Inquisitor

During the mobilization, an Inquisitor also received the news and rushed hurriedly to the starport.

"Captain! There's an Inquisitor who wants to see you."

"The Inquisition really gets word fast... Let him enter, and notify Veil to tell Father Pavian to close the doors of the forge workshop and temporarily halt production!"

Gao Yi sat in his captain's chair, waiting for the other man's arrival.

Led by guards, a man carrying a psyker's staff strode in.

He also had a master-crafted las-pistol tucked at his waist.

Several implants were linked to his bald head; these were psionic inhibitors, meant to prevent him from suffering a psionic meltdown.

"Greetings, servant of the Master of Mankind. Inquisitor Ian Hoffman of the Holy Xenos Inquisition is honored to meet you!"

The man spoke to him coldly.

Their gazes locked, and Gao Yi's psionic vision revealed that the other's psionic reaction was unexpectedly powerful. Furthermore, he felt that the man was also probing him with psionics.

Combat psyker? And able to join the Inquisition—he's probably the cream of the crop.

Ian was equally astonished. As a combat psyker who had graduated from the Terra Psykana Academy, he was definitely among the elite of his kind. Aside from combat psionic spells, he also possessed the abilities of precognition and divination. Yet when he caught Gao Yi subconsciously utilizing his own psionics, he found he could see nothing at all.

He obtained no information whatsoever regarding the fate of the Rogue Trader before him, as if the man did not belong to this world at all.

He even discovered that the psionic energy he had just released quickly lost its connection to him.

Some sort of item that cuts off psionics? These Rogue Traders always have something special on them...

"Inquisitor, using psionics to probe me right upon meeting—isn't that a bit disrespectful? Are you the Inquisitor Inquisitor Derrick mentioned?"

"My apologies, great Rogue Trader. This is merely out of occupational habit. I will be staying on your ship for the foreseeable future. You are setting sail much earlier than estimated; has your warship completed repairs?"

"Even if it isn't fully repaired, I must depart. I imagine that if even I know, the Inquisition certainly knows as well. The Suarez Dynasty has declared war on me, and my trip to Agathos is temporarily postponed. I have to deal with this matter first!"

"I am in no rush, though I will not intervene in the war between you and other dynasties. I shall merely act as a bystander."

"No matter! I will resolve my own affairs! Veil, arrange a clean room for Inquisitor Ian!"

"Understood, Captain. Please follow me, Lord Ian!"

Ian followed Veil away from the bridge.

"Chief Veil, might you lead me on a tour of this flagship of the house? I am quite curious about this warship. I heard you even encountered daemons within the warp? Though I serve the Ordo Hereticus, as a psyker my knowledge regarding the warp is equally sufficient. Perhaps I might also check for you all whether any lingering warp corruption remains."

Hearing Ian's words, Veil did not refuse. Gao Yi had already given him orders: apart from the forge workshop, the Inquisitor could go wherever he pleased!

"Of course. I wonder where you would like to visit first?"

"Let us first visit the place where the warp corruption occurred."

"That is in the bottom hold of this warship, and there is quite a long way to go."

"My time is not all that precious."

"Then please follow me!"

Along the way, Veil introduced Ian to the glorious history of the Mongert Dynasty, and briefly recounted the previous corruption.

"Thinking back on it, I still feel a lingering fear. Fortunately, the Emperor did not abandon us. Perhaps under the Emperor's guidance we were able to welcome our great current Rogue Trader, Lord Gao Yi Mongert. Through the efforts of two successive Rogue Traders, we finally shook off the warp and returned to realspace. Alas, Lord Ludwig..."

Ian offered half-hearted replies, paying little mind to what Veil was saying.

He had been sent on his own mission. Aside from acting as a spy to check whether this new Rogue Trader was colluding with heretics, the more important task was to see if Gao Yi was suited to establishing long-term cooperation with the Inquisition.

Moreover, the Inquisitor spy on Agathos had lost contact. Judging by the messages sent before the connection was lost, the problems on Agathos were even more severe than imagined, or perhaps aliens or chaos forces were involved behind the scenes of this internal strife.

The Inquisition needed to regain a grip on the situation of a Rogue Trader dynasty's capital world.

The Inquisition held monstrous power within the Imperium, authorized to mobilize the Navy, the Astra Militarum, and even those Angels of Death of the Emperor. Yet in the Kronus Expansion Zone, while the Inquisition still possessed supreme authority, the forces it could muster were far, far less than within the Imperium proper.

To maintain this savage sector still under the rule of the Imperium of Man, the Inquisition needed to cooperate with the Rogue Traders here.

Some dynasties accepted the olive branch extended by the Inquisition quite happily, while others sneered at it.

Even certain heretical Rogue Traders concealed their blasphemous acts upon the unexplored and uncharted planets of the expansion zone, where even the Inquisition could not find them.

And without a just cause, the Inquisition could do nothing to them. Once they forcibly initiated hostile actions, it would inevitably shatter the order and balance of the expansion zone, something no Rogue Dynasty would agree to. This touched upon the sacred rights and fundamental interests of the Trade Warrant.

The Mongert Dynasty was a Rogue Trader dynasty willing to cooperate with the Inquisition. The previous Rogue Trader, Ludwig, had been a partner, yet such a partner had suddenly died, and Gao Yi Mongert was someone he had never even heard of before.

According to the Inquisition's investigations, Gao Yi was originally just the captain of a frigate with a clean background, having received familial training since childhood. Due to his bloodline, he assumed the post of captain after completing his evaluations.

Derrick had also carefully reviewed the performance of the CMC Combat Suit from the Navy, and upon ensuring there was no blasphemous technology within it, he realized that the rise of the Mongert Dynasty was inevitable.

Therefore, Gao Yi's name had also been tagged within the Inquisition as someone requiring every effort to win over.

"Is this huge mechanical creation a new invention of the Adeptus Mechanicus?" Ian asked curiously, watching the SCV working nearby.

"This? This is merely some ordinary engineering machinery, Inquisitor Ian need not pay it such mind."

Seeing the SCV's simple structure and ordinary appearance, he believed Veil's words. Veil certainly had no intention of explaining the SCV's might to him.

As they entered the lower deck, Ian discovered that the relationship between the enforcers and these bottom-tier laborers on this warship was not nearly as tense as on other vessels he had visited.

Even the complexions of these shipworkers were noticeably better than those on other ships.

With their bellies full, the people who had starved in the landing port were gradually recovering their health.

After taking office, the new Rogue Trader Gao Yi had established new rules.

He increased rations for the lower deck, improved their living quarters, and forbade the arbitrary exploitation and abuse of these shipworkers.

With the help of the SCVs, the lower deck's modification plan had proceeded exceptionally smoothly.

The old ventilation systems, lighting systems, life support systems, and heating systems were all given a fresh new look under normal physical rules by the SCVs.

At least the air on the lower deck was no longer so turbid, nor was the environment so dim.

Ian also spotted those soldiers wearing CMC armor. To his surprise, while the threads of fate for some of these soldiers known as rangers were clearly visible, others were entirely invisible, just like the Rogue Trader Gao Yi.