Chapter: 3.3

Chapter: Accazius II

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Part: 3

Onboard Departmento Munitorum: Imperial Transport 'Gauntlet'

Armory 010 - Infantry Weapon Stockpile

The Inquisitor's eyes scanned the holographic display, taking in the detailed report regarding the newly summoned troops. She noted the composition of the Aegis Valkyrie unit, a single-sex unit consisting of ten ODSTs from Squad "Sentinel" and the three SPARTAN-II Operatives, led by Captain Elena Credelle... 

Yes, every single soldier she summoned had the same surname as hers, something that the 'Watcher' undoubtedly found extremely amusing. Perhaps she could make use of this unique feature and make up some sort of fake background for herself, probably stomp out her low-born bloodline with some sort of Rogue Trader house. After all, heredity played a surprisingly unique role in the Inquisition.

Greybrand mental monologue ended as she began cataloging the armaments and specializations of each member. It seems that she might have to replace their outdated gunpowder weapons with more advanced ones like guardsmen-issue lasguns or, even better, the Strom Trooper Hellguns. Perhaps they could handle a couple of Bolter Pistols, Meltas, Flamers, Plasma Pistols, and even a couple of Bolter Rifles, but it remains to be seen if the three SPARTANs could handle the recoil. 

The presence of support vehicles was a pleasant surprise but why couldn't she see any of them in the armory? Well, not really. The armory was one of the smaller ones and could barely hold a platoon of snugly fit guardsmen much less a couple of armored vehicles.

[Fear not, insignificant one. The mechanized elements have been added to the armament stockade onboard the 'Gauntlet.' You also don't have to worry about their armor, engine, and fuel requirements. Their incompatible elements have been replaced with native elements.]

The Inquisitor hummed before turning towards the brand new Inquisitorial troopers,

"Alright people, gather around. We have a mission at hand, and I want each of you ready and equipped for the challenges that lie ahead."

The ODSTs and SPARTANs, having finished their initial exploration of the armory, gathered around Inquisitor Greybrand. The holographic interface still hovered in the air, but only she could see it, Emperor knew how that was possible, so she didn't bother with asking.

"Captain Elena,"

She turned to look at the one in charge of the ODST squad and ordered,

"Your ODST Squad 'Sentinel' is henceforth renamed and reassigned to the Tempestus Scions or rather the Inquisitorial Strom Troopers by my authorities as Inquisitor of the Ordo Xeno. You are to prepare for combat and a possible clean sweep mission within two hours."

Elena, the ODST Captain, gave a nod of acknowledgment. Her helmeted face made it impossible for Greybrand to read her expression or to know how she looked. Something she didn't give a frak about, but it would still be a bit inconvenient if someone began asking questions.

'Whelp, to the warp with them! I am a Throne-damned Inquisitor, they will have to listen or I will start unloading my bolt pistol.'

Indeed, her hands have been itching for some action, after all, as a wise commissar once said,

'If I don't shoot a guardsmen a day, I feel like I have failed in my duty to the Emperor.'

After spending the better part of a minute wondering whether she should summon Phantom operatives or not, she decided against it. These women would have to do for now, or at least until she had a better picture of what was to come.

Turning towards the three SPARTANs, who were most definitely NOT playing around with a Heavy Melta, she motioned for them to follow Elena,

"As for you three, follow Captain Elena. I'll be counting on you all to keep my hide intact, preferably while it's still on me, so you better get some of these fine pieces of equipment before your colleagues snag 'em all or the tech-priest binary us out of here." 

The three heavily armored figures nodded in acknowledgment before, much to Greybrand's pleasure, they began stripping the armory of its heavy ordinance.

Despite being an inquisitor, she barely had enough authority on this particular ship to relinquish one armory for herself. A shame since she was pretty sure the one used by the Captain's Honor Guards would have some nice toys but Hox was a hoarder and would not let her anywhere near it.

Despite their bulky armor, these women could move surprisingly quickly when it came to it, as within ten minutes, the armory was cleaner than a planet raided by Tyranids. Emperor knows what bloody monstrosity they might be.

It was one of the first few things she did when her memory gradually started to recover, look into the archives for anything that might confirm her suspicion that those memories were true, and much to her horror, most of them were. Except for one minor flaw that stemmed from the absence of an Xeno species named Tyranids from the Inquisitorial database.

So, the only thing she about them was that they were many and they were hungry. Not the very best Intelligence she could provide about one of the Imperium's greatest enemies in the time to come. 

The year was still somewhere around 600.M41 or maybe it was 620.M41, she couldn't tell since most of the imperial populace preferred using whatever the frak their planet used as a calendar instead of the much more organized Imperial Calendar. A topic she was sure to raise when the next time she met a couple of Ordo Hereticus members, of course, not before breaking their snub noses for pushing this mess into her hands.

 In less than half an hour, her new honor guards were armed with new and probably more effective weapons. Almost every single one of them had discarded their sidearms in favor of the reliable Imperial Bolt Pistol, leaving a gaping emptiness where they were once stored. 

One of the Spartans, whom Greybrand recognized to be Athena by her slightly bulkier form, was sporting a Heavy Flamer, flanked by her two companions one of whom was twiddling oddly with a Meltagun and the other, thank the Emperor, was armed only with a Hellgun. Her relief, however, quickly vanished when she recognized that the only plasma pistol in the armory was also latched to her waist... or at least was there until it slid into the armor with some elaborate mechanism she wanted grox shit to do with.

As for the former ODSTs, they were all armed with hellguns and Bolt Pistols, and to her surprise, none of them had abandoned their older firearms. A rocket launcher, two snipers of some sort, one heavy machine gun, five rifles, two shotguns, and two submachine guns. 

Oh, and did she mention that almost half the chain swords were missing from the shelves? No? Well, now she did, six chain swords, three for the SPARTANs and three for the slightly bulkier of the... Honor Guard? Yeah, ODST was a mouthful, so she decided to call them that.

The Inquisitor took a moment more to inspect the assembled troops before the blast door hissed open and a literal army of tech-priest marched in, trembling and rattling in anger at their ransacked armory. One of them pointed his? her? its? Yeah, it's finger at the Inquisitor screeching a fine line of binary that would have made an Aeldari Banshee proud.

She wisely chose not to shoot any of them and snuck past a score of howling and screaming tech-priest to the hanger or the cargo bay that had been remodeled hastily to function as a hanger for the drop pods and her rusty steel bucket which was probably the biggest stain on the name of the Imperial Thunderhawk. 

An aircraft that was almost a hundred times older than her, if not more, and was salvaged by a Rogue Trader from whom she purchased it for a discount. Not knowing that most of its guns were stripped off and its only function was a metal box capable of safely transporting personnel from one place to the other.

Just what she needed at the moment.

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