Warhammer 40,000: Stavrakis- The Hunt For Valakt

Who I am

The door to my quarters slid closed noiselessly behind me. I breathed deep of the musty, stale air. The air filtration seemed to be doing its job, no taste of boiled cabbage in the air. The room was almost completely dark, but it's a good thing I don't need my eyes to see. This ship had been my home for a decade now, at least, and at most two decades. I carefully picked my way across the floor, attempting to reach the full length locker that I had partitioned against the far wall. The lights flashed on automatically once I made it halfway thanks to an auto-sensor built into the ceiling. My quarters looked an absolute disaster. 

The far wall was taken up by my full length wall locker I had a junior tech priest install. Its sliding door was open and the contents spilled out across the floor. Bodygloves, weaponry, tools, regular clothing... A very unflattering look into the mind of an Inquisitor. The left wall I had used as my 'planning wall'. Any information regarding my current work was plastered on any which way it could fit, including any diagrams, charts or even local sub news I had found that somehow connected.

 I had to remember to clean it off before we left. It was still cluttered with the data from my Tyranid Hunt the years before... My augmetic leg twitched involuntarily at the memories. I reached it and plucked a grainy pict of the Lictor in question off the wall, gazing at it.

"Never again." I whispered to myself. I crumpled the pict and tossed it behind me. Years of planning, sleepless days, countless brushes with death at the hands of Tyranids, and then one pull of the trigger, into sweet release.

I walked over to the other wall, where all of my Cogitators and codifiers sat, blinking silently in standby mode. I tapped a few keys and they hummed to life, the main screen displaying an image of my badge of office. The Ordo Xenos. Alien hunters.

 I sat on the hardwood stool in front of my machinery, intending to catch up on any local news I had missed in my many years away. Then I glanced at the full body mirror propped up in the corner. I had not seen myself in a mirror for many years now, having been consumed by my work. 

The sight of me was startling, as were the changes I suffered without even realizing it. My hair was long, drooping down to my shoulders, and looked ragged and unkempt. I tried to run my hand through my hair and found only knots and tangles. Unhealthy. My eyes were sunken and dark. Tired. Not enough sleep, I chided myself. Now that I could afford to rest, that should be easily remedied now. My face... My entire face looked gaunt to the point of alarm. Had I been eating properly? The realization scared me.

 I looked around my room and could see no evidence of any meals. I looked back at the mirror. My entire upper body frame had shrunk. My shoulders looked small and bony, my arms long and thin with barely a trace of the muscle mass I once had. The armoured bodyglove I wore was supposed to be a tight fit, but it hung loosely on my frame. I was never the most physically fit, nor the biggest, or the fastest but the sight of me now distressed me. Unhealthy. 

The thought echoed in my mind. I am sure that whatever physical ability I once possessed would need to be earned back the hard way. I haven't mentioned the many wounds that littered my body, some old, some new, some barely even starting to heal. I looked down at my augmetic leg. Its core was all metal and circuitry, but at my request I had it covered up by layer upon layer of synthetic skin and muscle. I compared it with its twin. The augmetic leg looked as it had many years ago, my left leg looking like an emaciated hunk of meat, the bodyglove hanging loosely around it. I sighed. Well, it wouldn't do to keep the Lord Inquisitor waiting.

In the end I threw on a heavy set of black pants, a matching black button shirt with my Inquisition great coat and a pair of heavy industrial leather boots, also black. My Rosette I deposited in my inner Greatcoat pocket, and my laspistol i tucked into the armpit holster on the left. I checked myself in my mirror before I left. Despite my intense weight loss, the clothes were quite thick and rigid, making me appear as large as I once was. I brushed my shoulders off one last time, and straightened my cuffs, then walked out into the red haze of the ships corridors. Edmund, my Interrogator, was waiting for me as I stepped out of my room.