Some Take Their Orders Elsewhere

Not all Inquisitors Respect One Another

Elsewhere

Mercenary Chem Dogs

The flash disturbed mopping up operations by Hawk's Mercenary Chem Dogs. Some went mad and tore off their drugs inhalers to become intoxicated on fresh air.

Storm Troopers

Stormtroopers search for clues to the unexplained blast in Dogbelly.

Flash Boom

"Release the blackhole" snapped Hawk.
"Release the blackhole?" questioned Hammerhand.
"Yes, release the blackhole. Tell Halfhead to allow the shredder to open fully. Wait until we have moved out of the blast radius and tell him."
"Won't that tell the assassins that they have lost a shredder." questionned Hammerhand?
They know already that one is missing and will be seeking it even now. Release the blackhole and they will assume that whoever had it perished while it was being investigated. We have finished our job on Gladstone and now need to move on. No rest for the wicked Hammerhand"

Inside the Shredder

"Hawk it's a molecular black hole! The shredder power unit is a molecular black hole, suspended behind a vacuum field. Energy comes from allowing the atmosphere to diffuse into the vacuum field."

Hammerhand stuttered to a halt. Something was wrong from the glare he was getting from Hawk. "Get out of my bathroom, now!" snapped Inquisitor Hawk. "Wait in the ante chamber until I am ready." As Hammerhand left Hawk hauled himself out of the bath. It has been a long day he thought and now its going to get longer.

"Now, Hammerhand, first tell me who's technology the assassins are using, can the Adeptus Mechanicus use molecular black holes in hand weapons?"
"No, we cannot, we use them only in large vehicles, typically starships. The technology in the neural shredder must have come from either the Eldar or the Tau."
"Captured or traded that is the question." mused Hawk. "By the way where is the shredder now?"

"I left it with Halfhead he is holding it together, without correctly coded tools the shredder will dissassemble itself and release most of the power of the molecular black hole. It is an ingenious trap. The shredder will aid its disassembly to the point where it explodes. Halfhead used his strength to hold the components just before that point."
"If you allowed me to set up a complete workshop now that the fighting is over I could disassemble it completely."

Neural Shredder

Sweat dripped from Halfhead's browridge on to Hammerhand's shoulder. In the dim light of the lantern in Hammerhand's quarters in the ruins of Dogbelly Hammerhand watched as Halfhead slowly turned the lock on the neural shredder. It took all of the Ogryn's enormous strength to turn the lock slowly opening the shredder. Hammerhand waited to stop the operation just before it fully opened. He expected it to be booby trapped. The anomalous internal power source of the shredder was slowly being drained into an inductance capacitor that Hammerhand had constructed. The capacitor was discharged into the ground a few hundred meters away close to the Ratskins quarters. Hammerhand reasoned that anyone looking for an explanation for any unexpected energy discharges or blasts would look no further than the Ratskins.

"Stop now, Head" called Hammerhand to the Ogryn bonehead as a millimetric gap opened between the components of the shredder. "Its pushing apart Boss", grunted Halfhead as he strained to keep the components together. Hammerhand had repeatedly instructed him that under no circumstances should he allow the parts of the shredder to completely separate.
"Easy now", muttered Hammerhand as he inserted a fiber optic probe to view the inside of the shredder. Inserting the optic into his eye he was stunned by what he saw.

Hide and Seek

While Hammerhand sought the secret of the neutral shredder the Ratskins and the Ratlings played in the ruins of Dogbelly.

Allies

Hammerhand knew that Hawk liked to have abhumans in the brigade. This was not actually surprising as Hawk also kept Caliban a demon held in a unique host machine that Hammerhand was responsible for servicing. As the fighting died down, the forces of chaos everywhere on Gladstone desperately retreated to their orbiting ships that were themselves under attack from the massed Imperial fleet. Back in Dogbelly Hammerhand met some of Hawks newest recruits.

Ratskins, vicious hand to hand fighters that were reputed to be unable to hit a barn door even standing beside it.