Aidan is sitting in the pilot chair of his Invictus, staring out at the stars. His gaze shifts to the empty chair left of him and he let's out a sigh. The man shakes his head and takes hold of the yoke, steering the ship to the left. A blue-green planet comes into view and the man sits back once more. Earth... He had been away for quite a while. Usually he accepted his tasks while out in the field and here was often no point in returning to HQ. Unfortunately circumstances had forced him otherwise.

A red blinking light catches Aidan his attention. He hadn't even landed and bureaucratic nonsense was already irritating him. He pushes a button and before the other side has time to react Aidan is already talking. "Aidan Crowe of the Holy Inquisition. Flightcode #201948910." Silence on the other side... Then a voice of a woman can be heard. "Welcome home agent Crowe. You have permission to land in hangar H-45, level 23. Out." And with that the conversation ends. Aidan rolls his eyes and steers the ship towards the planet, making his way to the HQ and his designated landing zone.

He flies over a grand cityscape and follows the instructions on one of the many screens in the cockpit. Finding the appropriate hangar by himself would have been a nightmare. Luckily that had all been modernized in the time he had been away. And so it doesn't take long when he finally finds the appropriate hangar and lands the Invictus. Aidan get's out his ship and is immediately greeted by Lunt, second in command, some droids and three guards in black and red armour. Lunt steps forwards and looks down at a dataslate in his hands. "Aidan Crowe?" Aidan nods. "Good. Walk with me." The man turns around and motions Crowe to follow him. The droids stay behind and start cleaning the ship while the guards close the little cohort.

"It is a shame to hear that your partner, Zuviel Drogan died in the field. Can you state again how it happened? Your reports were rather... vague." Aidan looks uncomfortable for a second before regaining his composure. "As the report said: Torn to bits by a demon of Mallus^*. Nothing left of him. An... unfortunate accident." He types some things on his dataslate and seems satisfied. The group passes several offices and enter an elevator. One of the guards pushes a button and the elevator starts going up.

"The Supreme Inquisitor has decided to pick a new partner for you." Aidan holds his breath for a moment before speaking. "With all due respect, sir, but I do not want a new partner. Other people hold me down. I work best alone." Lunt looks at Aidan and raises an eyebrow. "This isn't just a new partner. It's a fresh recruit recently promoted to Field Inquisitor." Aidan his eyes widen and this time his voice sounds slightly agitated. "I just said that other people hold me down, and now you want me to play the teacher? Sir, I must outright refuse. How am I supposed to do my job with some gawky kid asking stupid questions and disobeying orders because he doesn't like them!?" The second in command sits through the outburst and when Aidan is finally finished opens his mouth. "First of all," The door opens with a ping and the group starts moving again. ", it's a she. Second, we think that giving you a partner is for the better. Do you know how many Exterminatus' you have called in in the past two months, Crowe? Twelve! That is nearly a 300% increase! Command simply believes you need someone to keep you in check." Aidan let's out a grumble but remains silent.

The group walks in silence for about 15 more minutes before finally arriving at their destination: A large room decorated to look like something that was normal 800 years ago. Lots of wood and lots of too comfy looking chairs. Aidan hated it. "Just take a seat and we will get her." He sits down on a green clothed sofa and let's out another groan.

---

^*=Chaos god of Slaughter

Valentisha had always preferred to work alone. Some of her best work came from being alone. She did not have to worry about protecting her allies or getting distracted. But with her new promotion, she had to be assigned to a more experienced Inquisitor. With a sigh, she packed up her belongings in her backpack and slung it over her shoulder and awaited the call in one of the HQ extravagant rooms. She feared she would not get along with her new mentor. She was sick of being treated like she was weaker just because she was female.

She had heard that Aidan Crowe was the best. And he would only look down his nose at her, just as all the others did. She kept checking her phone impatiently. It was stuck on the info screen on Aidan's profile. She had done her research on him and his work. She was determined to prove herself and that would be difficult to fill his old partner's shoes.

Her door opens to reveal a servant droid, three guards and Lunt, second in command himself. Val lifts her head up. It was time.

"Val, we're ready for you." Lunt says and stands to the side of the door with a hand pointing into the hallway ahead. Valentisha nods in acknowledgement and heads straight past him and towards Aidan's locale.

And Lunt then brings in Aidan's new partner - "Meet Valentisha Vivier." She adorned her Inquisitor armoured uniform with long robe like features. Her piercing ice cold eyes looked Aidan up and down.

Aidan never really had the time to get out of his Inquisitorial armor, but maybe that was for the best. It was adorned with plenty of sigils and seals. That would leave at least some impression on his new... partner.

He stands up as the group enters to the room. "Meet Valentisha Vivier." Lunt proclaims. He quickly gazes over the woman. Cold eyes, static posture, no custom sigils on her armor. It was one of those. "Pleasure..." he frowns as his first lies spouts over his lips. ", to meet you Valentisha. Can't say I've heard much about you. Then again, I also wasn't able to do my research since this little meeting was being kept secret from me." His gaze trails off to Lunt and he frowns once more. Then he quickly refocuses back to Valentisha, staring back with same piercing cold eyes. "But where are my manners? Aidan Crowe. Field Inquisitor, seven years of active duty and also known as the Butcher of Barnoya. Pleasure is all yours, I know." He holds out his hand while still challenging the woman's gaze.

"Yeah. Pleasure." Valentisha replied sarcastically as she took his hand to shake. Overly medal-clad, cocky, sure of himself. Yep. Another one of those alright. She'd heard much about him and she was glad he didn't know much about her. She planned to keep it that way.

She also shoots a gaze at Lunt. She too had little time to prepare for this sudden meeting. She was only promoted yesterday. "I'm sure you'll get to know Val's work as time progresses." Lunt continued.

"We would not have given you a new partner if we did not feel she was upto the challenge of keeping up with you. And we would not have given her the best of the best if she were not capable." Lunt expressed as he paced the room. "Ms Vivier took down the whole Cult of Thoth single handedly two days ago." The cult were notorious for sacrificial ceremonies and kidnappings. Getting in was no small feat for any inquisitor, you'd have to be a member, everyone had to know you by face and name, you could not get within an inch of their walls without being obliterated by their sentries.

But Valentisha somehow infiltrated and once on the inside it was like lambs to the slaughter.

Aidan's left eyebrow rises a little as Lunt mentions the Cult of Thoth. "All by yourself you say? Hm... Impressive. But don't let it go to your head." He takes a few walks back and turns around, seemingly staring at a wall. He pushes a button on it and the wall fades away, revealing the cityscape. Many people were oblivious to the HQ of the Inquisition. Above ground they were simply one of the many religious buildings. But beneath the surface was where the real power of the Inquisition was held. So many people drove by their protectors everyday, and they didn't even know.

He keeps staring to the outside for a couple of seconds before he speaks again. "Valentisha? I'm guessing you did your research to me and you're probably aware of my... harsh methods. I'm just going to assume that those don't bother you at all and that you will not try to stand in my way." Then he turns around and heads for the exit of the room. "Right. Enough dabbling. Lunt, transmit my-... our assignment to the Invictus. We have work to do." Aidan leaves the room, assuming that the girl will follow him. He heads straight for the elevator and pushes the button to go down to the hangar levels. The door slowly starts to close...

Val nods as she followed the lead Inquisitor down the hall. She easily strode in past the closing lift doors in time and stood at his side. "Look, I know you lost your old partner. It's not nice. But if it makes you feel any better, you dont have to be nice to me, you dont have to know anything about me. And same goes for me." She wasnt bitter or angry, she was cool and calm.

"Just...makes it easier if one of us dies is all." She held her arms behind her back with a straight posture. "We dont have to get along. All that matters is we take down those bastards out there and protect the human race. Right?" She didnt really ask his opinion as it was rhetorical and the elevator doors ping open and she half turns toward him as she stepped back and out of it, turning around fully front facing again. There she saw his ship. The Invictus. "Nice ride." Now there was something she could truly appreciate. A thing of beauty.

The man follows the woman with his eyes as she enters the elevator and stands besides him. "You know nothing about Drogan, so don't pretend you do. And I do want to know everything about you. And you know why? That's my job. When you see a person you need to work with, you need to know everything about him, or at least try to." He had turned his head slightly towards her whilst saying this, but not enough to look her fully in the face.

He taps with his foot on the metal floor as the elevator descends. "Petty squabbling aside... Yes, This is about protecting our faith and the human race." The elevator finally reaches their destination and he raises an eyebrow as the woman makes eye contact with him before spinning around. He rolls with his eyes before following her into the hangar. "Old model. No longer in use by the Inquisition, but I could never part with it. Has been flying as long as I have." A hatch beneath the ship opens up as the two approach. Aidan climbs aboard and the hatch closes as soon as Val is aboard as well.

"I'd give you a your, but there isn't a whole lot to look at." They stand in the middle of a small hallway with rooms on either side. He points to the bow of the ship. "Cockpit is that way. Three seats available. At the back are engines, storage and bathroom. To your left, my room. To the right, your room. You probably want to sort things out there. I haven't started clearing it out since..." Aidan simply shakes his head and walks to the cockpit, sitting down in the chair, putting his feet on the console.

Valentisha admires the workmanship on the craft. She looked all around and finally settles her gaze on her room. "No prob..." She huffs as she had a bit of clearing out to do. Obviously it was still a sore spot for Aidan that she even mentioned his old partner. He was going to be hard work. But there was nothing more she liked than hard work.

It kept her mind off everything else that was wrong with the world. She sat in her room on top of an old ornate chest. She picks up a book and blew the dust off it. She couldn't decide whether Aidan would prefer to keep somethings as mementos or whether he'd prefer to throw everything out and leave no reminders.

In any case she had a job to do. This was only somewhere to sleep in between.

The book has the sigil of the Inquisition on it as well as a title. 'Memorias ex Zuviel Drogan'. It appears to be Drogans diary of some sort. It clearly hasn't been touched in a while, just like many things in the room. Suddenly Aidan stands in the door opening. "I forgot to mention that there is also a small kitchen in the storage room. There wasn't enough space for each an own room, so we had to put those two together. I'm going to make a coffee before we take off. Don't have the assignment yet anyway." He walks off to the back of the ship.

The storage room is a rather small area. Though that's mostly because most of the space is being used up by crates of supplies, ammunition and other stuff. On one of the sides are some cupboards, a fridge, an thermal heater and a coffee machine. Aidan walks up to the latter and pushes a button. The device begins to make grinding sounds and the black liquid pours into a cup. He takes the cup when it's nearly full and sits down in one of the two comfortable chairs. Between the chairs is also a small table equipped with holo-display. "Messages for Aidan Crowe." The table activates and a holographic display appears before Aidan with all his personal messages. He begins to shift through them one by one.

Valentisha sifts through the storage room and kitchen. It was a complete mess. And so she took the liberty of tidying up the way only a woman could. Maybe she was a little OCD under that tough exterior. She liked things primp and proper. Much like a noble lady would. But she was far from a lady. But she liked to think she had a noble heart.

She kept avoiding the gaze of the book. It bothered her. She didn't want to throw it out. It wasn't her decision. But she also didn't want to read it. She sighed and picks it up. She goes to Aidan sat in his chair and presents him with it. "Either read it in memory of your partner, or get rid of it. Your choice." She placed it on the table in front of him. "I dont pretend to know your partner. Never did. Nor am I his replacement. I only need to know my current partner. And that's you. So start talking." She falls into the opposite chair and puts her leg over one knee as if sitting like a male.

Like it or not they had to know each other and work as a team. She was no longer on solo missions.

Aidan takes sip from his coffee while shifting through some more mail. Junk... Spam... Would I like to make my pe-... NO! Junk! He watched Val tidy up the storage room from the corner of his eyes. A slight smile appears on his face as he takes another sip. Then she suddenly stands in front of him with a book in her hands. He recognizes the book and his eyes widen. "Give that here!" He grabs the book from her hands, throws it on the floor and grabs his blaster from his belt. He aims for the book and squeezes the trigger. Something is holding him back however. It is apparent from the expression on his face that he is having an internal conflict. Aidan finally puts the blaster away, picks up the book and shoves it somewhere in his robes. He sits down and looks at the woman sitting down. Then he begins to talk like nothing happened.

"I am Aidan Crowe of house Crowe. 31 years old and seven years of active field duty. Awarded with several commendations for continued loyalty and stellar operations. I also hold a noble title on some far away planet which I do not care about and am the proud owner of the nickname 'Butcher of Barnoya'. If you do not know the story of Barnoya, I suggest you read up on it. Some interesting theories go around the holonet." He takes a sip from his coffee and continues. "Four years ago I got partnered with Zuviel Drogan. Damn good Inquisitor. Together we rounded up about... 22 heretical circles all over the Human Imperium. Called in quite a few Exerminatus' in the progress. Culling an entire planet to save our species is never easy. But duty above all as I always say. Anyway, about three months ago Zuviel Drogan got... ambushed by a demon of Mallus and torn to shreds. Nothing left of him." He looks down at his coffee and shakes with his head as he notices he drifted off-topic. "Back to me though. My equipment consists of the armor I'm wearing, which is made from Holy Mithril. I also prefer using a combination of sword and pistol. The pistol being a Califax L693, modified by myself and the sword being custom made with a combined sigil of my House and the Inquistion. It's being powered by plasma cells in the hilt and should be able to cut through nearly every material... Or so they claimed at least." He puts down the coffee mug on the table and looks back up to the girl. "Enough?"

Val was shocked to see such a reaction with his ex-partner's book. It was obvious there was more to his death than meets the eye. She listened to his story. She hid it but she was impressed by his confidence and legendary feats. "Hm." She nodded at her partner and mentor as he asked if it were enough.

"Pretty snazzy equipment. You must have some serious guncrafting skills." She brings out her gun. "Nothing special bout this girl, except that its not just a gun, it hides a blade that extracts from this part here." She points just underneath the main exit chamber. "In such a way that I can use it as a sword and fire at the same time." She flicks it once and a sharp staggered blade whips out. "It can also emit an EMP to knock out nearby electronics." She flicks the gun upward and the blade retracts. "I also have a crossbow that can double up as a heavy sword." Her arm muscles were pretty toned and larger than the average woman. But she was still not overly muscled.

"Takes some power though..." She sighed and put her gun away.

Aidan shrugs at the compliment. "Not that great. Just a tweak here and there. Nothing fancy. You should see what the Tellum-Priests back on Earth can do." He let's out a whistle and nods. "That's the real tinkering."

He looks at Val demonstrating her gun and scratches his beard. "Hm... Impressive. Gun and sword together -and- an EMP. That must be a pretty heavy pistol all together then. Just... don't hit that EMP to close to me. I have some cybernetics that might shut down." He looks down at his feet and murmurs to himself: "I should really get those upgraded... EMP shielding or something." He snickers and looks back at Val as she continues her talk.

"I can see you did your training though." His sight glide over her arms, upwards, and he gets distract for a split second by her breasts. He shakes his head as he notices he's staring and quickly looks back at her face. "A crossbow you said? An ancient weapon. But I like the combination with sword though." He looks at his empty cup and then at Val. He scratches his beard again and gets up from the chair. "Although... I don't see you wearing a lot of armor. One blaster shot and you'd be dead. Wouldn't want to lose a partner that quick. Lunt would be all over my ass if I did." He walks to some boxes, opens one up and starts rummaging in it. "Should be... somewhere... This it? Nah..." Some scrap and other gadgets get thrown aside as Aidan picks the contents of the box apart. "Ah! Here it is." He tosses a small box of metal with some wires to it to Valentisha. "Personal shield generator. Should be able to block some energy based shots."

Val nods at the device. "Nice one." She was impressed by its capabilities. "I don't like heavy armour. It slows me down. Cant hit me if they cant catch me. True, I've been battered and bruised, but what doesn't kill me, makes me stronger." She shrugs to herself.

"This bad boy should do the trick alright." Then she recalls him saying cybernetics. "You said you had cybernetics..? What did you do to deserve those little treasures? And just don't piss me off, or else I might accidentally let it off while covering your ass out there." She joked but she was confident enough about being able to have his back in a fight.

Aidan nods and grins at her. "So you're a jumper then? I used to be like that. But at a certain point your legs get tired. Received one blow in the chest because of that. After that I switched to this." He pats on his chest piece.

He shrugs at her question about the cybernetics. "Oh, just small enhancement things. One cybernetic eye, but looks just like a real one for starters. Also just small chips and stuff to make information tracking easier. I also have a small container of deadly toxin somewhere in my body, so if the forces of the Dark Gods capture me, I won't be of any use to them. It would be a real shame if that were to malfunction I'd say..." He bites his lips in exaggeration but then a grin appears.

"Right, enough sitting around. Time to get the Invictus in space. I'm sure Lunt has send us our assignment by now." He leaves the room and walks up to the cockpit. He sits down in the pilot chair and starts up the ship. The engines come to live with a soft humming and the ship easily takes off from the ground. He turns the ship 180 degrees, transmits his departure to air-control and flies the ship out of the hangar as soon as the doors are open. He heads straight up for space and it doesn't take long before the blue skies of Earth make place for the deep dark of space.

Justice Among the Stars

Val watches him leave. 'I think he's beginning to warm to me...'She thought to herself as she approached the cockpit and sat down next to him in the co-pilot chair. He must be to have given her the information so freely. Perhaps this was the beginning of a beautiful partnership.

She views outer space with awe, just as she always did. Something about space made her feel...at home. She watched the complicated controls. Although she had piloted many vehicles before, this one was new to her and different. She would have to learn it herself. It would lessen the pressure on Aidan and if he ever got into trouble she would need to fly him to safety.

"So how's this thing powered?" She then began her questions and learning of the spaceship.

Aidan steers towards the nearest Beacon, which would still take about thirty minutes of flying. He switches on the auto-pilot and turns his chair towards Val as she sits down. "I suppose it's good to see that chair filled again." He turns back to the consoles and flicks some switches and pushes some buttons here and there, making sure that everything runs smoothly.

In response to Valentisha's question, Aidan rearranges a screen that is attached to the ceiling, making it more visible for the girl. "This ship runs on a mini reactor. It was designed to take up as few space as possible. It's not the usual liquid form this ship uses though. This ship makes use of rods that are directly inserted into the reactor. Bit more of a hassle to refill, but a lot less risk to loose fuel due to a leak." He points at the screen. it shows four bars all filled up. "Those represent the four cores and how full they are. They should always be at the same level. If one is lower or higher then the others, eject it for a couple of minutes or draw double power off it until it's equal again. Don't worry about timing. The computer will change it's status to normal as soon as they are equal again."

He turns the screen back to himself and sits back in his chair. "The ship is also equipped with three sets of guns, a turret at the back and a scanner which detects particles that are not of this realm. A.k.a. a useful tool to pick up rituals of the Dark Gods. About the engine... Eeh... It's not the best. It's not capable of making FTL jumps by itself, so we need to make use of Beacons. It's strength lies in maneuvering." Per demonstration Aidan quickly grabs the controls and pulls a lever, making the ship turn 360 degrees in a flash of second while remaining on course for the beacon. After the display he simply let's go of the controls once more and sits back.

"Yeah well get used to it cuz I aint going nowhere for a while." Valentisha makes a taunt in jest as she grins with a wink, she had her playful and comedic side that made her a great morale booster. She rarely used it, as she never had anyone to really use it on. She wasn't used to being part of a team. But now she was with the Elites.

Then takes note of the screen and how the ship worked. This was critical to know. "Cores at the same level, got it." She nodded at him taking in his wisdom. She was a quick learner. "I may familiarise myself with the turret at the back then. We may need to use it at some point." She didn't exactly know if they would come across other ships, maybe space pirates are out there but she figured most of their fighting would be done on planet surfaces.

"All in due time." He says while holding up one hand. "At least wait until we leave Earth jurisdiction space. Wouldn't want to get halted because we were simply training." The ship flies past a cluster of space stations. Some are as small as the ship they are flying and some are as large as a small moon. A warning light starts blinking in the cockpit, signalling that they are being scanned. The Invictus passes unharmed. "The 'borders' around Earth are getting tighter by the day."

The flight continues for another 20 minutes. In the mean time they pass several planets like Mars and such. Then finally the Beacon appears on the radar and getting closer also reveals it to the eye. It is surrounded by several gun platforms as well as some space stations that are providing support. As the Invictus approaches, Aidan slows down the craft. "We'll have to a wait our orders here. I'll land us on the Progenitor over there." He points to one of the stations and flies towards it. He requests to dock and gets assigned a docking station. He manages to dock with ease and the craft attaches to the docking tube with a hiss.

"This station has living quarters in it, thus also having shops, restaurants and inns. We kind of left Earth in a hurry, so I'm sending you out to get some supplies. See this as a first test! Come back with what you think is necessary. In the meantime, I'll be gathering the latest information in the bar." Aidan gets up, walks to the airlock and boards the Progenitor, heading straight for the nearest bar.

More like so he could slack off and booze in the bar she thought with a slight huff of annoyance. However, she proceeded to go to the merchants, as tasked without much dallying.

What was necessary on this upcoming mission that she had to guess where they would be going and what environments they'd be up against? So, she did the best she could. An all-weather terrain poncho. Water. Food rations. The basics, the bare essentials. She perused the long line of metallic shed stalls and her heavy boots clunked against the metal cladding walkway.

But one thing did catch her eye. An ornate dagger. It sparkled in the light in such a way that it just HAD to be noticed. She picks up the dagger, of red adorned with jewels. She felt the weight of it in her palm, feeling the balance of the blade. She was taken in by its deadly beauty. But, it was a frivolous thing. And she would never need for such ornaments. Not in this life.