KMC Forums - I FOR INQUISITION (short stories of the trials faced by those of the Inquisition)

((I was Thinking of taking one or more of my works to a publisher, and this popped into my head maybe because I could never break away from Warhammer 40k after I finished collecting...))

I FOR INQUISITION
By Tomas Seglins (c) Tomas Seglins 2006

Unknown Hunt...

M41, 368 of the second month by the Cadian Calender.

I always found the Cadian system to be most inspiring; a pinnacle of our fortitude against the sheer hordes of chaos as they try in vain time and again to thwart our existance in the name of their false gods. In a way, they're devotion could be insipiring, God-Emperor forbid...
At the time, I was on my twice-annual leave upon Cadia. the great ruinous City held it's beauty in a way considering that one entire face is forever left in perpetual darkness, some believe due to the close proximity of the swirling maelstrom that is the eye of terror, others belive that the planet is dead as it's surface has consumed more blodd than any other, save for holy-terra herself of course.

My leave was overdue this time, chasing heretics is like that, the intelligent ones never stay put. My last enounter was the feared Apostate Cardinal Lysander of Lexxis IV, he proved to be tough prey as it took a calling upon the Adeptus Astartes of the Ultramaries chapter to cut through the dead weight of his cultist followers. The image of the aftermath haunts me each night as the memory is burned upon the lens of my eyes.
Men, women and children, innocent or not cut down by the ferocity of the sapphire-clad warriors of Ultramar and the planet's entire drainage system flooded a grotesque crimson as if the planet herself bled for those amoung the dead.

But enough of that, as I said the thought haunts me, I wish I had just agreed to pulling the trigger and signalling for Exterminatus, at least the innocent would have been granted a quick death.

In my hand rest an encoded parchment with details of my next assignment as I sat back and lounged on the terrace of an extravigant inn, sipping away at a glass of Sacra, a drink made famous a few thousand years back by some survivors of a chaos-ravaged world, curse my memory for I could not recount the name.
It was my last day of leave and I tried to savour every last moment I possessed, though it proved pointless as the Local Ecclesiarchy found me within moments of recieving the message of my new orders. Karis Sephalon, a planet-city proclaimed doomed by many for the increasing number of mutations in the human genepool amoung the populace there, it was my next destination as the local Arbites had requested my assistance, they called for me by name. I had no knowledge I had become so famous in the short three years of my career as an Inquisitor of the Ordo Hereticus.

I had gulped the remains of my drink and left a small pile of credit on the table as I left, sweeping my leather great cloak over my broad shoulders to cover the liquor and a slight tip, just to put smiles on somebody's face, I'm soft like that sometimes. My plan was to surprise my superiors my arriving precisely one day ahead of schedule and hopefully finish the task at hand before the due date as such I might take a further few days leave as a reward for my devotion. If I'd known then I would've thought differently, curse me for my arrogant haste.

I commandeered the first available ship at the port and demanded they make heading for my destination, clearly with a mind to do otherwise as he was a well-to-do trader though did not dare refuse an Inquisitor, if he had said no I wouldn't have bothered him but being feared was a perk you could say to being a member of the Ecclesiarchy.
The agile craft was sizable yet horribly disorderly, Order forms and spent clothing littered nearly every usable room as quite a few worked upon this vessel, the captain told me that he asked everyone to leave their clothing outside their doors for the laundry, the problem he said was that after nearly a month he still hadn't gotten around to it.
The craft itself wasn't exactly in her prime you could say, in fact it was patchworked where portions of the outer hull had been eaten away by rust and basically sewn back together rather hastily to be able to resist the perils of the vacuum of space. Though I felt a might uneasy as this path from Cadia to Karis was frequented by thus-far Uncaptured Eldar Pirates, and it appeared that one hit, even a glanc would render this ship inside-out.

The crew seemed polite, mainly because they thought I might declare heresy upon them if they spoke as they normally would with eachother, I knew this as they're thoughts were as loud to me as rain upon a hollow metal roof, they seemed to realize this also and many times I heard incoherrant thoughts as they tried to drown their own inner commentary out as they came within a certain distance, honestly I hadn't been entertain like that for as long as I could remember.
It was a long trip with such old prepulsion technology though I found the experience of living with such a mix of diferent cultures crammed into one vessel for an entire month quite educational, and it took only a few days for them to became desensitized by my presence as I was forever engaging in conversation. It was also the first time I was in close proximity of a canine, I had read about them being claimed as the best friend of man of something though the constant licking of whatever extremities it could wrap it's long tongue around grew tiring.

I was actually sadened when the captain said that we would touch down on Karis within a few hours, there was so much more I could've found about the galaxy from the crew's experience but alas our time drew to a close. I am forever travelling light with whatever was attached to my hip at the belt, nothing more. I said farewell to the crew who had become my friends, my first real freinds since childhood as I made my way off the craft.
As I left, I caught a breif thought from the captain, apparently some of his cargo had dissapeared shortly after landing and no one not even the overseer of the landing pad knew why, I decided that it wasn't worth the time, there were more pressing matters at hand.

the sky was in twilight and the local Arbite Captain greeted me respectfully, of course asking why I had arrived so early, three days in fact considering my transportation was reluctantly slow to say the least, I responded shortly with the old 'my business is my own' comment, it made him fear me all the more though I was startled as to why had been so short with him as he showed me to my temporary residence for the night as he claimed that they wouldn't be ready for me until morning came.

My so-called quarters was a room at the grandest inn available, granted to me at no charge of course, being an Inquisitor held quite the many benefits. I planned on catching a few many hours of sleep though my mind prevented any possiblity for rest, something was out of place, and I was damned if I could've seen what. The last thing I remebered before eventually sleep took hold of me, was the wind blowing open my window across from my bed and something blocking the moonlight from my room, a cloud maybe...

(To be continued)

__________________
Mal: "Well, if anyone gets nosey... You know... Shoot em' "

Zoe: "Shoot them sir?"

Mal: "...Politely"