40k: Midnight Blade.

Chapter 625 Interlude: The Rational Front's Observations (Part )

What kind of organization is the Inquisition?
This is not difficult to explain. In the official definition, the Inquisition is the 'Eye of the Emperor', the 'embodiment of the Emperor's wrath', and the 'spokesman of justice'.
Putting aside these fancy terms, in fact, they are only responsible for investigating and dealing with everything that may pose a threat to humanity and the empire - potential threats are naturally included.

Therefore, in addition to Chaos, Aliens and Traitors, they also need to deal with threats from within, such as corruption, depravity and disloyalty.

This means that their authority is limitless: a formally recognized Inquisitor can mobilize any resource within the Empire, whether human or material.

From an Arbitral Tribune executor to a legion of the Imperial Guard, or even an entire Astartes Chapter - when they issue an order, it means that people must respond, whether to refuse or accept.

However, this is only the official statement, and the real situation is much more complicated.

In the eyes of officials, the Inquisition is an organization that has exceeded the limits of its power and is something that should not exist at all.

There is no common hierarchy within this organization. Once an Inquisitor has completed his apprenticeship, he can directly become a full Inquisitor and wield astonishingly great power.

They can command or judge anyone, from a High Lord to a beggar, from a warrior in the Guards or Navy to a battle-brother in a Chapter.
Such uncontrolled power makes the bureaucrats dislike them very much. Even the investigators of the Ministry of Justice usually don't particularly want to deal with them.

Even if the vast majority of the allegations are proven to be true, it doesn't change the fact - no one would look favorably on those who increase their workload or even put their lives in danger, right?

In the eyes of the nobles, the Inquisition was equally unwelcome. They did not want to be inspected every twenty-five years, and they did not like to meet a strange man or woman who had no respect for them and issued one order after another to them.

But it is true that some people hate them because they feel insulted and think that their glorious lineage and achievements should not be doubted in this way. But it is different for others.

Before these never-ending routine inspections, there are always people working in the dark, trying to circumvent scrutiny in various ways.

Either the Inquisitor is killed along the way, or simply leads an entire planet or sector into rebellion - this kind of thing is not even uncommon, and some people always think they can get away with it.

As for the common people, generally speaking, they rarely have the opportunity to see an Inquisitor in their lifetime, so they have no real sense of this institution.

Unless, the world they live in happens to have a governor who doesn't like the Inquisition very much, and, by chance, this governor has a writer who is particularly proficient in writing skills and knows how to provoke people's emotions.
By then, even the masses will be disgusted and hate the Inquisition, amid the onslaught of books about its horrors.

This example actually happened, and the result was not very good.

The governor who tried to resist was executed, his family was also executed, and his world was burned. The writer was exposed during the arrest, and he joined the angry people to set off a terrifying demon tide in the hive, which directly endangered the entire star region.

Eventually, it was exiled, and the sector is now called Jericho, located in the Storm Segmentum, where most worlds have been classified as death worlds.

But this was not the end, for the book was somehow lost, and to this day, copies, manuscripts, and scattered fragments of it still wander the galaxy.

So, back to the point, can the Inquisition really order or judge anyone?

This is not the case, they do have that power but they would never abuse it.

This is not an empty promise, nor is it the oath of some corrupt nobles 'I will always be loyal to the Emperor and protect my people'. It is not such a ridiculous thing, but a real constraint.

Its binding force comes from both oaths and from their souls.

When an Inquisitor confirms that his apprentices are ready to go out, and if they are not dead, these apprentices will be taken to Fortress 002 in the solar system. The Master will wait inside and personally witness each Inquisitor take the oath.
This is why Khalil felt so strangely calm at this moment.

He was not angry, an emotion that was rare for him and did not disturb his thoughts, for he was aware of Malcador's capabilities.

The words "personally selected by the seal holder" are still very important to this day, and the mute guards he chooses are even respected by the imperial guards - and the question arises: why should a soldier's honor be deprived?

Where is the answer?
He looked at Hayd, the strange man he had met on the Banjo-1.

He recalled that when he first met him, Haid was dressed like a down-and-out sailor, but only in rags, not dirty like sailors. His face was the same, which proved that he was a person with basic self-control.

At least, he is a person who wants to live a good life. Those who have given up hope on the world will not clean themselves up. This is the first point that interests Khalil in him.

Secondly, it was his reaction. When he saw Khalil's dark eyes, the retired soldier quickly improvised and pretended to be a drunkard who couldn't walk properly, intending to slip away immediately.

This may not be very clever, but it is definitely enough for ordinary people.

Today, Nostramo has become a forbidden zone to some extent, not to mention the Nostramo people. It is impossible for Hayd to get any information about the Nostramo people or the Dark Eyes anywhere.
So, he just didn't want to be associated with someone who might have a genetic mutation.

Ordinary civilians don't have such thoughts. There are already enough mutants in the Lower Nest, and many of them have varying degrees of genetic defects. As for the sailors, haven't they seen enough Void Children?

This attitude of not wanting to be involved is very interesting upon closer examination; the source can only be the military, and not even the state religion, because the state religion has long since made saving genetic mutations a large-scale missionary activity, which is only carried out on the Feast of the Emperor's Ascension.

On that day, priests would go in person, bringing machines that sang hymns to heal the genetic defects that caused the pain for free, and claim that it was the Emperor's mercy that wiped out your sins.

But the army is different. Although recognized mutants like Lightling or Ogryn have long been integrated into it, discrimination still exists.

There was discrimination between the guards and the navy, between voluntary enlistment and tithe coercion, and even the slightest difference between regions became a reason for ridicule, insults and beatings.

Therefore, as early as that time, Khalil had roughly guessed Hayd's true identity - a retired soldier, and a smart man.

At the moment he put his hand on his shoulder, he even made a second confirmation: there was no wronged spirit attached to Haid's soul. That's why he hired him.

And now, he stared at the wrinkled, weathered face and came to the conclusion that Hayd was not lying.

He finally put down his hanging index finger.

"The Inquisition?" the lion repeated, frowning.

He didn't even look at Khalil, which was exactly what Khalil expected.
The former corporal was silent for a long moment before answering the lion, "Yes, sir, the Inquisition."

"Which Inquisitor is it? What faction does he belong to?"

"I don't know, I just know it's a woman." Haid replied bitterly. "But, sir--"

"—but what?" asked the Lion.

Haid was silent again, this time even longer than last time.

The expression on his face kept changing, with all kinds of emotions mixed together, like an abstract painting. Wrinkles overlapped, covering up the scars, and his eyes were mostly hidden by his untidy hair.
The lion did not rush him, he was unusually patient, and this time he did not look like a lion waiting for his prey.

The silence stretched on until several minutes later, when Haid finally responded. His shoulders, which had been raised, suddenly collapsed, his lips tightened, and his gray beard began to tremble - and then he spoke.

"I'm a fool, sirs. I'm a very fool. When I joined the army, I could never learn how to change the magazine quickly. I was also stubborn in the war. My company commander always scolded me for this. He said that if I didn't correct it, I would only be a corporal for the rest of my life."

"But I think this is good. I only have to take care of myself and the other fourteen people. That's enough. If there are more, I, a fool, won't be able to take care of them. But even a fool like me knows what it means to die."

"We were just going to die on Sovet. No one thought we could win. We knew our own strengths and weaknesses. Unless we doubled our numbers, how could we possibly defeat those green bastards?"

"But we went, and we went to die, because—sir—because one of your sons, a lord named Harel, gave us a mobilization."

The lion nodded slightly, finally showing some emotion. Haid knew nothing about this, he just lowered his head and kept talking about what he wanted to say.

"The first thing he said was: You are going to die. This sentence made my superiors very dissatisfied with him, and made many people want to curse him."

"But then he said: It doesn't matter, my brothers and I will go to hell with you. For the next five minutes, he gave a detailed explanation of the matter."

"He told us that the reason why we call this operation "going to die" is because the forces that were assembled in such a short time cannot completely trap the Second Battle Group of the Hadilan Orcs. Therefore, we must sacrifice our lives - and many lives - to hold them back."

"He said that what we have to do is very simple, which is to delay them from leaving. The longer the better. The combined fleet cannot arrive now. They are fighting the remaining three battle groups of the orcs. Before they arrive, we are the only ones who can stop them."

"Finally, he said that if things were so unfortunate that the combined fleet could not arrive, he and his brothers would die with us."

"With that, what else can we say? One Astartes is worth ten thousand of us. The screws on their power armor alone are more valuable than our lives, but they want to die with us. So we went, and they kept their promise."

"Reverend Harel came down from orbit with his brothers, and we turned the tide for a while. But we still lost in the end. I can't even tell you how we lost because I was stunned by the shells."

"When I woke up, I was in a foxhole with six other guys, unable to move. My body was covered in blood and flesh. At first, I even thought I had lost my legs or arms because they were numb."

"I was scared and didn't know what to do until I heard someone crying, not loud but annoying. So I told him to stop f**king crying, and then more people echoed me and told the bastard to stop crying."

"After that, we took a moment to dig each other out of the dead, then we grabbed our guns and started wandering the burned jungle. There were bodies and ashes everywhere, ours, the green bastards, and the Dark Angels."

"We walked for dozens of minutes before we heard a sound, like a wailing sound. At first, the six of us who were lucky enough thought we had encountered a wounded soldier. The crybaby immediately grabbed his gun and tried to save him, but we held him down."

"We have served much longer than him, and we all know that this is not a cry made by a human. It is impossible for a person to scream so loudly when in pain. Half a minute later, we saw something shaking across the position. It..."

Haid clenched his fists, his face full of fear and sadness, but he still forced himself to continue speaking.

"It was huge, sir. It was a monster, no doubt about it, bigger than a tank, but it was crying, it was shouting, it was making noises. It had many faces, our faces."

He looked up at the lion, and then he lunged at him, fell to his knees at his feet and continued describing: "Our face, sir, can you understand it? We, it. It is made of us, I knew it when I saw it, we-"

Before he could finish, his eyes suddenly rolled up, leaving only the whites of his eyes. Then there was an indescribable violent convulsion, as if he were having an epileptic seizure. He collapsed to the ground, making a strange hoarse sound in his throat, and his hands pinched his neck.

The breath came out of the throat, forming a hoarse voice, but it didn't sound like its own voice at all, but a female voice.

"This man has been marked by the Inquisition. Whatever he has said, it should be considered a lie. The mark has been broken and the Inquisition will arrive soon. Whoever you are, be prepared."

A flash of blue light flashed in Khalil's eyes, causing the corporal to faint. The lion looked over with a gloomy face and saw a smile that he was very familiar with.

"Are you ready, Leon?" Khalil said with a smile.

(End of this chapter)