The Kenyamin Ripper

[TDF]

He who fightes monsters should see to it that he him-self does not become a monster. And if thou gazest into the abyss for too long, the abyss gazest also into thee.

– Ancient Terran proverb inscribed onto tokens found on the victims of the Ripper.

It is a truism of the Holy Inquisition that any inquisitor who does not perish in the course of his duties will eventually become the very thing he once sought to destroy. These so-called ‘Radicals’ may still possess the noblest of intentions, but their methods often lead to more devastation than the foes they seek to defeat. Many an inquisitor has wasted valuable time and resources bringing a former colleague to justice.

Under the reign of the Ripper, the Kenyamin Sector was spared from such infighting.

The first mention of the Ripper occurs in the logs of inquisitor Gaius Yellinik, who in 912.M41 was pursuing the excommunicated inquisitor Hindi Von Scnapp. Yellinik tracked his quarry to an abandoned manufactory complex on Pasakoy Aleph, where he suspected Von Scnapp was preparing a ritual to summon and bind a daemon. However, when the inquisitorial stormtroopers assaulted the complex they discovered that Von Scnapp and her retinue were already dead. Each corpse carried a silver token, inscribed with the Inquisitorial symbol on one side and an ancient Terran proverb on the other.

Word of the Ripper spread throughout the Kenyamin Inquisition as his attacks grew bolder and more frequent. The first images of him were captured on the deep-space station Astaroth in 925.M41. Inquisitor Anat Krugzeker was secretly monitoring a meeting between radical inquisitor Herschel Stylianos and rogue trader Esteban Adegoke. His security pict-footage shows an explosion tearing open the ceiling of the compartment and a cloaked, armoured man dropping through. The assailant proceeds to slaughter the survivors, seven in all, using nothing but a sword. Not one of the victims, highly trained killers all, manages to get off a shot. The speed and agility of the man suggests either extreme gene-modification or psychic powers. After killing his targets the man places a token on each corpse, collects the crate of necron technology the pair were trading, and ascends through the hole in the ceiling with the aid of an unseen accomplice.

Krugzeker had been intending to track Adegoke to uncover the source of his necron artefacts. The Ripper cut off that line of inquiry, leaving Krugzeker’s investigation in tatters. The inquisitor declared vengeance on the Ripper and over the course of the next twenty years Krugzeker tracked the shadowy figure all across the Kenyamin Sector. He uncovered evidence that the Ripper operated a vast network of informants and contacts, penetrating every level of the Imperial hierarchy from the Imperial Guard to the Adeptus Ministorum. Even the Inquisition was compromised. Krugzeker realised that the resources available to the Ripper could only be gathered by one who is, or was, a member of the Holy Ordos.

The Ripper’s pattern was clear. Every victim of his organisation was connected in some way to a radical inquisitor. Even as his body-count and infamy rose many puritan inquisitors turned a blind eye; spared the distraction of dealing with rogue colleagues each inquisitor could focus his attention on his duty of protecting the Imperium from its many enemies. The few radicals left in the sector went into hiding or fled for their lives. A few dissenting voices, Krugzeker's first amongst them, decried the influence the Ripper exerted, the lack of knowledge of his motives and abilities, and the threat if his organisation was corrupted by Chaos. These voices were, however, few and far between. Under the Ripper's forced unity the Kenyamin Inquisition became one of the least fractured conclaves in Segmentum Obscurus and dozens of deadly threats to the Imperium were eliminated.

Over time, however, the Ripper seemed to grow more and more puritanical in his judgements. In 946.M41 he assassinated Inquisitor Agathe Feinburg, whose only crime appeared to be that she was a high level psyker. This action turned opinion against the Ripper and sparked a devastating scorched-earth campaign by vengeful inquisitors. Thousands of suspected Ripper agents were executed and his organisation ruthlessly suppressed. Over a dozen inquisitors, including Anat Krugzeker were killed in the campaign, but eventually they succeeded in driving the Ripper underground. The last confirmed sighting of the man Krugzeker recorded on Astaroth Station was in 953.M41. A corpse some identify as the Ripper was discovered later that year.

The legend of the Ripper continues. In the subsequent half-century more than three hundred deaths have been linked to the case. It is believed that most were carried out by puritanical inquisitors copying the Ripper’s modus operandi. There are some inquisitors, however, who believe that the Ripper was never just one man with a large network of support. They suspect that the Ripper organisation was an Inquisitorial Cabal – an alliance of inquisitors dedicated to enforcing a hard-line puritanical doctrine. All Ripper attacks followed a similar pattern, but descriptions of the attacker by witnesses did show some variation in build and technique. This is not to be unexpected, as each witness was invariably left in an emotionally traumatised state by the incident. It is likely the true identity of the Ripper will never be revealed.

One of the greatest mysteries of the Ripper is how he acquired his apparently transhuman abilities. His speed, agility and strength were beyond anything achievable by natural processes. Psychic powers have been suggested as a source, but most believe that the only explanation can be extensive gene-modding – possibly even using xenos gene-implants. It is not known how the Ripper reconciled his puritanical views with his augmentations. Of course, it is a truism of the Holy Inquisition that any inquisitor who does not perish in the course of his duties will eventually become the very thing he once sought to destroy.

[Olis]

An interesting antagonist, this Ripper. I like the fact you have touched upon more than one theory. ;)

[Draakur]

Well-writ, that man. I liked this a lot :)