Interrogator (40k)

[Hiver]

I considered the regicide board and then moved a piece.

Dorian watched for a moment before taking one of my pieces.

Hmm.

"Everything ready with the shuttle?" I asked, looking over at Kim where she was sitting by the other table, a glass of amasec in her hand, her legs crossed and feet on the table.

"Ready to go," she agreed and sipped her drink, "Most of our gear is stowed already in case we need to make a hasty egress."

"Let's hope not," I said and moved my next piece, "Because that'd mean this ship is likely in trouble and a little shuttle would have a very bad time."

She shrugged, "It'd be fine."

Kim had been a navy pilot once. Not entirely sure where Aurelius picked her up, but she had a lightning pilot and showed the kind of arrogance common in her breed.

"Better be," I said, looking at her, "Because assuming the currents of the Warp behaves and doesn't spit us out a thousand years in the past, we should arrive tomorrow."

"Who knows with the Warp," she answered and shrugged again.

Dorian moved a piece, taking mine and a sudden wave of nausea hit me like a hammer between my eyes and I tasted blue.

What the fu-

Dorian started to scream. No, not scream. What ripped through his throat as he threw his head back can only be called a scream the same way a monsoon is rainy weather.

Blood sprouted from his eyes before his head imploded, covering most of the room and everyone in it with a fine mist of blood and other matter.

"Throne on Terra!" Kim cursed, scrambling off the floor, going for her sidearm.

"What the fuck!?" I agreed, quickly pulling my own and covering Dorians remains as he fell off his chair.

Kim stared at him and then took a step back, "That was a Warp translation. We're back in real space… it was a real rough one too."

"That's why I tasted blue for a second," I agreed, "But that was not a normal warp translation. Warp translations don't cause psykers to implode!"

Kim nodded, "I'll get the shuttle ready."

"And I'm going to bully my way onto the bridge," I said and turned to run out.

Damn. That was one hell of a way to go.

Poor Dorian.

"Sergeant, two troopers with me!" I ordered as I ran past them. While I did, I slapped my Interrogator rosette onto the collar of my shirt.

So much for low profile.

We didn't more than make it to the end of the corridor before there was a slight tremble beneath my feet. Somewhere far in the distance there was a woop, woop of alarms.

What the fuck is going on!?

Looking around as I ran, I stopped by a console. No fucking about with permissions this time, I took my Interogator rosette and plugged it in, bypassing the authentication.

Not as good as an Inquisitor one, but this stuff it could do.

A wireframe outline of the ship showed up, several areas marked red.

"What's going on, sir?" Zhivko asked as he and Peadar caught up with me, both of them lugging their lasguns.

"We're-" I started before the ship shuddered slightly again and another area turned red on the model, "Taking damage. New plan, no bridge, we're heading for the shuttle," I said and pulled my combead from my pocket, slipping into my ear, "This is Tezzeret to all team members. We are leaving, get to the shuttle!"

Slight voices. Sparkling.

"I repeat!" I continued, adjusting slightly and trying to cut through the interference, "Get to the shuttle!"

Sparkle. Hizz. Pop.

Fuck.

Sometimes I think that's the most useful word in human language. It had survived the ages almost untouched as well for a reason. It covered so many scenarios.

"Okay," I said to them, "Let's go."

We took off in a run towards the shuttlebay. Even at best circumstances with all lifts working, it would take twenty minutes to get there.

Today was not the best of circumstances.

"Door's locked," Peadar said as he hit the button to open a bulkhead some ten minutes later.

I checked the console next to it, "Air on the other side, likely just jammed. I'll unlock the actuators, you perform a manual override."

"A what?"

"Pull it open!"

I tapped the commands and the ship's machine-spirit felt like being nice despite everything going on and there was a heavy 'clonk' of a sound as the locks unlocked.

I looked at them, "Pull!" I said and moved to join them in hauling the thick metal door open. It started to slowly move before it started to shift faster.

"Okay, just a bi-" something hit the gate hard and flung us back to the floor as the gate crashed open and slammed against the bulkhead next to it.

A massive looking Ork yelled and charged through the opening as he shouldered the hatch to the side, bringing it's massive crude choppa down on Peadar before he could get onto his feet, splitting the man in half in a spray of blood and guts.





AN// There will be a small pause as the 23-25 I will post a small three part mlp holiday special in another thread. After that normal service will be continued.

 

[Hiver]

Zhivko let out a yell and rolled onto his back, bringing his lasgun up before opening up at full auto. The lasbolts blew chunks out of the greenskin, and it took a step backwards, stumbling. It roared a challenge and seemed to have half a mind to charge and counter attack, but then it really got half a mind as the lasbolts blasted it's head in half and it collapsed.

Still holding it's heavy choppa.

Zhivko climbed back onto his feet, dropping the powercell from his lasgun and slapping a new one in before he looked towards me, "You alright, sir?"

"Fine," I choked out, starting to climb back onto my feet while trying to get the breath the door knocked out of me back.

"Orks," he said and peered down the corridor along the sights of his lasgun, "We have been boarded."

"Explains the damage," I agreed, "Which means there is an Ork ship out there if they are boarding us."

How the hell did they manage that, I have no clue. Space Is Big.

He gave me a worried look, "Is it still a good idea to get into the shuttle? If there is an Ork ship out there…"

"It's going to be a hell of a lot better than sticking around here!" I said and pulled my laspistol, "Let's go!"

Zhivko nodded, pausing for a second to pick up Peadars lasgun and tossed it over to me. I nodded and caught it, checking the charge out of habit more than anything else after holstering my laspisol again.

Nothing we could do for him.

"Where there is one, there's a hundred," Zhivko said as we walked through the open hatch, "There is going to be a lot more of them."

"Right you are," I said and ran faster.

Orks. Giant, green, very smelly and even less pleasant to be around; green fungus people that absolutely love the current state of the universe. Because it's filled with fun things to fight that go crunch when they are hit.

They were the worst kind of xenos.

Zhivko stopped by a crossing, raising one hand for me to half as he peered around the corner. He pulled back and looked at me, holding up two fingers.

Two Orks.

Fuck.

I touched his shoulder and scooted past, risking a glance around the corner. The two greenskin were a dozen meters down the corridor, just as ugly as I expected them to be. Over two meters tall, half as wide and thick, massive fangs in their mouths and carrying what looked like primitive bolters.

Shootas.

I glanced back at Zhivko. Looking across his gear. No grenades, he had just grabbed his lasgun when I ran past.

And we needed to get past them.

Fuck.

Going up against two Orks with a pair of lasguns was not a good idea, but what little choice did we have? I motioned to him that he take right, I take left. Learning Guard hand signals had been the best two days ever spent. So useful.

Zhivko nodded and readied his lasgun.

I held my hand up.

3.
2.
1.

I turned the corner, dropping to one knee and took aim at the Ork to the left before squeezing the trigger. Against Orks at that range, I didn't bother with single shots, I just held the trigger down and aimed center mass.

The sound of lasfire filled the hallway as we ambushed the two Orks.

The scary part? We got them from ambush, by surprise and one of them from behind. They were hit before they even knew we were there and…

Both of them roared and turned around and returned fire even as we outright blew chunks out of them, causing damage that would have killed a man.

Bolter rounds exploded against the wall behind me before the Ork went down, his friend collapsing half a second later.

Damn, Orks are tough.

I looked at Zhivko, "You okay?"

"Didn't hit me," he confirmed and reloaded. I checked my charge. Half left.

Crackle. Pop. Spark.

I held my hand to my combead, "Say again, this is Tezzeret."

"...ined. Or…"

"Say again!"

"Pin-...re-...han-"

I drummed my fingers against the lasgun, "Say again, where are you?!"

Crackle. Pop. Spark. Spark "-angar!"

I nodded to Zhivko, "I can't read them, but I think they are by the hangar. We should hurry."

Zhivko nodded, "No need to tell me that again, sir," he agreed and we continued down the hallway again, lasguns raised at the ready.

Orks. Why did it have to be Orks?

But I suppose that explains why contact was lost.

 

[Hiver]

The sound of weapons fire echoed through the corridor ahead and we ran faster. Zhivko reached the closed door and we could hear loud weapons fire through it.

He glanced at me, "Interrogator, this is the only way to the hangar?"

"Only way we have a chance to reach in time," I said and tapped in on the console next to it. No pictsensor on the inside.

"Well, unless the Orks are shooting each other," I said, ignoring that somewhat likely possibility, "At least we won't be facing them alone."

Zhivko didn't look very happy, but he nodded, "Wish we had some grenades."

"Don't we all," I said and hit the button to open the door.

The door hissed and started to open and the sound of heavy stubber sounds got higher, interspersed with the bang-whiz-crack of bolter rounds.

Opening the door revealed a view of half a dozen heavily armed Orks firing at barricaded defenders at the other end of the room, having taken cover behind various machines and pipes.

But so had the Orks.

Taking aim at the largest Ork with the largest shoota, I shot him half a dozen times in the head before shifting my aim to the next one.

Zhivko stepped up next to me and opened fire.

Apparently, we took them by total surprise, three were dead by the time the rest started to react to the ambush, one of them started to look in our direction.

"Down!" I ordered and grabbed Zhivko carrying harness, pulling him back behind the cover of the doorway as one of the Orks turned and opened fire and a storm of unaimed stubber rounds flew through the open hallway in a rain of bullets as the Orks roared their defiance.

Zhivko nodded, "Thank you, sir," he said and pulled his powercell, putting it away and grabbing a fresh one, slapping it into place before offering me a new one as well.

Pulling the powercell from my lasgun, dropping it on the floor, I took the offered one and slapped it into place, checking the charge.

Full.

The sound of lasguns filled the air and the Orks roared. I gave Zhivko a nod and then popped out around the doorway, taking aim. The Orks were now busy with the defenders again and we cut them down.

The last Ork fell, his large shoota clattering to the floor and we stepped out into the open, scanning for more targets.

"Interrogator!"

I looked over, seeing Sergeant Darien approach, his lasgun held in one hand, his other arm bleeding from the upper arm, "Sergeant," I said in greeting, "Everybody alive?" I asked, looking past him, spotting Naria clicking towards her on her spider legs.

"Lost Gupta to the ambush," he said and looked at Zhivko, "Peadar?"

"Gone," I said and stepped forward, looking over the group. Mostly my troops, but also a couple of members of crew, one of them injured and supported by one of the others, "This ship is going down, we are leaving. Everybody, follow me!"

With that I turned down the third hallway towards the hangar.

The ship shuddered beneath our feet again after another half dozen meters, rougher this time and followed by a loud crash somewhere behind us.

I picked up the pace as the following faint waaaaagh in the distance followed by a muted explosion and rapid weapons fire.

I picked up the pace.

Had to hope Kim had made it to the shuttle because while I could fly a aircar or maybe do a suborbital jump in a shuttle, I was not a pilot and a pilot was what we would need to get out of here.

As far as I knew, nobody else here could do any better. Maybe the spacers?

Reaching the hangar, we were met with a bad sight. Greenskins everywhere. Digging through boxes. Tearing parts off servitors.

One seemed to be having fun with a armor cutter, the heavy blade whining as he waved it around, chasing a gretchen to the laughter of his fellow Orks.

We pressed against the wall next to the gate. I spared another glance inside and could see how they had arrived, some sort of crude shuttle had landed in the hangar. It looked like somebody had taken a normal Imperial shuttle and welded half a scrapyard of armor plates and guns on it.

They had parked it across three landing spots. Crookedly.

Funny how the mind works in these situations. That made me madder than anything else about this which was just stupid, but that almost seemed to be the drop that caused my cup to overfill.

Our shuttle looked untouched so far, being at the far side of the hangar.

Ducking back in, I put my finger against my combead, "Kim, do you hear me?" I whispered, "It's Tezzeret."

"Int...ator?" I heard a voice cutting through the interference.

"Where are you?"

"-an't hea-... lock-...flightde-...rks in the-"

What I wouldn't give to be a psyker sometimes. But that sounded like...

"Orks in the shuttle?" I asked, "Confirm, Orks in the shuttle."

"-firmed."

Damn. Hmm. What do we have… the shuttle has weapons, but most are aimed forward. They could swivel, but not behind it.

Something in it?

I looked at the rest, "Sergeant, how are we doing with grenades?"

"Three frag, sir." He confirmed, "Do you have a plan?"

I nodded, "I'll be able to give them a distraction. When they are distracted, lob grenades at the largest groups and then we just book it for the shuttle."

"...Not much of a plan," he said quietly.

"No," I agreed, "but we don't have much of a choice in the matter. We get to the shuttle or we die. Because they will just keep coming."

Darien sighed and checked the charge of his lasgun, "Right you are, sir. Frack, I hate Orks."

 

[Hiver]

Unit XR-001t activated, diagnostic runes scrolling through its field of vision as it disconnected from it's charging port and lifted off towards the corner of the passenger space of the shuttle.

Two Orks were inside, digging through the boxes and possessions.

Unit XR-001t analyzed the two greenskin and changed from paralyzing darts to a lethal needler magazine and then waited, floating silently on anti-grav currents.

The Orks grunted to each other in their guttural language and one of them swept a bag of clothes off one of the benches before he pulled a large cargo container out from beneath one of the benches.

He tugged at the lid, shaking the heavy box for a second before he lifted his choppa and beat at the locks until they sprung open with a twang.

The Ork grunted and tugged the lid open.

A six limbed metal shape seemingly made of razor blades launched itself from the box, it's two forelimbs stabbing a pair of sharp blades into the chest and neck of the Ork with the speed and accuracy of pneumatic pistons.

The Ork yelled and screamed, roaring in as much anger as pain as it stumbled backwards, trying to fight the vivisector robot that was ripping it apart.

Unit XR-001t aimed at the second Ork even as it moved to help it's companion, but it didn't have time to fire as the vivisector robot launched itself from one Ork to the next, stabbing and slicing.

Unit XR-001t floated down and accelerated out of the shuttle, out into the hangar, tracking and firing the needle gun as it's flew along the length of the large open space, following a preprogrammed route to avoid as much return fire as possible.

The Orks roared a waaaagh in challenge and opened fire, stubber and bolter fire ripping through the air towards the little servo skull.

That's when we struck.

A pair of grenades detonating with massive krumps, turning groups of Ork into gibs of blood and guts. As they went off, we exited the corridor and opened fire at any Ork that even looked like it was going to turn in our direction.

Holding my lasgun to my shoulder, I fired, aimed, fired, aimed, fired.

Lasfire ripped through the air and we ran for the shuttle.

"Go! Go!" I yelled, "Naria! Get to the shuttle! Kim, get those engines running, we're going to be neck deep in Orks in about three seconds!"

Already the horde of greenskin had started to turn, it's momentum shifting and more and more realized that they were under attack from something else than that little flying pest.

Sending a command to the Vivisector unit, I ran towards the shuttle with the rest, firing as I ran. Darien pounded up the ramp and the robot rushed past him in the other direction, almost bowling the guardsman over.

It charged straight past us and launched itself at the closest Ork, following the last command it would ever get.

Initiate Purge Protocol.

It would attack and kill everything it found until it ran out of energy or was destroyed. So about ten seconds or so at this rate.

I reached the ramp and dropped my empty lasgun as it ran empty. Pulling my laspistol, I started firing in the general direction of the Orks as Narias spider legs clacked up the ramp as quickly as they would go.

Hitting the close button before she was even fully on it, I touched my combead as the typically unaimed weapons fire of the Orks hit all around us and I ducked into cover the best I could, "Kim! Go!"

The howl of the shuttles engines went up and we started to move.

There was a scream of pain somewhere behind me and then the ram closed and I felt the deck shift beneath me, threatening to throw me off my feet.

Holstering my laspistol, I grabbed a handhold as I felt the shuttle swing around a second before I heard a faint hizzsnap from the multi-lasers mounted beneath the wings opened up at full auto.

One of the spacers that had tagged along was dead. Must have been a bolter round, everything above the bottom of his ribcage was missing. Or rather spread across the walls and floor.

Biting back a curse, I struggled up towards the small flightdeck.

"Everybody, strap in!" Darien yelled, "This is going to be a rough one!"

The shuttle twisted, throwing me against the wall and I hung on tight before hitting the button and struggling onto the small flightdeck. Not much more than two chairs and a small nuck towards the side for a weapon servitor.

"How are we looking?" I asked as I dropped down into the free chair, quickly strapping in.

"Concentrating."

That was all I got as she was fully invested in her instruments, fingers dancing across the flight sticks buttons as the stars whirled and shifted outside the canopy.

Okay, fair enough. Don't disturb the pilot.

So I just hung on to my harness and watched the instruments, leaving her to the business of not getting us shot down.

Beep, Beep, Beep.

Reaching out, she flicked a couple of buttons and everything went dead but a single panel in the center of the control panel, showing a sensor image of space around us.

Kim sighed and relaxed back against her seat, "There," she said.

"Shouldn't we get out of here?" Darien asked as he climbed onto the flightdeck, hanging on to a handhold.

I shook my head, "Not a pilot, but that auspex screen tells me that we are in the middle of a debris field. If we start to maneuver or burn away, we'll stand out."

Kim nodded, "Exactly, If we run, they will chase us. They'll have to, it's what they do. See that blip moving?" she asked and pointed, "That's an Orkish fighta-bomba. They have fighters deployed. We're in a civilian shuttle with some guns bolted on, one of those would rip us to shreds. Better we coast for a day or two away from the battle, pretend to be some spacejunk."

"Any idea where we are yet?" I asked, my eyes at the auspex screen.

Kim nodded, "I asked the ship's Machine-Spirit while I waited for the rest of the team," she said, "We're in the right system, out in the halo. This is an interplanetary shuttle, assuming we don't get shot down I can get us to the primary planet in a week or so."

Assuming we'd want to. For all we knew, it was crawling with nothing but Orks.

"Let's focus on not getting shot first."

I need a vacation.

 

[Hiver]

That week spent cooped up in a small shuttle was not comfortable and by the time we started to get closer to the planet, enough to see it like a dot of blue in the distance, most everyone was crawling up the bulkheads.

Dropping down in the copilots seat, I held a hot mug of recaf out to our pilot. Kim glanced at me and took it, "Thanks."

"See anything?" I asked, wishing for the millionth time this last week that we had any tea.

But nope. We had about two more days of emergency rations yet, so no matter if that planet was made of nothing but Orks, we didn't have much of a choice but to go there.

Maybe we could chance for one of the few void stations in the system and hope it had not been infested already, but the odds of that were low as is.

"I think so," Kim said and sipped her borderline heretical liquid, reaching to point at the auspex screen, "See these blips in orbit?"

"Energy signatures?"

She nodded, "Ships. The cogitator is thinking about it, but can't tell if they are Imperial or other yet. We're going in unpowered on ballistics, if we're lucky, we'll be able to tell what they are before they see us."

"And if they do spot us?"

"Well then we're nice and properly fracked, aren't we?" she said with a grin.

"Any void stations?"

She nodded and switched to bring up a map of the system, "Out in the belt. Mostly mining platforms. Can get there in a couple of days."

She didn't add the fact that while we might have rations to get there, we wouldn't have enough to get back or even get to one of the others if that one turned out to be crawling with Orks.

Even with all the risks, the planet was still our best chance.

The worst thing about all of this?

This wasn't even in the top three most 'we're fucked' situations I have been in.

But right now, there was nothing we could do but wait and prepare, "If they are Orks, can you get us down?"

She nodded, "Oh, that'll happen. Tricky thing will be doing it in one piece. I have us on a trajectory that'll put us in high atmo while unpowered. If they miss us, we'll go in like a meteorite. There is a chance they'll miss us landing."

"And if they don't?"

She shrugged.

Awesome.

I crossed my arms, closed my eyes and tried my best to get comfortable to get some rest while I could. Odds were that it would be in short supply soon.

After what felt like about four seconds, I was woken up by a blaring alarm as the shuttle jerked me towards the side as Kim yelled into her microphone, "Break off! Break off! Unknown Fury, break off!"

Letting out a paint blistering curse, she sent us into a turning roll.

I could see the shape on the auspex, shifting around faster than we would move. It wasn't alone either, it was just the closest of what seemed to be four.

Quickly strapping in, I reached for the second headset, slipping it on and started to scan for vox channels until I found one that sounded scrambled.

Pulling out my Interrogators rosette, I plugged it in and set it to cut through the encryption and it only took a couple of seconds before my copy of Aurelius Inquisitorial override codes broke through.

"-am the fucker is slippery!"

"This is Interrogator Tezzeret of the Inquisition!" I yelled into the vox, "Break off your attack! The shuttle is friendly!"

The shuttle suddenly shuddered beneath me, throwing me against my restraints as Kim taught me a couple of new curses. Alarms blared.

"Break off your attack!"

"We're hit," Kim reported needlessly, flipping a couple of switches to silence the alarms, "Right wing is shredded, we lost some thrusters. Lucky we weren't ripped into pieces."

"Interrogator?" a voice asked across the Vox, "Please confirm your identity."

I tapped a couple of keys, sending my personal identity code.

There was a pause of almost a minute before the voice spoke up again, "Oh thank the throne. I am Lieutenant Skalavar, you took some damage, can you still fly?"

I glanced at Kim. She glared at me and looked like she wanted to smack a bitch, but she didn't say anything.

"We're good," I said, "Escort back would be nice though."

Blips moved into formation around us on the auspex, "Transmitting the course now."

I looked at Kim and she nodded, tapping in a course before taking the controls again and we started to shift around towards the planet again.

"It's down on the planet, not a ship," she reported.

I nodded and tried to get my heart rate back down as I watched the planet ahead with a bit of trepidation.

One thing I have come to expect in this line of work was that absolutely nobody ever was happy to see you.

The fact that somebody now was, made the skin at the back of my neck crawl.







AN// Happy new year!

 

[Hiver]

Shrugging my coat on, I picked up my Interrogator rosette and attached it to a silver chain before slipping it over my neck and looking into the small mirror.

Luckily most of our gear had already been moved to the shuttle or never unpacked. One of those was most of my clothes.

I had gone with 'Inquisitorial Goon #3'. Which meant jackboots, leather coat and a lot of dark colors with =][= symbols on every buckle.

Which was exactly what most people were expecting when meeting a member of the Inquisition and perception was important. Looking busy carrying a dataslate or a ladder/wearing a hardhat can get you into a lot of restricted areas.

Same way that looking like the scary Interrogator would give me as much or maybe even more access than Aurelius had invested in me with the junior copy of his own symbol of power.

Closing my eyes, I took a slow deep breath.

Funny how much about my job involved acting. Did not expect that when this entire thing started. Or the paperwork. Sure, there was running and screaming and shots fired, but between those sessions it was a lot of acting and paperwork.

So much paperwork and research. Nine out of ten moments of this job was digging through archives or cross checking information.

I felt the shuttle settle down somewhere and I nodded to myself before I turned and left the very small bathroom of the shuttle and entered the main compartment.

"We're landed," Kim called out from the compartment, "We have some company, looks like PDF from here. They have a very big gun aimed at us."

"So be polite. Think you can do that?" I called back.

"I don't get paid that well!"

Grinning briefly, I headed towards the exit ramp, hitting the open button on the way.

The air outside was a very familiar one by now, filled with the scent of sun baked rockcrete, promethium fumes and hot metal.

The scent of every spaceport in the Imperium. The air was filled with the sound of idling engines and at the bottom of the ramp stood a group of soldiers. Their white and purple uniforms indicated that they were members of the local PDF.

Large specimens too. I'm not short, but everybody present seemed to be at least two meters tall.

I regarded them for a moment before I strode down the ramp to the rockcrete, giving the lead man a nod, "Captain. I am Interrogator Tezzeret, here on behalf of Inquisitor Dermand Aurelius of the Ordo Xenos."

He quickly went to attention, saluting. The tall man had short brown hair and his sunbaked face was clean shaven.

"Sir," He said, "I am Captain Jung, Saigel PDF. I have orders to escort you to the Lord-General.."

"Let's get to it then," I said with a nod before glancing back, "Sergeant."

Darien walked down the ramp, his lasgun resting across his chest, bringing Zhivko along, "Ready sir."

With that, we followed Captain Jung and his men to a trio of waiting Chimeras. I had only been in one a couple of times, but it seemed to be a common pattern.

Dropping into one of the seats, I glanced around. Why send a trio of chimera rather than an aircar or even a landcar?

Even more, why send three chimeras? Especially as we had landed on the main PDF base of the planet and we clearly weren't going very far.

Did they expect to be attacked in their own base?

We didn't see any Ork ships around the planet when we got closer, what exactly is going on here? Did they manage to land troops before being driven off?

But if that was the case, why were they so nervous in their own base?

More and more questions and very little in the way of answers yet.

I didn't like any of this. I didn't like it at all.

I had been right though, it was only a ten minute drive before the transport slowed to a halt and one of the men opened the rear ramp.

Stepping out into the bright sunlight, I walked straight towards the command bunker ahead before looking to the left at the sound of engines and tracks. A trio Leman Russ growled past, tracks clicking against the rockcrete.

As they moved off, the sound of thunder in the distance filtered through.

No. Not thunder.

The skies were clear. That wasn't thunder, that was artillery fire… and close enough to be audible from their headquarters.

Fuck.

Continuing down into the shadow, I walked down into the command bunker. Captain Jung hurried up to walk before me, getting the guards to open the doors.

Several checkpoints later, we were in the CnC room propper. Large auspex screens, the place was filled with people moving around doing their duties, speaking into microphones or pointing at dataslates.

I gave it all a once over and then walked over to look at a hololith in the center of the room, looking up at the large map display projected above it.

Battle lines were drawn up, unit numbers glowing above positions. Areas in red seemed to be contested. What's worse, a third of the planet was in red.

"Interrogator?"

I turned to look at a massive man. As tall as everybody else I have seen, but also very fat. His uniform seemed to be made from nicer material than the rest and he wore enough medals to deflect a bolter round. Next to him was a thinner man, just as tall with only half the medals needed to forge an artillery piece.

"I am Lord-General Joel Hauxely XXIV," he said with a nod, "Welcome to Saigel," before he motioned to the thinner man next to him, "This is General Lux, my second in command."

"Thank you, Lord-General," I said with a nod in greeting, "Now, would you mind filling me on whatever is going on here?"

 

[Hiver]

Lord-General Hauxely XXIV walked up next to me, looking up at the hololith of the planet, "It started when the Orks arrived," he said and raised a fat hand, pointing at a section of the planet marked with several orkish symbols I had not seen at first glance, "They landed here and still have significant forces on the planet. Or so we think, they are cut off from us by the rebels."

"Rebels?"

He looked grim as he nodded, "Soon after the Orks landed, the population seemed to panic. But soon it was revealed it was anything but a panic. Entire cities of the peasants rose up. Hertics, all of them!"

I raised one eyebrow, "According to reports, the local population doesn't have anything more advanced than steam power. How exactly did they overthrow imperial enclaves armed with artillery and lasguns?"

Hauxely made a disgusted sound, "Because several of those same enclaves joined the rebels!"

I nodded. That sounded like genestealers to me.

Which was not a good thing. At all.

"Continue."

He nodded, "Soon after the heretics rose up, we lost contact with the rest of the sector, none of the astropaths could get through. A warpstorm is surrounding our system."

Which explains why Dorian died. But genestealers don't cause warpstorms, they can call in a fleet and cause a shadow in the warp, but they didn't cause warpstorms.

If it was a chaos cult which it sounded like… if they were deep and entrenched enough to have psykers able to do rituals to cause a warpstorm, that was bad.

Very, very bad. As in call in the Space Marines level of bad.

Which we couldn't do because of the warpstorm. Fuck.

"Have you tried sending ships?"

He nodded, "Two. Neither has returned. But I assumed they got through as you have arrived. Are reinforcements coming?"

I shook my head, "Not to my knowledge. My master sent me to investigate why you have gone quiet. When I fail to report back, I suspect he may call in reinforcements, but that's months if not years away. How bad is the situation?"

He looked grimmly at the hololith of the planet, "We're holding them back, but have so far been unable to push them back either but the planetary governor has given me full authority on this matter. We are in the process of planning a major offensive here," he said and pointed towards a place on the southern continent, "If successful it will retake this enclave and half their production ability."

"I want full access to all your information."

"Of course, Interrogator."

I looked up towards the hololith before I frowned and spotted another symbol about four hundred kilometers north from our current position, "Lord-General," I asked mildly, "Why is there a Tau symbol on this map?"

"That's the Tau enclave," he said after a moment, "They have a trade station here, the Planetary Governor has approved them trading with the local nobility."

"I see," I said, crossing my arms as I regarded the map.

Not too unexpected, we were somewhat close to the area of space claimed by the Tau. Not a good thing and this place would need a purge, but right now we had more important things to worry about.

Priorities.

Because quite frankly, if we can't get ships here or out, neither can the Tau.

They were as cut off as we were.

Tau. Orks. Heretics.

Motherfuck.

"Me and my team are going to need somewhere to work," I said, turning to look at him, "And I'm going to need complete cooperation from you and your men. If the heretics have spread as far as they have, there are going to be spies and saboteurs in the loyalist PDF as well. And in the civilian population."

The Lord-General looked grim but nodded, "Of course, Interrogator."

I looked up at the map again. This was bad. This was very, very bad. Orks would have been bad enough, but with a full heretical uprising as well…

At least the Orks seemed to be involved with the heretics. That likely kept both sides distracted and their forces split.

But they were still not focused on the PDF, but still not only holding us back but taken a third of the planet. If they were still busy with the Orks…

The moment they won, we'd be overrun. Or just as bad, if the Orks managed to defeat them, then we'd be dealing with the green tide.

First thing however, I needed to get somewhere to work set up and get my team gathered. The best and most important thing I could do right now would be to vet the PDF leadership and then work my way down.

Rooting out spies and traitors was part of my job after all.

I turned and looked towards Zhivko, "Zhivko, would you mind going to get the rest?"

"Of course, Interrogator," he said and saluted before turning to walk out.

"Let's see where we can set up shop," I told Darien before I looked at the Lord-General, "Unless there is something else I can assist you with, Lord-General?"

The Lord-General nodded, "As a matter of fact, Interrogator, we do have some heretic prisoners. I assume you would like access to them as well?"

"That might be most helpful," I agreed before I turned and headed towards the exit.

 

[Hiver]

"-Interviewer Interrogator Tezzeret, Ordo Xenos. Subject is Captain Wilk Abraiah, 12th armor brigade, Saigel Prime PDF. The time is.." I pulled a clock from my pocket, checking it before continuing in voice sounding as bored as I felt, "18:52 local."

We were in a rockcrete box, empty but for a pair of chairs and a table. It was slightly cold, the airconditioning humming with a small clicking sound every few seconds. I didn't wear my goon clothes this time, my more regularly worn 'mid level administratum' clothes was a much better fit.

Across the desk from me was my twelfth interview today, Captain Abraiah. He was equally tall as any of the locals. Pale with blue eyes and a shaved head and a scar on his cheek shaped like a crescent moon. Looked like he had burned himself on something.

"Please confirm your name for the records."

He swallowed, "Captain Wilk Abraiah, 12th armor brigade, Saigel Prime PDF, sir."

"Subject has confirmed his identity," I continued and looked at the dataslate again before I glanced at him, "43 years of age, no registered partner, mother and father lives at Habsection Twenty Three, manufactorum workers. One older sister, Tabina Abraiah-"

"Two, sir."

I raised my eyebrow and looked at him, "Excuse me?"

"Two sisters, sir. I have a younger sister too, Riga."

"Hmm, I see," I said and made a note. I knew that of course, it was in his files. I needed to get him engaged for this to work the best way it could and it was almost impossible for somebody to not correct you about things like that. If he hadn't that would actually been a soviet sized red flag.

I finally set the dataslate down as I met his eyes, my augmented eye zooming in on his face, "Do you know why you are here, Captain?" I asked after a long moment.

"No, sir."

I tapped my finger on the dataslate, "You visited the Shavalla Enclave four days before hostility broke out. May I ask why?"

He tensed slightly and nodded, "I was visiting a friend, sir."

"A friend?" I asked and checked the dataslate, "The same reason for your other seven visits to that Enclave? Each time you have weekend leave?"

"Yes, sir."

"May I ask their name?"

"Adam Luset, sir."

I nodded and picked up the dataslate, tapping in the information, "You must be worried," I commented.

"Yes, sir."

I glanced at him, "You hope he's safe?"

There.

I rewinded and played it again, slower this time. There was a slight twitch at the corner of his eye when he sensed the trap. Excellent. Same as when I mentioned the sister.

Wilk took a slow breath, "I… like to think he's not involved. If he's not, I wish for him to stay safe. If not, Warp takes him."

Nodding slowly, I leaned back in my chair, crossing my arms, "We all want our loved ones to stay safe," I told him quietly, "It's perfectly natural. It must be difficult for you."

"...Yes, sir."

"Well, you're hardly the only one to have loved ones stuck on the other side of the frontline," I said and looked at the dataslate again, "But I have to check in on everyone in critical positions. By the time I'm done, the war will be long over."

Not a single lie there. Two weeks in and I was ready to shoot somebody.

Possibly myself.

He relaxed slightly, "I can see how that must be an impossible task."

I smiled tiredly at him before I leaned back, rubbing my eyes with the palms of my hands, "You have no idea. A dozen or more interviews a day, every day for… well, so far the list is growing faster than I can work through it. Join the Inquisition they said, it will be exciting they said…"

That drew a small grin from him, "Sounds like the PDF."

"More than you think," I agreed, "So let's just get through this with the least trouble for everybody possible, okay? I just want to call it a day and have a drink and I still have like four hours of paperwork after we're done here. I have been doing this for fourteen hours today and I haven't even had lunch yet."

He nodded, "Sounds like a fair thing, sir. What do you want to know?"

I smiled and picked up the dataslate, "Well, we can start with…"

That continued for another thirty minutes with more or less standard questions about how he grew up, his career in the PDF, his training and his duties now.

"-and which platform did you land on on your last trip to the Shavalla Enclave?" I asked, "Third or forth?"

Twitch.

"Fourth I believe, sir, but I'm not sure."

I nodded and tapped the note down, "I see. Well, I suppose it doesn't matter," I said and he relaxed slightly.

He was definitely hiding something. All transports between here and Shavalla Enclave went to their second and forth landing platforms via landtrains. Was the twitch because he didn't remember or because he didn't go there? Or because he went there but stopped somewhere on the way?

I reviewed the footage from my eye again.

I glanced through his file on the dataslate before I nodded, "I think that's all for today. Thank you for your cooperation Captain. I know it's a bother, but we all have our duties."

Sometimes I wished I had the gift of a psyker. This is why I brought Dorian damn it! Then something like what happened to Dorian happens. Damn it, he didn't deserve to die like that. I really wish he had been here for this, having a telepath you can trust along makes these things a lot easier.

"Thank you, sir. Please, let me know if there is anything else I can do to help."

I smiled at him, "Of course," I agreed, putting him on the shortlist for surveillance.

 

[Hiver]

The cells in the arbiters compound where the prisoners were being held was a hole in the ground. Literally.

Five stories beneath ground of grey rockcrete of cell after cell just big enough for a bunk and a toilet and little else.

The prisoners could stand up and stretch out, but that was about as far as amenities went. There wasn't any dripping water or anything, but it was chill and moist, feeling like a basement.

I had been down here multiple times since I got started with my work here and every time I interviewed one of the prisoners… it distubed me.

So far, I had not interacted a lot with the followers of the ruinous powers. I served the Ordo Xeno, I dealt with aliens.

But these… These worried me in their madness.

I stopped and pointed at one of the cells, "This one," I said. The two arbites that had come with me and Darien walked past and moved to open the door.

"Stand back! Stand back from the door!"

"FUCK YOU!" echoed muffled through the door.

"Imaginative," Darien commented, his hand resting on his empty laspistol holster. Nobody in the prison was to be armed. Even the guards only had shock mauls.

If a prisoner managed to get their hands on one, there was a limit on how much damage they could do.

Technically I could have overridden it as a servant of the Inquisition, but I happened to agree with this rule.

"Stand back, Heretic!" The right guard yelled through the door, "or you'll regret it!"

The answer was somewhat rude about the guards mother and her involvement with grox.

"I need him alive and talking," I reminded the guards before they got any ideas.

"Understood Interrogator," the one I had mentally assigned as Guard A said with a nod, "Ready?" he asked his partner.

"Ready."

With that, they unlocked the door and charged inside. The man inside met their charge with a roar and I got my first look at him. Tall and muscular like the rest of the locals, his head was shaved and heavily scared across one side. A symbol was branded on his other cheek and he was dressed in what remained of a bright red jumpsuit. He had torn it away from his upper body, having torn the fabric into strips and wrapped around his hands.

The first guard met him head on, swinging in with his shock maul. The man ducked in, causing him to miss as he slammed his meaty fist into the guard's chin, sending the guard spinning to the ground.

The second guard's shock maul hit him in the side, the discharge sending him tumbling against the wall. He basically rebounded off it, throwing himself onto the second guard, tackling him to the floor.

"Oh by the cogs," I muttered with a sigh, "Darien, would you mind?"

"My pleasure, Interrogator," Sergeant Weller said and rushed into the cell, snatching up the fallen shock maul before jabbing it at the back of the neck of the heretic before he could finish beating the guard to death.

He dropped like somebody had cut his strings.

Walking into the cell as Darien rolled him off the bleeding guard, I quickly checked on the two guards. Both were alive, one bleeding after his beating but already climbing to his feet and the first one unconscious.

Holding up a hand to stop the bleeding guard from doing something dumb like retaliating against the prisoner, I crouched down to look down into the heretics face as he struggled to breath, "What you're feeling is the remains of the shock maul going through your system," I told him, "Don't worry, you'll start regain your ability to move and feel in a couple of minutes. Please, allow me to introduce myself, I am Interrogator Tezzeret of His Imperial Majesty's Holy Inquisition, Ordo Xenos.I have some questions I need you to answer for me."

He glared up at me.

"I'll take that as an agreement," I said, "Now, what is your name?"

Apparently the effects of the shock maul had subsided a bit already as he managed to gain enough control to spit at me.

I pulled a napkin from my pocket, drying it off my cheek, "Thank you," I said and handed it over to Darien, "Please run a genescan on this, we should be able to find him in the archives if he's an Enclave inhabitant or an offworlder."

Of course, I already knew who he was.

Jaren Cornek. A mill worker from Regnesh Enclave. He had been a supervisor even and had been captured during one of the assaults on the PDF lines after he got stuck beneath some fallen debri in a collapsed building.

But theater and misdirection was my primary method for these things. Pain had its place, but people would say anything to make it stop. You could never trust any of it unless you already had corroborating evidence and by then you didn't need to torture them in the first place.

Only real use for it was if there was something extremely urgent you needed to know. Because at least there was some chance of getting what you need. And even then there were… options.

"Now," I continued and slowly stood up as a full squad of guards reached the cell, "Please convey the prisoner to the interrogation room," I told them, "Unharmed if you please."

Of course, not to say that there wasn't a use for enhanced interrogation instead.

And that room had been prepared already. The uncomfortable chair with ever so slightly uneven legs. The cool and very dry air. The clock that ticked slightly unevenly. The soft hum of the illuminators.

I'd join him there in five or six hours.

 

[Hiver]

"Keep an eye on it," I said to Naria, "See if you can find any other records about it. If not, we may have to check it out."

She nodded, "I agree, Interrogator. The Mechanicus expedition to the site may be of importance to the defense of this world."

She had found an anomaly. A couple of weeks before the Orks arrived, the Mechanicus had sent an expedition out to what looked like a locally operated and constructed mining operation. Digging iron of all things.

Right now it was still on our side of the lines, but it was relatively close to the Tau enclave and the front was moving in that direction. If we needed to check it out in person, we needed to do it fast.

For all we know, somebody stumbled upon a particularly nice glowing fungus and some mangos-biologis got his gears all lubed up about it, but it could also be a star destroying dark age of technology uber weapon.

No way of knowing. So unless any of the local Mechanicus felt like sharing, we had to check it out.

I nodded to her before I turned and continued down the corridor towards the interview room. The guard outside opened the door and allowed me inside.

This time I was dressed for effect. Full on Inquisitorial goon, including the long leather coat with Skull pauldrons, carapace body armor beneath it and a smirk at my lips.

"Mister Cornek," I said as I closed the door behind myself before turning to face him. He was sitting in the uncomfortable metal chair on the other side of the table, heavy metal shackles holding his hands to the chair, the chair itself bolted to the rockcrete floor, "You is in quite a lot of trouble," I told him as I walked to sit down across from him before putting my feet onto the corner of the table.

He tugged at his shackles, "Fuck you."

"You're not my type, I'm afraid," I answered as I regarded him, "You had a pretty good life once. Mill supervisor, wife and children. Why did you throw in with the chaos worshiping lunatics?"

Cornek tugged at his shackles again, "You have no idea what it's like! The Imperium… What have you bastards ever done for us!? He showed us the Truth!"

"Well," I said and held my gloved hand up, counting on my fingers, "Keep you safe from xenos, safe from heretics… build a lot of bridges, I saw an aqueduct on the way here. Education centers. Set a standard for sausages. A lot of things."

"Fuck you and your Imperium! We won't be your slaves anymore! The Prophet of Truth will free us and the rest of the galaxy from your tyranny!"

I sighed and shook my head, "Mister Cornek, you already know your fate, You're going to die for your crimes against the Imperium. I won't insult your intelligence and say you will be alright. I'm not going to threaten you, I'm not going to torture you. Quite frankly I have too much work to do and too little time. So I'm going to give you a choice about your fate, possibly your last and most important choice. Cooperate and at worst and you will die quickly and cleanly to a firing squad or if I can pull it, be able to join a penal legion. Don't and you will be turned into a servitor to serve the Imperium in a way you wouldn't in life."

"Monster."

"That's a matter of perspective," I said and reached into my pocket to pull out a small flask of amasec, taking a sip, "Want some? It's pretty good."

He just glared at me.

"Oh well," I said and set my feet back onto the table as I put my flask back in my pocket as I stood up, "Let the guards know if you want to talk, you have until tomorrow to think about it, I'm going to want your answer then. If not, well, I'm afraid I'd have to move on with one of your friends instead. Sooner or later I'll get what I want," I said before I shrugged, "And if not, we get servitors. Win-win I'd say."

I closed the door behind me, leaving him in the mostly silent concrete box to the clicking of the clock on the wall.

The door locked and I looked to the guard, "If he hasn't asked for me by sunrise tomorrow, take him outside and shoot him in the head. If he does, let me know and take him back to his cell until I return."

If he talked, awesome. It would give me datapoints. If not, there was no use keeping him around to potentially cause trouble.

The guard saluted, "Yes, sir."

I nodded and headed out. I needed to get to the literal mountain of reports from the commissars of the local PDF. Or rather, the one Commissar that had the very unfortunate timing of visiting the planet when the entire thing went down. Normally he was the Commissar assigned to this system's PDF and the PDF of the thirteen more systems in the sector.

I'm surprised he didn't spend most of his time drinking to be honest, I would if I had this job. But he was doing a remarkable job in correlating and sorting all the reports from the officers of all the PDF units, sending me anything that might be related to my work.

That and I had six more normal interviews today.

Some that I may have executed if they couldn't account for some discrepancies in their paperwork. Executed because of errors in paperwork.

And the worst thing about it? In this case it was absolutely the right thing to do. Some of them were members of the PDF. Some were members of the Administratum.

If they really were traitors… the damage some of them could do if they really were traitors were horrific.

There were times I absolutely hated having accepted the Inquisitor's offer of a job. And it was never when running from some xenos monstrosity or getting shot at.

It was when doing things like this. But before now… before now I had never been in charge. It had always been Inquisitor Aurelius' call what to do.

Now? Now it was all on me. If I fucked up, somebody innocent died. Somebody with loved ones, family. If I fucked up the other direction, possibly a lot of innocents would die.

Maybe everybody on the planet.

Then there was whatever bullshit was causing the warpstorm around the planet, if it was the heretic psykers that caused it, what were they doing with it? Just keeping reinforcements from showing up? Or preparing for something even worse?

Stopping before exiting the underground maze of cells and rooms, I pulled my prop flask from my pocket and took a long swig of the burning amber liquid inside.

There were times I wished I believed in the Emperor.

It would have made things so much easier.