The fall of the Inquisitors: the aftermath

Naturally, Inquisitor Serbe was rather curious about what had happened with Van Vyugens. I was informed that I were to bring my entire cadre and meet in front of the entire Cabal. That didn't sound right...so I consulted the Imperal Creed on the procedures of Inquisitorial questioning, and sure enough, that was not according to correct procedure. In reality, I am supposed to be given the chance to talk to Serbe in person first and be presented with the charges. At a later time, I have to defend myself, again without my cadre present.

It was quite obvious the entire thing was meant as a setup. It was also quite obvious who was behind it. Lady Rathbone is a dangerous adversary. I need to take her a bit more seriously. Luckily, she has one gigantic flaw: her arrogance is more or less endless. I'm quite certain it will be rather easy to find lots of damning evidence against her.

I asked to meet with Serbe, accompanied by Al-Subaai and Ahmazzi. I confronted Serbe with the Creed, and he was none to pleased when I asked that proper protocol be followed. Nevertheless, he had to agree. I was presented with the charges: apparently, there were logs of me going to Pry 41. In addition, there were some flimsy evidence linking me to Scarlet and her criminal network. Lastly, and most serious, was Kaid's tight involvement with Van Vyugens' heretical activities. I naturally rejected all charges, and asked for a week to disprove them.

Now, the Pry 41 and Scarlet problems were easily handled (could have been tampered with/flimsy evidence). The Kaid situation was worse, for two reasons. One, I could distance myself from Kaid and feed him to the wolves. Two, if I chose not to do this, I had to make real charges (Noldus had filmed him doing obviously heretical things) go away somehow.

In the end, I could not justify giving up Kaid. I knew full well what Van Vyugens would require of him, even though they went a bit further than I had thought. As such, he had not disobeyed my commands or their intent. And of course, he is an almost irreplaceable resource on all matters technical. And, eh, tankical.

So I made the charges...go away. I took a hit, politically, but nothing really serious. It did make me consider how I would handle xenos, both living and their tech, in the future. I remain secure in my faith that the Emperor would approve of dealing with the Eldar as is necessary to ensure the survival of the Empire. Nor do I really see a moral problem using their technology; how can using tech be worse than dealing with live Eldar? Nevertheless, I will not use any Eldar tech, or indeed any xeno tech, in the future, unless it's absolutely necessary. By extension this goes for my cadre as well. My enemies will surely seize upon the opportunity again.

As for other Xeno, I have never once used their equiment or dealt with them. Well, apart from killing them. This policy will remain firmly in place. As long as it's necessary at least....

Addendum: with Van Vyugens gone, his critical function as researcher of xeno tech is lost to the Cabal and the Inquisition. Who better to replace him than Kaid? Even though he fell from grace in the end, Van Vyugens made critical contributions to the armory of the Inquisition and the Empire through his modifications and 'humanification' of xeno tech. This function should surely continue. I will take it up with my allies first, then Serbe himself.