Editing Setting:Cloudburst/People (section)

==Lord Inquisitor Eric Stoldst, Ordo Sicarius (presumed Xenos)==
{{Topquote|What a pretense we have, we of the Inquisitive nature. How easy is it to see our power and assume we may kill whomever we wish? Ah, but the Emperor was no fool, and he saw that such things were possible. How fortunate are we, that I watch the watchmen?|Eric Stoldst}}

Inquisitors are a secretive bunch, even among their own ranks. Secrets and knowledge have power. Their misuse or overabundance can bring ruin to innocents, wreck carefully laid plans, and inspire heretical thoughts in undefended minds.

Among the Ordos of the Inquisition, there are few more secretive, yet more purposeful, than the Ordo Sicarius. As one of the newer permanent Ordos Minoris, and also the most limited, it has a mere handful of trained members outside Terra, where there are several thousand.

The Ordo Sicarius oversees the dispatch of Imperial Assassins. The Senate of the High Lords of Terra keeps careful watch on the Assassins, and for good reason. However, at times, Assassins are needed to correct the balance of Imperial justice, and when they are, the Senate authorizes the Grand Master of Assassins to dispatch a killer to see the task done. The Ordo Sicarius keeps careful watch on both the administrative and deployment functions of the Officio, to ensure the Officio doesn’t repeat the mistakes of The Beheading.

Stoldst is one of the rare Sicarius Inquisitors who is not stationed on Terra. As part of his responsibilities, he both keeps a weather eye on any Assassins in the region, and also directs promising Culexis candidates to Terra for screening and training. This is typical for Sicarius Inquisitors in every Sector, if they have one. The Ordo Sicarius sent an Inquisitor, and a Senate-appointed Lord Inquisitor at that, to Cloudburst, where he has been posing as a Lord Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos for seventeen years.

The committee of Lords Inquisitor, consisting of Hueng, Kimihira, Havermann, and chaired by Lerica, knows perfectly what he really is, and they are the only ones. Even the Deathwatch is presently under the assumption that Stoldst is simply an exceptionally scholarly Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos. He has deceived them, at the behest of the Senate itself, in order to comb through the Sector’s history and present turmoil, looking for any signs of rogue Assassins.

Cloudburst is the perfect place for a Traitor Assassin who has not sold their soul to Chaos to hide. Its planet clusters are far enough apart that travel between them without a Navigator-guided ship takes weeks, its military capabilities are expanding at a lightning pace, and its borders are in constant flux. Beyond that, there are dozens of small criminal organizations and one or two very large ones where a genuine Imperial Assassin could ply their trade and raise little suspicion, while living like a king. Most importantly, however, the Sector has far bigger problems. The Glasians consume the attention of the whole Sector, and the Astronomican’s projection range continues to shrink.

Stoldst has his suspicions, and he believes that one of the higher-ranking members of the Free Corsair Coalition is a former member of the Vanus Clade, the branch of the Officio that handles indirect assassination. Of all the clades, however, theirs is the hardest to detect, especially in contrast to the thrashing violence of the Eversor or soul-melting hate of the Culexis. If Stoldst were right, it would help explain why the FCC has been able to expand so quickly: they have an infocyte aiding them in finding holes in the Imperial defenses. Stoldst has been covertly sending aid and money in the direction of the task force Lerica has assembled to take down the FCC, and the task force’s members are none the wiser.

Stoldst, naturally enough for a Sicarius, rarely enters battle himself, but when he does, he relies on his absurdly oversized Iron Halo and Adamantium-plated Power Armor, which cost fully seventeen times the price of a baseline suit. When fighting the armor-piercing rounds of a Vindicare, or the razor-sharp blades of an Eversor, such things are necessary, after all. His weapons of choice are a custom Hotshot las-rifle with underbarrel grenade launcher and a set of twin Power Gladii. He also carries a variety of Stunner and Concussion grenades, as well as a bag of potent Phosphor bombs – in his experience, a fire is one of the things that even professionals need time to adjust to mid-battle.