Jena Orechiel

Inquisitor Jena Orechiel. Try asking her about the pistol. She'll likely let it speak for her.

Jena Orechiel is an Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos known for not really giving a shit about the Imperium's laws regarding the use of alien technology.

The estranged daughter of a noble. In her youth during her time in what I suppose you'd call the grimdark Warhammer 40,000 equivalent of boarding school Jena didn't really make many friends and constantly frustrated her teachers due to her stubbornness and fiercely held convictions. Normally problems with authority are beaten out of students pretty quickly but Jena was determined to fight the power. Eventually it got to a point when this old, retired Mordian sergeant they had on staff named Belphus Meere decided he'd had enough of her rebellious teenager shit and made it his mission to teach her who was boss. Jena considered his arguments for exactly zero seconds before promptly telling him to fuck off. What followed were a series of ordeals Belphus set for Jena in an attempt to break her spirit such as all night runs and counting grains of salt but she refused to bend to his will and as the tasks grew more difficult she only became more determined to resist. It was all very dramatic but eventually the two developed a grudging respect for each other.

Originally her teachers intended to give her to the Sororitas where she might prove useful but quickly decided she wasn't prepared for such a responsibility and held her back. Working down their "Careers for aggressive assholes" list the teachers contacted the Inquisition and told them they had a possible recruit. When a curious Inquisitor arrived they pointed him to Jena whom he spoke to before going "Hmmmmm. Nope" and telling her she needed to slow her roll, let the poor cafeteria servitor out of that headlock and get her pride in check before she might make a good Inquisitor. Unlike her teachers Jena actually listened to this guy and their meeting served as something of a wake-up call for her. She started taking her studies seriously, stopped punching people out for making fun of her Rogue bangs and, when she had sufficiently matured, she was inducted into Inquisitor Dargasto's retinue as an acolyte.

The thing with Jena is that she has some pretty interesting opinions regarding aliens in that she believes they can sometimes be collaborated with and learned from for the good of the Imperium rather than despised indiscriminately and eradicated wherever they're found (meaning she is probably with the Xeno Hybris, a small group within the Inquisition who operate under those beliefs). Inquisitor Dargasto shared her fascination with xenos species and culture which led to the two of them getting along quite well and, when Dargasto was killed in a gunfight with some Mechanicus tech-priests (you know how they get with xeno-tech users), she basically took his place as a full Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos inheriting both the remains of his retinue and his vast wealth. One of her first actions as an Inquisitor was to return to her old school to see if that old coot Belphus was still around. When she found that he was, she extended to him an invitation to join her retinue which he accepted.

The following decades saw her grow into a pretty kickass Inquisitor hunting down enemies of the Imperium left and right. While it is true she is willing to employ diplomacy with aliens she believes can be reasoned with where other Inquisitors are not, she knows when a situation is beyond words and someone needs to get shredded by her shuriken pistol. Speaking of which, while the Radicals like her, the more Puritan members of the Inquisition are getting increasingly butthurt over her ignoring their complaints about her casual use of xenos equipment and rumoured association with the Eldar (she is even said to have had one in her service at one point). Some have even begun hunting her convinced she is a heretic but she just sneers and trolls them by frequently changing her name so they can't find her.

Unfortunately her old friend Belphus was eventually killed securing valuable knowledge about the C'tan, a foe that had a tendency to sit securely at the top of Jena's hit list.

She also acquired a Kroot bodyguard named Mordak by defeating it's former master in a death duel so her skill with a blade is probably higher than most (her good weapon skill in the Inquisitor game supports this).

As Heleana Jerico

At some point during her career she found herself in the upper spires of the Primus hive city of the planet Necromunda under the name Heleana Jerico (an almost-anagram of her real name) having a dalliance with the Planetary Governor leading to her giving birth to his child who would grow into the renowned underhive bounty hunter known as Kal Jerico (basically the Jack Sparrow of 40k). It wasn't long before she left the planet and resumed her Inquisition work seeing it as far more important than helping to raise her son. Kal didn't stay in the upper spires for long and soon went below to begin his bounty hunting career causing Jena to label him a disappointment not worth her time.

Yeah, open-minded xenos policies or not it's important to note she's still kind of a bitch. When she eventually told Kal who his father was she flippantly described the whole thing as "one of the many disagreeable things she had to do for the good of the Imperium". One can only guess how many bastard children this woman may have left scattered across space (remember that Eldar association I mentioned up there? Let's just say I doubt Lofn is the only halfbreed around).

Years later Jena returned to Necromunda and ordered an Arbites cull of the Primus underhive (basically when the Arbites get bored they head down to the lowest part of the hive city and just start shooting random people on the off chance some of them are actual criminals) to flush Kal out of hiding and had her daughter Merelda abduct him and bring him to her in the upper spires (Merelda's father is unknown but it is stated she is only Kal's half-sister. Whether Jena gave birth to her before or after Kal is also unknown. She refers to him as "little brother" several times but it could simply be an attempt to demean him). Following a sort of awkward reunion and a "get your shit together" lecture from Jena she told him she was hiring him for a mission she needed help with before taking him to meet her team and waited just long enough for Kal's head to fill with dirty thoughts about Merelda before telling him she was his half-sister.

Silly Kal. Hopes and dreams are for heretics.

She led the group to a Space Hulk called Kronos that had recently re-emerged from the warp claiming it was filled with priceless archeotech she intended to loot for the Imperium. After boarding the hulk they journeyed through its depths fighting various mutated creatures and evading traps until they ended up face to face with a large group of Necrons which they defeated. Jena then decided it was probably time for Kal to know the real reason they had been creeping through the bowels of a gigantic heap of space-garbage for hours. She told him the abridged story of the C'tan and the Necrons (the old one) and that one of the most powerful Necron constructs ever created called The Setekh (basically an incredibly powerful Necron the size of a Wraithknight) rested in its sarcophagus within the Space Hulk which she intended to make sure did not fall into the wrong hands. Obviously things didn't go as planned and Jena's retinue arrived at the sarcophagus only for her second-in-command, Vanyan Kloss, to betray her and refuse to allow them to destroy something he believed could be beneficial to the Imperium. He revealed he had been spying on her for a rival Inquisitor named Malva who quickly turned up with a shitload of Deathwatch Space Marines to apprehend her and announced his intention to dismantle the sarcophagus and take it with him. Having actually done her research Jena knew The Setekh was far too dangerous to be diddling around with and told Malva he was a nutcase and that it needed to be destroyed. Both Inquisitors turned to the Raven Guard captain of the Deathwatch like children arguing over a toy who told both of them to shut the fuck up and that he was arresting everyone including Malva but, by this point, The Setekh was getting really sick of all these tiny flesh-things bickering in its bedroom while it was trying to sleep so it got up, wiped the metallic crust from its eyes and started murdering everything in sight.

The Deathwatch attempted to retaliate but it quickly became clear they were out of their league as The Setekh slaughtered them with ease while taking no damage in return. Kal frantically asked how they could possibly kill it to which Jena replied it would be impossible even for an entire Space Marine chapter and, instead, pointed him and her daughter at the thing's sarcophagus claiming The Setekh was still drawing power from it and wasn't fully awakened yet. Kal and Merelda tried to make their way through the chaos to the sarcophagus but Vanyan still refused to allow them to destroy it (apparently not noticing the giant robot gleefully vaporising Space Marines nearby) and shot Merelda in the back. Jena was super pissed at this and rushed to her fallen daughter's side before furiously screaming at Kal and Mordak to kill the traitor but, after a brief fight, The Setekh kindly took care of that for them.

This shit was getting ridiculous to Malva so he pulled out his teleport homer and requested the Deathwatch ship to beam him aboard immediately which it began to do before Kal sent a las bolt through Malva's wrist and severed the hand holding the homer mid-teleport resulting in Malva being hurled screaming into the Warp. Jena grabbed the homer, severed hand and all, and made the same request. Meanwhile The Setekh killed the last of the Deathwatch and advanced on their position as Kal and Mordak rained ineffective las pistol and kroot rifle shots into it in an attempt to slow it down to no avail. If it had any kind of personality it probably would have laughed at their efforts but instead it just silently charged a final gauss blast the Deathwatch ship barely managed to beam the four survivors away from in time. Jena commandeered the ship and ordered them to Exterminatus the fuck out of the Space Hulk. A full load of cyclonic torpedoes later and the hulk was crumbling and falling back into the Warp. Jena figured The Setekh is probably still in one piece but at least this way it was out of the galaxy's hair for another few thousand years.

Anyway it turned out Merelda survived taking a bunch of heavy bolter rounds in the back somehow (to be fair they only really clipped her a bit). Jena and Kal went to visit her as she recovered and, impressed with her half-brother's performance, Merelda gave him the cyber-mastiff she used to abduct him earlier. Equally impressed Jena offered Kal a permanent position in her (now very empty) retinue but he declined preferring the comparatively less deadly world of the Primus underhive to which he returned.

Jena hasn't really been heard from since but she's probably busy pissing off the Puritans and kicking the asses of the Imperium's enemies as usual. It is unknown what she might think of the C'tan's current state in the fluff but odds are good she would welcome the opportunity to deal with more pressing matters.

Gallery

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  Jena with her daughter Merelda (upper left), her son Kal (lower right) and other members of her retinue.

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  Jena asking the question every Inquisitor lives to ask.

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  Caring more about your family than the Imperium? HERESY.