Chapter 65: Chapter 9 Part 4
Chapter 9: Storm-front
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Part 4
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Victory Bay
Kronus
A Company of veteran Guardsmen stormed The Saint Andresta's Blessing Clinic, led by a pair of cold-eyed Commissars and followed by a group of fanatical priests normally attached to General Alexander's command in order to look after the spiritual well-being of the troops. It was only in the wake of those barbarians that Magos-Biologis Karom-Beta-31 strode on trice blessed and twice sanctified Bionic legs, leading a gaggle of overworked Medicae conscripted from the various Guard units. Theirs was the most important job once the Guard properly secured the clinic – figure out if the people working there were merely greedy mundanely corrupt bastards in need of a transformation into servitors, or if there was something more sinister going on. At any rate, every PDF trooper still alive and technically loyal needed to be examined before Command could throw them at the traitors.
Karom-Beta-31 really should have known better. It was known, if an Inquisitor wanted you working for them, you will work for them one way or another, no matter what you wanted. If you wanted to be difficult about it, your life would become interesting, just like the Magos just found out.
Of course, this could all be a coincidence. The odds for it were even good, he could easily calculate them.
It didn't matter, the Inquisition probably wanted you to think that way and wonder…
Bloody Inquisitors!
Karom-Beta-31 reached the entrance and stood in front of the white marble building, waiting for the all-clear. He could hear all kinds of commotions and shouting from within, no shots so far and no calls for help or uncovered corruption, which was either a very good sign or a very bad one, time would tell…
Meanwhile, the Inquisitor who caused so much trouble for a certain Magos-Biologis without even trying had to attend his first proper interrogation outside the carefully controlled facilities of the academy…
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The dungeons of the local Arbiter HQ were familiar ones, just lacking all the filth and warp-related taint to make them identical to what we saw at the Deimos Peninsula HQ. Some of the cells here contained many of the high ranked Arbiters, who were at the very least bought and paid for by the former planetary authorities. Unfortunately, said authorities were currently either very dead, worse, or in line for it because as far as anyone could tell, any survivors from the quick purge conducted by General Alexander upon his arrival on Kronus had fled either to the Deimos Peninsula or their Tau "friends".
A rough picture began to emerge as soon as the first interrogations began, and for once we did catch a break and a mid-ranked Administratum functionary began singing as soon as a mean-looking Commissar with a roaring chain-sword approached him promising to cut a limb or two and then ask questions… The bloody clerk told the interrogators everything he knew and a lot of things they suspected were nothing more than fabrications meant to keep the Commissar and his chain-sword as far away from tender flesh as possible. The coward did give us some actionable leads and before I could even finish my conversation with the actually helpful people on the list, Weber had strike-teams moving in to seize more targets and secure locations to be searched for evidence.
Glory-seeking, battle-crazy maniac he might be, Commissar Weber was undoubtedly a competent man, one who I was almost sure I needed as a part of my retinue. If nothing else, he apparently had more experience in this sort of thing that the rest of us combined… And that's how I ended up in front of a solid metal door covered with all kinds of wards, scriptures and holy symbols. A pair of fully armored Arbiters, from the cleared list, stood guard and admitted me after checking up to make sure it wasn't someone or something wearing my face.
Speaking about Charles Weber, he was inside, had a cigar held in the corner of his mouth, and was in the process of lighting it up with a hand-held blow-torch.
"Inquisitor!" The Commissar exclaimed happily in his inimitable fashion and spread his hands in welcome, nearly searing the forehead of a richly clothed individual, who had the misfortune of being securely bound to the interrogation chair taking place of pride in the middle of the room.
"Charles, my friend!" I returned the gesture, with what I hoped wasn't a strained smile. "You and your colleagues did the Emperor's work this morning!"
"We live to serve, Inquisitor!" Weber beamed happily at me. His pleased smile turned into a rictus grin that wouldn't be amiss to a Chaos cultist or a bloody Dark Eldar and looked at his prospective victim. "This piece of refuse is 'Lord' Ignatius Joachim, and by all accounts, he not only sold his soul to the Tau, but he also looked the other way and facilitated all kinds of corruption among the local Administratum Adepts. From there, the rot spread tainted the higher levels of the Adeptus Arbiters, and as we all know now, certain whole branches of the organization on this planet."
"That's a bad boy." I shook my head sadly, though made sure there was no trace of pity or remorse about what was about to happen. "Then again, that's why we're here and the Inquisition exists in the first place, such cancer needs to be burned out with extreme prejudice." I nodded at the blowtorch Weber held with gleeful approval.
The prisoner on the other hand, who had been going from deep red to purple, paled considerably.
"Let's see if we're all on the same page. Some time ago, the disgrace that passed for local government, got divided between either sucking to the blue-faced bastards to the west of here, or went deeper and deeper in under the influence of a home-grown cult to the Ruinous Powers, the fuckers." I began pacing around the prisoner, while Weber looked from his blowtorch to the bound man as if he wanted nothing more than to liberally apply the flames. "And you, helped both groups, all kinds of criminals, dissidents and worse, all to line up your own pockets." I shook my head sadly. "Am I missing something?"
"He had a Tau mistress too, however to the best of our knowledge she made herself scarce when we arrived and is hiding somewhere in the Xeno base," Weber added with undisguised disgust.
"Ah. That." I nodded. "I guess it could always be worse, like fucking a Slaneeshi worshiper," I scrunched my nose in disgust, that wasn't entirely a performance. "An alien one at that."
"She might very well be, the Xeno bitch." Weber pointed out.
"There's that too. I foresee a lot of cleansing flames among other things in your future." I addressed the prisoner directly.
"That's the spirit! I can't wait!"
Has he been serving with the Sisters of Battle or the Salamanders before, I wondered… Whatever Weber's not an entirely healthy fascination with fire might wait and I dearly hoped that this was mostly for the benefit of our prisoner and not his real face, stripped of all masks and pretenses.
"We might as well. He doesn't seem particularly remorseful, much less sorry about his disastrous life-choices. Ignatius here merely looks sorry that he got caught."
The prisoner did his best to shake his head in denial, however as securely as he was bound, all he managed was to strain his muscles to no avail.
"A taste of things to come might loosen his tongue…" Weber mussed aloud and looked at me like an eager kid asking for permission.
I walked around the prisoner one last time, then went to the table built into the wall and examined the various wickedly sharp instruments of torture that no sane mind could come with and picked up something weird with a lot of barbs, clamps and sharp edges. I turned around looked at the implement in my hand and at the prisoner who could barely see me from the corner of his eyes and speculatively raised an eyebrow.
"This might do, then we sear the wound to avoid him bleeding out, that simply wouldn't do."
I nodded in agreement, while a distant part of my mind screamed in horror, while the rest of me didn't see anything wrong at what we were about to do.
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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