Death Sentence

Cadian Hill - the monument to the fallen was officially unveiled a week ago.  A commissar on foot struggles up the steep dusty shale to the foot of the obelisk.

“So why am I up here ?”

“Do you recall the Palladian lieutenant who captured the first witch ?” The unremarkable looking warrant officer did not wait for an answer “General Zhukov made him up to captain and held a parade to award the platoon an iron star.  Well, when they returned to the line they promptly found four more witches.  Now there are any number of reasons why this may be, one of which is that they the more you encounter, the easier they are to spot.  Of course the real answer is simply that there are more witches as the ruinous powers seek to become more involved.”

“So ? You always have a point.”

“Inquisitor Hallas decided that the most likely reason what they had become warp sensitised themselves and that it was only a matter of time before they became possessed.  He called them in for a debriefing which he held in a room he’d had turned into a gas chamber.”

“It would solve the potential problem.”

“Yes.”  The Cadian looked at his feet.  "If there was a problem."

The Commissar snorted. It wasn’t a ‘yes’ that answered anything. “So ?”

“So…  The witches they had apprehended were without exception low threat manifestations, none of the usual warp sign one would associate with the great enemy.  Inquisitor Hallas’ zeal has deprived the Imperium of one successful and decorated officer and a platoon of Palladia’s finest.”

The commissar studied the back of his left glove for a few long, silent moments.

“Are we.." he began his question.  He was cut off by the Cadian.  “No.  It would be far too risky without a huge body of evidence and the support of other Inquisitors.  The best thing I can think of at the moment is that you use your professional network to encourage units not to locate or capture witches, if you take my meaning.”

The commissar exhaled deeply.  'Take no prisoners' would filter into the army more easily from the Commissariat than it ever could from the grey slime*. 

“Agreed.  Find out if Hallas has his eye on anyone else, it might be time for 72AG to send some veterans back to Agripinna as part of a training cadre.”

“I am on it.”   

The commissar nodded and turned his back on the monument on the top of the hill without a second glance.  There were still guardsmen to be saved, he wasn't too bothered about the ones he could no longer save.

*'Grey Slime' is a widespread colloquialism for the interior guard or intelligence services within the IG.