Inquisitor Indigence Ormus, Ordo Astartes
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| [//Inquisitor-Ordinary 'Indigence' Ormus+] [//yannis_t+] |
“Knowledge is nothing without understanding. But beware of those who understand too much, and know too little.”
[//attr. Inquisitor Ormus+]
Origins
Hailing from the homeworld of the Angels Belligerent Chapter, Indigence Ormus was well-acquainted with Astartes – and the problems thereof – long before his induction into the ranks of the Inquisition. The third son of one of the world’s prominent noble families, Ormus was expected to follow in the footsteps of his older brothers, and take part in the trials by which the Angels recruited once he came of age. Whilst his brothers had failed the trials themselves, their survival had bought successful careers in the Planetary Defence Force for them – and great honour for the family. Ormus was to continue this pattern; or rise still further, were he to prove able.The ambitions of his bloodline were cut short, however, by both the genetic deficiencies from which the young Ormus suffered, and a devastating sickness which left him bed-ridden for most of his childhood years. The indignity that his family suffered as a consequence of this perceived failure was such that Ormus’ entire existence would become stained by it – as exemplified by the nickname he would wear from then on: 'Indigence'.
In the following years, Ormus was kept far away from public sight. Eventually, once he had been largely cured of his malady, he was sent off to a remote congregation of the Imperial Church, in the hopes that service in the increasingly prominent cult of the God-Emperor might wash away the stain of his earlier failures. During his time among the congregation, Ormus discovered an aptitude for diligent study and critical reflection. In the Church’s deification of the Emperor of Mankind – and more importantly, of the Astartes that safeguarded his homeworld – he found a suitable subject to which to devote his attention.
His interest in the Astartes and their divine qualities quickly became an obsession, which ultimately led him to a undertake a pilgrimage to the Angels Belligerent’s fortress-monastery. Upon arriving, he prostrated himself before the Astartes and begged for a chance to serve the Chapter; not as the aspirant he could have been, but as a servant. After much deliberation, the Chapter accepted his plea, and he was inducted into their ranks as a Chapter serf.
Two decades of hard, unstinting service in the scriptora and, latterly, as a notable retroscribe in the Librarium of the Angels Belligerent sharpened his talents. It also brought him a greater understanding of the workings and mindset of the God-Emperor’s Angels, robbing him of his earlier naïvete and blind faith. Experience taught him what no work of faith or historical work could ever have revealed; that the Astartes were Angels neither in character nor in manner, but simply devastatingly effective instruments of war. A lesser man might have become disillusioned by such revelations, but Ormus turned these epiphanies to his advantage, dedicating himself to gaining still deeper insight into the minds of his masters, that he might better serve the Emperor despite – rather than because of – the imperfection of his Angels.
This dedication would ultimately lead him to discover the rot that had set into the Angels Belligerent’s ranks. Owing to the workings of the Ordo Redactus, the nature of their heresy has been lost to time, but their crimes against the God-Emperor were clearly of such magnitude that Ormus saw no alternative other than to send word to the Inquisition. With heavy heart did he provide them with the evidence necessary to have his once-beloved Chapter declared Traitoris Perdita, following which the Angels Belligerent – and most of the world’s population – were utterly annihilated by the Ordo Astartes’ forces. The Chapter disappeared from the annals of history, as did any trace of their deviance.
Ormus’ role in this event, and especially his particular understanding of the Astartes’ mindset, had not gone unnoticed, however. In the aftermath of the Angels Belligerent’s elimination, Ormus was offered a place in the Ordo Astartes, as part of the retinue of the famed Inquisitor Amahiri Rhumi. With few remaining ties left to his homeworld – and ultimately, no other choice – Ormus accepted, and began his life anew among the stars.
***
The War of the False Primarch
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| [+//Inquisitor Ormus during the Diet of Fools+] [//yannis_t+] |
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| [//The distinctive headcrests of the Blood Kin became famed during the Three-Way campaign, in which over a dozen Chapters of the Annulus Umbra engaged belligerent ork and eldar in an attempt to prevent them breaching the sector quarantine+] [//obben/@ruinstorm_militia+] |
Whilst no member of the Ordo Astartes could claim to be entirely trusted or well-received by the often isolationist Space Marine Chapters, Ormus was, at the very least, respected by those Astartes with whom he had dealings, and he maintained relatively friendly relations with a handful of Chapter Masters. One such connection would result in a personal tragedy for Ormus near the end of war, as well as his near-excommunication from the Ordo as a whole.
At the behest of Inquisitor Lord Leong-Cassar, Inquisitor Ormus spent the majority of the planning stage of the War on a vital mission of diplomacy, sending his retinue to covertly contact a number of Chapters in order to enact Leong-Cassar's quarantine over an entire Sector – a plan of such magnitude and ambition that it was only possible during the pomp of The Imperial 'Age of Forging'. The resulting 'Annulus Umbra' or 'Shroud-Ring' would eventually grow to draw in nearly three-score Chapters, allowing shipping and movement to be interdicted across an astronomical battle-theatre sphere. Thus, even as the Extinction Armada was forming, with the five – or six – Chapters of the Pentarchy being armed for conflict, Ormus was active and engaged in preventing word of the False Primarch from escaping.
On a personal level, Ormus was at odds with Master Enoch, the de facto figurehead of the Orthodox Imperium. Far from the free hand of war that Enoch was proposing, Ormus felt that a peaceful solution – or at least a less apocalyptically destructive result – was possible. It is almost certainly down to his direct intervention that wavering Chapters, such as the Iron Guard and Argent Heralds were slow to join the False Primarch's cause. Were a cooler head than Enoch to have been in charge, perhaps voices such as Ormus' might have prevailed upon the High Lords. What the result of such an eventuality might have been unknown to all save the fates.
***
In-sector, Ormus’ retinue was expanded with several new members during this period, as the need for greater protection during the negotiations rose with each passing month. As relations broke down and direct conflict became inevitable, Ormus and his newly formed retinue were reassigned to the Shadow War proper. Ormus favoured engaging in missions of sabotage, misdirection and outright assassination amongst the False Primarch’s mortal supporters. His operations against the Partisan Chapters themselves was noted as 'limited' by his rivals – though perhaps to be expected, given that his retinue was ill-equipped for dealing with Astartes directly.
Some of Ormus’ detractors believe that he may have deliberately stayed his hand on more than one occasion when it came to missions aimed at the Partisan Chapters out of a sense of misplaced remorse – but such rumours have remained no more than mere hearsay.
As the war escalated, Ormus was involved in the Delphurnan War, and more specifically, the Siege of Ul-Hiyar. Tasked with the elimination of several high-value targets in tandem with Operation Starfall, Ormus’ team was deployed alongside several other Inquisitorial and Vigilant Kill-teams to a number of civilian districts on Ishim which had escaped the fires of war up to that point. Taking the Partisans largely by surprise, the Kill-teams were successful in eliminating most of their intended targets, but the tide quickly turned against the Inquisitorial assets as the Red Fish and their allies mounted an effective counterattack.
The fierce skirmishes that followed saw most of the Inquisitorial agents and Vigilants perish, and it was only by escaping into the depths of the sewer system beneath one of the districts that Inquisitor Ormus and his retinue survived. Only after the Partisans had been fully routed from Ishim were they recovered from their hiding place, after which the Inquisitor and his retinue temporarily disappeared from the frontlines as they recovered from their injuries.
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| [//Member of the Ivory Skulls, during the war on Pryphant, Sector Heliopolis. A number of individual Astartes from the supposedly ignorant Chapters of the Annulus Umbra were seduced by the Partisan cause. Their specialisms lent the Marines Mendicant some of their most colourful and effective members.+] [//emanuele/@bottolbruva_imanuelofthelions+] |
Inquisitor Ormus and his retinue would partake in several more operations during the following stages of the war, but few records remain of their direct actions; as Ormus became the sponsor of the Vigilant Killteam Hound. Of note is that in later operations, Inquisitor Ormus was always accompanied by a single Vigilant, presumably a safety measure taken in response to the threat of the Marines Mendicant, who would be formed in the aftermath of the Siege of Ul-Hiyar.
***
Judgement
The five household guards of Jorge Martinez De La Fuente moved with haste through the corridor, their charge kept safe in the centre of their formation. In the distance, the distinctive small-arms sound of bolter and lasfire could be heard, occasionally interrupted by a detonation or the screams of dying men and women. De La Fuente flinched at every noise, keeping his head low, muttering half-hearted prayers to both the God-Emperor and his living son as he ran.Instead, he was now being hunted, and all he could do was run.
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| [//Jorge Cayetano Lopez y Martinez De La Fuente, Chartist Captain and Partisan sympathiser+] [//marco_b/@marco+] |
His guards were well-trained, but it was clear to him that they felt as out of their depth as he did. They moved with efficiency and purpose, but there was a frantic element to it, a subtle nervousness that radiated from their every movement. De La Fuente could not blame them for that. He had had interactions with the Inquisition before, and had even seen one or two Space Marines in his lifetime, but never, in all his years, had he imagined that they would one day be trying to kill him. The thought sent a shiver down his spine, and he swallowed hard. No matter. They were nearly at the extraction point. Only a little further.
***
As they rounded the corner, a bright blue flash slammed into the head of one of the guards at the front. The man slumped to the floor, his head seared off his body by the impact. The other guard managed to squeeze out a single shot with his lasrifle before another flash melted through his armour plate and liquefied his abdomen. Before De La Fuente had even processed what had happened, he was hastily pulled back around the corner by one of his remaining guards – the officer, De La Fuente realized. The other two guards formed up at the corner and returned fire on their assailants as De La Fuente was dragged back further into the corridor.
Panic set in as the gravity of the situation became clear to him. He was going to die here. They’d never make it to the extraction point. He should never have come here, he should never have–
The harsh sound of a shotgun discharging close by sent him diving to the floor. Over his shoulder, he saw the officer trade shots with a figure further down the hallway, and then suddenly cry out in pain. Blood splattered to the wall and floor, and De La Fuente felt hot droplets of it landing on his cheeks. He curled up into a ball and screwed his eyes shut, madly reciting the few lines of Morgetheon's approved new hymnals he could remember. He was trembling all over, the fear causing his body to spasm uncontrollably. Two more shots rang out, and two more bodies fell to the floor somewhere close. And then all was silent.
He dared not open his eyes. Not even as two pairs of footsteps slowly approached did so much as look up. He heard someone quietly groaning in pain, before weakly pleading for mercy. The voice was suddenly reduced to strangled gurgles, and then all was still again.
He still did not open his eyes. A woman’s voice, machine-altered but still distinctive, spoke to him then.
"Mercantillus-Prime Jorge Cayetano Lopez y Martinez De La Fuente of House De La Fuente, you have been found guilty of treason against the Imperium of Man and the High Lords of Terra. In His name and by the authority of the Holy Inquisition, you have been sentenced to death."
Jorge De La Fuente’s eyes opened wide at this declaration, and he stared in horror at the scarlet-clad figure in front of him, and the long, curved blade that she aimed at his throat.
"May the Emperor have mercy on your soul," she smiled, as she punched the blade through his neck.
***
Known Associates
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| [//yannis_t//+] |
Pict-captures of operative Kappa-Beta-9 [//ident_value: Vrost, Katharya – [//confirm_id_pending+]], sometime after the Siege of Ul-Hiyar. A skilled assassin and tech-consort, Vrost served as Inquisitor Ormus’ hidden blade, a weapon to be drawn only when diplomacy – Ormus’ favoured approach – had failed.
During the Siege of Ul-Hiyar, Vrost was tasked with the elimination of several high-ranking mortal supporters of the False Primarch. Despite the chaos that ensued after the failed assassination attempt on the Primarch itself, Vrost successfully completed her objectives, and regrouped with her team at their established extraction point. There, her team and other Ordo forces were ambushed by vengeful Red Fish Scout units. In the ensuing skirmish, Vrost lost her left arm to bolter fire, and was dragged unconscious out of the kill-zone by her team members.
She ended up surviving the events on Ishim, and after recovering from her injuries, returned to the field with her missing limb replaced by a high-quality chainsword – which she has since used to exact bloody vengeance on the Partisans and their allies.
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| [//yannis_t//+] |
***
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| [//Cudd Geer, Operative Rho-Sigma-3+] [//yannis_t//+] |
Pict-captures of operative Rho-Sigma-3 (ident_value: Geer, Cudd) during Operation Starfall, during the Siege of Ul-Hiyar. Rho-Sigma-3 was one of the few Inquisitorial operatives to make it out of Ul-Hiyar alive. His team succesfully evaded capture by Red Fish and Silver Stars Astartes following the failed assassination attempt on Volnoscere, but was forced to remain in hiding for the remainder of the battle that followed.
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| [//yannis_t//+] |
***
I have witnessed a being that I am not permitted to suggest is one of the Emperor's Sons; and still I am more wary of the High Lords than him. That is a measure of the power of Imperium.
It is a grand word; redolent with power. Strong-willed, strong-eyed and strong-armed must be those who wield it. It is with sorrow, not reluctance, that I enact the will of the High Lords. Great though my power is, it with relief that I am not counted amongst those unhappy twelve who must bear the direct responsibility of Imperium.
[//attr. Inquisitor Ormus, private remarks+]