The Emperor’s Angel of Death

#2002 - The Court of Inquisition

Grand Inquisitor Torquemada Kretz was still the most conspicuous among many inquisitors. As far as Soshyan knew, after arriving in the Maelstrom, the other party had been conducting very frequent activities. Because Marcus had more official support, Torquemada's activities were basically limited to his own team or joint operations with individual inquisitors.

As for what he was doing, Soshyan was not very sure. After all, tracking an inquisitor was difficult enough, and Occam was still with the Red Corsairs, so he had even less energy to spare. He only knew that this person was constantly traveling through various war zones and battlefields, occasionally entering the front lines, looking like he was searching for something, but from time to time he would also arrest some people.

In addition, although the Red Hunters participated in the battle against the Red Corsairs, there was still a squad of warriors in the chapter who joined Torquemada's team to assist him in his activities.

During the Grief star system incident, Torquemada was also the first inquisitor to arrive at the scene and made serious heretical accusations against Samuel.

Taking advantage of this incident, he seemed to have suddenly become the opinion leader of the inquisitors in the Maelstrom area. On the contrary, Marcus, because he was close to Soshyan, became an untrustworthy person in the eyes of the inquisitors.

It could be seen from the standing positions at the scene that most of the inquisitors were gathered around Torquemada, while only two or three people were around Marcus, and a few more independent inquisitors stood alone in their own positions.

In fact, the moment he walked in, Soshyan had already guessed that the inquisitors had already had a quarrel before he arrived.

“Sorry to keep you waiting.

“High Lord Commander Soshyan is busy with military affairs, handling numerous matters every day. We can understand. After all, the expedition involves countless things.”

Torquemada Kretz took the lead in speaking, and he seemed very "caring" and "understanding", but Soshyan knew what kind of person the other party was.

A person who could suddenly smash his mentor's head with a hammer would never be considered gentle.

“So I think you should focus more on the front lines and military affairs, and leave other non-essential affairs and work to more professional people.”

Soshyan smiled slightly.

“Grand Inquisitor Torquemada, just say what you want to say.”

“Regarding what happened in the Grief star system, I hope you don’t interfere. This is within the scope of the Inquisition’s responsibilities.”

Soshyan spread his hands upon hearing this.

“I don’t understand what you’re saying. I don’t seem to have done anything, right? And since the beginning of the expedition, I have never interfered with the activities of the Inquisition. Everyone is free to come and go. I have also told the front-line commanders to cooperate with the Inquisition’s actions as much as possible. Everyone has received a lot of care on the battlefield, right?”

Torquemada Kretz's fierce face stared at Soshyan with his big eyes, then he took a step forward.

“Are you pretending to be confused? Samuel of the Dark Angels has serious heretical suspicions, but you have been sheltering them. The Inquisition’s several summons have been dismissed with the excuse that they are carrying out missions, but in reality, they have not been carrying out missions at all and have been in your fleet!”

“Isn’t this matter still under investigation? Is there already a conclusion?”

“Indeed, there is no conclusion yet, but he has an obligation to cooperate with our investigation. The requirements of the Inquisition cannot be rejected, including any of our suspicions.”

“Oh, I see.”

Soshyan nodded with a sudden realization, then changed the subject.

“So now, Grand Inquisitor Torquemada Kretz, are you speaking on behalf of the entire Inquisition?”

Torquemada Kretz narrowed his eyes slightly. He did not jump into Soshyan's linguistic trap. In fact, if anyone dared to play word games with him, he would have smashed them with a hammer long ago.

Unfortunately, the other party was the supreme commander of the expeditionary force, a Space Marine, and also held a huge army.

Although the Inquisition has the power to arrest and execute people of any level and status in the Empire, even Space Marines, the person in front of him was too difficult to deal with. Without the indication of the highest level of Terra, as long as he had this intention, I am afraid that the inquisitors around him would be the first to judge him.

This is the most unique and troublesome part of the Inquisition. Since there is no actual power structure, he can only rely on promises, wooing, and various exchanges of interests to obtain the support of most inquisitors, but he cannot order them.

Moreover, with the existence of Marcus, the "Soshyan's follower", he really couldn't beat Soshyan without absolute persuasiveness.

“I only speak on behalf of the Emperor and the Throne.”

So he chose a gentler tone, but a stronger attitude. Soshyan then nodded.

“So am I.”

“Are you determined to protect Samuel and the Dark Angels?”

“What do you mean by protection? As a young Astartes, Captain Samuel took office in the extremely unfavorable situation of the company commander's death before the war in Capua, took over the command, led the Ravenwing Company to destroy a corrupted Predator-class Titan, and annihilated the Word Bearers traitors. Later, in the turmoil of the Fourth Quadrant, he went deep into the enemy lines to behead the traitor leader and stabilized the situation in the Solar System. During his three hundred years of service, he hunted countless traitors, wizards, demons, and aliens. Is such a meritorious Astartes captain going to be branded as a heretical traitor with just a few words!? Then who else in the Empire can be exempt from judgment? Or further, how many of you present dare to say that you are more loyal than Captain Samuel?”

“Past merits cannot offset current faults. Huron himself was once a hero of the Empire, which does not prevent him from eventually becoming a traitor. Samuel and his company were at the scene at the time. What were they doing, and what happened? To this day, the Inquisition has not been given an explanation. Even now, we have sent you a request, hoping that Samuel can attend this meeting, but he has not appeared. Did you not convey it, or is he unwilling to come? Does he dare not come?”

“Captain Samuel is busy with military affairs, and he has already explained that they tracked the traitor there, and then the traitor bombed the hive with phosphorescent weapons out of desperation.”

“How did Inquisitor Inar die?”

“Isn’t this something you should investigate? Why ask me back? Then I can only tell you that those Red Corsairs traitors killed the inquisitor.”

“But when Inquisitor Inar died, those traitors should have fled long ago.”

Soshyan chuckled.

“What does this prove? Maybe there are other heretics, or someone you don’t know.”

“Then Commander-in-Chief Soshyan, do you know who Samuel and his men were fighting?”

“Red Corsairs traitors.”

“No.”

Torquemada Kretz shook his head meaningfully.

“In the Formosa Sector, there was a group of heretical traitors who harmed the order of the Empire for decades. My mentor once fought with them. According to the archives, they were a group of twisted Chaos Space Marines wearing black armor, but they did not carry the Black Legion’s insignia. Commander-in-Chief Soshyan, you are an Astartes, do you know of any Chaos heretics besides the Black Legion who wear black armor?”

Soshyan calmly replied:

“There are quite a few, some independent Chaos warbands also wear black armor.”

“Then what about the former First Legion?”