Chapter 8 Part 6
Chapter 8: The calm before the storm
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Part 6
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Victory Bay
Kronus
There is no rest for the Inquisition or so it seemed. It felt that I just laid down my head on the pillow after the midnight visit by my newest prospective retinue members when someone else was knocking on the door. As it turned out, I've managed to spend a few hours dead to the world, because it was early in the morning when General Alexander's aide came to summon me for an unscheduled meeting – not a good sign. I got up, made myself presentable, fast, got my gear, and followed the young officer to see what was the newest fire that needed putting out.
I found General Alexander and Captain Thule in a tactical room, full of cogitators and display screens, looking at various pictures, helmet camera feeds, and live transmissions from Servo-Skulls. The atrocities against good sense and sanity on display were more than enough to get me wide awake within a moment.
"Is that a mutated Ogryn crossed with a crab?" I stared at something that judging by the Chimera it walked beside, had to be at least three-meter tall abomination.
"There are Nurgle corrupted ones too," General Alexander nodded to a screen on his left.
There, displayed in all its rotten glory, stood a picture of a sickly-green monstrosity that had more in common with a Chaos-spawned daemon than an Ogryn.
"We've got a Traitor Regiment moving our way from the Deimos Peninsula. As far as any records and trustworthy personnel could tell us, there was only supposed to be a company or two of regular PDF soldiers looking over the former Governor's interests over there, not a whole Regiment, much less what looks like it was the best equipped one on the planet before our arrival." The disgust in General Alexander's voice was evident, and it wasn't just because of the abominations shuffling and crawling our way.
"We could have used those soldiers and machines… if they weren't corrupted, traitors." I agreed after finding a screen displaying a list of the traitors' confirmed assets and nearly whistled.
That wasn't a regular PDF of Guard Regiment, it was a proper combined arms formation lacking only air-assets… and said assets might have been the ones that jumped us while we retreated from the Deimos Peninsula after failing to recover Inquisitor Requista alive.
"Tell me about it. What's more, the only Ogryns on the planet should be a couple of PDF fire-teams, which are accounted for and the two squads we've got left after our last campaign. Ours are very much accounted for and not corrupted, I had my Psykers look them over before calling you in. Inquisitor, I need you to look into this," General Alexander waved at the images surrounding us. "Especially the local Ogryns and what else the Traitors might have, that they aren't supposed to. We need that information before we hit Deimos Peninsula if at all possible. You're the Inquisitor, please investigate, My Lord. You'll have our unconditional support in this venture."
"I'll get to it. I'll need access to the PDF Ogryns for interrogation. Surviving officers from the local PDF, especially anyone in their logistics branch – that much gear, it needs a lot of spare parts, especially if people train with it, and that should have left a record, otherwise, we have an even larger problem." I spoke, falling back upon my training.
"Consider it done. I have the Ogryns surrounded and ready to receive you, Inquisitor. I'll have my Aide give you the names of all the relevant officers, their locations, and ready a standing orders for their units to cooperate with you no matter what they say. You'll have at least a Company ready to back you up in case we're harboring traitors in our midst." The General spoke with controlled, burning anger.
"That's appreciated, General. Captain Thule, I'll appreciate if I can have a fire-team of your Astartes on call just in case."
"I'll have them ready, Brother-Librarian Anteas will be able to call them quietly if you need them. Do you need anything else, Inquisitor?"
"Nothing you can provide at this time, Captain Thule. I'll inform you both when I have anything of interest."
So much for a couple of quiet days before all hell broke loose, literally in this case…
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Twenty minutes later, I had my retinue assembled, briefed, and geared up, so we could get to work. That was a very prudent decision on my part, I concluded, the moment I saw the local Ogryns. We found them in a "small" barracks complex left for their use, and it wasn't hard to figure out why – even the "civilized" Ogryns, who did bathe, sometimes, still stank to high heaven, giving yesterday's battlefield a run for its money. They were all huge mountains of muscle too, with only one of them about Anteas' size, who granted was practically on the tiny side as far as Astartes went, but still a full-fledged Space Marine…
The Ogryns were all mean, lean, veterans, which was made evident by the myriad of scars covering every visible part of their skins and the many Bionic implants making them whole. That also explained their presence here – they either intentionally left to retire here or the Administratum simply forgot about them, and predictably, they ended up as a part of the local PDF, which at least in theory was the safest option for everyone involved.
I frowned when I didn't notice any Sergeants among them, they were all regular enlisted personnel, which meant, less than bright, even for Ogryns…
"Lads, I'm Inquisitor Veil, and I have questions." I proclaimed loudly, getting everyone's attention. Until our arrival, the Ogryns were milling around in confusion, likely unsettled after the General's pet mind-fuckers examined them for taint. I would be less than pleased in their shoes as well, which was a pointed reminder that something like that awaited me in the future, along with a rigorous interrogation; if I survived the fighting on Kronus anyway. I shoved that thought aside while starring up the Ogryns, which probably looked ridiculous for anyone observing us.
It took some very long moments before they could work through my title, question, and the implications. Then something unexpected happened – their faces light up like children during the Sanguina and they began to happily babble at me.
Let me tell you, trying to figure out what they were saying was hard. Did I mention that the average Ogryn, even those in the Guard, aren't that bright, at least in the conventional sense?
"I don't think that's the usual answer when an Inquisitor announces their presence, My Lord…" Lieutenant Pickos muttered from my right, where she was busy staring warily at the overly-happy, bear sized troopers.
"Unless the situation is very grave, usually the Inquisition is met with fear and distrust." Anteas explained in what I began to dub his 'mentor's' voice.
"The only time I've seen something like that was after a sermon from a particularly talented and charismatic priest…" Corporal Santos added.
My Stormtrooper bodyguards had turned up loaded for Ork Nobs, fully armored too, just like General Alexander promised yesterday. They didn't sound particularly unhappy about their change in career choice, though that might not hold up in the future.
"Our young Inquisitor has many talents…" Anteas innocently added.
"Can someone figure out what they're saying besides the bonehead being right?" I interrupted the sickly-fascinated chatter of my retinue.
"That's their Sergeant. Often they call them Bone'eads, that's who they're talking about, My Lord." Sergeant Graves explained. She was the senior surviving NCO of my brand new and lightly decimated Guard Platoon, and likely the second most experienced soldier I could consult with, after the Librarian.
"Good to know, Sarge. What about the Bone'ead? Where is he?" I asked, hoping beyond hope that the Ogryns will become making sense. "Speak one at a time. You," I pointed at the tallest of them, who towered somewhere just above three meters, and thus every one of us had to crank their necks to look him in the face.
"The Bone'ead?" He repeated.
"Yes, the Bone'ead, your Sergeant. Where is he?" I repeated slowly.
The Ogryn waved his hands, looked around, and pointed at one of the more reasonably sized giants.
"The package!" He grinned, showing a row of teeth and something that might have been a tusk before being broken, that would have made most Orks proud. "Bring da package!" He said again.
"Do we need to become nervous right now, sir?" Santos asked flatly. "We have no idea what the package is and even if they're all clean, it's obvious that some other Ogryns on Kronus aren't and their Sergeant might be one of them. This package might be a trap left for both us and them."
"We'll be very careful with it. Perhaps requisition a servitor to open it."
"That's a good idea. Properly paranoid." Anteas said, approval evident in his voice. "We'll make a good, and sane Inquisitor of you, yet."
"Sane?" Lieutenant Pickos dared ask.
"Sane. Some of the Inquisitors I've known, let's just say that they had some interesting quirks and leave it at that." Anteas spoke with a finality that indicated that he won't be answering questions on that topic anytime soon.
"This isn't the time or place for such questions." I chided my retinue. "Why are you so happy to see me?" I asked the huge Ogryn.
"The Bone'ead said you'll come and fix things!" He spoke eagerly and with a visible strain to make his words clear to understand.
"I see. Make what right? Fix what problems?"
"Something not right here!" He waved his hands around helplessly, either not knowing exactly what or how to properly explain. "Bone'ead said Inquisitor makes right! He went to fix things, told us to not go anywhere, no matter what until Inquisitor comes!"
And didn't this have some "interesting" implications?
"I really don't like the sound of this, My Lord," Santos muttered.
"Me neither, Corporal, me neither."
While we were talking, an Ogryn came out of the barracks carrying a sealed sturdy metal case.