant forms' would be a result of anything other than Chaos shenanigans? Cain and Jurgen know frak all about goblins, so I decided it would be best if they weren't too knowledgeable of what is and isn't wrong without hearing an expert's opinion on them.

As for Skaven… what are these ratmen that you speak of? The Horned Rat and his followers do not exist.

BooplkanThePrimarch: That Meltagun shot made me tear up a little on its glory, nothing better than to erase those greenskin spores than a little promethium…

There's nothing quite like the smell of fresh promethium burning your enemies alive, huh? I might not have had a chance for a title drop *yet* but rest assured, there will be more melta fun in the future.

"faff": Even if Jurgen is canonically an unsung hero, I feel like you just can't have a Cain story without Jurgen in it. He's the Samwise to Cain's Frodo; he just wouldn't get far without his simple yet steady competence. One of the things I love in the books is how he always appears with lots of equipment he shouldn't necessarily have to make Cain's life easier. It makes me wish there was a side story of him going around a base bullying people out of their weapons, ammunition, vehicles, and tanna in the name of the good commissar. Does he just walk up and say, "The Hero of the Imperium needs this, official Militarum business," before stripping the room of everything that's useful, or does he find and bully a commanding officer of some sort first?

Funny that you mention it, there is a short story where Jurgen raids a quartermaster's supply depot. As it turns out, a honest to goodness PERMISSION SLIP signed by a commissar can get a Guardsman running errands for them damn near anything, regardless of legality. No one wants to be the person that forces the regiment's commissar to make a personal visit to their office after all...

The Smallest Detail from the third Ciaphas Cain Omnibus is the short story in question, and it reveals just how incredible Jurgen is at his job.


Well, that's enough from me. I hope to see you all again in the future.