Jeff’s
last post gave me multiple hobbygasms. The Inquisition is cool, the Cetus
sub-sector is cool, the concept of skirmish games is cool. The whole state of
play is pretty boss sausage. That being the case, it seemed appropriate to
introduce one of the warbands that will be taking part:
I
painted Inquisitor Drake some time ago and haven’t had many chances to use him,
but with the advent of our Inq28 campaign, that’s set to change. That being the
case, it seems appropriate to flesh him out and give him more than just a name.
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| Inquisitor Drake |
Inquisitor
Aidan Drake was one of the acolytes of the famously intrepid (i.e. reckless)
Inquisitor Aerdon of the Ordo Hereticus. Drake had two qualities Aerdon lacked:
patience and subtlety, attributes that made Drake an excellent deep cover
agent. Over time, Drake was given more responsibility, until he came to
co-ordinate Aerdon’s intelligence network.
For
all his achievements, though, Drake felt that he was forever in the shadow of
Aerdon’s other acolyte, Benedikt Hirscht. Like Aerdon, Hirscht was more of a
warrior than a detective. Once Drake had gathered all the information,
pinpointed a target’s location and provided Aerdon with the enemy’s weak
points, Hirscht would be dispatched to make the kill and enjoy the recognition.
Unsurprisingly
to all who knew him, Aerdon died in the field. His final act as an Imperial
Inquisitor was to give Hirscht a field promotion so that he might have the
authority to bring Aerdon’s killers to justice. Hirscht, who had worked under
Aerdon for only a fraction of the time Drake had done. Hirscht, whose idea of
investigation involved a power axe. Drake understood why Aerdon had made such a
choice – they needed a war leader, not a spy – but the implicit rejection bit
deep. It was years before Drake finally received his Inquisitorial Rosette, but
as far as Hirscht ever knew, theirs remained an ever-friendly rivalry; Drake
knew better than to sour any professional relationships with his pride, and
concealed his feelings behind a famously dry sense of humour.
Drake
has since grown older and wiser, although he’s still prone to holding a grudge.
After a brief phase of trying to operate more like Hirscht, he’s since learnt
that his greatest strengths are, and always have been, infiltration and
unobtrusive investigation. Most Imperial authorities never even know when he’s
visited them. That said, there are times when Drake and his team have to ‘go
loud,’ and when that happens, he feels it’s best to do it like you mean it.
That’s where his warband come in.
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| 2nd from left: Sera Jentiva (painting credits go to Jen) |
Sera
Jentiva was once a death cultist who tried to assassinate Inquisitor Aerdon. Always
one keen to turn enemies into useable assets, Aerdon hit her until she stopped
trying to stab him, locked her up, and spent a good few months giving her an
existential crisis by way of pointing out the idiocy of her fundamentalist
beliefs, after which she helped him track down the cult that dispatched her in
the first place.
An
expert at climbing or sneaking into places she isn’t supposed to be, she was
soon assigned to Drake’s infiltration team, and has continued to follow him
since Aerdon’s death. She’s somewhat more hot-headed than Drake (most people
are), although he finds it useful having someone around to tell him when he’s
being over-cautious.
 |
| Brother-Sergeant Elias of the Templars Errant |
During
the Iriax Insurrection, the citizens of the Templars Viridian homeworld rose up
against their overly-strict masters and – with the help of some Black
Legionnaires only too keen to assist – kicked the Templars off their
own homeworld. It was one of the most humiliating defeats in the Imperium’s
history, and left the chapter at barely a third of its original strength.
During the retreat from Iriax, Brother-Sergeant Elias of the 2nd company
was accosted by a marine of the 1st, who told him that the Chapter
Banner had just been taken by the enemy not half a kilometre away, and that an
immediate assault might reclaim it.
Having
to choose between saving the lives of his men or launching a suicidal assault
into the midst of the enemy, Elias chose the former. The Chapter’s survival, he
said, counted for more than the Chapter’s honour.
After
the evacuation, Elias was summoned to Chapter Master Gaius Octavian’s hall on
the chapter’s flagship and told, in no uncertain terms, that he could either go
and retrieve the banner, or face exile. Elias tried to reassert his reasoning,
of the importance of preserving what little geneseed was left, but Octavian – a
famously proud and recently humiliated man – would have none of it. Elias,
disgusted by Octavian’s arrogance, chose Exile.
Elias
continued to do the Emperor’s work alone, coming to the rescue of isolated
Guard garrisons, helping Arbites to crush gangland insurrections, and so on. It
wasn’t long before his movements were being monitored by the Inquisition, and
eventually, he was headhunted by Inquisitor Aerdon as a potential ally.
He
has since been invited back to the now renamed Templars Errant by a Chapter Master
who has seen the error of his ways, but Elias has no interest in returning to
his brothers any more, fearing that his return might re-open old wounds the
chapter needs to forget.
Instead,
he continues to work with Inquisitor Drake, and slowly, in the presence of such
a cerebral mentor, he is becoming less the indoctrinated killing machine, and
more a man of reason and thought. Quite how dangerous it might be for an
Astartes to contemplate his own beliefs is, of course, not without worrying
historical precedent, and Drake keeps a close eye on the grizzled sergeant,
knowing that the inflexible mind of an indoctrinated soldier is prone to
growing pains in the first few steps down the path of greater knowledge.
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| Stohlbard Dragoons (the paint job here was a joint effort by Jen & I) |
Inquisitor
Drake uses Stohlbard Dragoons as marines on board the Trojan, his Cobra-class destroyer. If and when Drake needs to go
into a situation guns blazing, the heavily armed and armoured Dragoons make an
ideal bodyguard.
The
Trojan carries an Atlas-class drop
ship, an unusual vessel only just small enough to fit inside the destroyer’s
cramped launch bay. Atlases are, in effect, a flying landing pad with space for
up to four Valkyrie-sized atmospheric flyers clamped to its roof. The Atlas,
with its heat-shields and space-worthy engines, will relay Valkyries from orbit
into a planet’s atmosphere, at which point the gunships can take off and fly
Drake and his team down to the surface. Unsurprisingly, Drake’s black Valkyries
have no markings or insignia on them whatsoever.
+
+ +
There
you have it, folks. I hope that made for entertaining reading and/or
inspiration for your own characters. If you have feedback or thoughts, I’d love
to hear ’em!
~Charlie
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