Warhammer 40k: Starting as a Rogue Trader

Chapter 142: The Inquisition's Monsterm(BOUNS CHAPTER)

With the Tzeentchian sorcerer Frank's scrying, Ian immediately sensed the anomaly.

The enemy was finding them more and more frequently. Even when he managed to predict the enemy's next move, they would still adjust their plans in time. Divination was not his area of expertise, and against a Tzeentchian sorcerer operating at full power, Ian was clearly at a disadvantage. The prolonged and repeated use of divination was taking a heavy toll on him; he knew they couldn't last much longer like this.

"Sir! Servo-systems detecting approaching life signs! They're coming again!" a weary Raider on watch reported. Their C-14 ammunition had long since run out. They were now forced to scavenge enemy weapons or fight on with chainswords.

The Night Sentinels were still full of energy, but the stamina of the human Raiders was beginning to fail.

A dozen Blood-Hunters appeared before them, but the leader of the group held up the Rosette of the Holy Ordos.

"Hold your fire! I'm not one of those hunters! My true identity is with the Inquisition! There is a secret Inquisitorial stronghold nearby! No one knows about it! You can take refuge there!"

Damon and the others all looked to Ian. He was the one who knew the most about the Inquisition here.

Ian stared at the Inquisitorial Rosette. It was not something an ordinary person could forge. Confirming the man's identity, the group's tension eased, though they did not lower their weapons.

"Did you not hear what the Governess said?" Ian asked. "She even claimed we killed your people."

"What Glydus says? She is a monster of our own creation. Why would we ever believe a word she says?"

"A monster of your creation?"

"There's no time! The ones hunting you will be here soon! Follow me, quickly! When we reach the stronghold, the Grand Inquisitor will explain everything!"

Damon could not sense any taint of Chaos or warp energy from the man.

"Let's trust him for now!" Ian urged. "We have no better option. With that psyker-sorcerer out there, we'll be surrounded before long!"

An agreement was reached. The group followed the Inquisitor through countless narrow alleys, finally stopping before the palace of a great noble. A hidden door slid open.

Watching the passage leading down into the earth, the group followed him inside. The moment the door closed, Glydus and her sorcerers lost their trail.

"What is it, Frank?"

"I've lost their position, Glydus. Someone on your world is helping them!"

"Helping them... Who? Who would be willing to help these outsiders?"

Glydus didn't believe the nobles here would be so kind; she knew their true faces better than anyone. The only other power capable of this was the Inquisition.

"The Inquisition! It must be them! Those heretics who proclaim themselves the truth of the Imperium are the real cancer of the Empire!!!"

Following the passage, the group entered a vast underground space. The entire secret stronghold was built beneath the noble's palace, its walls covered in anti-psychic runes and prayers to the God-Emperor. Ian found that his own psychic abilities were nullified here.

As they ventured deeper, Ian realized that the Malfi Inquisitorial branch he had visited before was nothing more than a front. The Inquisition's true base of operations was here. No wonder that other stronghold had only a few ordinary servants and only one or two full Inquisitors.

Here, countless acolytes were conducting all sorts of tests and experiments. In row after row of cultivation tanks floated human figures, their bodies pierced with innumerable tubes. Various chemicals and nutrient fluids were being pumped into them.

While human experimentation was all too common in this dark millennium, experiments that needed to be hidden were certainly not legal. Moreover, many of the subjects in the tanks were clearly not normal humans; traits from different species had been grafted onto a single body.

Taking in their surroundings, Damon and his team remained on high alert. After passing through one experimental zone after another, they finally met the head of the Malfi Inquisition.

"This is our Grand Inquisitor, Leon Hawkins! Grand Inquisitor, I have brought them!"

The man's eyes, fixed on Damon and the Night Sentinels, were filled with an undisguised desire and curiosity. He had been monitoring all of their actions in the upper hive for the past two days. He had realized that ordinary mortals could not possibly achieve what they had. He could explain away the combat prowess of the Raiders with their advanced combat suits; their height and build were still within human norms.

But the Night Sentinels were clearly beyond the scope of normal humanity. Their demonstrated combat abilities confirmed that their bodies had undergone some unknown form of genetic engineering. Leon had seen many Space Marines, but their performance in battle paled in comparison to the warriors before him.

"Inquisitor Hawkins, what in the Emperor's name is going on here?! Are you experimenting on living people?!" Ian demanded, his mind racing back to what he had seen on the way here, and to Derek's past warnings.

"Living people? They are not living people. They are merely clones and genetically modified test subjects."

"Clones?!"

In both Lucan's original world and the world of Warhammer 40,000, cloning was strictly forbidden. The technology had always existed in this universe, but it was rigorously controlled. Only a select few worlds were permitted to use it. The Death Korps of Krieg was one such example; their contribution to the Imperium was so great that not even the High Lords of Terra or the Inquisition could condemn their cloning and artificial womb technology as heresy. To do so would mean the Imperium would lose an incredibly loyal and utterly expendable fighting force.

But outside of such special cases, the unauthorized use of this technology would be met with cleansing by the Adeptus Mechanicus or even the Inquisition itself. And now, the Inquisition on Malfi was using this heretical technology themselves, and displaying it openly before Damon and his team.

"Inquisitor Hoffmann," Leon said, his eyes gleaming, "would you permit me to collect some biological samples from the warriors behind you?"

"Inquisitor Hawkins, I would advise you not to entertain such notions. Your heretical activities will not be tolerated."

"Heretical activities? Is there any shortage of heresy that we come into contact with? Others may not understand, but surely you, as a fellow Inquisitor, do? Everything we do is for the good of the Imperium."

Leon spoke these words with a tone of utmost sincerity.

"So why did you save us?" Damon cut in.

"We saw your power. So I wish to invite you to join us, Inquisitor Hoffmann. Perhaps with your strength, we can contain the... accident that is currently unfolding on Malfi."

"Accident?! Wait... are you saying the accident is the Governess here? And what you said before about a 'created monster'... was that her?"

Ian connected the various experimental apparatuses he had seen on the way in, and a terrible truth began to dawn on him.

"Yes. It is her. The Governess of Malfi, Glydus."

"Are you telling me," Ian said, his voice low with disbelief, "that you used this technology to cultivate a person, and then found a way to make her the governor of this planet?!"

Ian could never have imagined this was the situation on Malfi. Damon and Holter both frowned deeply. Only the Inquisition could have come up with such a mad scheme!

"Although she has lost control, she did a fine job in the past, did she not?" Leon argued. "She brought order to the chaos of Malfi, suppressed those scheming nobles, and for a hundred years, she has exceeded the tithe every single time, and without damaging the economy or social structure. Tell me, how many Planetary Governors can achieve that?"

♧♧♧

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