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Pater sighed and leant on the staff heavily. The slash to the face and kick to the ribs were coming back to haunt him.

Prius rose to his feet unsteadily, his glassy eyes unfocused. A lump was already forming on the back of his head. He watched Xerxes fade out and made the sign of the aquila and gave a quick mental prayer, before muttering to Pater.

"Sorry about almost cutting your foot off."

Pater chuckled as only someone who'd been through a trying experience could. "It's okay. I get that sort of thing all the time. I think I'm off to the infirmary, and you should be too."

"That sounds agreeable. We're getting better. We're walking in fully conscious this time," he noted.

"Ah, but what about when this shit happens again tomorrow, Colonel-Commissar? I want to be ready." He tried walking a few steps, but stopped and winced. "Tell Gix and the others that everything's under control, will you? I think my Vox is broken." He fingered his Augmetic temple and discovered that there was a deep gash.

He glanced back and remembered Adivan.

"Ah, should we?" he pointed. His vox was on the floor next to Adivan. He made his careful way over there, and very carefully, bracing on the wall, bent over to pick it up.

They dragged the out-cold and snoring Adivan off to the Infirmary.

Adivan woke up in the infirmary, opened his eyes, and sucked in a scream. His head had already been aching; the sudden burst of sensation made him like somebody was taking a hammer to the backs of his eyes. He gave a low moan, and adjusted the augmetics in his eyes to reduce their light intake to a tolerable level. Noting, through the induced gloom, that there was nobody near his bed, he raised his voice.

"Medicae!"

One hurried over, a look of concern on his face.

"What in the name of the Emperor happened?"

The medicae consulted the dataslate in his hands for a moment, then looked up again.

"Says that you were hit on the head by Inquisitor Novum's Force Staff by... 'that which was Xerxes'. You suffered some mild concussion... which is surprising, as they brought you in with your helmet on. It was dented, but surely not enough to actually harm you..."

Adivan nodded.

"Ok. So how long was I out for?

"Maybe an hour or so."

"And how long do I have to stay here?"

"I recommend another few hours rest, then you might as well go. You'll be having headaches for another few days, but there isn't much to be done about that."

Adivan nodded again, and shut his eyes off for the time being. If he was going to be here for another few hours, he might as well get some sleep out of it.

As he drifted off, however, he brought back to full wakefulness by the sound of raised voices approaching the infirmary door; one, what sounded like an extremely agitated naval security trooper; the other, a sort of high-pitched warbling. Switchiong his eyes on again, he smied; he knew that voice.

Shortly afterwards, the infirmary door opened, and the Naval trooper he had heard outside marched over to his bed and saluted, stiffly, clearly very uncomfortable.

"Inquisitor, sir! There is a large Xeno in the corridor outside demanding to see you. He says you summoned him, and is being very insistent. What should we do?"

Adivan turned up the brightness on his eyes slightly, and replied.

"Let him in. If he's who I think he is, I'll want to talk to him."

The trooper saluted stiffly again, marched out, and barked an order. Shortly afterwards, a familiar four-armed, reptilian figures ducked under the infirmary door and headed over to him, warbling excitedly from a mouth filled with short, needle-like teeth. Adivan smiled. Yes, that's Mekhatan all right... He contomplated replying in his own - atrociously mangled, but still understandable - version of the Vuuldrok language, but decided to stick to Gothic for clarity.

"Mekhatan, old friend, good to see you again. What brings you here?"

"One of your agents put the word out that he needed extra muscle for something, so I showed up. Turns out it was a Chaos cult that you lot did a fairly good job of stamping on without my help. You?"

"I was summoned here by Inquisitor Lord Vonrilyenta, for reasons that can't be publicly discussed. Go get yourself settled in; I'll talk to you more when I'm out of here."

The massive alien mercenary gestured assent and ducked his way out of the infirmary, much to the relief of the other patients and medical staff.

Pater woke up, feeling like shit given human form. He yelled for a Medicae, who informed him that he'd be out of action for a least a week, with 3 broken ribs and internal organ damage.

Prius made his way to Pater's bed, dropping into the seat next to his bed.

"Good day, inquisitor Novum. I trust you are feeling better."

"In a way. Interesting. I am usually the one visiting you. How are you?"

He waved his augmetic arm dismissively. "Functional. They took the opportunity to fine-tune the responses on the arm and the leg. I no longer have to account for overcompensation from the arm, which should improve my accuracy to acceptable levels again. Later today they're going to add a vox to my augmetic ear. I spoke to the medicae, Adivan apparently is in reasonably good shape, a mild concussion they said."

"I'm not surprised. How are my troops?"

"Security checking busybdis if th lobby of this place is any indication..."


Nathan walks into the room and looks at Prius .

"Commisar when your arbite investigation is over you are to take two days off as a vacation"

"You had two killed and one wounded among your stormtroopers. Your xenos filth survived..." he trailed off as Nathan enters, and listened.

"I appreciate it, inquisitor Talstrem, but there is the matter of the consolidation of military assets that I must see to, and there really isn't the time to spare."

Besides, what would he do with himself for two days?

"Hmm. What would you think if I told you that Gork and Mork aren't aliens, Prius?"

"Prius you need to heal and recharge your spirit.." Nathan looked thoughtfull for a second."Tell me if you found a guardsman in a rear support area with only 4 of his regulation 8 powerpacks for his weapon what would you do?"

Jolan stood at the doorway and listened to the conversation. Apparently everything was under control and the casualties had been light. A large bag was gripped in his left hand.

"I would order him flogged, at a minimum," Prius replied at once, before turning to Pater. "Are they mutants, then?"

Mutants are marginally tolerable as expendable assets, as compared to aliens, of course.

"You know of Bears, Prius? Large beasts that originated from Holy Terra itself. Over the 16,000 years my homeworld was cut off from the rest of the galaxy, they changed. When the Imperium rediscovered them, they were domesticated. Think of them like war dogs or horses."

"Why Prius,Otther than the obvious fact that he is breaking regs with no good reason?"

Nathan sees Jolan and nods to the Inquisitor.

He nodded at Pater, then Jolan, his expression puzzled as he looked at Nathan.

"There would be another reason? He is clearly remiss in his duties for not bearing his proper equipment. Slackness is not to be tolerated, and in all duties and functions we strive to deliver total effort. To do less is to betray the God-Emperor."

He made the sign of the aquila, confused at the line of conversation and what this has to do with him not attending to his duties while... vacationing.

Jolan hefts the bag in reply to Nathan. "Some of your belongings got accidently sent my way. It's good to see both of you didn't loose any more pieces."

"Correct Prius he is only half effective as he could be because he didnt take the time to renew the resources he had...... which is why you will rest for two days, go study, go to mass and pray to the Emperor whatever just recharge your spiritual batteries for the fighting we have ahaed.."

Nathan takes the bag "Thank you Jolan....there are a few...irreplaceable items in here and one that welll....would definitely be considered a relic"

He blinked at Nathan.

Clever turn of phrase. Metaphor. He'd been instructed on how such things were useful in delivering lessons to the men, but often regarded such measures as overly fancy. But he has to admit, it was well done.

"I understand, inquisitor."

He looked at Jolan. "Inquisitor Novum performed most valiantly once more, in slaying the daemon."