Macragge's Situation

"Emperor above..." Valtov wiped the sweat from his forehead. He had just heard a rather explosive little secret.

The destruction of the Pulos Sub-sector had actually been caused by the Inquisition. Those lunatics had acquired a Chaos artifact from who knew where and believed it could make the Emperor on the Throne walk among mankind once more.

The price was merely the population of several planets offered as sacrifice.

Naturally, the ritual had spiraled out of control, unleashing Chaos corruption across the entire sub-sector.

The Inquisition had displayed remarkably efficient execution during this crisis. While ordering Exterminatus upon the thoroughly contaminated planets, they had also dispatched assassins to hunt down everyone who knew.

"Do you remember the Demasi District massacre eighty years ago?" an Administratum official carefully asked Valtov. "The Inquisition's shadow was behind that as well. To kill one suspect, they slaughtered every civilian in an entire district overnight. And that suspect, as later investigations revealed, had merely made a pun."

"Throne above... How did you learn of this?"

"If you sat in my position and witnessed the grandeur of the Administratum archives, you would know that the Inquisition is not omnipotent..." The aged Administratum official looked at Valtov with eyes that seemed to have seen through life and death.

Valtov nervously swallowed. He seemed to have become entangled in a power struggle between the Administratum and the Inquisition. That was hardly good news.

He looked around anxiously, feeling as though every shadow concealed a dangerous killer from either the Administratum or the Inquisition.

"What about the Chapter's excessive numbers?"

"They are merely Apothecaries and apprentices. Their official roster makes that very clear."

"Apprentices wearing Terminator armor?"

"It is not Terminator armor." Anjeflod refuted him seriously. "It is merely surgical armor that happens to resemble Terminator armor somewhat."

"And