The Imperium of Man

Volsk nodded, "excellent questions all, but I can tell you with certainty that there was no cover-up. And Raleigh Prime, as the planet is listed in Imperial Records, is an incredibly pious society, to the point that it is nearly theocratic. We have no idea if there are any cults in the underhive, but by law of averages, there must be." He clicked his remote, and flicked off the holoprojector. At which point the lights came back on. he smiled, "Now that that business is settled, allow me to introduce you all to my established team. There on the wall behind me is Corvus Harland. We met in the Guard, during the Galvus Campaign. We were both part of the 56th Combined Arms Strike Force. He was in the Catachan 17th, and I was with the Gandonian 86th. This was back before I was recruited by my former teacher, you see. We were stationed on Galvus, hence the Galvus Campaign. It was an Emperor-forsaken hellhole on the other side of the galaxy. He had been given the honor of being his squad's heavy gunner, replacing his lasgun for a multi-laser. Anyways, long story short, we met, killed some greenskins, and have been best buds ever since. He is most certainly not above using my immense capitol to purchase a myriad of weapons and armors, and therefore is my ship's quartermaster. Should you ever need a weapon, or require training with said weapon, speak to him. He also isn't a bad regicide player." The large man at Osbourne's back grunted in approval. He then gestured to his right, to a thin, shy, bespectacled girl with long, black hair, "This blushing beauty is Nomina Kellier, an ingenious programmer from Golaris, a small planet in the Helican subsector. I met her while on a case in Gudrun with my former master. She had been a small time hacker back then, worming her way into secure databases, digging for information, all very harmless. Until one day she uncovered an extortion scheme in the local arbites department. She had been hearing news about an inquisitor in the area, and had decided that her best course of action was to do what?"
The girl started blushing, looking like a child who was being scolded as she said, "Hack into your servers..."
Volsk smiled, "And where did that get you?"
She looked down at her hands, which were neatly folded in her lap, "It had your big guy breaking down my door, and then you stole my cogitators."
Volsk frowned, obviously hurt by her remark, "Stolen, oh not at all, we simply confiscated them. To search for any information you had, we returned them in short order didn't we?"
She shot back at him, "Yeah, and they were completely wiped! Do you even realize how long it had taken me to acquire that much data!?" her eyes got wide and her lips pressed together, as she blushed to an even darker shade of red, realizing that she had been shouting. Volsk smiled a crooked smile, as he looked at her, "Graah! Dammit Volsk, I hate it when you do that!"
Volsk burst out laughing, "Well if you didn't make it so easy I wouldn't do it so often. Besides, you look too cute when you blush for me not to. It's too fun."
She just returned to her shell, pouting. Volsk slowly started to calm down, "Ahahaha, whoo... That was fun...." He turned to the rest of the group, "Alright, I want each of you to introduce yourselves to the team, tell a bit about yourselves and when we're done, feel free to mingle and chat. We have a few days before we reach Raleigh Prime, and there is plenty of time to meet you new colleagues, chat, and generally get to know everybody. Feel free to sample some of my liqours if you wish, I also have tanna, or recaf if that is more to your taste. I have also prepared a few hors d'oeuvres if you are feeling peckish. So please, one at a time, come up here, and tell us about yourselves. I always relish learning more about my team."

"Nothing should be ruled out, lad."
Said the squat,
"An' Every possibility should be considered, when dealing with the unknown in this way, only a fool leaps wit'oot looking."

Holt put his hands up. "I am well aware of that fact. I am merely suggesting that we devote our attentions first to the scenarios which seem most likely. The logistical difficulty of mundane poisoning places it among one of the less likely scenarios in my opinion."



"Private Clubs dedicated tae Pleasure, Martial powers an' Knowledge..."
Thungrim grunted,
Shaking his head at the Priest's lack of uptake, were all humans this slow? The Detective at least appeared to be thinking along the right lines.
"Cults, laddie, he's talkin' about Chaos Cults!"


"Ah, agents of the ruinous powers then, my apologies for not making the connection faster, though such matters are hardly my specialty." said Holt.

Must be more vigilant of that possibility in the future, Inquisitorial work will inevitably involve it at some point.


Of course, Holt's attention was immediately drawn by the company the Inquisitor kept, and the small insight he'd given into his own past.

Originally a guardsmen, and not even an officer. Not a psyker than, can't directly read my thoughts. Must be wary of other psykers who report to him though, should it come to that.

Mr. Serdali's notion of the Royal Hivers' typical behavior did sound true enough, though Varn was born from the middle class, he had heard many stories about corruption and injustices, though nothing had ever bothered him as he had stayed in line and simply done what he was told. "How about spores? Stealer Cult DNA?" the Squat noted, and Varn's head turn, Spores? Stealer cults? What da frak is he on about? he thought.

He continued to listen as the Squat and the Tech-Priest discussed their options, though Varn had a hard time following along with what they were referring to. Chaos cults, eldars, ‘pointy ears’, DNA cults, none of it makes sense, Varn thought.
The Inquisitor eventually began to give some background of himself claiming to be of a guardsman background, and then who his crew members were. While Varn was not experienced in the field of hacking, he knew that on Frenksworld, it could get you into more trouble than it was worth. However, when Nomina yelled at the Inquisitor, Varn expected to see swift suppression to her lack of discipline, yet the Inquisitor merely smiled back. Varn couldn’t hide his shock, he stared open eyed at the woman and the inquisitor, barely believing what he had just seen.

"Alright, I want each of you to introduce yourselves to the team, tell a bit about yourselves and when we're done, feel free to mingle and chat. We have a few days before we reach Raleigh Prime, and there is plenty of time to meet you new colleagues, chat, and generally get to know everybody." The Inquisitor said.
Varn looked around and then sighed, "Seeing as this is like any other Introduction Week, I might as well go first," Varn sighed. "I'm Varn Gaius. Biochemist and soldier, at your service." Varn deliberately left out Penal Legionnaire, in this company it wouldn't give a good impression to mention anything about his criminal background.

Arcturas observed the companions that the Inquisitor introduced them to, the one man was a soldier, and a solid and mean one. The other was a younger girl, someone quite a few of his old coworkers would have called a tech heretic. Arc was a bit more liberal on the matter currently, simply because if the Inquisitor had trust and use for her, than it was not of his concern. The soldier was from a Catachan regiment, which made him a breed all of his own, while the hacker girl simply got picked up along the way from the sounds of it. The others kept talking about various means as well, some he was not as familiar with as others. He had only heard the name Eldar in passing, and these stealer cults and such he was also not familiar with in the slightest. Most of his brushes with the enemies of the Imperium were heretical, both within and without. But the Inquisitor insisted cover ups were not likely, so he dropped it for now.

The Inquisitor gave the first technical order of his time working with the group, being to introduce themselves to each other. The first person was the soldier man he had noted earlier, who stood up and introduced himself as Varn Gaius, and he nodded to the man as he did so in return to the greeting. A chemist and a soldier? An interesting combination, that was for sure. But to every man his own hobbies and pursuits. Once he had introduced himself, the detective decided that he might as well go next, and kicked his feet up and leaned the chair back to relax as he spoke, not terribly concerned with how that would appear from a professional standpoint. They were technically off duty, and this Inquisitor was relatively lax so far.

"A pleasure Mr. Gaius. I might as well go now. Names Arcturas Serdali, Adeptus Arbites Detective, and psionic blank, at your service. Apologies in advance to the psykers, I'll try and remember to keep the limiter on at all times, barring actual need, of course." Once he had introduced himself, he helped himself to a cup of tanna, having heard of the drink but never had the chance to actually try it. He could tell it was an acquired taste, but didn't mind it at all. He would probably replace the recaff with the drink, it struck him as a better alternative to the generally poor quality drink, but in endless supply in every Arbites office he was ever in.

Blank? thought Holt. He'd never heard of the word, though given the Navigator's reaction to the detective and his apology to the psykers present, it was something which negatively affected those with psychic powers. While the thought of something like that was intriguing, there was a matter of significantly greater concern at hand, namely that of the Inquisitor's female companion.

It was clear that she was no Tech-Priest, yet she was learned in the sacred art of cogitator programming, and had apparently been using it for ends that would be illegal even for an Adept of the Machine Cult.

"Sacrilege..." muttered Holt, so quietly that not even he could hear it.

The fact that this woman was in the company of an Inquisitor however meant she was in practice—so long as she retained her master's blessing—above all but the most sacred laws of the Mechanicus. Reluctantly, Holt put the matter to the back of his mind, and hopefully away from less than thorough psychic probes. After the detective finished his introduction, Holt made his way to the front of the room.

"Good Day Detective. I suppose I shall introduce myself next then. I am Tristan Holt of Eridani Regius, Tech-Adept and Explorator of the Holy Omnissiah. While I have not taken the trials of the geneators, I am quite adept in the biological mysteries if I might say so myself. I look forward to working with you all." he said.

Thungrim Thunderfist had remained silent through talk of 'Psykers and Blanks' puffing away on his pipe as he did so, the Dwarf was vaguely aware that such things had to do with humans minds and the warp, but being from a race that had no affinity with or interest in such things he put it aside as another daft manling custom.
Maybe the race as a whole would not be so easy to corrupt by the forces of Chaos if their skulls were a little thicker, The Engineer thought with a sigh and a shake of the head.

Nodding to the Inquisitors pair of henchmen (The Catachan Solider and the Hacker) the Squat noticed that the Warrior at least, appeared to be rather less flimsy than most humans he had encountered.
Another guardsman, a Detective and the foolish Tech priest all introduced themselves, Thungrim nodded to each of them in turn before setting aside his pipe and thumping a gauntleted fist against his Exo armour breast plate in salute.

"Thungrim Thunderfist, Son of Thor Firefist, Son of Bjorn Stormfist of the Stonefist Clan, Master Engineer of the Ulthrak Engineers Guild... Or rather I was before it was over run by the Tyranid scum!"
The Squat flexed the armoured fingers of his power Fist as he spoke, brow creasing and eyes darkening at the memory.

"We are an' ancient and proud race with many Grudges tae settle an' many Oaths tae which we still hold, I am here tae aid the Imperium in it's time of need as our ancient vows of allegiance say that I must."

"Tis true that many of yer Imperial scholars say the Squat race is extinct, others say we never existed while some merely try to brush us aside as nothing more than a strain of abhuman mutants!"
Thungrim continued,
"This is a lie, we are an' ancient breed, old as the Eldar an' far more trustworthy, yer Emperor was a great Warrior in his day and friend to our Ancestors, we still hold true ate the ancient Oaths despite being a depleted race... But if anything we are more stubborn than ever!"

Thunderfist made the last statement with a slight twitching of the beard that could have indicated he was smiling, although there was still a great sadness in his eyes.
Raising his tankard, the Squat sought out the form of Varn Gaius and nodded.

"By the way lad, fer future reference.... My feet ain't hairy an' Rattlings don't have beards!"

Atellus stood up next, his face slightly gaunt from working on the blank problem. He'd managed to poke a hole in his vision, selectively avoiding seeing a small area, but the effort made his head spin- Obviously he'd have to work on it. He bowed slightly, his empty eye sockets visible. "Greetings to you. I am Atellus Kaenar, of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica. I will be serving for communication and such tasks with the Inquisitor." He sat back down, keeping his head facing straight forwards, though unnervingly as if he had his attention on everywhere at once.

"By the way lad, fer future reference.... My feet ain't hairy an' Rattlings don't have beards!" the Squat said to Varn, after having singled him out.
"Well, pardon me, last time I met anyone that short he robbed me of everything I had. I'm just cautious next time I come across vertically challenged people," Varn responded. "I've only seen Ogryns, Ratlings and normal people. They don't exactly tell you about every variation of mankind there is."

Varn felt extremely uncomfortable with what he had heard. He had lived and worked as a middle Hiver, and liked the life he had, the idea of venturing in where influence and contacts mattered seemed... Dangerous. Though the talk of daemons, cults and whatever other types of Xenos there were out in the dark universe, made him much more uncomfortable; he had seen first hand how terrible war could be. He couldn't imagine how secret wars were fought, especially those by the Inquisition.
He shivered. Memories of how he had created bio-chemical weapons for the Penal Legion rushed back like a nightmare… The results had been terrifying.

He looked down at the Squad. “You seem to know a lot about the Imperium’s enemies. Would you mind explaining to me what… Tyranid is… exactly?” Since Varn had been educated by Imperial standards, he was largely ignorant of the true enemies of Man. On Malice he had fought Rebels and traitors whose leaders were unfortunately competent, and most talk about Xeno encounters were dismissed as incompetence or just plain nonsense.

Volsk looked up, "Ah, excellent question!" He picked up the remote once more, clicking to a completely new slide. The slide revealed a repulsive creature, a cross between some foreign insect, and some kind of alien lizard. It's four arms ended in wickedly sharp hooks, and its entire body was covered in chitenous armor.
He turned to Varn, "This, my friend, is a tyranid, or at least, one type of tyranid, called a hormagaunt. Fascinating creatures, the tyranids. We have yet to study them in depth, but as far as we can reason, they have one singular goal. The acquisition of sustenance. They are able to take many forms, from swarms of hormagaunts, to the enormously destructive carnifex. They scour entire worlds clean of life, absorbing it into their ever churning, biological manufactories. I personally believe that they quite effectively personify the worst aspects of humanity in a volatile swarm. I know many of my colleagues, and the human population as a whole will call me a blasphemer, but if you were to see them in person as my teacher and I did in the Gaius Campaign, you would know that I speak the truth. Many men and women died those four years..."
Osbourne stared at the floor blankly as he slipped into a brief flashback, flashes of lasfire lit the night, as the screams of the dead and dying rang hollow in his ears. A swarm of the creatures had breached the eastern rampart, and had begun flooding in through the breach. He, Corvus, and his teacher stood side by side with a squad of guardsmen, beating back the ravenous tide as best they could. They had decided to join the men of the Gaius Campaign in order to attempt to capture one of the tyranid creatures alive. However, after his first encounter, he realized that there could be no quarter for these monstrous creatures. They needed to be eradicated from the universe as soon as possible.
Nomina, the young woman he had introduced earlier, stood and stepped lightly over to Osbourne's chair. She gently placed her arms around Volsk's shoulders in a tender embrace. He looked up at her and smiled slightly, snapping back to reality, "Thank you Nomina. I apologize everyone, I still get flashbacks from time to time, usually from past cases or from my time in the Guard. Do not worry, as it will not affect my combat prowess. In a firefight, my mind is able to focus on the task at hand, but when my mind is allowed to wander, I sometimes slip." He smiled at the group, squeezing Nomina's hand, letting her know that he was okay.
He stood and adressed the group, "I suppose I should introduce myself now. As you all no doubt know by now I am Inquisitor Volsk Osbourne, Ordo Solar. I am in charge of this mission, this is my ship, and it was my teacher's before me. It is one of the few items left in his memory. If you disrespect my ship I will personally administer punishment upon you. I generally consider myself a rather amicable fellow, but I will not tolerate any disrespect to my teacher's memory. Am I understood! Now to be clear, by disrespecting my ship, I mean damaging her intentionally, or defacing her public areas. What you do in your private quarters is your own business, within limits of course. Should any of you need anything, and I have the power to get it for you I will generally attempt to get it. However, should you tell me, say, a week from port, I will no doubt forget by the time we reach moorings. Simply remind me when we make planetfall and I will try to carry out your request." He smiled at them in closing, refilling his mug, and returning to his seat.

Arcturas nodded greetings towards each of the others as they introduced themselves and a question about the Tyranid was asked. He'd heard the name from Guard veterans that had been on shore leave on the planet, while he had been scouring bars and back alleys for the next lead, beyond that, he knew nothing of the race of aliens. The image shown was something that he could have never seen and died a happy man. Emperor help whoever had to face those things in battle, he couldn't help but think, and he watched as the Inquisitor seemed to lapse into flashbacks of what occurred. It took that woman of his original group to snap him out of it, and despite his assurances of the fact that wouldn't be an issue in a combat situation, he had to wonder what would happen if they crossed paths with these Tyranids. Considering how little he knew about how these creatures operated, he stepped forward and nodded to the group once before turning to the Inquisitor and asking the question he felt was necessary so far.

"These Tyranid, could they have any hand in why the youths were dying? I have to confess I know next to nothing about these creatures, so I do not know how they would operate." He wasn't abandoning the other avenue's of thought, he still considered the cult activity a much better lead than these insectoid creatures, but he couldn't just ignore the implausible courses of action for that reason, strange enough things occurred as an Arbites Detective to learn to avoid doing such things. So he left the question at that for now, he would follow up how he saw necessary, within reason and the rules put forth by the Inquisitor so far. They were reasonable, and he had no real amenities he would require from the man so far. He thought of one, but that was an unnecessary luxury rather than a necessity. So that was that, and he would simply wait for a response from anyone, if they knew of the Tyranids and could reasonably show how it couldn't, or could, be a possible idea.

While he had never encountered tyranids or genestealers in person, Holt had learned of them from his studies, though his knowledge of the former was rather limited.

"While my understanding of the tyranids is limited to a few short lessons in the time I spent studying under the Magos Biologis, it's my understanding that they do not operate with this degree of subtlety, not directly at least. However, genestealers—the vanguard organisms of the tyranid hive fleets—are certainly a possibility, as the squat pointed out. Though unless this planet is near to or in the path of a hive fleet proper or splinter fleet, I do not believe there is a reason to suspect genestealer activity without additional data to suggest the presence of an infestation." said the Tech-Priest.

"God-Emperor save us," Varn muttered when he saw the picture of the beast. It was a twisted monster, something he would expect to see in his nightmares, and certainly not in real life, he could feel both his fears rising, what f it was such monsters that they had to face? The Legion had taught him that anything could be defeated through sheer will and determination to live, yet he felt doubt about facing such a foe head on.

He shook his head, trying to get over his fears though he shuttered by the thoughts of meeting such a creature. Then he felt his stomach twist and turn again. Damn... When was the last time I ate? Varn thought, rubbing his stomach. "Aight, I need a break," Varn announced for everyone. "I haven't had a decent meal in two and a half year now, frak, I haven't even had a clean shower since Frenksworld..." Varn turned and walked towards the door.
[b]"I don't know about you folks, but I think better when I at least have something in my stomach, and get some time to clear my head. We can't think of everything at once,"[b] He said, indirectly inviting anyone to join him at the canteen.

Immediately after the briefing adjourned, Holt followed Osbourne out of the room. While the Inquisitor had addressed his greatest concern during the meeting itself, there were a number of secondary questions he wanted answered, several of which involved the Inquisitor's other recruits, and some of which, particularly the question as to whether or not Osbourne was aware of Gaius's apparent delusions, he considered somewhat urgent.

"Pardon me, my lord." said Holt. "If I may, I have a number of questions in addition to the one I addressed during the briefing I would ask of you. I did not bring these up during the briefing in part because they were not relevant to the topic at hand, and in part because they are of a somewhat sensitive nature." he continued.

Volsk smiled at the Explorator, "Of course my friend, please speak your mind. I would be happy to answer your questions to the best of my ability." He sipped his tanna and waited for the tech-priest's first question.

"They don't exactly tell you about every variation of mankind there is..."

"Damn it boy!"
Thungrim Thunderfist growled,
"Did ye not listen tae a damn word I just said... Squats are not a variation of yer weak race, we are an ancient an' proud people who are in decline yet we stand with ye Manlings in honour of our old oaths, an' ye would do well tae remember that!"

The Dwarf Engineer glowered as the talk turned to Tryanids and the picture flashed up upon the screen.

"Real tactful."
The Squat grunted, pushing himself to his feet, Thungrim stomped from the lecture hall, his brows bunching like thunder heads, his expression dark with fury and brooding.

Arcturas noted the group was dismissed, and the soldier Gaius went on about how he had not eaten in awhile and went off towards whatever the ship passed as a cafeteria or cantina of some sorts. He nodded to the tech priest as he had explained the matters on the Tyranid. "Ahh, I will defer to your knowledge on this matter then. And Inquisitor, once I have had something to eat, is their a Library of some sorts that I can start doing proper research on the upcoming investigation?"

Once the Inquisitor had given his answer on the matter, Arcturas would follow after Varn to have a light meal before getting to proper work on research and investigating possible leads and the history of the planet they were heading towards. He was already falling into his old habits as an Arbites officer, and he wasn't even concerned about it. They did have a job to do, whether they wanted to acknowledge it or not, and that was that. The squat wasn't terribly happy with the Tyranid image being shown, and from what he had said, he could imagine why. He would give the Engineer space until he calmed, and then if he had questions they would be asked. He could only imagine what kind of things he would have to learn in addition to his current knowledge base while working as part of the Inquisition. But those thoughts could wait, and he caught up to Varn and nodded to the soldier Varn as he fell in stride. "Any guesses on what they pass for food here?"

Underneath his mask, Holt raised his eyebrows, somewhat surprised by Osbourne's continued friendliness. Was this simply the way the Inquisitor was, or was it an act, and if so, what end did it serve; putting potential enemies off guard? Distraction? Or something else entirely?

For several seconds, Holt was silent.

Can't just stand here gawking... he thought.


"Yes, of course. My questions are as follows. Firstly, I was speaking with Mr Gaius earlier, and noticed something rather...off about him. Namely that he seems to be under the impression that this whole affair, everything that's going in the present in fact, is a stress induced flashback. Were you aware of that sir?" he asked.

Volsk nodded, "Yes as a matter of fact I was informed beforehand by his handlers back on Sheol. I was told that he is able to perform any work required of him. There was a merked decrease in his self preservation , but should we come under dire straights and he be jeopordizing the mission I will be sure to grab him by the hair and slap some sense into him. Is that all? Or did you have more questions?" Volsk smiled and let the explorator continue.

"If I may sir, I would like to ask..." said Holt, before pausing gingerly.

"Well, Iwould like to know what Mr Gaius's crime was." He said."Even if he had not told me as much before the briefing, the tattoos and collar marks are blatant indicators that he was a penal legionnaire. I will find it quite difficult to work alongside such a man without that knowledge."

Varn turned and looked at Arcturas. He shrugged, "Would be better than some of the grease they would feed you on Sheo..." he trailed off and then quickly started to speak again, trying to get Arcturas' mind off what he had just said. "On Malice, we ran out of food after a few days, so... Discipline and taste started to disappear quickly, so we started to eat rats. Insects..." he trailed off again and looked at Arcturas. "I'm sure you know what people are like when food runs short, I mean... As a Detective you see all sorts of things, right?"

Varn then left a pause as they walked down the hallways, he couldn't help but to feel awkward around Arcturas. Varn was technically a criminal, and having spend time on Sheol XVI, he had felt a sense of injustice, a feeling that was now returning as he looked at Arcturas. In the back of his head, a small voice reminded him about the physical difference. Varn was both taller and what appeared to be heavier than Arcturas, something which had helped Varn earn the respect of his fellow legionnaires, though since Arcturas was a Detective, he had probably dealt with thug sized gangers before, fighting him would require that Varn had some form of advantage. Subconsciously, Varn frowned as he thought of how bad a fight could go if he didn't have the upper hand.

He followed the various signs that had been left to guide the crew if they needed to access some of the most needed facilities, one being the canteen. He opened the door and stepped in, "Merciful God-Emperor," Varn gasped as he looked at the canteen. It was medium sized, considering that the ship didn't require a crew, though the storage room could be seen from where the metal benches were, and there was plenty of food, right for the taking.
Three or four servitors were working in the kitchen while pre-designed meals hung on the walls, clearly the inquisitor had prepared for their arrival as he could see the most traditional meal set from Frenksworld. "Oi! Maggot brain," Varn called as he approached the counter. "Menu number seven, chop chop!"
The servitor bowed silently and began to work, fetching the necessary ingredients. Varn could already feel his mouth dribble with saliva as the wonderful smell of food was being prepared, though as his eyes strayed away from the food he saw his own reflection and froze. The orange tattered prison uniform still clung to him through all these years, rips and grease seemed to give it camouflage despite its bright color; the tattoo on his forehead still marked him as a prisoner and Legionnaire, Arcturas would probably have noticed. Though as he looked down on his burned left hand, he had to close his eyes. The memory of when his laboratory on Malice had exploded and caused half a dozen good men to die a slow and painful death was just one of those memories that would haunt him for the rest of his life.

He stood there for a while. Eyes closed as he took deep breaths in through his nose and out of his mouth, he had to calm down. He still had to finish this flashback before he would be able to leave Sheol XVI.

Arcturas, while curious where Varn was going with the Sheo bit, didn't pursue it. He had no reason to right now, and he would file that bit of information, as well as everything else he said so far, away for now. He nodded when Varn asked about having seen that sort of thing as a detective. "I dare say I've seen such things. You also got underhivers selling what looks like food that could kill you half an hour later if it doesn't agree, long enough for the vendor to get away with the money you paid for it. But yes, people hardly are at their best during a famine. Both how they get the food they have, and what the food itself is."

Arcturas had been looking over the man as they had been talking, not obviously of course, but he had come to several conclusions from his current state of affair. One, the tattoo on his forehead marked him as a penal soldier of some sort. That meant he had broken Imperial Law at some point, however, he had already been sentenced. Which also meant Arcturas had no need or reason to harass and bother the man. While the man was bigger and looked heavier, he simply referred to Arcturas as detective. He suppressed the urge to smirk at how little that actually could tell a person, considering how specific the title sounded. He hoped nothing would become an issue between the two of them because of that, and banished the train of thought from his mind. Whatever their pasts, they all had shown reason or purpose to be selected by this Inquisitor to give them the chance to hit the enemies of the Imperium where it hurt the most. So infighting would do them no good, and with that, the idea of trouble was shut down in his mind for the moment, until it had viable reason to become an issue.

Following in stride with Varn, he looked over the canteen when the arrived, the man's comment covered the matter rather well. For a ship that had no real crew, that he had seen thus far, it was well put together and stocked from the looks of things. The soldier wasted no time in getting to ordering his meal, and he stepped forward once he had finished ordering, his own request straight to the point. "Recaff, menu number 4. Thank you kindly."

When Arcturas glanced over at Varn, he noticed a curious thing. Eyes shut, deep breaths, two signs of things that were rarely good. He had to wonder what was going through the man's head, but kept what he asked simple. If he needed to know about what was going through his head, he would find out, otherwise it wasn't going to be terribly important at the moment. "You alright there?"

Volsk led the explorator back down the stairwell and back into the common room, "If that is the case I will retire to my solar, after all I have a lot of paperwork to do. I will be down for my dinner in awhile and should you come up with any new questions, please, do not hesitate to ask me when I get back down. Alright?" Volsk smiled, and before the explorator could answer he hit the activation rune on the door panel and it slid shut. Volsk's smile disappeared and was replaced by pure exhaustion. He had only slept for three hours out of the last four days, and it would seem that his sleep would have to wait even longer.

Varn shook his head and looked at Arcturas, his eyes were temporarily unfocused before he answered. "Yea, just a bad memory. War's hell, you know," Varn said and then turned around to wait for his order to finish.
When the servitors finally placed the plate in front of him, Varn took the plate over to the metal benches and started to dig into the food. His order consisted of a steak, chopped potatoes with a brown sauce, as well as a tomato soup, the type of food the rich Hivers would be able to afford. Varn didn't hide his hunger and eagerly stuffed his mouth with food, using the soup as water and barely seemed able to swallow the amount of food in his mouth. He suddenly stopped and placed a hand on his mouth, he could sense that his stomach was in shock, he hadn't eaten proper food for two and a half year so no wonder it was surprised by the sudden change in diet; he didn't barf, though he clearly slowed down in his eating rate.

"You know, melord, I used to be a lot heavier," Varn said, his habit of addressing anyone non-Legionnaire was something that tended to sneak up on him. "Before I was send to Malice I had this large inflation on my stomach, and almost managed to have a second chin," he winked as he said so, "Trust me, my legio - I mean, regiment, was really harsh about getting their soldiers in shape, and quick."

"Anyways, after this I'll be off. I haven't had a shower or a shave in two years," Varn noted before he returned to eat.