Zali strode up to the small hut in the middle of nowhere, and knocked on the door. Having spent most of the week that had passed in preparation for this moment, she felt anxiety. Far from the chapel novice clothing, she was wearing Carapace armour and a beret, and a well-crafted Ranger-Pattern Revolver-Cannon by her side. It wasn’t quite a Bolt Pistol, but still had a large caliber and made the resounding impact of blasting a hole in someone when they were hit. She looked regal and in charge. Hopefully, at least. These, people, were not humans. Her Master told her they were just shy of Xenos and should be treated warily, and be forever on guard of their trickery and hidden meanings behind their words. They had no emotions and had thoughts alien to humans.

It was this that made Zali a little nervous when the door swung open of its own accord, and a very human looking woman stood staring at her, as if she knew she was coming before she had ever knocked. The clothes were ordinary, she was not of any great stature, height or width, and there was nothing about her that said she was any different to Zali. But that stare…Zali felt violated by that stare, though did not bawk and walked in.

“What does the Inquisition want with me?” the woman asked. Zali felt off-kilter from the moment the door opened, but this woman was taking command of the situation with every second that passed. She needed to recover her footing.

“The Inquisition believes there to be a Chaos Cult on this planet, and so it is calling all of its resources on the planet to aid in this search. There is a great deal of Administratum redtape to get through for any off-world support. Rally point for the muster is the orbital station Zathos ” Zali spoke with a very regimented and military tone, not that it did anything for the red-cloaked woman.

“Excellent. Still doesn’t explain what you want with me” The woman, then turned away from Zali and pottered about doing strange things with an arcane machine. Zali, spluttered at this but took an indignant tone and replied harshly.

“It does! You are to report to the orbital station to receive orders! This is an Inquisitorial Decree!” Zali exclaimed loudly, not that it moved the woman in the slightest.

“An Inquisitorial Decree you say? How posh” the tone of voice made it clear that the woman cared nothing for such a decree, and carried on with her machine until the sound of a weapon being drawn filled the shack.

“You will follow the Decree or you will be executed for heresy!” Zali shouted, her handcannon aimed at the woman’s head.

“Ohh dear. Being executed for heresy does sound like it would hamper my day. You don’t look like you could pull that trigger though. It’s in the eyes. Still haunted by the events on Mothin II, I suspect. And why wouldn’t you? That planet was truly troubled before its end” The woman looked back at Zali, who was breathing heavily and the gun shaking slightly. “You have no problem executing heretics and traitors and those people. A fine record of doing so, in fact. But there is a history of poor followup if you don’t have that conviction. Unlike your brothers in arms, you can’t gun down an innocent or an unarmed being. The Inquisition is debating what to do with you, and there are some messy options here”

The woman kept talking, and Zali clenched her teeth, forcing her hands to stop shaking as the woman in front of her poked into every secret she had like she was reading a billboard.

“They might even dump you back in a hive after this. Follow your mother’s footsteps after that, no?”

The woman’s words were echoed by a scream from Zali, and then the resounding report of the Cannon emptying its cylinder into the woman.

“I will not go back!” she screamed, and then there was silence. A few seconds later, Zali tentatively opened her eyes, and there was the woman. Six large bullets hovered in the air, a poor grouping from the panic , two going wide completely, one only clipping her and three spaced about her torso. They just hovered there, until the woman smiled, and they clattered to the ground. Then a metal tendril burst from the woman’s cloak and wrapped itself around her throat, yanking the woman up till her toes barely scraped against the floor.

“Hivers are so rude. Seems Inquisitor Blackfox didn’t teach you anything either. Maybe I should bury you in my garden and go talk to him about the qualities of good teaching?” the woman suggested. Zali reached for her knife to try and cut herself free, but a second tendril wrapped around her wrists and restrained them, pulling her into a position where her arms felt like they were going to be dislocated in the process. “Or just keep you here. It’s been a long time since I have had company” the woman seemed to simply, elevate up on some invisible platform to be eye level, and stroked Zali’s cheek. That invasive stare came again, and the woman chuckled lightly. “Though someone has beaten me to the punch. And recently as well”

The tormenting tone was compounded when the lower body clothes Zali was wearing were ripped off, showing her naked body, and forcing her to endure the strange and terrible feeling of the caressing metal tendril. And then, something that made her let out a garbled scream, the tendril penetrated her slowly.

“You see, a human penis conforms somewhat to the woman’s vagina as it makes entry. But a metal tendril has no such conformity. It simply punches in and pushes your folds aside” The woman stared somewhat madly, and then seemed to gather herself, and look back up at Zali. Leaving the tendril to worm its way into her, it pushed up against Zali’s womb, squirted something in there, and then pulled out again. As it pulled out, the woman tossed Zali across the room, impacting heavily against the wall and leaving her to choke.

“Tell your Inquisitor that if he wishes to talk with me, he best send someone with more manners” The woman gestured to the door, and the meaning was clear. “And I will be keeping an eye on you. I’d suggest not reporting any more than is necessary. It won’t go well for you”