Inquisition Incident on Firhbank

The **Inquisition Incident on Firhbank** was a failed operation on Firhbank to eliminate an intelligence leak within the Confederate Inquisition. With the deaths of two Inquisitors and excessive violence against many civilian bystanders, it caused a massive PR scandal and ultimately led to both the end of the Inquisition itself and also a breakdown of cohesion between various factions within the Fialta Confederacy.

## Background

*See also: The Inquisition Campaign*
When Inquisitor James Fhtagnleton arrived on Firhbank and was greeted by other Inquisition members at the airport, amid what appeared to be an attempt on James's life by a sniper, James was in fact imprinted on by the soul of a psionic Kirvan operative working for The Society. Without James ever being aware that it had occurred, this imprinting led to the growth of a specific type of brain tumor that allowed for his sensory experiences to be stored and "downloaded" in order for the Society to gain access to Inquisition secrets.

Inspector Haakon, who joined the Inquisition after the loss of Varlam Vasiliev, was able to psionically detect James's tumor and understand its surveillance purpose. Now knowing how their secrets were being leaked, the Inquisition moved quickly to set up an operation that would be able to capture whatever psionic agent was presumably regularly "downloading" James's brain data, making use of James in the operation as bait, while Haakon and Valens Thrax would psionically monitor and identify the target and pass the information on to Caesaris and Cpt. Octo Thorpe to make the arrest.

## Operation

The operation was set up with James and Haakon in Inquisition headquarters, with Haakon and Thrax communicating psionically to be able to psionically triangulate the position of the target. However, a burst of aetheric energy during the operation led to a psionic duel between James and Haakon, with both of them going insane and catching fire (and Haakon having his legs blown off). Over every radio in the vicinity, James's voice was heard shouting "He's trying to kill me!"

Meanwhile, as Cpt. Thorpe and his mercenaries sat in a gunship with Thrax and Caesaris and waited on Thrax to be psionically passed information about the target by Haakon, Thrax suddenly began to experience a massive seizure due to the psionic duel happening nearby. Even though Haakon and Thrax were now apparently unable to take part in the operation, Thorpe theorized that the target they were looking to capture, being psionic, would also be experiencing seizures due to the duel, and he therefore ordered his men to arrest anyone in the city who was near Inquisition headquarters and seemed to be having a seizure.

Unfortunately, the duel caused seizures not just for people with powerful psionic capabilities but also for anyone with any sort of latent psionic potential, which led Thorpe's men to desperately try to arrest (as well as excessively brutalize) a large number of innocent civilian bystanders. This violent aggression against the local Firhbankian population continued until Inquisitor Althea Sabina Del'Rega was able to get Thorpe's men to stand down.

Cpt. Thorpe and a mostly-recovered Thrax went into the Inquisition building to find out what was happening with James and Haakon. Seeing the two Inquisitors screaming, floating in mid-air, on fire, and with missing limbs, Thorpe decided to gun down Haakon (along with James's bodyguard, who was lying on the floor after Haakon had psionically blinded and deafened him) while Thrax killed what was left of James with a flurry of custom psionic darts.

## Aftermath

Amid the confusion, Inquisition member Eero Norman and James's henchman Dr. Semarus both fled the planet. A quick check by Thrax revealed that none of the people arrested by Thorpe's men were the actual target of the operation. Amid an atmosphere of tension and accusations, Cpt. Thorpe snuck away from Inquisition headquarters.

Tacitus arrived from Zanevuela with Cornelius DeAnguis, Harlow Ann, and Ferguson Leigh to try to cover up the truth of what had happened and to clean up the ongoing PR nightmare, but the Inquisition was ultimately ordered to leave the planet by Firhbank's Corsair Lords, and in the end every Inquisition member either distanced themselves from the Inquisition in some way, defected to some other faction, or was arrested.