Azrael was already in the loading hangar for the thunderhawks’ arrival with some of the inner circle and further tech adepts for support. The doors on the transport opened up Balarus was the first out followed by the terminators carrying the case shortly after the wounded tactical marines filed out. Azrael walked forward to address the techmarine as he removed his helmet.

"Have you managed any initial scans or downloads from the terminal brother?",

"Yes lord I have. It appears to be a console for the design and construction of weapons and armour especially plasma weaponry and grenades but the few data slabs we recovered also seem to be simple tools and water purification devices". Azrael and the other members of the inner circle looked pleased with what they had been told, add the fact the inquisition didn’t yet know about it either.

"I look forward to your report Master techmarine".

Azrael turned and left Balarius with the precious haul. Down on the planet the inquisitor was getting nowhere with his investigation and the unhelpful nature of the Dark angels wasn’t going unnoticed either.

"Master chaplain I require a private word with you at your convenience".

Twenty minutes later camales approached the inquisitorial shuttle.

"Camales reporting as requested".

"I don’t wish any discord between us chaplain however I sense there was more to that emergency evacuation than you seem to be willing to tell me",

"You will think what you will, that is the nature of the inquisition is it not? The transport left because any further delay would have unduly jeopardized the lives of our wounded battle brothers. I am quite sure you would not have wished the deaths of loyal servants of our lord emperor. Inquisitor".

"No Camales but you are right, no doubt when I request the cargo bay securivid scans from the thunderhawk they will be unavailable or will have mysteriously damaged or some other concocted story, such is the nature of your chapter. You’re excused!".

The shuttle approached the rock towards the rear and the vast splendour of the chapter fortress have awed him each time he’d seen the sight of it. No doubt this visit will be no different to the others. The inquisitor waited for almost an hour before chief librarian Ezekiel came to greet him off his transport. Space marines of the deathwing guarded every doorway as if to send a subtle hint he was allowed no further without an escort. When Ezekiel did arrive the inquisitor already knew what he wanted to see and handed a list of demands to him.

"Some of these can not be complied with inquisitor because we do not deem them your business, this was explained the past four times you visited us aswell. Your persistence in this matter will get you nowhere".

"Librarian. I want access to the thunderhawk.alone. I want to speak with the pilot. Alone. These demands will be met, now make it so".

"Do not threaten me inquisitor".

And with that he turned to lead the inquisitor to landing bay 13b and the thunderhawk in question. The huge plascrete doors to the bay slid open and the chaplain was greeted by the sight of the thunderhawk undergoing what looked like major repairs to the nose and cockpit area.

"Need I damn well ask what’s going on here master librarian?",

"I am no servant of the machine god so I will not attempt to answer". From inside the gunship a voice could be heard shouting out to the two men. "SHE REQUIRED NEW DOOR ACTUATORS AND LANDING STRUTS TO REPLACE THE DAMAGED ONES SHE HAD DURING THE EVAC. SHE WAS INTERCEPTED BY TWO MARAUDERS!". A small man of stocky stature dropped from the cockpit gantry and walked towards the two men, clearly a chapter serf and not a techmarine. He bowed to the librarian who returned the gesture and barely acknowledged the inquisitor.

"My lord librarian, may I have your permission to return to my duties?",

"you may return to your duties, I do not wish to offend such a fine machine as this by delaying her repairs". The inquisitor looked even more irate,

"The vid logs you idiot! Where are the vid logs!?" he reached out to grab the technician by the arm who looked scared to death at what was happening but Ezekiel grabbed his arm and in his usual threatening tone responded to the threat,

"Lord inquisitor. Do not attempt such an action again, he is a servant of this chapter and such just as worthy of your respect as a full battle brother. This will not go unchallenged!".
At that techmarine Balarus entered the bay. "I have what you need inquisitor, but there is nothing out of the ordinary"............

"You seem troubled inquisitor"; techmarine balarus stood staring at the inquisitor whose temper was apparent by the vein sticking out on his forehead.

"Techmarine. There are exactly forty seconds of footage missing although I don’t need a great deal of imagination to know what the hell happened to it! WHERE DID IT GO?!". The techmarine stood perfectly still unconcerned with the inquisitor’s mood change.

"It was lost in the transfer to dataslab from the cameras due to slight under exposure, it’s quite common I assure you". His answer did not appease the inquisitor at all.

"How convenient! I should declare this whole chapter excommunicate right now!" and with that turned to walk away. Balarus had one last point to make though,

"Inquisitor, I have one last piece of advice to give you. Do not attempt to harm my staff in any way. Again. You do not scare me".

"Master techmarine balarus are you threatening me?".

"No inquisitor it was only a piece of sound advice, heed or ignore it’s up to you now I have more pressing duties to attend to". With that balarus turned and left the maintenance hanger.

Camales and Azrael had been talking for sometime before Ezekiel joined them and the rest of the inner circle in the main hall for Balarus’s briefing. "Honored brothers. I have now had 72 hours to examine and download all the information within the artifact that we recovered from the dead traitor marines. The main texts deal with plasma weaponry specifically designed to be carried by terminators as a primary weapon in substitution for the standard godwyn pattern storm bolter. The weapon itself is surprisingly compact, only inches bigger than the bolter it replaces and with minimal recharge rates and a safer margin of operation. Also….". Before he could continue azrael raised his hand to interrupt,

"Balarus, are you telling us the slab will allow us to replace our storm bolters with plasma guns?". Balarus looked at the dataslab then handed it to Azrael,

"Basically my lord. Yes. However these are no ordinary plasma weapons. The weapon is also twin barreled like the storm bolter and requires smaller power cells but is no less potent". Looking straight at Gabriel he continued with his briefing. "The slabs also show us how to adopt standard pattern heavy weaponry to fit terminator armour. The exceptions are the plasma cannon and the missile launcher. My serfs and adepts have already begun construction of a prototype and modification of ten reserve suits for trials of firing and appeasement to test the other weapons options within the texts. We should be ready by the end of the week, if not sooner". The entire circle was silent for what seemed like hours as balarus stood laying out what else he’d discovered. Mainly simple machine tools or purification systems but there were new types of bolt rounds more potent grenades and better communication equipment. "That concludes my briefing brothers, may I return to my duties honoured master?". Azrael stood and gave permission and asked to speak with Gabriel alone. The deathwing captain was obviously very excited about what he’d just been told. As they filed out the inquisitor rounded the corner escorted by five terminator marines. Azrael looked less than impressed and camales was the first to speak. "Report brothers, what has our guest been up to?". Sergeant Paulo stepped forward to deliver his report.

"Brother chaplain Camales. The person was in the main armoury trying to gain access to the first company chapel he was trying to decipher the locking mechanism to the TDA storage area. When we challenged him he demanded we open the armoury. We brought him straight here. His progress was also being monitored by the watchers who stated he had tried to gain access to the brig area". Azrael stepped forwards to stand over the inquisitor,

"You will now be escorted back to your shuttle and you will leave this place. File what complaints against us you will and be done with it. Your nosing around into our business has been tolerated long enough. You are well aware of where you aloud to go and where not to go. Be gone!". Protest was mounted but the marines blocked the way as the inner circle walked away. After the shuttle had left and went to the planet surface Camales reported to see brother Balarus and check his progress. That weasel inquisitor knows more than he let on Camales thought to himself, otherwise he wouldn’t have left so easily………

The dimly lit personal quarters on the shuttle showed a figure haunched over a desk reading a dataslab. For all his prying about the inquisitor had uncovered very little on the rock that he didn’t already know. Everywhere he went one of the watcher creatures was present. Funny how a chapter so intolerant of subhumans would freely allow such strange creatures to po pulate their fortress base. He was determined to uncover what the dark angels had bundled onto the thunderhawk. Fair enough, there had been traces of blood on the ramp of the ship, which would lean towards the story of a medevac dustoff but the missing video footage was never a factor before. The ultramarines had never had a problem such as this. One point of interest though was the armoury for the deathwing was under lock and under guard with a full squad as opposed to the usual marine at the doors. Something is definitely going on. The dark angels will be suspicious I left so easily but the coming battle should be interesting. Very interesting.
Asmodai and Camales were standing watching the scouts training in hand to hand combat as they talked.

"You’re sure Camales this inquisitor knows something of our recent discovery?",

"Yes master Asmodai. He left in too big a hurry and I’ve had dealings with Krattmann before. He’s too devious for his own good and ever since dravvaas vii he’s had a personal grudge against the chapter more specifically myself".

"Ah yes, his aborted attempt at field execution of two of our scouts. You knocked him to the ground didn’t you?",

"Yes brother that was almost thirty years ago. He’s had a grudge since then. Both scouts were eventually inducted to the deathwing and to this day I stand by my decision".

"As you should Camales. As you should. We will have to make sure during our next assault on the surface this Krattmann is there and is left without assistance. He would be in a most precarious position without our brethren to back him up. Wouldn’t you agree?",

"Yes honoured brother I do".

Master Sheol of the 4th company was briefing his men in the courtyard when Camales and his deathwing squad arrived. The rebels were still holed up in parts of the city and were fighting without fear, obviously the chaos influence was still strong. Master Sheol interrupted the briefing to welcome the terminator-armoured squad,

"Welcome brothers your assistance will be greatly appreciated in the coming firefights beneath the city. Brother Balarus it is an honour to have a techmarine present." Balarus nodded to the captain who continued his greeting; "I can’t help but notice some of you are armed… differently shall we say". Sheol’s observations were correct and Krattmann too had also noticed that the deathwing were not only using assault cannons but multimeltas and one marine was carrying a heavy bolter. Balarus just smiled and asked that the briefing continue but as Sheol stood to speak the inquisitor cut him off and began yelling at the terminator-armoured techmarine,

"This is techno heresy of the vilest form! How dare you modify those suits without the blessing of the adeptus mechanicus! Return to the rock at once and remove those weapons from your suits and hand the suits over to me. I will return them to mars to be purified. You dark angels have gone too far this time!". Balarus looked at the inquisitor with a vacant stare that made even the deathwing marines uncomfortable.

"Inquisitor the machine god has shown it’s blessing during our firing trials with the new weapon options. With a compatibility failure of 0.0003 percent and firing accuracy of 99.9876 percent I’d say the changes are in favour of the machine god. The modifications stay. Shut up and sit. Master Sheol has a briefing to conduct and we have a planet to purify. SIT DOWN!".

"HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO ME IN SUCH A MANNER! I AM NO LAP DOG!" and with that the inquisitor pulled his plasma pistol and pointed it straight at the old techmarine’s head, no sooner had that happened than a hundred bolter chambers could be heard being readied and as krattmann turned to look around him he saw the dark angels were ready to gun him down if he carried through with his actions. Camales stepped forward to speak to the marines and ordered them to lower their weapons giving a nod to master Sheol to continue. All the marines had been previously briefed that the inquisitor was to receive no help in the field and any that did assist him would be shot on the spot as a traitor to the chapter. Krattmann wasted little time in responding,

"This will not go un-reported marines, you will all be damned to hell! I will file my report after the coming action", storming off as he finished.

Lasrounds hummed as they flew through the air and the deep bass barking of the bolters was even more noticeable as the deathwing lead the assault on the bunker line. The multimeltas were cutting open the bunkers allowing their power-armoured brethren to pour into the breaches and cleanse each one of the fortifications at a time. Inquisitor Krattmann had demanded a tactical squad is given as a bodyguard, the dark angel commander had agreed but told him not to get in the way the squad he had been assigned to had been given a specific objective to meet. The dark angels had taken some losses but they were light with even fewer fatalities. The battle had raged for two hours when Krattmann begun to scream down the commnet at Camales,

+++INTERROGATOR CHAPLAIN! THE SQUAD ASSIGNED TO ME HAVE LEFT ME IN A BUNKER ON MY OWN AND I REQUIRE URGENT ASSISTANCE+++

+++YOU WILL STAY WHERE YOU ARE INQUISITOR AND WE WILL ASSIST WHEN POSSIBLE, YOU WERE TOLD THE ASSIGNED SQUAD HAD AN OBJECTIVE TO MEET AND NOT TO INTERFERE!+++

+++NOT GOOD ENOUGH CHAPLAIN YOU WILL…... The commnet went dead and the deathwing marines looked at their chaplain who answered he’s gone. Now move brothers we still have four bunkers to clear. When the chaplain led the deathwing squad to the bunker kraatmann had been they had to fight a vicious close combat to get to the doorway. The rebel guardsmen threw themselves at the deathwing who’s powerfists and stormbolters tore away limbs and crushed skulls, Camales’ crozius tore through flak armour like paper and they had to butcher every last guardsman to get to the bunker. Inside they found the inquisitor with four dead guardsmen. Each had been severely wounded by the inquisitor’s power sword. All four must have charged him at once because their bayonets were firmly embedded into his chest and there were also laser wounds on his torso. "You won’t be reporting any strange events inquisitor and we shall file our own request for one of the tech priests on mars to visit us to sanc tify our modification. Goodbye Kraatmann". Camales called brother Arraan to him. Brother will you be so kind as to cleanse the bunker with your flamer. We don’t want the inquisition thinking we’re being lax in the consecration of their dead now would we?",

"No my lord chaplain we wouldn’t".

With the roar of flames the inquisitor was gone…