Secondly

Secondly the Captain and crew of any Imperial vessel required to transport the Inquisitor. Sweetfruit, Daedalus, Sophia, Hammerhand and the Tribune Torne do not qualify for survival except........ A scream of rage interrupted the Inquisitor.

"Nooo not me" raged Sweetfruit. Commissars are always exempt." He hissed at Hawk.

Hammerhand stepped behind Sweetfruit and held his laspistol to the Commissars temple. Sweetfruit went still. A laspistol was about the only weapon that could be used relatively safely within a spaceship as it would not be powerful enough to penetrate the hull.

"You will listen carefully while Inquisitor Hawk finishes," ordered Hammerhand crisply. This was so cool he thought, wait until the guardsmen hear I have pulled a pistol on Sweetfruit.

Dead Men part 3

As Hammerhand continued he paced around the conference and watched as the heads of the senior officers twisted to follow him, except Hawk who lounged at the head of the table. He had their attention without a doubt he thought.

"Wait a moment that does not apply to us, only to the grunts." Interrupted Sweetfruit.
" It applies to you without a doubt," snapped Daedalus of the Ordo Hereticus, "but we will make an exception for the Captain here," with a nod to Captain Pilgrim, " without him and his crew I and the others of the Inquisition would be breathing vacuum."

"Sir!" Shouted Hammerhand, snapping to attention and clicking his heels.
"With respect the Imperial Decree states in simple and clear language that the 'Emperor's Benediction' is to be applied without consideration of rank or unit."

"Interrogator Hammerhand is correct." Stated Hawk in a cool dry tone that penetrated around the table.
"There are only two exceptions. Firstly the Inquisitor who erased the incursion of Chaos , in order that Imperial Records will contain the documented means applied to exterminate the incursion."

Dead Men Part 2

The power in the blade made the air sparkle and sing as it swept from ear to ear. With a scream Sweetfruit laid into the conscripts, Blood, severed limbs, bowels and heads sheeted through the air as the power sword effortlessly slided through the soft flesh on the unsuspecting conscripts. The first conscripts were slaughtered as they stood too dumbfounded by the unexpected turn of events to move despite the evidence of their eyes. Alfus swayed ducked and pushed one of his motionless comrades into the path of the keening blade. He fell back and collapsed sliding under body parts and a film of blood to feign death.

A silence fell disturbed only by the hum of the power blade. Alfus heard Sweetfruit. "Sorry lads, muttered the Commissar, "Nothing personal, you all did your bit, but Imperial Decree requires it to be thus."

We are all dead men

"By Imperial Decree, of our God Emperor, all who are exposed to Chaos must be removed permanently from the Imperial Commonwealth of Man to protect the innocent and pure majority of citizens from the least taint of the traitor forces of Chaos."

Interrogator Hammerhand stated to the council. He had donned one of his many uniforms, this one cut in the design of an Heroic Cadian Karskin Captain.

Commissar Sweetfruit

"Death comes to us all", shouted the Commissar. "Death in the service of the God Emperor comes only to the privileged few." The conscripts cowered, except for Alfus from Belisimar.
"Death should be slavering for that one", he whispered to his friend Theodosius, "if there is any justice". Alfus had been press-ganged into a New Etrurian Free Company while drunk after a works night out. Sweetfruit had pulled his power sword out and was slashing it through the air around his head. The power in this blade made the air sparkle and sing as it swept from ear to ear. Sweetfruit's blade was a family heirloom and had been handed down through four generations of illustrious ancestors until it had arrived at their unworthy descendant, Tatum Sweetfruit, Commissar by privilege and inheritance.

Importance

To the left sat Commissar Sweetfruit, not a sweetie, but definitely fruity and more like a sweetbread, thought Hammerhand, definitely a taste only for gourmets of pain. Alongside him sat the apparently eternal Sophie the assassin. Two difficult customers.


To the right sat Inquisitor Daedalus, Tribune Torne, Enginseer Troy and Captain Pilgrim of the Brethren Class Battle Cruiser upon which they were embarked. Only Captain Pilgrim could be relied upon at this meeting, except perhaps for the Sweetie as Hammerhand thought of Commissar Sweetfruit, provided the sweetie had the promise of oceans of bloodshed. Hammerhand recalled the deference with which Troy had greeted Hawk after they had embarked and the easy way in which he had acquiesced with the requisitioning of his ship.

Case Conference

Inquisitor Hawk chaired the meeting just as he had taken command of the Imperial starship.

"Unhuman heretical technologies have been illegally introduced to the imperium. These technologies have been responsible for the destruction of Gladstone VI. My Acolyte Hammerhand will now explain the details. Following his briefing this meeting will formulate a plan to deal with the issues identified."

Hammerhand stood, glancing around the chamber.

From Orbit

Looking down at the ruins of Gladstone IV Hammerhand reflected on the eventful last 4 months fighting across the surface of the planet. When he had arrived, from Orbit, the planet was a radiant ball of blues, greens and browns covered with patches of high swirling white cloud formations. It had looked a paradise despite the evil lurking presence of chaos on the surface.

Now brown and black clouds spewed from massive eruptions and their plumes roiled across the grey surface. All was grey, lands and water. A massive Imperial evacuation was underway. Despite the destruction of the planet the Imperial and Inquisition's proclamations had declared a massive victory over Chaos. The Chaos space fleet had been defeated as it passed the solar shock wave and so all traitor forces were trapped on the doomed planet.

Only Hammerhand, Inquisitor Hawk and perhaps the Assassins Guild knew exactly why the planet was collapsing into a black hole. The astronomers were have a field day with new theories of quantum black hole creation and their propagation in time and space.

Hammerhand knew that his friend Halfhead the Ogryn accidentally dropped a molecular black hole. This had fallen out of Sophia's weapon that Hammerhand had been investigating under Hawk's orders. The black hole had destroyed most of Dogbelly in a sub nuclear explosion and then leaving a rapidly growing volcano had dropped through the crust of the planet to the core like a hot knife through butter. It was now growing exponentially. Eventually it would consume the planet and in a few years the entire Gladstone system.

Backs to the Wall the Grey Knights Fight On

Daedalus' Vow

Perish Hawk or perish I. Yet I cannot perish