Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Good day to You Dakka Dakka! Some more Fiction. It's a bit Rough around the edges and Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy more 'Talky' than i usually go for but i think it's not bad. Ten internet Cookies for the first person to 'Get' the twist ending, i've made it as obvious as possible without being Obvious . Comment, criticize, Hate or Love but most of all give it a read! Thanks again.

Emperor's grace, these things are uncomfortable
The feeling of ill fitting trousers was a heavy curse, be it too slack so as to fall about your ankles or too tight so as to ride up the arse. Paradoxically these formal breeches possessed both unholy traits, a supreme duo of distinct wretchedness. Inquisitor Muench could feel a familiar cold sweat slither down his brow, this was not a good time.

His behind was already completely numb and it hadn't even been an hour, the concrete room just exuded discomfort. To look upon the white glossed walls was to feel the echo of one's head dashed against them, to slide ones hands along the fiery-cool steel table was to envision a hammer smashing them, vibrato steel ringing through fractured knuckles.

They sent the next one in, without any acknowledgement Muench mopped his brow with an effete handkerchief, such a gesture would not go unnoticed but he welcomed the impression of weakness. The broad form filled his view, Muench did not look up to it's face, he merely waited for it to draw parallel with his own in the opposite chair. Muench glanced once more to his papers, their contents already well known to him, then finally to his interviewee. They held each other's gaze, Muench tonguing his inside lower lip and the prisoner letting out a sharp exhale. Muench felt every bit the imperious weasel as he assessed the provincial comeliness of his opposite, didn't look too smart though.

'Name?'

Muench could only assume the globule of spittle he sent onto the table was not his answer but then again, these backwater planets were known for their crude languages. He smiled at his own joke, he was still staring at the gobbet of phlegm; an insult to the immaculate brushed steel.

'I needn't remind you, Constantine Grendl, that there are men, not wholly unlike myself, who are just itching to excruciate answers from you. I am your ally in this sorry affair, I don't wish to see your bruised and broken body tumble into some ditch'.

Muench clasped his hands, wrung them, then eased them gently onto the cool table.

'Name?'

'You Just said it, inquisitor'

'Was that so hard?'

A smile crept into the corner of Muench's lips, a look of serene smugness......

++++

The ringleader of the planet's revolt had finally been delivered to him, he had not even deceived humble Constantine in the process; he would indeed be sent to the same penal colony as his family. Whether or not they would be sent to the same Hive though was another matter entirely.

'it is good to finally meet you in person, I am Lafayette Muench and I will be asking you a few questions'

The leader gave a respectful nod, a refined gesture that took Muench by surprise, good manners for a savage. And Savage was indeed an apt word for him, this was a man carved by deathworld megafauna, in all seriousness, he was something of a horror to behold. Every inch of skin on display was scarred or blemished in some manner, weathered more like passive stone than vital flesh. His wrists were particularly unpleasant, great bangles of scar tissue looped them at even intervals, between them the skin alternately creased with stress and sagging with looseness. Smaller scars veined all corners of the grim countenance, decorating the pale dermis in a scabby filigrees. Somehow these minute canals were of more interest. Muench just couldn't for the life of him recall why that would be.

'My legs are just as bad, Lafayette'

The man stretched his neck as he spoke, the same rings circling it like a trio of nooses. Muench tried to hide his irritation at the use of his first name, it was ill done, a lesson the savage might learn.

'I did not know this world practised ritual scarring'.

'I am not of this world'.

Muench cleared his throat.

'Sit, please'

He waved his hand, gesturing as if he had arrayed a fine spread for his honoured guest.

'I prefer to stand but I will do as you bid'

As he sat the ringleader pulled the metal chair closer to the table. The sharp feet screeched horribly as they dragged over the concrete floor. Muench failed to hide his wince, a failure that was rewarded with a glimmer of a smile on his opposites ruined lips.

'I apologise'

'Graciously excepted, now am I correct in naming you Cobb? Am I correct in accusing you of Fomenting unrest within the Imperium's laws?'

'On both counts inquisitor'

'Well by the laws of him on earth.......'

Cobb mouthed the 'him on earth' quietly as Muench said it. It was a fleeting glimpse of something odd that did not pass the inquisitor by. However he did not pause to let on that it had derailed him.

'…... I sentence you to death. As you can see Cobb I have no need to interrogate you, I have testimony from over 500 witnesses, many of whom are currently surprisingly keen to give statements....... '

With some more soon to follow, a thought that filtered through along with a wry grin.

'As we wait for the paperwork let me ask you Cobb, why did you let some Quack do your bone surgery? Those cuts look horribly crude.'

Muench lifted his own sleeve revealing an immaculate, if a tad pale, wrist.

'When I had mine strengthened, he didn't leave a single mark and it didn't exactly cost an arm and a leg'.

Ha!

'I'll excuse that poor pun and the slight against my integrity, Lafayette. I am deeply offended by you branding me a Quack'.

Muench's pupils dilated with shock. He didn't even care if his opposite noticed, he was impressed.

'I underestimated you Cobb, you truly are a man of remarkable.. Resolve...'

He gulped at the word, he pictured a quaking hand holding the bonesaw, the other flattened on a table, white with the exerted pressure. The soft yield and bitter taste of a clamped leather gag.

'…. You would have been welcome in one of the Scholae had you not made such poor choices'.

Muench rose from the table, finally taking the opportunity to stretch his cramped limbs. In the midst of a particularly feline contortion he was interrupted by the sound of bolt pistol fire. Two rounds at point blank, Muench ascertained from the even shot spacing that it was a consummate professional. From the echo he also guessed that it was the sound of his aid being silenced.

'Well...'

He looked to his manacled interviewee, who shrugged non-chalantly.

'… It seems we have visitors.'

There was a gentle hum as Muench activated his refractor, another as he primed his bolt pistol. They harmonised pleasingly for a split second. A shadow oozed under the door, someone was about to enter. Muench held back his instinct to pump 5 rounds into the door, it often irked him how cool and collected he was in combat, a mask that often slipped during interrogations.

The door handle turned gently and a great form stooped into the dwarfed doorframe.

'Inquisitor Muench?'

There was no emotion in the cold respirator-skull with it's dull glowing eyes. It did not clutch a bolt pistol now, instead a heavy looking teleport homer which Muench reasoned it, from experience, gripped like a great club. Shadowed by the harsh light of the cell, it was hard to tell if the marine's armour was black or just darkest green.

'That is correct Astartes, what is your business and where is my aide?'

'You will be recompensed for the aide and my business is with him, he is to be transported immediately to the frigate Lion's Wrath'.

'Out of the question. Do you know how....'

The tiny man was swiftly interjected by the space marine, for one thing he could never hope to match him for volume.

'Here is a warrant signed by the High lords of Terra, Now return to you business and Emperor be with you'

The marine handed Muench an envelope. The paper looked impossibly tiny and fragile within the lobstered ceramite. Having remained implausibly silent during the whole drama Cobb spoke a final fairwell.

'It seems I have met my destiny Lafayette, perhaps to pay for my poor choices'

'SILENCE!!'

The behemoth screamed, had a great helm not encased his faced no doubt spittle would have been flung on the far wall.

Defeated, Muench turned his back respectfully to allow the Astartes to leave. As the flash of the teleport scorched the back of his neck Muench remembered the patterned scarring on Cobb's flesh and more poignantly where he had seen it before. At the same time, without thinking, he ran his finger through the wax seal of the envelope given to him by the Marine. He had still been an acolyte at the time of the Autopsy. He unfolded the letter, a true warrant from the high lords was something to be treasured in Muench's line of work. To be present for the examination of a Space marine body was a rare privilege......

Muench recalled with great Clarity and nostalgia the intricate web of the black carapace criss crossing the dead Space marines flesh, a stark contrast to the blank piece of paper he now held.........

Added one extra sentence just to mess with ya. Lol knew i'd seen 'Lion's Pride' somewhere else. Changed.

I'm confused by the twist. What I'm guessing is that...



...but that might not make any sense.

Good story.

What I am guessing is something simpler.



Just my guess, and I think the simplest explanation.

Anyway great read!!!

Babakos gets the cookies.

Click for cookies:



Could have made the ship's name more obvious 'Caliban's wrath' perhaps?

Double post.....