Editing Setting:Cloudburst/People (section)

==Lord Inquisitor Xi Gian Heung, Ordo Xenos==
{{Topquote|Cost? You ugly shitter, you think you know about cost? Throw a ship the size of a moon into a star without touching it! Then we’ll talk about cost! Bring me my Throne-damned gun!|Xi Gian Heung}}

Xi Gian Hueng holds the distinct honor of knowing more about Glasian biology and technology than any other person alive knows. The relentless, coarse-tongued cyborg warrior has been physically present for three Glasian invasions, more than any other person outside the Blue Daggers. He is the only one of the four senior Inquisitors of the Conclave Cloudburst with no psychic talent, but he doesn’t need it. His custom Power Armor and collection of esoteric human and alien weapons are more than enough to bring him victory. He has worked with the Deathwatch and the Blue Daggers dozens of times, usually in pursuit of alien forces in the Cloudburst Circuit, but sometimes in the harder-to-navigate Exo-zone to trailing. Hueng is a practical man, and unlike several of his peers in the higher Inquisition, does not mind his relegation to more directorial positions as he grows older. He still takes to the field at times, and usually does so at the personal behest of his superior, High Inquisitrix Lerica.

Hueng has somewhat more time available for his own research and investigations than he might normally. The position of Inquisitor of the Chamber for the Deathwatch of Watch Fortress Dascomb is traditionally held by the highest-ranking member of the Ordo Xenos in Cloudburst, and two times out of three that makes the Lord Inquisitor Xenos the Inquisitor of the Chamber. However, Lerica did not forfeit her position when the Senate of the High Lords offered her elevation to Lady Inquisitrix Cloudburst. This leaves Hueng time to oversee his subordinates more directly.

His coterie of acolytes, Throne Agents, and Interrogators are the bane of the Cold Trade, the moving of alien artifacts through Cloudburst. Thanks to the unfortunate proclivities of the nobility of Thimble, he has stationed a team of his acolytes there permanently, where they make their services available to the Arbites.

Hueng’s hate for the Cold Trade seems hypocritical to those who encounter him, given that nearly fifteen percent of his augmetics and weapons are alien in origin. Indeed, both his favored wrist-mounted las-lances and his thyroid-replacing augmetic are Jokaero products. However, Hueng is also a man of limitless willpower and self-restraint when it comes to the actual use of alien technology, whereas the Highborn of Thimble have levelled buildings in their overzealous use of alien weapons in their sporting duels.

This is less of a distinction than any Arbitrator would admit in a court of law, but Hueng is long past caring about the contradiction in his worldview. He has brought entire alien pocket kingdoms and small-scale Ork incursions to heel by himself, and has fought shoulder to shoulder with the Deathwatch against the Glasians before. As is the case with so many Inquisitors, he ignores contradictions in his own personal conduct if the result is a demonstrable improvement in the Imperium. Of course, as a hard-bitten old cynic, what constitutes ‘improvement’ may consist of a return to order, even if the order is just the quiet of the grave, or a terrified silence.

Hueng isn’t without compassion, but hundreds of years of hard work have burned it out of his demeanor. Hueng made the call to destroy the Space Hulk Inescapable Approach rather than attempt to salvage it, despite over two hundred Imperial Navy sailors still being trapped aboard. Hueng also led the purge of the freighter Calliope after a passenger smuggled out a transmission that there were Genestealers aboard. Thanks to the invasions and Migrations of the Glasians, he has had to send entire cities to the pyres after they were exposed to the Warp energies of destroyed Glasian ships.

He is also the loudest opponent of Watch Captain Paris’s plan to build a bunker for Glasian tech on Lorelei, deeming it to be too large a risk. Paris counters with his own argument that the Glasian tech is too potentially valuable to destroy if parts of it are provably uncorrupted. Ultimately, although the Deathwatch is the Chamber Militant for the Inquisition’s Ordo Xenos, individual Inquisitors do not have the authority to override a Watch Captain’s decisions without a substantial body of evidence, which Hueng cannot produce.

Still, Paris isn’t blind to Hueng’s centuries of experience. He has acceded to the gravity of the circumstance, and added additional automated defenses and failsafes to the facility, which has neither made the locals feel better nor assuaged Hueng’s worry.

Of all of the Lords Inquisitor in the Sector, Hueng thinks he has the hardest job, and has occasionally even given voice to this opinion. He may even be right, but the rest of the Conclave has little patience for such an attitude. Hueng is less popular than Lerica outside his Ordo, not that he cares.