A Dark Departure

[Y'roth Helghast]

======= Nearly a Year Before the Announcing of Miranda Tarkin as Empress =======

Helghast stood at the loading ramp with the Archmagister of the Imperial Mages. His face betrayed nothing as the ancient remains of what might have once been human spoke to him.

"Inquisitor, I assure you, she is better suited here. Space travel and what you might put her through will only strain her, not motivate her out of her dormancy as you might expect. She is not like you, or ever will be I'd think."

A tone of familiarity was present in the old man's voice, almost fatherly, but he was too raspy and frail for anyone else nearby to hear. The Inquisitoriate soldiers in their black stormtrooper armor and red Imperial crests were loading the necessary gear and equipment for Project Nightmare to operate. They had already loaded nearly everything else onto the three ships waiting in orbit.

"Permission granted, Archmagister. Do not play games with that force adept. I want results or you will kill her, understood?"

"Perfectly, Inquisitor. I will take my leave then..."

The old man gave a stifled bow, smirking beneath the shade of his hood. Helghast's ivory profile watched the old man for a moment, data skirting the vision of his bionic eye before he turned back to main entry of the docking bay. As if he were intuitively expecting someone, the door opened and through it stepped the Grand Inquisitor, Karl Valten.

Y'roth Helghast shifted in stance to a ceremonial parade rest, with one gloved hand holding the other by the wrist in front of him. Helghast's departure was like any other action he had and would ever perform, in the line of duty. Some duties could not be trusted to one of the many limbs of the Empire, regardless of success past. The depth and comprehension of such duties as Helghast was ordered to fulfill were beyond any man's accomplishment. It was something an army might have been expected to accomplish in the time frame available to him but they were incapable.

Only Y'roth Helghast could kill his own brethren, another human who at one point had served the Empire above most others however, they did not now. This was a part of the puzzle that the Emperor himself had intended to create in the project, fostered by Moff Tarkin, that had led to the birth of what stood before Karl Valten today, the sole survivor, the only necessary survivor.

"Hail Grand Inquisitor."

Like clockwork, he snapped to attention and saluted.

"Veritas Vincit."

[Karl Valten]

“Veritas Vincit, Inquisitor Helghast”

The greeting rang hollower than was custom for Valten; only acknowledging the Archmagister with the barest of nods. Even the Grand Inquisitor’s gaze seemed distant, as if the man where contemplating an eternity away. Morbid some may have said, but both the Rommelisch and Helghast knew better than to presume as such.

“Mage, leave us.”

Upon the Archmagister’s departure, Valten extracted a data pad from his uniform and offered the device to his Lieutenant; the content of the tiny computer sensitive enough that it would require a direct link to an Inquisitor’s neural implant to unlock.

“Your current orders are better left unspoken. This contains all the information you need for your journey to the core; you may also find some items of……interest……in there.”

Valten cast his gaze on the troops diligently loading supplies of war aboard the ships, each suit of Nightmare Armor each measuring in at nearly a quarter tonne. These soldiers carefully-picked by Helghast and Valten would be entrusted with the most grievous atrocities committed by the Inquisitoriate. They had not been chosen for their martial prowess, but for the ability to do what was necessary for the preservation of the Empire.

Even if it meant straddling the border of heresy.

“The Book of Indoctrinations must be re-written if the Imperium is to survive, remember that. We do what is needed, even if it costs us our souls.”

But then again, did it matter for one such as Helghast who had none? Impossible to tarnish what did not exist, the perfect soldier.

[Y'roth Helghast]

"The Empire will protect, Grand Inquisitor."

He accepted the data pad without a glance to it. Grand Inquisitor Valten was an esteemed member of the Empire who held many things on his shoulders. Helghast could see the worn down edges in Valten's eyes, worn down by the winds of politics and bureaucracies. The Emperor himself had single handedly cut down so much of it but in his absence, the weakness had thrived. Thus the necessity of what the Inquisitoriate, the heart of the Inquisitoriate more specifically, meant to accomplish. The loose ends now needed to be cut and a bloody cut it would be.

Helghast saluted with his free hand,

"Grand Inquisitor, take heart in my absence for the Inquisitoriate will have accomplished much and the Empire will have come that much further to restoring itself after the loss of our Emperor."

[Karl Valten]

“I never would have considered that you would be one telling me to take heart.”

The Empire restoring itself to what it was during the time of Palpatine? Such would never happen, not in the lifetime of Karl Valten; no soul would be able to recreate what the Emperor had. Still, the Inquisitoriate would fight to restore what it could.

But first the stagnant parts would have to be cut lest they poison the remainder. The Inquisitoriate itself would have to be purged before any head way could be made with the rest of the Imperium. And Valten had started with the ones who could grant or deny him his power. The three who could even judge whether an individual was worthy to hold the office of Grand Inquisitor

Two had already been one, yet the final refused even the urging of his fellow High Inquisitor. And in the necessity of unity, Valten would not tolerate opposition.

“The Rubicon and Well of Souls are our fastest strike cruisers, they will aid you as far as the Fortress, should you require their abilities.”
Both of the ‘Black Ships’ had aided the Nightmares before in their transit between systems and their captains and crew utterly loyal to the Grand Inquisitor.

It pained Valten greatly to make such demands of his brothers. Dark days lay ahead for an Inquisition born in shadow.