Chapter 1 Part 1

Chapter 1: Welcome to the Inquisition

=ATBS=

Part 1​

Munitorum Warp Transport "Blood of Saints"

En route to Kronus

Zeus System

Lathesh Sector

Two weeks in Warp transit. It frayed my nerves and shook my mind. The source of my power, so close, so enticing… I had to spend all my time onboard in prayer, reciting litanies while going over the mental exercise to center myself.

This was much worse than my only other Warp travel after my binding, which brought me to the schola. During that little excursion, the Empyrean was very calm in contrast to the turbulent travel I had to endure this time around. By the time we emerged at the edge of the system, the Gellar fields were straining and the unintelligible whispers I'd been hearing in the last days of our transits were getting more and more vocal.

So it's not a surprise that I felt a huge surge of relief when we were back in normal space.

I should have known better then, though at the time I was more interested in catching up with some sorely missing sleep to think how the universe planned to screw me over.

Once I was awake and managed to drag myself to the mess hall, I was still downing my first cup of steaming Caff when a Naval Armsman burst in.

"Sir, the Captain requests your presence at the bridge." The Sergeant gave me a proper salute. "At your earliest convenience."

In turn, I rewarded him with a bleary-eyed glance that would have made a plague zombie proud and finished my cup. I didn't need to touch the Warp to feel the fear oozing from him. My status as a very new, very green Inquisitorial agent might have had something to do with that, though personally, I think it was a more mundane reason.

A symbol on my coat designated me as a Psyker so everyone and their uncle should know who to shoot in case of Warp shenanigans. When you took those two things into account, you can guess why I was left alone during the transit… though coincidentally there was a heavily armed detachment of Naval Armsmen stationed near my chambers.

"That was the Navy-speak for 'right fucking now', right?" I groaned and looked forlornly at the kitchens where the cooks were busy preparing lunch. Nah, appearing in front of the ship's Master with a cup of Caff, unless it was for him, won't fly.

As far as someone working for the Inquisition, I was near the bottom of the food chain and currently had no real authority of my own… Something that Captain Linox was well aware of. He's been carting passengers such as me for a long, long time. Now that the caffeine was kicking in and my brain was starting to work properly, I had to stop myself from groaning and tarnishing my nonexistent reputation. The Captain wasn't calling me so I could watch us approaching the planet from the bridge. I wasn't important enough to warrant such a privilege. Someone of my station would need to be a scion of a rather powerful noble dynasty, famous military family, or something like that to earn a visit by the Ship Master.

I stood up, straightened up my clothes, and waved at the Sergeant.

"By all means. Lead the way. I haven't had the honor of visiting the bridge."

The NCO looked indecisive for a moment. He was obviously reluctant to let me walk behind him.

I gave him a flat look and walked next to him.

"I have no real idea where's the bridge without Scrying for the place. That's something both of us would rather avoid I think."

The casual mention of Warp-craft made him pale. His hands crossed in the warding sign of the Aquila.

"Let's not keep the Captain waiting." I walked towards the entrance I came from.

"Ah, sir. This way." The Sergeant cleared his throat and pointed at the door in the far end of the mess hall.

My mood was already in a free fall when we reached the bridge. There were a lot of naval rats doing their job, and a few cog-heads whistling in Binary and waving smoking incense with their mecha-tendrils.

Most notable and concerning were the three people looking at a holo-projection of the Zeus system.

The one in the middle was the most physically imposing, towering a head taller than the rest. He wore a purple trench coat with ridiculous parade pauldrons on the shoulders. A bald head with visible implants and data jacks was all I could see from this angle.

To his left stood a short woman in a reasonably plain uniform, which fit her like a glove. I admit, I stared at her curves for a few moments before my eyes snapped to the third person. Even with my Warp-sense shut as I've kept it ever since the journey started, I could feel the power of the man. If I had to guess, he was our navigator.

The woman was probably either the CO or the commander of the Naval Armsmen. That didn't bode well.

"Agent Veil, you join us at last." The Navigator's voice boomed.

I gave him a respectful bow. It never hurt to be polite to a potentially more powerful Psyker, not to mention one who was undoubtedly much more experienced than me.

"We have a problem." The captain's gruff voice made me redirect my attention. The man had turned towards me, revealing a burnt face that was mostly bionics.

"How can I be of assistance, sir?" I asked politely.

"We've had some communication problems ever since transiting to real space. They were fixed a hour ago and we got a sit rep." The woman, turned around, revealing a weathered face that once had held stunning beauty. Now it was a mess of scars which she wore proudly.

"It's rather interesting I take it?"

"Kronus is a mess. Besides the damn Tau, we've got Orks and Eldar down there. They've been giving hell to the Imperial Guard." The woman smiled thinly. "The 'good' news is that we've got an Adeptus Astrates Strike Cruiser in orbit, it emerged from behind the planet a few minutes ago."

"That's not as good as it should sound?" I tried.

"We've also have conflicting reports stating that there have been at least two engagements between elements of the Guard and the Blood Ravens, who own the cruiser."

"Well, fuck." My false good cheer died a sudden and violent death.

"Do you know something about this, spirited situation?" The Captain made a grimace, which might have been a smile. It was impossible to tell.

"All I know is that I'm supposed to meet with Inquisitor Requista on my arrival planet side." I shrugged.

Captain Linox gave me his version of a disappointed look.

"We've also received instructions to ferry you to Victory Bay as soon as practical. "We received an encoded message for you too." The woman, who lacked a name tag on her uniform fave me a dataslate.

"I see. Have arrangements for my departure been made?"

"Your luggage should already be in the shuttle. You're leaving in an hour." The woman stated blandly.

"I see. Thank you, ma'am. Captain Linox, it's been a pleasure." I gave them a proper bow and saw myself out.

=ATBS=

Thirty minutes later, I was strapped into the back of an ancient shuttle, which took off a couple of minutes after I went on board. Whoever had requested my presence, had obviously lit up a fire under the Captain's command throne. Not good at all.

At least I was alone in the small passenger compartment, which left me free to see the message. I used my Sigil - which was actually an artifact full of codes and ciphers - to decode the data. My eyes skimmed over the titles of Inquisitor Jonas Requista, Ordo Xenos until I reached the important part.

It was succinct and to the point. The Blood Ravens and the Imperial Guard had conflicting orders, something that might prove 'troublesome'. I was to go visit Governor-General Alexander and fix the mess before it got out of hand, while my Master and his retinue were busy investigating heretic activity on the Deimos Peninsula. They were expected to be out of contact for some time.

Obviously, that message had been recorded before the shit hit the fan and the Emperor's finest started shooting each other.

The only bright thing in sight was the last few sentences of the message. They were in High Gothic and meant that in this instance I was to act in the name of the Lord Inquisitor, something that at least, in theory, gave me a bit of power.

Well, fuck me. If the Imperial Guard and the Space Marines were shooting at each other, my newfound authority was unlikely to impress them while Requista and company were out of contact.

Damn it all to the Warp, I was fresh out of the Schola! I wasn't supposed to be dealing with Generals and Astartes!

I was so fucked...