# It Doesn't Feel Bad Anymore- first 40k fanfiction



## C'Tan Chimera

*It Doesn't Feel Bad Anymore

Phase 1-Denial*



_You can always tell yourself to expect the worse. Grow up on a planet like Cadia and the thick odor of blood, shit, entrails and smoke is like knowing an old friend. You grew up with it, and it doesn’t matter how much you’re indifferent to it now- there’s still something welcoming about the familiar. 

So when I got through my training you can imagine I was more than a little fucked up on the inside when they shipped me off to some rock called Primaris Beta. No briefing, no warning, nothing. The company was rounded up and ushered onto one of the cruisers and we were on our way. No matter how foul it was, the familiar was gone.

They can remind me how expendable I am. I just wish they could have had the common courtesy to tell me what they were expending me for so I might have had a little peace of mind. Instead it was a guessing game as soon as we set down as to what would be on the receiving end of our almighty lasguns. It was fun enough and it made recruits like me feel better, talking about the trophies we’d be taking back with us for friends, family, and Emperor._

Guardsman Derek’s moment to watch his life flash before his eyes was interrupted by the curdling wail of metal being shred. He instinctively clenched his fists, curling his fingers around a lasgun- a lasgun that wasn’t even there. 

Years upon years of constant indoctrination, propaganda and all the glory of death in battle had done nothing this day. Today, Derek began to wonder if dying anonymously as a coward was any worse than dying anonymously as a brave guardsman. 

The heavy footsteps echoing off nearby in the hall jarred his train of thought yet again, and it was clear to him that deep down he wasn’t fooling anybody- especially not himself.

There was no shouting. There were no explosions. The smell of blood, shit, entrails and smoke was nowhere to be found- only horrible, apathetic silence. Sometimes it isn’t a matter of being brave and strong, because the only thing more terrifying then silence in the dark was the silence shattered.



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Well, that's my first piece! I intend to continue it, but I wanted to know whether or not it's worth continuing or not at all.


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## Jackinator

This is pretty good. I'd definitely like to see more of this, +rep


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## C'Tan Chimera

When we came to Primaris Beta, I was caught off guard by its landscape. It was clear that this was –once- an Imperial world. I say once because it seems we hadn’t been in a hurry to reclaim this place as the city hives were ancient. Well, by my standards at least. You could tell where the sun shines by the huge, lush growths pouring out of windows, statues and spires. It might have been a wondrous city in better times, but nature had taken this place from us. Most of the other men just seemed annoyed by this- Commissar Hauss was visibly repulsed, but not a lot of us cared for what the Leashes thought unless it involved potential summary execution. Something creeped me out about it, though. 

If this had been such a jewel in the Imperium, why had we let it go for so long? Between this, the lack of any Psykers and no briefing whatsoever, I wasn’t feeling too good about this place. Being a grunt, I was never used to being in the loop in the first place unlike the Toy Soldiers in higher places; but here I had never hated being so out of it as before. 

I’m not sure what counted for one here, but I’m pretty certain we had been marching through the ruins for over a day. Despite the inaction before, we sure seemed in a hurry to get where we were going to now. I was starting to see why so many Imperial proverbs had forbidden such free thinking- I was going more than a little stir crazy with all the unanswered questions. But Hauss seemed more ominous than usual. Nobody ever looks the guy in the eye, but you could feel his gaze when it fell on you. I hate this place almost as much as I hated that feeling. 

Most of what we passed through was all the same old gothic architecture you see in any other hive world. Arches, spires, overbearing statues and the scrutinizing gaze of uncountable skulls. No battle scarring anywhere in the city. Nothing. Not a bit of evidence to suggest anything bad went down, but it was there. The plants released tons of spores, creating a red fog that wasn’t helping anything. It reminded me of all the stories about the Chaos warp stuff the priests would rave about on the barges.

------------

After what seemed like hours, Sarge N’ Charge Cassak as we liked to call him said we could be at ease and rest for an hour or two. Lho-sticks were being passed about, I just sat down and continued to be as muddled as I was before. I noticed Cassak talking with Commisar Hauss. Ol’ Hangman’s face never changes, but the look on Cassak’s face was not a happy one. Whatever it was Hauss had told him was gonna have backlash on me too. I could feel it.

I figured it out later when it was go time again. Cassak called the squad together and we did our usual formation. “Alright, here’s the deal, gun-babies! Platoon’s splitting up into several scout parties. I’m going with the others since I know they can actually get shit done. In the meantime, you’re going to be under the watchful eyes of Commissar Hauss, so play nice. We’re going down into the chasms below Old Pious bridge up ahead. You lot on the other hand will be securing said bridge and garrisoning the checkpoint bunker on the other side. Got that?” 

I don’t even need to bother mentioning “SIR YES SIR” but that’s how it was. Being the fresh recruits, we hadn’t heard any of the details, so we decided to play along with the whole Old Pious thing. Hangman Hauss was calling the shots, so we followed closely. It felt nice to be behind the bastard for a change. Nobody had ever been able to figure out what exactly would be scarier- some Genestealers from behind or Hauss ready to mount your ass the moment you glanced over your shoulder when the enemy was coming from the other direction.

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_I think I can safely say now Hauss. Either way you wind up dead, but with Hauss you end up like this. 

Hiding, alone in the dark with two very different kinds of monsters looking for you._


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## C'Tan Chimera

I had just finished with the wire across the rims of the Old Pious bridge. There was no river below it, but rather a ridiculously deep chasm. I think some ancient Imperial force must have drained it out for some military purpose. So why hadn’t they finished it? Where did everyone go?

That question was finally answered when one of the other whiteshield’s vox went off. I couldn’t hear anything from his vox set, but I could see his eyes at once bug. “Commissar Hauss, sir! We got a situation from team Primarus!” The commissar slid out of the shadows, as unnerving as ever. It was at that point the muffled screams coming from the vox became audible. I could feel my hairs slowly rising. The Commissar immediately plucked the headset from the grunt and talked into it.

“Get a grip on yourself, soldier! Repeat that!... Confirmation of what? By the damned throne, you WILL tell me what is going on down there!... What? … I see. Very well. May the Emperor guide your soul, for this is a brave deed.”

The Commissar grimaced and handed out the headpiece to the now visibly shaken voxman. I couldn’t take it anymore. I wanted an answer. “S-sir, may I ask what’s happened to Primaris team?” Hauss remained silent.

That’s when I felt the tremor and the faint sound of an explosion far below. Most of us ran to peer over the ledge and only briefly got to see the chasm illuminated by an orange glow. “Fuckin’ hell, man. What happened?!” One of the other grunts shouted. “Yeah, sir, I wanna know what the bleeding ‘Throne we’re getting into over here before I go ano-“

I watched his head go right off his shoulders and tumble into the pit below. His nearby buddy could only gasp, covered in his blood. Hauss stood there with a smoking bolt pistol, as calm as always. “Fear denies faith. Return to your positions immediately except the demomen. We’re rigging this bridge. Vox handlers, set up a communications hub.”

First death in our squad and it was by one of our own. For talking about the hindrance of fear, Hangman Hauss sure didn’t seem to be worried about dispensing it himself.

It seemed like the longest couple of hours in my life. Nobody said a word after Hauss set his first example. The few demomen had it ever worse, having to scale the barely-intact bridge and plant it with charges. They’d long be dead when they hit the bottom, but that chasm had so quickly garnered its grisly mythology that the fall was the least thing the Demos were worried about. 

I had to look out the backside of the bunker, watching for anything down the road opposite of the bridge. Doesn’t speak too well of Hauss’ thoughts on me, as nobody gave a damn about that. Everyone was fixated on whatever that hole held deep down. Every once in awhile I could have sworn I saw a flicker of red move off in the distance. My heart would ready to clamber out of my ribcage, but I’d calm myself down. Everything around here was red, after all. I was not about to be shot up by Hauss for making a scene. I could feel as though he was watching me, but it could have been some other watchman, or something else.

The amasec wasn’t helping anymore. At first I thought I was drunk, but I could see some movement. The ground itself was swelling. The strange red flickers off in the distance vanished. I merely watched for a few seconds, awed by it.

Then they squirmed out. For a second they were all curled up, but then unfolded. I realized I had been pinching myself. I wasn’t drunk, and I wasn’t dreaming. They scattered off to the sides, spazzing the whole time. Hauss was outside for the moment with the demomen, but I still withheld everything. Once I saw the shimmer of gigantic blades though, I didn’t care to hold it in anymore.

I screamed. Loudly. 

I grabbed my rifle and screamed again, this time coherently. *“THERE ARE SOME FUCKING THINGS OUT THERE FOR THE LOVE OF THE FUCKING EMPEROR HELP”* Within a second half the platoon was in here. None of them were happy when they didn’t see anything. “Don’t go all scrambled on me now, Derrek.” One of the guys voiced. They acted annoyed, but I could see the same feeling on their faces that was crawling around under my skin. “I mean it, dammit! Check the sides! All of them!” 

Another gunbaby shook his head, rolled his eyes and turned to the spiral staircase below. “Hey, Vance! Derrek here says you’ve got a monster coming to visit! Why don’t you do a Yarrick and let him know how you feel?” 
I wanted to be embarrassed. For the love of the Throne, that’s all I wanted. I wanted to hear some laugh from below and some mocking. But there was nothing. 

“Vance?...” The same guy muttered. All I could do was whisper “Oh shit.” They all bolted downstairs to Vance’s position just like that, but I couldn’t move. That’s when the screaming started. No lasfire, just screaming. Hauss would be back any second now and I could probably be mulched for damaging morale. At least that’s what I thought. A shriek from below.

“*OH FUCK!* THAT’S FUCKING VANCE! WHAT THE FUCK OH EMPEROR” 

That was the last of coherent voices. It all turned into a ramble of screaming. I could hear something upstairs with me. Mumbling, in fact. I kicked my fear in the teeth and dashed for the stairs. 2, 3 stairs at a time, I scaled the thing. One of the guardsman was out in the open, frantically waving down Hauss. The others were in a panic, back up against each other outside and looking around. It started to dawn on me I was the only person left in the bunker. Suddenly, I felt a drop of rain. I glanced up at the window.

I looked at Vance and he looked back at me. At least I think it was Vance. I almost idly wondered where his skin had gone. All the blood and flesh didn’t hit me as my thoughts ran right back to the thing I had seen earlier. I heard another noise and a strange whirring sound. In fact, I heard what sounded like a couple of things. 

Then suddenly Vance stepped out of the dar-_ohfuckme whatthefuckit’swearingVance’skinwhatfuckhelp_


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## ckcrawford

What I've read so far is actually pretty good. Definitely something I'd see from a normal guardsmen. Continue the good work son.


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## TheSpore

theres not many stories written from a gaurdsman's POV. good so far


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## arturslv

Keep writing, buddy. I loved the 
Then suddenly Vance stepped out of the dar-ohfuckme whatthefuckit’swearingVance’skinwhatfuckhelp

bit.


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## C'Tan Chimera

Thanks for the comments, everyone!

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It reached for me. I ran. What else could someone expect in that scenario? I fell back into my squad, leftovers platoon, I dunno. Point is I fell back. We opened fire on the thing. I don’t know how much we emptied into that thing, but nothing happened. We liquefied all that was left of poor Vance, but it was too late by then. No matter how mechanical it was, I could still imagine the meat that was Vance’s face gawking at me. 

It was pretty much the only time I was happy to see Hauss, but I was happier than ever when he swept in, tearing it’s arm off with his powerfist. The creature itself shrugged it off, twitching and shivering wildly like some sort of insane wind-up toy. It lashed out with its other arm, quickly flensing the skin from the side of his face with horrific accuracy. It managed to get a snarl out of him who followed up by twisting its other arm off before bringing his fist into its chest. That’s when one guy behind me yelled.

Five more of the violently twitching creatures were slinking towards us. Hauss was immediately forgotten and we fired into them. Again and again and again. We managed to down two of them before the other three got within distance. I won’t forget the image of those things reaching out… Trying to take our skin… We backed up with the exception of one guardsman. He must have had far bigger balls then the rest of us, but probably in direct proportion to his brain. He lunged at one of them, trying to bring his gun butt into its neck…

I couldn’t think anymore about it. You figure trying to distract yourself from the current situation with an old one would calm your nerves. I guess that doesn’t work when it involves a man being stripped of his skin in seconds before your eyes… I ran. 

To have one of those things reach out and touch you for even a second… I saw no glory. I saw no tribute to the Emperor. My eyes travelled along it’s blade and to its face. Those eyes, those throne-forsaken eyes…If you could even call them that. It was like looking into that chasm, but I don’t know if there was a bottom in those eyes…There would be no heroism, no soul joining the God Emperor… Only darkness, and a creature wearing me. Final moments of realization. The Emperor could not protect me here. 

I abandoned them. I ran. I ran and ran. I could hear their screams and I only ran harder. I saw a glow from the corner of my eye and saw more…things crossing the bridge. I could hear Hauss yelling at me to get back and detonate it. I thought for a second, but then I could only see that same creature with Vance, except it wasn’t Vance’s face sagging off its metallic skull. It was mine. I kept running. I think he shot at me. I didn’t look back. 
And here I am now. Cowering in the dark of the bunker. I think they’re in here with me. Give me Greenskins or Twists or whatever, but not these! 
I had to get out. I didn’t want to be cornered. Turning around the corner I run for the stairs up toward the main level. Anything was better than getting killed by those things. Anything at all was so much better. The stairs are calling for me and I long to go up. Up and out. Anything is better than those monsters.

As if on cue, something flies out from the storage room on the right and I’m swept off my feet. I connect with the cold rockrete and I feel the blood. I’m picked up.

Oh sweet Golden Throne- it’s Hauss! 

_Derrek was dizzy, but he could make out the horrifying face of an enraged Commissar Hauss. Half of his face was caked entirely in gore, blood trickling from what was left of his mouth. It was a little better than the metal creatures, but Derrek still had to fight back the urge to release his bladder._ 

“You abandoned your brethren to die, filth. Cowardice in the line of duty…” He hacked up blood, getting it on my face- I could feel the powerfist begin to tighten. I didn’t want to die. I didn’t abandon them on purpose- they could have run with me...Coulda regrouped...

“You kept on running after I told you to detonate the bridge, leaving me to do it myself. Insubordination.” I kept my terrified gaze fixed on his own. Something in me was screaming. The fanatic guardsmen who would give his life for the Emperor had died somewhere within me and this time the screaming wasn’t of terror.

“You allowed them to take the bunker without a fight… Treason…” His voice was as gravelly and cold blooded as possible. I could feel his grip tighten on my arm and it began to scream too. I’m not a traitor… I made a mistake but I’m not a traitor…

“We’re all dead men now, heretic. But the long-range comms vox is online, and when the main force arrives, they’ll know… We’re both going to die, but you… You have been found wanting, and I shall make sure you are sent far from the Emperor’s grace.”

I could hear the click of his bolt pistol cocking. I briefly noticed more of those red dots again, appearing in the background, but my mind went back to the pistol. I’m not a traitor. I’m not a traitor. 

“I’M NOT A TRAITOR!” It was all so fast. My free hand pushed his pistol aside and gripped his wrist. I heard him growl and crush my other arm in a burst of hot pain. I screamed and gave him the Catachan kiss, bashing my forehead against his. I tear what’s left of my arm free from his grip and stumble backward, yanking the pistol free of his grip as I fall. I reach for it but he kicks it away. I hear strange yelling sounds all around. I kicked his ankle from the inside, bringing the already exhausted and wounded hangman to one knee, but he throws his powerfist back. It’s all over now. 

Suddenly a burst of blue flashes hammer the Commissar from the side. Blood pours from his wound for a second, then smoke. He stands frozen, rage and disbelief engraved on his horrifically disfigured face during his last seconds of life. He lands on top of me with a wet *THUD*. I scream again and try to shove his corpse off of me, but I can’t feel my ri- it got pulped, that’s right… I feel the pain seriously for the first time and open my mouth to scream. I swallow on it as the room flashes with a crackle of lightning. It’s not the same green light from earlier, though- the red dots appear everywhere around me. Disbelief grips me as hard as that powerfist had. Three huge..things with guns for arms materialize out of the darkness. 


I should have joined the Navy.


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## TheSpore

Coming from a former sailor i love that last line


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## Levendus

I'm bloody loving this !!! 

Moar Moar Moar !!!


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## Guarder22

This is really good, keep up the good work. +rep


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## C'Tan Chimera

They say it’s better to die for the Emperor than live for yourself. I’m starting to think they may have a point now that I’ve got a shattered stump for a arm, a broken nose, the blood of a Commissar on me and now three towering black things over me with their guns trained on me. 

I’d be lying if I said I could clearly make out what I’m looking at. Between hitting the ground headfirst and headbutting a Commissar, I’m lucky I’m still conscious. Really hoping these things don’t intend on killing me- I might actually have an appreciation for life after this. They’re talking in some weird xeno mumbo-jumbo. 

Suddenly one of them looks down at me and lowers its weapon. “I apologize for what must seem unfortunate circumstances, but I think it’s pretty clear you’re in no position for uncivil behavior. Now that that’s out of the way, are you alright?”

The hell? It speaks Gothic? 

“Uh…Well, fuck no, actually.” 

I can’t even begin to figure out what’s going on. It’s got a bunch of red bug eyed light things for a face. No way to tell what it’s thinking. I’m assuming that it’s checking out why I said ‘fuck no’ . A pause. “Yeah. I see what you mean.” It glances over at its buddies, and by that I mean it had to turn around entirely since it had no visible head. “Get him up with the others, he’s going to need a lot of medical attention.” 

I took a look at it’s one arm and the other…Gun arm. I couldn’t quite imagine these things carrying me around. “I’ll walk, thank you.” I get up on one knee. I stand all the way up, take one step toward one of the xenos. One of them levels it’s gun slightly higher than before. Then I feel the explosion of searing heat in arm and collapse again. “So much for that. You’re in good hands.” The one muttered before wrapping it’s arm under my shoulder to lift me up. I feel myself shudder at the touch of a xenos, but it’s still better then Hauss’ fist or those vile things from outside. I still don’t trust that “Good hands” part.

“Radio in Shas’El Dal’Mont’yr, tell him we’ve finished phase 1 and the enforcer is dead. The survivors will be much more susceptible to our benevolence now. We’re moving to Phase 2, but we’re going to need a Devilfish and quick. The automatons may send further scouting parties and we’ve got detainees.” 

I couldn’t really pretend to give a crap at this point. I’m just happy I’m not going to die. The blurriness at the corners of my eyes started to reach out and before I knew it, it was pouring in. “Damn! He’s passing out!” I heard one of them say. Well that’s a start. 

The blackness creeps away and lets the blinding light in. Squinting, I notice how weird I feel. At least it’s not pain anymore. More and more comes into focus and I instinctively glance over at what’s left of my arm. Not a lot, but there’s a weirdass metal stump on the end of it. Next I glance up- there’s a Frisbee looking thing floating there with a bunch of creepy looking little arms. My eyes flow down the wire and I notice it’s hooked up to me. Repulsed, I reach out for it.

“Don’t do that.” I nearly jump and look over to my shoulder. There’s a guy in green armor with two of those weird red ey- wait. The helmet, the hooves… Oh shit. These are those Tau guys in my primer! They’ll sterilize me and make me a slave!...I think. That book also told me my lasgun could kill a Chaos Warrior in a single shot. Whatever. 

“Why can’t I do that?” I grunt at the thing. “Because you take that painkiller out and it will hurt. A lot.” “Is that a threat?” “No it’s not, Gue’la.” “Then what is it, Gray-skin?” “It’s a painkiller. You ought to be saying ‘you’re welcome.’ “ 

“Shas’la, is this one giving you much trouble?” a voice from beyond my view says. “A little, yes, Shas’Ui”. “Well, consider yourself relieved for the time being.” “Thank you, Shas’Ui Dal”

The figure got up. I couldn’t tell if it was giving me a mean look under that thing. Another one came back into view. Nowhere near as armored, some sort of bodysuit. A little less ugly then what the primer made them look like. I had expected something like an Ork minus the misshaped head. Long, blue hair. It looked at me with violet eyes- I think it’s a chick and damn, did the Primer whine hard about xenos women. 

“You know, that’s not a way to go making friends with one of the few races willing to not blow your brains out on sight, Gue’la.” 

“Fuck you, making friends is the least of my worries right now, especially coming from a gray skin with no nose.” She smiled. “What?” She smiled wider and produced a mirror outside of my vision. I refused to take it, so she stuck it right in my face and immediately got what she was laughing about. What was left of my nose was a crooked mess. “Fuck!”

“You’re not too far behind us, Gue’la.” I could only stare. I don’t know if it was the fall or the headbutt, but I fucked my face up bad. Green eyes were still there, dirty blond hair was still there, but what was left of my dark olive skin was covered in bruises and my nose was smothered in bandages. I briefly saw that horrible creature wearing my face again and shoved the mirror away. “Shut up. I’m lucky to be alive, let alone good looking.” 

“Oh yeah, no denying that. You should feel lucky we had been following you the whole time, otherwise those Necrons would have had a few more trophies.” Wait, what? Others survived? I looked at her this time with a more earnest interest. “You rescued some others? How many are still alive?” She kept that disinterested look. “Not many. Three of you, not sure the third is going to make it. You’re lucky my squad had been stalking your commander the whole time, or we may have never found you after you ran away.”

I grunted. “What?” “I only ran for a moment because close combat would have been unfavorable.” She nodded. “There’s no shame in fleeing if things get bad.” I laughed. “You don’t know much about the Imperium, do you grayskin?” She smiled again, but it didn’t seem genuine. Not sure what passed for body language with these things. 

“You’d be surprised, actually. I don’t know if your commander shoved that primitive fist weapon up your ass before we saved you, but you do clearly have something up there right now. So I’ll leave you be.” With that she got up and left me alone. I’m getting a little tired of that. 

Now back to thinking about what the hell I've dug myself into.


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## C'Tan Chimera

I’m pretty certain I’d be carted off to some sort of Tau brainwashing camp, but that’s not how it seems to have worked out. From what the one guy in the regular green armor was willing to tell me, it seems we wandered in on them, not vice versa. I still have no idea what’s going on, but he said I happen to be an inconvenience on a reconnaissance mission. At least we could agree on each other being inconveniences. The one chick and her mech suits were gone for the time. While I had been resting we had taken a few apparent drop off points. Something about a “Hunter cadre” . 

Eventually, I was allowed to unplug myself from the so called ‘med-drone’ and take a look around. With one of their weird laser guns trained on me, of course, but he did have a point. With just about any other force I would have been dead, sacrificed, consumed or in the Necrons case, a fashion statement. Still wouldn’t mind hijacking this thing if reinforcements show up. Speaking of which…

I turn to the guard. “What exactly was it you guys were doing out there last night?” He hesitated, having let his guard down. If I was like that famed Marbo guy, he’d be a dead alien. But no, I didn’t think it was worth having a hole in my chest and a missing arm. “We had been tracking the recent Necron threat. When your scouting force showed up, we were sent in to make sure any threat was swiftly nullified.” I play it dumb. “How?” I could hear him sigh irritably.

“Kill what your kind call a Commissar. We’ve had enough dissidents from your Imperial Guard in the past to know a good deal about how those… men… work. Barbaric. Also cut off any communication as well, so at this point you’re playing by our rules whether you want to or not. Welcome to the Tau Empire.” I could feel it smile under that helmet. Probably should have punched it for that arrogance. 

Then it hit me. The comms array had never been finished being erected courtesy of the Necrons. I don’t know what happened for sure, but maybe I could somehow turn them around and fire it back up… Nah. The Imperial barges would grow curious from lack of the response anyway. Better to play it cool. Hell, I could be a saboteur behind enemy lines when they showed up!... But then it came back and hit me again. I don’t even know what the hell we were doing on here in the first place. What if this wasn’t to kick the Tau’s gray xenos ass back to the fringe? What if we were the only ones? Expendable?

“Gue’la… Is your head screwed on tightly enough?” I heard him mutter. Must have blanked out.

“Yeah yeah, shut up. I’m alright.” 

“Not exactly what I was concerned about, but okay.” It mumbled. Dick. 

I heard what passed for some sort of comms click and –really- fast paced words in Xeno babble. Went wide over my head, but my green xenos plank here perked right up to it. He readies his weapon, fidgeting with all sorts of dohickies on it. He points it up and I involuntarily cringe, expecting the worse.
“Get down!” He barked. Despite it being xenos scum, I’m a little too used to rolling over on command. Next thing I know I’m kissing tank interior and feel my guts go hurling as the whole vehicle does some sort of stunt. More jibberish from the comms. 

I hear a hiss and the rush of fresh air. Finally I glance up to see the back of the hull open, the green guy with his gun pointed out. Not firing at anything yet. That’s when one of those weird suits appeared and hoisted itself onto the outside grips. I heard the girl’s voice again, this time in xeno talk again. Her suit was clearly too large to get inside the transport. 

She swung herself off to the side to make room for the other guy to aim out. THEN the two began firing as the vehicle hit high speeds with whatever thrusters it had on it. I got to my knees, only to fall backward as the wall in front of me was set aglow and began to crumble apart. Shouting in alarm, the grayskin in green armor looked my way and then shouted to his friend in their tongue. So it was a really dumb idea, but I peeked through the hole. A huge metal Necron mounted on a hoverboard or something was only a few meters behind the vehicle. An ocean of green treetops was flying out beneath us, tinted by more thick clouds of that red fog.

Suddenly I hear more panicked gibberish. I heard and scramble toward my medical bed as the hatch on my right opened up. I could see another Tau transport nearby, keeping pace. Then another one of those Necron skimmer things closed in between us. Then another and I could glimpse yet a third take to the far side. I’ve gotten a bit pissed. “Can someone tell me what the fuck is going on?!” 

“What you see is what we’ve got, gue’la!” The armored one shouted from outside, continuing to unload salvos of fire. Suddenly I feel a tingly feeling and glance just in time to see a flick of lightning dissipate nearby me. My pants-leg has a hole in it. “Fuck!” The green one seems to have finally noticed the side hatches with a spray of what I assume were xeno expletives. 

A loud thud, and suddenly more of those disk things appear outside. More xeno talk, slightly more confident sounding. Some of the things swarm the Necrons. Suddenly a jerk, and I feel myself thrown to gravity as I go round and round. Another sudden jerk and I’m hanging over the edge of the back transport. Me being me, I start screaming until I realize the green one has me by the collar. “I TOLD YOU TO STAY DOWN, IMBECILE!” I’m shoved back in and begin cursing more. 

The xenos are talking much more confidently, and I can glimpse out the side that they’ve slowed and gotten behind the things. I can hear their guns going off. Explosions. Then I hear the comms voice making triumphant sounds before the vehicle speeds back up. Trails of smoke flicker out behind us. I sit back and take a deep sigh, the green guy seems to share my relief. Suddenly the two start yelling. The pilot seems unaware. I lean out the side and see the twisted hulks of the machines come gliding right out of the trees, straightening them out as they went. The two begin firing, but it returns the favor. Green light flickers out and suddenly our transport dips to the right. NOW the pilot’s yelling again. I hear explosions to my right and this time see one of those transports go tumbling down, screams coming from my xeno companions. 

The two exchange angry talk before the female lets go of the handles. She drops, but blue fire bursts from the back of what I’ve quickly figured out is a jetpack. She goes flying right into the skimmer, grabbing it by the head and swinging onto its back. The thing flails about, trying to shake her off. Green guy is trying to get a shot on it, but then the Necron’s buddies close in. I see her empty a round into its back and the thing drops. She jumps back into the air, but the nearby Necron clips her and I watch as half her armor fades away into nothing. She goes hurtling down below and green guy yells. He shoves me aside and makes a dash for the cockpit. 

I hug the floor as I hear the Necrons unleash a huge downpour of fire. Why can’t the Emperor just get me the hell out of here? What the hell did I do to des- well, okay. I did beat a Commissar up so nevermind. 

That’s when I feel a cold grip on my back. I squeak as I’m flipped over and staring wide eyed at one of the skimmer machines, its upper body inside. It’s staring at me, almost like it’s examining me. I’m tired of thinking and instinctively kick the switch next to the hatch. It yanked me up, and just as I’m about to be pulled out with it, I hear the satisfying crunch of grinding metal as the door slams down hard on the machine. Sheared in two, it drops to the ground with me. Sadly, it’s got that huge-ass gun and it looks at me more. Why is it not killing me? Why am I talking like that's a bad thing?

THEN the thing aims its gun and fires a burst of shots into the cockpit room. I briefly think about trying to push its gun down, but all the green laser beams on it tell me touching would be a bad idea. Lots of yelling now, and finally green guy rolls out from the side and fires a round into its arm, severing the gun. I feel a sharp dip and I realize we’re falling, but not before the Necron tumbles on top of me. I think it nailed the pilot.

I wince, close my eyes tight and recite a little prayer to the Emperor. Then the impact hits.


----------



## C'Tan Chimera

*Phase 2: Rejection*

I’d say I’m doing pretty good despite all I’ve been through this past day, but chances are I’m just so numb I can’t even feel any of it. Having spat some blood out, I get to my feet and feel my way around the now dim wreckage. The Necron thing as the grayskins called it didn’t survive, luckily for me. It’s started to bother me how much I’ve had to rely on that lately to keep me alive. But I’m getting a little sick of just being a passenger to circumstance. Seeing some light from above, I claw my way up through the side hatch. 

Clambering over the side, I adjusted my eyes to the dark of the undergrowth. I saw tons of weird trees and bog, but no sign of the Tau. I was tempted to check the wreckage, but that crash pretty much summarized what happened to the pilot. Despite our differences, it seems pilots of all races seemed to have an affinity for dying on the job. For once, I was on my own. In the middle of Emperor knows where.

As much as the inner Imperial man inside me was happy to get away from the aliens, the more reasonable half of me- the one that has kept me alive so far- is not. It made me cringe to think about it, but I needed them. For the time being. So using common sense, I played out the scene in my head. Chick jumps off of carrier trying to do some Space Marine grade stuff, gets shoved behind us and took a tumble. Her buddies hadn’t seemed too happy about that. Plus, that other transport had gone down earlier. The one we were in got smashed hard, so if it had been a chimera, I would have gone to look for it and any salvage with it.

Looking back at the busted vehicle, I took note of what was left of the front. What of it wasn’t nose first in the marshes, of course. Turning back to face the opposite direction, I took off. I wish I could have been more supplied, but I knew squat on xeno supplies and on top of that I was missing an arm. I had my lasgun bayonet, but after half the stuff I’ve seen, it’s nothing more than a butter knife. Having to wield it left handed wasn’t going to help. 

The bog was freakin’ creepy. Between the gnarled black foliage, that red fog and the unnervingly still bog waters, I started to realize how eager I was to find anyone. The one Tau girl earlier had mentioned two other guardsmen had survived, so maybe if I caught up with them there was a chance we might make it out of here. I tried not to think about whatever was scurrying underfoot or bugs the size of grapefruits, ignored the pain in my legs and kept moving. 

You’d figure within 5 minutes I’d have mentioned I was attacked by a Trygon or a pack of Nobz, but this isn’t like those stories you hear the vets always gloating about. I must have been moving through that shithole for several hours. Despite the stink and sheer growth of purple, blue and black here, I never saw a single animal. That had begun to worry me more than the idea of getting attacked by one. Finally, I noticed something just as weird, if for different reasons.

A structure so thickly covered in the roots of overgrown trees that at first I figured it was some mound of land. Carefully stepping through the bogs and around logs, I approached the entrance. There was tons of muck and growth on the sides and I found I had wiped some off. Solid black beneath it, dare I say, obsidian even. Some lining long rusted bordered the sides, complete with weird symbols etched in it.

Running my fingers along it, it dawned on me this was probably my fourth act of heresy for the day. Glancing over, I found myself drawn in towards the door. More strange symbols all over it- every fiber in my body was saying bad things about this, but I wound up walking in closer to the door. For some reason, part of me felt drawn. I wish I could have just pinned it on curiosity, but there was something more… As though I wanted to enter it. Thoughts of the Tau momentarily forgotten, I found myself at the door. I looked at it up and down from all sorts of angles. I thought about all the weird symbols. I ran my hand along its strange imagery. Wiping the dirt off it, the reliefs etched in it became much more apparent. 

I can see a few people entwined on their knees. Many more around them have their backs turned, looking away from the door’s centerpiece. After a few more wipes, my greasy hand revealed a seemingly crystalline sculpt of a figure. A star, actually. A rather wicked one. It’s various ‘tails’ arched and spiked, forming more of those weird symbols on their tips. It was the face that really caught my attention, though. It didn’t really seem to be entirely there, but I could see a face. A thousand patterns were etched within it, and looking closer I could see what seemed like dozens more. Screaming, laughing, screaming and laughing. They all depicted that in various ways… 

I began to feel dizzy. I bit my lip, shook my head and took a step back. The face was different now. Almost…Inviting. Away from the overzealous guardsmen. Away from the aliens. Just a little peace and quiet after the worst few days of my life… 

No. I knew it was fucked up. I took another step back. It kept staring at me. I took another step back. I felt frightened now, not so much by the face so much the dread of going against myself. I’ve betrayed a bunch of people now, and it while it doesn’t feel bad anymore, that sensation of blissful disregard was getting to me. Nihilistic, really. That’s not how I was raised.

I set my mind back on finding the other grayskins and took off. I turned around the bend of the great mound and continued to head the direction I had before. The strange silence of the forest was broken by some crumbling. I glance over my shoulder at the mound. Didn’t even want to think about that, just have to find the devilfish. I kept moving. More crumbling, busier now. Stop thinking about that face, the faces, all of them, just stop thinking now. Don’t think about the one wearing my face of all those faces. I got used to the idea. No thinking, just running. No thinking, just running. 

I kept on running and not entirely because I had been worried about finding the grayskins. The farther I got away from that structure, the more it freaked me out again. Oh Emperor, all the faces in one… I forced myself to think on the old marches they taught us in bootcamp. One, two, one, two, one,two…

More time flies by. Finally, I feel safe again. Well, what substituted for it in this weirdass place. I can smell smoke, barely, but it was there. The stench of the bog was nasty, but smoke was familiar. Unpleasant, but it was still a familiar scent. I followed the smell, it slowly but surely getting stronger. I could also hear more noise now of actual animals. Didn’t want to think about the details, but I was growing to dislike the silence more than all the strange sounds. 

I tried not to think about that face.


----------



## Todeswind

You mix tenses between paragraphs. If you're telling a story as present tense, tell it as present tense, if you're going to tell it as past do it as past. 



> I hear a hiss and the rush of fresh air. Finally I glance up to see the back of the hull open, the green guy with his gun pointed out.


This is present tense.



> Not firing at anything yet. That’s when one of those weird suits appeared and hoisted itself onto the outside grips. I heard the girl’s voice again, this time in xeno talk again. Her suit was clearly too large to get inside the transport.


This shifts into past.

You do a lot of tense shifting in your work that is distracting from what is otherwise a decent story. 

You also need to consider using more differentiated speech patterns between your characters. The word choice of the Tau, the educated humans, and the uneducated humans is virtually identical with the exception of a couple of minor interjections of words like "Gue'la" and so on.


----------



## C'Tan Chimera

Well, you caught me on that. I've never been good with tenses, so once I realized I had definitely gone inconsistent I tried just to pretend it didn't happen because -damn- I'd have a lot of editing ahead of me. 

But indeed you are right- as much as I enjoy letting this stuff fly right on out, I'll slow down the process to have it go that extra mile.

It will mean slower progression between 'chapters' , though.


----------



## C'Tan Chimera

So I’ve been thinking, and I know a guardsman isn’t supposed to do that. I’ve been thinking on just about everything and it’s starting to dawn on me that how weird this has been since the get go. I’ve been coming to realize how selfish my intent has been. I wasn’t scared for the fate of my platoon- I was scared of being flayed alive. Sure I never had gotten along with the rest of the squad- withdrawn intellect just doesn’t fit in among blindly eager meatheads. I wasn’t afraid of striking the Commissar as much as I had been afraid of getting what I admittedly had deserved. I don’t even need to mention how willing I am to pick up a gun when the Tau aren’t looking and light them ablaze. Yeah, I’m shamelessly selfish to the point where no force would want to do with me.

…Isn’t this the point where the Chaos voices are supposed to start whispering dirty things to me? 

Whatever. It wouldn’t surprise me if even those capricious entities wanted nothing to do with me. If you’re waiting for some mournful soliloquy about solitude, you came to listen to the wrong guardsman’s tale. I’m more concerned about the inevitable backlash of having gotten on so many bad sides. Throw in the homicidal Necrons and the only real friend I have at this point is the Emperor himself. And even then I’m not so sure about whether or not he’s even home. 

I come to a dip in the ground, with the presumed Devilfish wreckage leaving a trail of smoke billowing upward, seducing me to find my way over it. I slowly walk to the edge and_oooh_my Emperor there’s 3 sentinels around it. I toss myself back to the ground, scramble behind a tree and do even more thinking. Did I find the right transport? Did those sentinels shoot this one down? What if they know about what I did? For crying out loud, nothing can be simple around here. 

I’ve brushed shoulders with Death so many times today I practically give him high fives. It can’t hurt to do so again. I move out from behind the tree and stand tall over the ravine. “Hey! Hey! I could use a lift, fellows!” 

With the screech of pistons and hiss of hydraulics, the nearest one turns to me and I try not to remind myself it’s weapon is inevitably trained on me. I can hear his speakers click on. “Bloody ‘ell, this of all spots is the least place I’d expect to see straggler. “ Another sentinel’s click on as well. “Watch it, Brutus boy. We got ourselves a job and I’ll have your balls if you go planking on me.” Incomprehensible mumbling comes from ‘Brutus’ . “Really huh. So tell me what we’re supposed to do with this lil’ grubber standing around?” A third click, from the third sentinel. “ Thump him and dump him, of course.” He laughed. I’m really hoping he’s just got a bad sense of humor. 

The second one jumps back into the argument. “Both of you shut your cakers! Field commander’s gonna want to know about grayskins being part of the party so you turn your bloody heads back this way right now or I’ll cut your amasec and lho stick rations for a whole damn week!” Speaking of Grayskins, my blood turned to ice as a familiar sparkle of lightning appeared in the thick of the growth behind the sentinels. Sure enough, the red dots appear again. I want to warn them to what’s happening, but I find I won’t. Not more of this…

The backdrop behind the sentinels fires up with a blinding flash of light and a surge of energy strikes the third sentinel in the back. The others are reacting as proper. “What in the fucking Throne?! Open fire! Open fire, dammit!” The squad commander’s order goes over the one sentinel as it crumples to the ground as a molted wad of metal. Suddenly I spot several Tau leap out of the vehicle and fire at the commander’s legs. ‘Brutus’ looks back at me. “Fucking hell, you’re a grayskin hugger! KILL THE SCUMSUCKING HERETIC!” Yeah, here we go again, dammit!

I throw myself to cover behind the trees and feel the heat of a multilaser on my back. I can hear the sound of the sentinel’s legs bound over the hill, but another burst of light and dribbling suffocation of liquefied steel tells me I’m safe. Well, until I hear a more personally angry voice and see the pilot come at me with a laspistol. “You sneaky little bastard, you…” I flip the panic button and…Fuck it! No right arm! I duck and lunge inside of Brutus’ aim, feeling the sting of a shot searing my flak. I throw my left arm around his gun arm and pull it down to his side and put what’s left of my right arm up to his neck and put all my weight on him. We stumble back, but I can feel him dig his heels into the dirt and push back on my stump arm.

I step outside of his immediate direction, throw my stump on the back of his neck this time and force his head forward. I take the risk of letting his gun arm free and grab onto his helmet with my left arm, yanking it clear off his head. For a second he looks at me, bewildered. “Sorry.” Is all I can get out before I bring the helmet right back into his face, knocking him right off his feet. I grab his pistol and point it right at him. “I’m not with them.” He replies by spitting at me. “You sure ain’t one of my mates, you twist eatin’ fucker!” 

“Ah, the Gue’la from before! You might be a very good follower of the Kau’yon if you’d just admit your place!” I grind my teeth and roll my eyes as I hear her voice again. I tote the pistol at Brutus to make it clear not to screw with me. I look over my shoulder to see the grayskin chick show up again. She took that loss of armor pretty well, having ditched it entirely from the looks of it. Her two squadmates show up next to her, towering a good few feet above with the suits. She looked puny in comparison to the armor with just a black and green jumpsuit on. Still armed, too. I hated having my gun trained on another human. “You mind taking over here?”

“Oh, not a worry at all. Glad to see you’ve made up your allegiance.” I stiffen at that. “…You gave the Guard the piss for a roll in the snatch?! What the fuck?” Brutus shouted. 

Okay, that’s it.

“EVERYONE JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP FOR ONE MINUTE” I turn right around and point the pistol at her. She and the others respond in kind by pointing theirs right back at me. Brutus interjects yet again, “What'd they probe up your ass, stumpy? Who’s side are you on?!” 

“I don’t know! I don't know, dammit! Be quiet for a moment and I’ll sort that out here and now!” 

Finally got what I wanted for a change. “I have been nearly skinned alive, crushed by a Commissar, grounded to meat in a canned transport and shot up numerous times no thanks to you.” “Fuck you, stumpy!” “I said QUIET.” I look straight at the Tau girl. “I appreciate you saving me once, and I also appreciate that you haven’t purposefully tried to get me killed.” I look back to Brutus. “But my allegiance is with the Imperium…Or, at least I thought it was until they tried killing me more than the aliens have.”

I keep it pointed right at her. “I don’t know what is going on. I’ve been dragged along so far, and I’m getting a little tired of being some blind pawn. So,” I look at them both. “Would somebody mind giving me the WHOLE story for a change, so maybe I can get an idea for who I should be fighting for?” The Tau girl looks at me. “Drop the pistol and come with us. I see you’re just as determined as one of our own and I’ll honor that determination. We’ll enlighten you. ” I look at her with slanted brow, keeping a tight grip. “I’m being serious. I don’t want to be some stupid tool.” She nods. “I know.”

I finally exhale and drop the gun.


----------



## Levendus

It's nice to see someone giving an intelligent, constructive criticism on the Internet, and the other person maturely taking it on board.

Threw me off for a second ! 

Keep it coming bro, loving the story. Let the creativity flow!


----------



## C'Tan Chimera

It was a slow walk back from the middle of nowhere, but I wasn’t in a hurry as the Tau girl finally gave me all the information I had been yearning for since touchdown on the planet. I don’t even know where to start and where to end with all of this. 

They lied to us outright. This planet isn’t called Primaris Beta. It’s actually a moon called Ulacant VII that was knocked out of its parenting planet’s orbit during an Exterminatus run by the Inquisition. “Why exactly did they perform an exterminatus on Ulacant prime?” I asked her. “It’s your government, not ours. From the few encrypted records we have recovered from wrecks over the past several decades, it seems the planet was home to a recently established Space Marine chapter.” “And the chapter itself?” “Omitted completely from the data. Control of information is widespread among cultures; it is even a necessary evil in our own proud civilization. The Water Caste has never seen a cover-up as massive as this one, though. Your Imperium is truly superstitious to blank the fate of an entire system out just to prevent rumors or worse, the truth.”

As it went on, this moon’s recent history was spelled out. This planet…moon…whatever, this _satellite_ was never supposed to be discovered. It was, though. The Tau found it on one of their many expeditions. Somewhere over the course of several centuries, Ulacant VII got caught within the orbit of the planet Telan Prime. 

That planet was considered a dead world with a gaseous environment too toxic for even a heavily adapted race like the Krieg Death Korps, so the Imperium neglected any attention to it. So it wasn’t until the Tau noticed the strange new moon and set up a primarily ‘Earth Caste’ based colony, as she put it, that the Imperium went in to investigate. I was part of that initial investigation. 

From what she’s told me, the Tau were initially unaware of these Necrons. When they did reveal themselves in one of their raids, it had ended in a ghastly death toll for the previously minimally garrisoned colony. That’s when the ‘Fire Caste’ was sent in and a platoon of ‘Pathfinders’ and her stealthsuits were charged with mapping out their patterns to allow easier eradication for the ‘Cadre’. 

“Then your Guard platoon showed up and that plan fell apart. “ She grunts. “Well hey, I had no say in dicking your plans over.” I throw back at her. “So where exactly is your kadra-“ “Cadre.” “_Cadre_, right. Where exactly is the cadre?” She glances over. “I apologize, but I mustn’t disclose that sort of information.” Damn. “My name is Shas’ui Dal'yth Mon’ta, by the way.” DAMN. “You really got tired of being called Grayskin, huh…Is that a first name or what?” She laughed, or at least what passed for one. “You may feel free to call me Dal, then. And yes, I did. Do I get the privilege of calling you something other than Gue’la?” Sarcasm meter was going off the charts. “You saved my ass twice, I guess that’s grounds of merit for an alien. The name’s Derrek.” She nods and says nothing. 

I was going to say something, but I notice the slightly too familiar shape of the growth-strangled temple ahead of us. I find myself glancing, well, nervously over my shoulder. A group of maybe 5 or 6 Tau soldiers followed behind us, including the one I had butted heads with once or twice in the transport. They had Brutus and two other guardsmen in their escort, while the two remaining stealthsuits followed with some distance on either flank. I suddenly have a squirming urge to be in the middle. That would give the Dal chick a bad vibe, though. She only now got on my good side, and she’s offering up plenty of information to make it worth keeping her there. 

I pretend to be disinterested as we walk parallel to the structure’s walls. I’m seeing…No, feeling that horrid face from earlier. “We should probably speed up.” I say to Dal, who was basically in charge of the whole group. “Why should we do that?” I was afraid she’d ask me that. “I’m getting a bad vibe from that structure there.” She looks at me oddly. “Bad vibe?” I look back at her just as oddly. “You know, you get that wriggling feeling in your gut that something just isn’t right? Psykers and the like get it all the time, except they usually start screaming and flailing when that happens.” I think I’m only confusing her more and by this time it’s already behind us. 

The sounds start. I glance over my shoulder again and somewhat thankfully it seems the others have noticed it too. It started off sporadic, but now it’s getting pretty widespread. Rustling of the leaves and scraping sounds. I start seeing those Necrons wearing human skin again in my mind and I can feel my heart start to dance to its own beat. “Dal, why did you just give me a stump that won’t let me use a weapon?” I start walking a little faster and the Tau girl moves up irritably to keep pace. “We were in the middle of installing a prosthetic for you when you came to. Why?” Why? Take a fucking guess! “Well I’d kinda like to be able to defend my-‘ 

I can’t ignore the sounds anymore. I guess the others thought it was some noisy swarm of bugs, but I wasn’t fucking stupid. I turn around just in time for the scraping sounds to turn into a choir of screeching metal as a dozen- no, dozens…Oh Terra, over a hundred of one eyed machines come clambering from in and around the building behind us. Simplicity kicks in.

“HAUL ASS!”

Maybe it’s out of guilt or more greed, but I grab on to the Tau’s wrist to pull her forward with me as I burst out into running. Well, at least for the moment or two she let me before she broke the mutual hesitation. “I will NOT dishonor the Ta’Lissera!” I keep going for a second as I hear weapons fire erupt. I look behind to see the little things flow right around the others and… Beeline right for me_WHAT THE HELL_ 

No more thinking. Running, running. They’re shooting them but they keep going right after me. I look over again and see a –huge- version of one of the Necron bug things with lumbering arms and a crapload of eyes squirm free of the temple. 

It’s all a blur, all a blur I don’t get what it is I’ve done but I’ve pissed something off. More meters fly underneath my feet and those damn things aren’t making a sound except the sound of shuffling metal. It’s like if someone just kept rattling a huge sheet of chainmail or something gaaah I don’t want to think about it.

An explosion of dirt and smoke blossoms in front of me and then another. I hear voices shouting in gothic. Guardsmen? Should I be happy? Laslights flicker by me. No, I shouldn’t be happy- I think they’re firing at me? Or is it the bugs? Fuck it, I don’t care! 

I turn sharp to the right and keep running, leading the metal swarm purposefully into the explosions. I hear plenty of crunching metal but keep going. Over the logs, under the vines, past the bogs, it’s all one movement to me. I can see the group coming back into view again just in time to see the spider Necron thing go down with a shot from the same gun the one suit used to down those sentinels earlier. The thing is absolutely splattered in blue stuff that I’m going to assume is Tau guts, though. It looks like a handful of the Tau soldiers and the two guardsmen survived, but I can see several corpses. The thing sinks to the ground and stops moving. More fire coming from behind now. 

I stumble back into the group, only to get pulled behind a huge, black gnarled tree by Dal. “The evac is on its way! Stay tight, we almost got those things!” Another explosion lands nearby, definitely mortar shells. “Guardsmen! Guardsmen coming!” Is all I manage to blubber. A more serious look spreads on her face. “Regroup with the others! I’ll direct my comrades from the flank!” I look at her like she’s apeshit. “I don’t have a weapon! I DON’T EVEN HAVE A FUCKING ARM TO HOLD ONE WITH” She glares hard at me and I’m stunned by it- I could have sworn these things were hippies. “That was an order and you -are- playing by my rules!” She shouts. 

I turn and run for the others. They’ve managed to somehow prop up the corpse of the giant spider as cover. I throw myself into it prone and feel the splatter of mud and something a little nastier. A hand grips me and pulls me up- I’m staring at a Tau helmet. “Remember me, Gue’la?” Oh crap, that guy. “I presume you’re trained thoroughly enough to be ambidextrous with weapons?” I shake my head and get a pause of disbelief. “Well mon’tau take it, use this.” He thrusts a small weapon into my hands, dinky in comparison to the heat the others were packing. But hell, it is a weapon. I fumble to find the trigger, but I do. 

The –piff- of lasgun rounds grows louder, but the mortars have stopped. My guess is that Dal and her friends took care of them. It’s just me, Brutus, that one other guardsman and 3 Tau now. I can hear the enemy guardsmen voices growing louder. “This is fucking bollocks! Why the hell are my own mates shooting at me?!” Brutus barks. “This is all your fault, Stumpy!” He sneers. “Well guess what? Bitching ain’t gonna help!” I shout back. He shakes his head. “It sure don’t, but damn it feels good!” He pops out of cover from the left and takes a couple shots with his pistol. I lean out from the right and do likewise, bracing my left wrist with what little remains of my right arm. 

The green guy next to me, I’ll call him Bob for now, stops speaking in Tau talk. “The sergeant is in sight! Aim for the ringleader!” Brutus spits. “I don’t play toy soldiers with Xeno!” He looks over briefly. “You want to get out of this alive? Then by the Greater Good, I strongly recommend you PLAY ALONG.” 

I shake off the screams from the enemy and sound of energy projectiles trading space. THIS is what I was trained to handle. I aim for the decorated officer wielding a chainsword. I can pick him out at the front and can read his intentions- to charge into close range assault. There’s five or so of us and fifteen of them. Not good. I squeeze off a shot and curse as it flies way off course, burning a tree nearby. I fire again, this time the shot skims by him and I got his attention. I was trained to kill xeno beasts and heretic scum, though. Not other guardsmen. I see him look in my general direction and see the look of shock on his face as he makes the connection a fellow guardsman is shooting at him. Men around him are dying, but I hear a grenade go off nearby, injuring one of the Tau next to me. 

The sarge is distracted. I’m pretty sure I got my aim right now because they always said the third time is a charm. But he’s just like me, isn’t he? A human in service of the Guard, fighting for what’s best for the Imperium? I’m feeling hesitation weigh deep in my gut, even with the kill or be killed mindset pouring in my blood. 

I can’t do it.

I can do it.

I just don’t want to.

I gotta do it.

I do it. 

The finger goes tight against the trigger and I watch as the blue sphere collides head on with the sergeant’s neck. It eats right through his jaw and neck, exposing all its inner, broken workings. His face is blank with seared disfigurement, but he stares wildly at me before collapsing. I feel bile rising in my throat as if reaction to seeing another like itself opened wide. I see more guardsmen piling in behind him, even as Dal’s squad fire cuts in through their side. I need to keep firing, but I can’t.

Suddenly I’m knocked to the side as my ‘cover’ rocks itself free of the soil and floats up. The enemy guardsmen hesitate, but so do we. I feel my guts twist further with the belittling sound of groaning metal. The spider beast knocks my friends back far enough that I can’t see them anymore. Then something worse. I’m overcome with a heaving feeling and the quake of the earth itself straining. The same crumbling sounds I heard before erupt much louder now. I glance over to the left.

The temple is pulling itself free of the ground. It’s floating above the ground. The door I saw earlier grinds open, and I find myself starring into an emerald abyss. I can feel the face again but this time it can feel me too. I know it. It spreads out of nothingness. An inverted star blossoms and a thousand planes sprout out of a spiral within it. Giant skeletons of steel stride forth as though they were made of liquid, materializing out of grid wire. I hear the crackle of thunder. I feel a hand grip me and shouting. Even as I’m being dragged away, I feel hypnotized by the afterimage. The guardsmen aren’t shooting at us anymore, and I’m pretty sure I’m getting hauled to evac. That doesn’t matter to me now, though.

I’ve taken the life of one of my own. I’ve glimpsed a world under my skin far deeper than any material body could hold. 

Now I know I'm a traitor _and_ a heretic.

Whatever was left of the Emperor inside me withers and dies.


----------



## TheSpore

this dude is haveing one bad day


----------



## C'Tan Chimera

I’m sitting inside of what they call an “Orca” . Dal is beside me along with the few other Tau survivors. Brutus and the other Imperial sit across from me, trying to act like I don’t exist. It’s understandable why. Not only have I fucked things up for myself, but I’ve dragged them into it as well. It’s really the first time in a long 48 hours that things have been genuinely calm, but it’s too late. I get up and walk near the exit ramp and lean my head against it, just trying to take it all in.

I can’t say I miss the life of being a guardsman. I was never particularly liked for reasons I can understand, but that’s not the point. It’s such a big universe, and I feel so small. There’s nothing like a trial by fire to humble oneself. There are no tears, but I feel gutted. I can feel the others stewing in things like anger or anxiety, but I am the only one who feels…Severed. The pride, the prejudice… It’s all gone. It’s not the loss, it’s the realization. I’m a speck of sand at the bottom of the infinite obsidian ocean, and I’ve seen monsters of much bigger importance. Without the illusion of brotherhood, this rejection makes me realize how much larger everything is. The Imperium is massive, but this… The Imperium, my race… Those Necrons… The vastness of it all…

A hand touches my shoulder. The revulsion I felt from such a touch earlier is gone, only mere apathy. I hear Dal’s voice.

“I know that feeling, Derrek. I have seen it many times before. So many others of your kind have acted this way after they gave in.”

“Don’t give me that propaganda shit.” I try to pretend I don’t notice the sobbing in my voice. 

“It’s not propaganda. “

“Than what is it, grayskin broad?” I hear Brutus grunt nearby. Her grip only tightens on my shoulder. “It’s the realization that maybe you ought to shut it because it only further pollutes your kind’s popularity among us.” She hisses at him, not me. Her voice soothes again. “Derrek, we are all too small to be of such importance. Don’t feel shame for taking the path many others before you have traveled.” I glance over and stand back up. I look at Brutus, right in the eyes. 

“I wish I could go back. I wish I could just rewind it a bit back and try it again.” He looks back, cross but listening. “I know I can’t, though, Brutus. Today my actions have spoken far louder than my words ever would have.”They’re all looking at me now, and I just keep going.

“Don’t think for one damn minute I’ve forgotten the plight of our kind, both of you. Today I’ve acted on survival, not proverbs or primers or assignments, nothing. So far most of this has remained far beyond my control, but I am not blind. There are bigger things out there, far bigger than any personal glory or imperial glory or whatever other chickenshit they’ve forced down our throats.”

He interjects. “So what’s the diddly then? How are a couple of hooligans like ourselves to do when these aliens and heretics want to take away everything that made us what we are?”

“We quit it. We quit the bullshit. Don’t tell me you’ve never thought ‘oh man, that there is bullshit?’ .I am fucking tired of just sitting around acting like everything is fine the way it is. This wasn’t some big planned ‘fuck you’ for not promoting me or some elaborate scheme to bring ruin to my own people! I have abandoned my fellow men, I have fought you and my own brothers not because I have rejected them, but because I know this isn’t what’s right! Moreover, I’ve fought you and my brothers because YOU are the ones who have struck first! That isn’t right!”

I press my finger against him and he aggressively shoves me away, only to be right back in his face. “ I’m fucking tired of being a pawn. I’m fucking tired of the nagging uncertainty. I ain’t telling you what’s right because fuckall if I did somehow think I had the answer, but I sure as hell will say that I’ve made choices today, and this shithole of a galaxy is sad enough without having to go around regretting everything as though maybe the Emperor or Machine God or the grand fuckin’ wazoo might take me back to times where I was more happy!”

I’m becoming aware of how immediate and steady my downpour of words has been; unceasing and loud. “It’s –not- heresy for finally seeing that something is horribly wrong, and I will NOT repent having done no wrong. The only wrong I know for sure is the realization that the only thing more fucked up than betraying my own kind is that the only thing that made us unified in the first place was the priests explaining that the old ways dictated by a long dead man are what’s best for us and the guns at the back of our heads telling us that we didn’t have a say in it!” 

I can feel his breath now. My eyes are meeting with his. Am I really in his face? I take a few steps back, but I do not break eye contact.

“…THAT is heresy. Times change and the ways of such times change as well. The combination of stupidity and tenacity that once was strength is going to fuck our brotherhood of Man over more than any compromise in ‘sacred’ doctrine ever will.”

I look around at everyone, silent the whole time. I walk back to my spot on the benches and sit back down. Brutus looks away from me, but I see him take his helmet off. The relatively silent guardsman next to him does likewise.

“Judge me all you want. Go ahead and think that it makes a difference. Judge me with words, with brandings, with weapons- it doesn’t make an ounce of difference because it doesn’t feel bad anymore. “

Brutus takes one a look at the Imperial insignia on it, closes his eyes, breathes in and puts it back on. The guardsman next to him does the same, but with a heavy sigh he puts it down on the floor, the front symbol facing away from him. Brutus watches it, closing his eyes tight this time and looks to the ground. He reluctantly grumbles "I gotta respect a man who has a pair big enough to let his gob run true like that." 

I’m not too sure what to make of Dal’s smile of approval.


----------



## Todeswind

The grammar issues from your previous chapters have been pretty much avoided in this newest one, good job .


----------



## Ambush Beast

*wow*

WOW. I read this story in one giant sweep, only stopping long enough to warm my fish-sticks up in the microwave and, by the way they were good.

After the critique from our brother about tenses, past and present, and the examples he noted, I noted that he had done the same thing to a few of my stories. he is right though. But it was not a distraction to me. 

The story flowed very well. the action was exolent, the plot was mezmorizing and the emotion was understandable. I really enjoyed the read. It was a lot o-work that I hope is rewarded well in the near future. 

Adrian :goodpost:


----------



## C'Tan Chimera

Thanks, guys! It's still far from done, however. I'm not going to drag it on, but I have had this tale well planned in advance.

---------------

“Will you walk alongside me in the superiority that is the Greater Good? I’ve seen who you are and I know your presence will mean great things for our whole being.” 

“Only If I finally get to know everything that has been happening. I also want my new arm. Then I’m in. I’ve got nothing left to lose, anyway. “ 

“Understood. I will happily enlighten you. Meet me in the barracks- I am able to operate with much more freedom from protocols than most other units, so you should be good.” 

As soon as the Orca doors unfold, everyone splits. The Tau soldiers went off in one direction, while Brutus and the other Imperial were lead elsewhere by an exceptionally tall Tau woman in robes accompanied by two other soldiers. As I walked down, I saw her look around expectantly at me, but Dal starts talking in her alien talk and the two seem to come to a pleasant understanding. With that, we were off. 

I know this would bore you if I went over the sheer sensory overload I’m feeling right now walking in this Tau outpost, so I won’t. Let’s just say there’s something strangely reassuring about this place. It was as busy as any Imperial bunker, but there was something different here. The sensation of cold, grim efficiency was lost with the gothic architecture, replaced with positive uncertainty that came with the smooth, high tech feeling. They can complain about techno-heresy all they want, but I bet you a Techpriest would get a metallic hard-on in this place. There have been plenty of Tau running about, but there have been many more as well. I’m spotting the occasional flying bug around here. I’m not exactly enthralled, a lot of these other races the Tau befriended are as ugly as any Ork you might here about on off-duty. 

Everything about the place is catching me off guard. It is all clean, pristine, compacted and smoothed. I don’t feel comfortable here, but then again I never felt comfortable on my own home world either. At least here I didn’t have to worry about being killed by these guys, so it’s a little better. I’m seeing a lot of similar soldiers now, all with their helmets off. I don’t hang around to investigate despite getting plenty of strange glances myself because I’m trying to keep up with Dal. Everyone once in awhile she tells a wayward group of soldiers off in her language and they move on.

Finally she turns round a bend to a wall line front and back with circular doors. She waves her hand across one, and some weird looking interface appears on the door. She punches in a few buttons, and I hear what sounds like an entire mass rotating from behind the doors. After a few seconds of waiting, the door slides open and she walks in. I follow. 

It’s not a bad place at all compared to the bunker bed I had back on that barge. A decent 15 feet or so all around. I’m not going to bother trying to explain the furnishings because hell if I know how the slightest bit of how Tau culture works. There’s some kind of ceremonial rack on the farthest wall over what I assume is the bed/pod thingy. Got some sort of seating, a bite-sized personal mess hall, the whole nine yards I know I’d never cover in the Imperium.

“So,” she says. “You want to know what I know.” I nod. “We’ll get your arm taken care of on the way out, but down to business.” She beckoned I sit, so I do. It’s trivial, but this thing feels frickin’ weird to a human. She goes off around the room, setting doohickeys up here and there.

“The Necron raids weren’t entirely unforeseen. Pathfinders came across the peaks of Necropolises all throughout the ravines, fissures and gorges scarring a lot of the outer jungles. The Earth Caste was eager to investigate further, but we had asked them to refrain until proper support from the Fire Caste would be on standby in the event something did go the way of the Mon’tau- and of course, it did.” She undoes a lot of the strange cosmetic pieces on her hair, allowing it to unravel. I may have ditched the Imperium’s mainstream attitude, but I was a little bothered at how I could feel myself admire her looks…Fuck, am I seriously thinking this? I always knew garrisoning the female guardsmen from the males was a dumb fucking idea for a so called group terrified at the idea of xenophillia. 

“-…And once we did stabilize the small scale threats, the Earth Caste was free to set to work on what little we did recover. My teams did a lot of work charting the ruins for garrison. Of course, it didn’t help much. ”

I pretend to act like I caught all of it, nodding it off. Here I am, whining about how I want the truth and I’m playing second-best to my junk. I wipe my mind and ask a more important question. One important to me, at least. 
“The hell is your intentions with all this technology, anyway?”

“Advancement of our already superior fire technology, of course. The Earth Caste is also immersed in the fantasy of making vehicle plating that self repairs as well. Things got more complicated as we went farther in, however.” Really now? I hope so because I could use something to take my mind off rapidly growing heretical thoughts. “What do you mean? I just want to know what the hell we’re trying to accomplish here.”

“Our expedition teams found something far more amazing then the mere automatons littering the rest of the catacombs. Hybrids.” I paused. “What do you mean. Like bionics?” She blinked at me. “Perhaps, yes. Except far more extensive. They were like…Corpses. Mummified vessels encased in armor. We tried to recover some for in-depth review, but I guess we had pressed too far. I watched on monitor as they were overwhelmed by the mass revival of mechanical creatures.” I’d look down on them now, but chances are if they hadn’t wakened the things up first, we probably would have. “So…What is this now? Just an evacuation, a retaliation, what?”

She did what I guess passes for a shrug. “Even I’m not sure. The Ethereal’s will is not something for us to ponder. I just know they still want a specimen for examination.” I’m getting that weird feeling again. Something is about to happen and I’m not going to like it. “ We’re going down there. Aren’t we?” 
She’s nodding far too optimistically for my liking. “Yes! It’s a great honor to personally serve the Ethereal’s agenda, and that’s why I’m taking you along.” Suddenly she sits down next to me. I never really looked at her before without that xenophobic mindset. Her solid violet eyes seem blank, but the expressions in her face and the tones in her voice express so much more. It’s so fucking weird, but I like it… Am I still seriously stuck on this? Think Imperial prejudice, think prejudice, think – aaw hell this ain’t working!

“Derrek, you’ve shown so many traits that we hold in highest regard here. Whether or not you realize it, I see great things in your future within this Empire. I want them to know this.” Suddenly she hands me some sort of card thing with holographic… Tau number thingies on them. “What is this?” She smiles and I try to glance away. “It’s an ID. We can get you processed with the other Gue’vesa later, but we don’t have a lot of time before the mission. With this we can get you suited up –and- give you a new arm.” I brightened up at that- I was afraid I was going to have to learn to be left handed at this point. Oh man, it would be freakin’ amazing if I got something like a power fist! If I ever got in a scuffle with loyalist guardsmen…Listen to myself. Loyalist? I’m talking like a Chaos cultist. The hell is happening to me?

“Derrek, you’re spacing out.”

Whoops. “…Sorry about that. What else?”

“A lot has unfolded during this past day. The Imperial Guardsmen have already touched down in your initial landing zone and set up heavy fortifications over the gorge. If we don’t overtake them now, they might build up an encampment that would require so much more to take. You’ll start out with the other human auxiliaries and fellow Firewarriors. I’ve personally assigned you into the same mixed squadron with Santh so you have a familiar ally to work with.” Santh? I guess she means ‘Bob’ ? 

Suddenly she forces me to look at her. By the throne, this is too uncomfortable for me. “Derrek, I’m not stupid. Here in the Empire we don’t focus on the self, so suspend your interest.” Wait what?! I’m not that obvious!...Am I? If he isn’t already dead, the Emperor is probably writhing around in his throne right now. If he is dead, he probably is writhing anyway. 

“Derrek!” 

“Sorry, sorry.”

“There will be time for that later- but here you have to set your personal interests aside. Once you’ve helped the Empire and shown your devotion you may be free to get to know me more. As of right now though, you’re just a Gue’vesa under my watch so for the sake of your Emperor or whatever, act like it.”

“Right. Sorry again.” She smiled again- I think she’s fucking with me or something. “Good. You will have time to atone and do much more in the coming hunt. You will pass your trial by fire, and then when my teams have brought down the advanced fortifications, you will break off with them and join my group.” She looks at me again. "There will be time for rest later. For now, it's time to get you acquainted with your future within the fire caste. Let's get you suited up."

She yanks me up and suddenly I’m following her out.


----------



## C'Tan Chimera

*Phase 3: Acceptance 
*
She’s suiting up in a nearby barracks chamber. I’m in here with a couple other humans, but also in the company of a huge Tau. Limbs almost as thick as tree trunks and covered in bionics and robes. One of the Earth Caste, apparently. The humans are curious as to what’s going on in my case, although I’m not sure as to why. They keep their direct attention diverted though, so it’s just me and this mammoth of a Tau. How could the same species have members as thin as willows and then guys as massive as this? He turns to me.

“I would formally introduce you, but I know you’re a fresh convert. So I’ll just make it easy for us both- you may call me Baris. You’ll probably be seeing me a few times in the future with this prosthetic being an experimental prototype and all, but that’s no trouble. “ Okay, sure. So long as it doesn’t explode on me like some Imperial gear would.

Several drones adjoined together move in from behind, producing a case from within their capsules. Baris beckons me to the nearby benches and I oblige. I take one last look at my stump and the ‘outlet’. The two drones expose the prosthetic hand. Baris looks to me. “Hold out your arm if you may.” I nod and do so. The two drones pivot and twirl like two gracious insects, trying to get the mechanical arm positioned properly before they push it into place. I watch, transfixed.

Baris pulls back a panel on the rim and begins tapping buttons with a device attached to his far too large fingers. I’m not feeling anything weird as the two drones plug in and Baris fidgets more, mumbling quietly in his language. I hear a few beeps, and suddenly a warm current moves through me. If that phantom limb syndrome some of the vets talked about was weird, then this is just flat out nuts. I had almost gotten used to the empty feeling, the lack of communication. And now I feel not just like an arm magically materialized into my very being, but it’s…Adjoining to me. 

For a few brief seconds, I feel as though I’m merging with a separate being. A sort of unison… Mesmerizing.

Another two beeps and Baris stands up. The sensation is gone, and suddenly I feel as though nothing ever happened. More still, I feel like it’s actually part of me. Many of the soldiers with prosthetics on the barge complained how they had to consciously operate it for a good deal, but this…Well, it’s a horrible pun, but it fits like a glove. 

I look at it while the drones remove themselves. It’s sleek and skeletal. I run my actual hand across it, and it feels bizarre. I feel the warmth of my hand, but my hand feels the cold of the metal… I could prod this thing all day if they let me. I look across it. The place where it couples with my actual arm is encased in a shell bristling with an interface system. The outer part of the forearm is plated in that iconic Tau ‘carapace’ of multi-layers. 

I clasp my new hand and feel the squeeze. It’s the size of a regular arm, but I can feel all the potential strength of a powerfist that I dare not test here. I feel my ‘fingers’ and curl them. Same digits as my other, but heavily coiled. That Tau emblem rests on the back of the hand, a constant reminder as to who gave it to me. 

“Do you like it?” I hear Baris say with all the eager that I imagine would come from a scientist. I continue to look it up and down. “Anything is better than having a no arm- thank you. How strong is this thing?” He smiles, a little different from the way Dal does, though. This looks more like pride. “It has all the neural capacity as an organic limb, but retains the mechanical efficiency of any machine. Should you will it, you could hold on with a death grip. I nodded, a grin unfurling across my face. “I like it. Yeah.”

He nodded joyously in agreement. “I have to say, I’m delighted at how far this experimental technology has gone with us these past few months. Who would have thought we could have harnessed something so ancient and indecipherable so quickly?” 

Wait, what does he mean by that?

“Pardon, sir, but what do you mean? What kind of technology?” He blinks, almost as if hesitating for a moment before his self-assured smile returned. 

“We have been working with the various materials we have recovered from the few successful expeditions we embarked on in the Necropolises down below. Most somehow managed to dematerialize altogether even under heavy watch, but these few we scraps we recovered from the hybrids during the battle did not. They’ve been invaluable to glimpsing how the unfathomable is in fact fathomable!”

I feel my blood go cold for a moment. I look at the hand. “What do you mean recovered? You’re not telling me you just cut and welded a Necron’s arm to my own…Right?” I feel a scratching feeling within my gut.

“No, the shell and mechanics are all made by us. However, we did go to a great deal of harvesting the unique binary wiring and neural adapters bundled together within their infrastructure. We hope that after your initial trial we can get some feedback by logging all the data it processes during your use. Once we figure out how exactly it achieves that harmony between flesh and machine, we’ll have hit a whole astral mine of opportunity to develop technologies in the name of the Greater Good!”

That doesn't help. I can feel an itching within my new arm now. A splinter, a conscious splinter belonging elsewhere. I have a part of a Necron inside me, and it feels right at home. I want to tell him to take it off of me. I want to get rid of it. But I think I realized earlier with that weird feeling that this…Machine was uniting with me. I have already accepted it into my body, and it accepts me in its own. To reject it now would bring something upon me, and I’ve had enough of provoking this stuff. 

I’m in a mutual relationship with an ancient autonomous entity. I don't feel it's presence so much as I know it can feel me. I wonder if Baris had ever thought on how fucking creepy this might turn out. 

“We have time to marvel at this achievement later, Gue’vesa. I know the Shas’La wants you to prepare alongside her for the coming operation. I will not hold you any further.” He takes a step back, bows his head and holds his arm out. 

I get up and shuffle towards the lockers with the rest of the humans, trying not to think about my new arm. I pay no heed to the other humans and they do likewise. I don’t mind that with this twist of events. Holding up the keypad Dal had given me earlier, I look at it for a long moment before looking up and down the various capsule locker things lining the halls. After another moment, my game of mismatching came to fruition as I spot numerous identical symbols.

I examine it till I find what looks like some kind of slot and swipe at it till’ I get it, and the thing clicks open. As it slides apart, a grin spread across my face as I get a gander of the armor within. This wasn’t a pair of fatigues with a flak vest. THIS was armor. It looks almost like Kasrkin carapace armor, but smoother and with more of those Tau styles. And a helmet! By the throne, an actual full blown helmet! 

Without another word, I dig into the suit. For the first time since completing boot camp, I’m feeling badass, and this new hand would get used to the idea that it was mine now. Once I finish, I take one last look, swelling with an excitement I had not enjoyed in a long time. I’m ready to roll.

I turn around and bolt for the loading docks.


----------



## Nave Senrag

Is the suit custom made for him? For instance does it leave an open space where his new arm goes? If not won't he crush the hand of the armor when he tries to punch/grab anyone?


----------



## C'Tan Chimera

Nah, he just didn't bother to put one of the gloves on. I basically went with a more mainstream idea of the Gue'vesa suits which is a modded version of the Kasrkin armor with things like the Fire Warrior shoulder pads, backpacks and various equipment integrated into them. Although between you and I, if I was the guy in charge I'd make them suit up to look like those guys from Killzone, except slightly less...evil looking. :grin:

College work is picking up again and I got to also contend with fixing up a couple dozen job applications. Pair that with the next chapter being a full blown battle, and it might take a day or two to get it out there so bear with me!


----------



## Nave Senrag

C'Tan Chimera said:


> Nah, he just didn't bother to put one of the gloves on. I basically went with a more mainstream idea of the Gue'vesa suits which is a modded version of the Kasrkin armor with things like the Fire Warrior shoulder pads, backpacks and various equipment integrated into them. Although between you and I, if I was the guy in charge I'd make them suit up to look like those guys from Killzone, except slightly less...evil looking. :grin:
> 
> College work is picking up again and I got to also contend with fixing up a couple dozen job applications. Pair that with the next chapter being a full blown battle, and it might take a day or two to get it out there so bear with me!


Good luck, I love the story so far. Too bad I haven't seen the pictures of human auxillaries since GW decided to neuter their site.


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## C'Tan Chimera

Nave Senrag said:


> Good luck, I love the story so far. Too bad I haven't seen the pictures of human auxillaries since GW decided to neuter their site.


Thank you! But there's no actual 'canon' auxiliary models, it varies from person to person. They're a great deal of fun to experiment around with, I myself have a few, but I won't post any references so it leaves more of it to the imagination. Interpretation is always more fun.


----------



## Kaiden

I just found this story and read it all, it's fantastic. I really like the overly mortal perspective of a guardsmen, and how you have written the Tau. 

Looking forward to more mate


----------



## C'Tan Chimera

It’s only been a few hours, but here I am again, once more boarding an Orca. The loading docks are even busier this time around. The various castes are scuttling about, multiple Orca dropships come in quickly and leave just as fast.

As I approach the ramp, I feel dwarfed as I look into the vehicle and see how loaded this one is in comparison to my earlier ride. A –giant- mech thing looks down at me, tucked away inside. I do not look away, but I can feel the sheer sense of pride radiating from it and I’m reminded I’m still just a grunt. As always. I step to its side and sit down next to other Tau soldiers. One last soldier follows me in, this time not wearing a helmet, his face scarred and leaving his hair to trail behind him. Immediately the doors shut and this time the pilots farther up are speaking in gothic.

“Okay Gue’vesa and Shas’ La alike, we’ll be coming in hot in 5 or so.”

The one Tau looks to us. “Okay shas’la, helmets off.” Immedaitely everyone removes their helmet and I do likewise- I’m shocked as I see many of these soldiers are humans too. In fact, it was a near solid 50/50 ratio. I realize this guy must be our sarge, or whatever the Tau equivalent of one is. “I know many of you are experienced in our craft, but some of you are new, having yet to even pass their trials. So let me tell you this.” He looks directly at me.

“I know you come from Imperial doctrine. Set all that aside, now. We do not have the untold trillions your race has- we are the proud and we are the few. Every life is significant here, and I want you to remember that. The Imperial generals would have you sent into battle as nothing more than meat to clog the grinder with your pulp. I am altogether baffled as to how so many of your kind believe this is proper, but today I shall prove to you otherwise. “
He pauses. I hear a grunt in the background and the image of Brutus immediately comes to mind. 

“Make no mistake however. We are not pacifists like our breezy charm counterparts within the Water caste. We are not sent in to continue talks with these people, we are sent in to resolve their inevitable fiascos!” A few chuckles throughout the interior. 

“… Unless you consider the brute Imperialistic violence a misguided language in itself, then we are not negotiators. If you do think it is, then we are here to speak to them fluently with their native tongues. Those that know no reason are not beings in the standards our most noble Aun’va deems necessary to bring a new age of prosperity to this galaxy. You may offer him truce, but if your opponent does not yield, than his intentions are clear, and yours as well. “

The pilot chimes in again. “ Approaching the combat zone, estimated 2. “The sarge picked his helmet up. 

“ For those who come to accept that their ways may be of error, take him in as a brother in the name of the Greater Good. Those that do not are the pollutant- so make an example of him so that his fellowship might know their mistakes and correct them. We do not strike first, but when we are struck, we respond with the swift ferocity of Mont’ka and Kau’yon alike. They have already attacked our diplomatic convoy, so it is clear.”

One of the suits speaks up. I expect the deep vox growl akin to those of Space Marines, but it comes out smooth and commanding. 

“He is right, shas’la. Those that slay our comrades for no respectable reason other than ‘For the Emperor!’ may die with it on their lips. “ A few cheer, but I notice most of the humans can only manage a chuckles. I can make Brutus out across from me, merely rolling his eyes. 

“Prepare for touchdown. “

I could feel the force now. Even some sounds faintly reverberating off the walls. One of the guys across from me looks my way. Powerful build, bald- the sort of face you’d expect from a Marine, except he had Tau symbols tattooed on his cheek bones. “Trust me, if there was any side you would want to be on in a battle, it’s here. Just play it cool and stick close, you’ll come out fine.” A more average built guy next to him nodded. “He’s not fucking with you- I owe Terrance here a few.” A couple more nodded, some with smiles, others with mere contempt. I glanced Bob- well, Dal had called him Santh or something- and he gestured back at me.

“Prepare for drop off, comrades. In 10…”

The Sarge quickly puts his helmet on, the others doing likewise. I briefly fumble to get mine working, with my suit being different from most others. I have yet to figure out if this is a good or bad thing. The sarge takes a sidestep and grabs hold of a guard rail, everyone else standing up as well. 

“Okay Shas’la! The goal is simple! Secure this end of the Imperial named ‘Old Pious’ bridge and hold it so the Earth Caste can get defenses rigged for the coming siege! Do not worry about their fortress guns- heavy support IS on the way! Provide covering fire so the Orcas can safely deploy our Crisis squadrons!”

The door glides open, and I can see as we begun our landing that we have a long fight ahead of us. Within three days, the Imperial reinforcements had turned the dead, crumbling ruins into a City of Death. Blue and orange beams streak across the fog-choked landscape, and the sounds of artillery give me the impression of thunder in the thick of a storm. 

I try not to give too much thought to the Imperial fortress that has been so quickly erected, but it looms overhead like a lurching father, angered at my foolish disownment. I put my visor down and took in a deep breath through the filters. You can either run from your fears forever, or you may face them down. 

I’ve made my choices, and I'm tired of running.


----------



## C'Tan Chimera

We didn’t even wait to land. I followed along as Terrance, Santh and the others jumped from the ramp a good 7 or so feet onto the ground. I suppose it should have hurt, but after feeling the hot burst of flesh when your arm is crushed, not much else could compete. The Tau have done a lot with this suit- the visors aren’t fogging whatsoever and it gives me a clear view of my all too familiar surroundings. This is the same building where those Necrons first attacked. I tried not to think about them. 

Across the huge chasm veiled in the red fog, I could make out the fort looming in the distance. Bastions. Many, many bastions littered the other edge. Through the Aegis defense lines I could see the shapes of guardsmen, the enemy. Far off in the back I could make out far heavier turrets and several satellites. There was some autocannon fire, but at this range everything they had was extremely inaccurate. Still, I knew this was merely the coming before the storm. I knew how these guys worked.

The veterans in the squad moved more coherently, but a lot of the “gue’vesa” as they called us followed closely in tow. Ahead, the leader of another Tau squad met up with ours and exchanged unintelligible words while we moved. I grew aware of dozens upon dozens of drones, swarming around towering pylons doing all sorts of construction. The one I assumed was Terrance looked over to me as we moved. “Don’t be fooled- they may be robots but they are important as it gets in this situation!” I pick up the pace and get beside him. “Do you understand what they’re saying?” 

He nodded. “Somewhat, yeah. Been here for over a standard year and hell I’m still finding something to get used to every day!” I tried to play more interested. “What can you make of it then? My name is Derrek, by the way.” I can’t see his face under his helmet, but his tone makes up for it. “Terrance here- and don’t be giving me that name just because you think you’ll need someone to tell your lass back at home how you died.” I work a small chuckle, finding it a little troubling that I might die today and yet more troubling that I’m thinking of Dal at the mention. 

The sarge holds his arm up and the others stop, so naturally I do as well. “Listen now, it’s been mostly small-arms fire exchange so far, but once they figure out these things are turrets our drone workers are establishing, get ready to dig in. Air Caste is forewarning us of a lot of potential aerial activity, so keep an eye above. Thus it’s extremely vital we defend these drones so they can get the surface-to-air missile pod turrets up! Move into positions and hunker down! Once they’re up, we’re hopping into devilfish to cross the chasm. They thought to deprive us of an assault by blowing their sole bridge, but we are far craftier than that.” Oh man, did he ever have it wrong. A nagging little voice in the back of my head was whispering something frantically about the possibility of the grunt forces being uninformed about the Necrons. 

The area has gone into an uneasy cease fire. We entered the Tau bunker and loaded up on weapons regardless. I was handed what they called the Pulse Carbine. “Not as long rangered” Terrance pointed out to me, “but twice as powerful in the distance it does have. We may very well count on you if the misguided attempt to engage us in close quarters, which these guys hate.”

After several minutes of playing around with the gun- with no magazine, of course- I start to feel a little more comfortable with it. Terrance and I have beentalking a little, but suddenly I hear a sentry chirping. It first says it in the Tau language, and then gothic. “ Perimeter has been breached within 1.5 kilometers horizontal, 1 kilometer vertical.” Terrance nodded to me under his helmet. Well, this is it. They did strike first.

In a flurry of moments, I scramble to my feet while half the squad is already out the door. I fumble briefly with the gun before satisfied and follow Terrance out. Up ahead I can see Santh gesture that I follow up beside him and I oblige. My pulse is starting to flutter a little. I can hear a low wail and grip on tightly, hurriedly adjusting my helmet slightly. The sarge speaks unusually calmly, “Fan out in a tri-point spread- brace yourselves. Photons at the ready.” Closely mimicking the others, I take a few steps back so I’m 5 or so feet behind Santh and to the right of Terrance. The wail has built up into a loud groaning. I hear far off whistling. 

“Hatchet squadron has the right flank and 6 o’clock covered, all eyes straight ahead.” I can feel my heart pounding. I know these sounds. Fuck it, I’ll do what I do best.

“Sir, those are mortars! MORTARS!” He glances over. I nod. “Right, everyone go to groun-

The first explosion lands far off, but I see several soldiers knocked off their feet in the spray of dirt. More whistling. I tuck my carbine under my arm and drop to all fours. The shrapnel flies up in a conical blast, so unless you get hit directly, you should be safe. I don’t know if this is considered standard fire caste doctrine, but fuck it. “Terrance, you down?” “Damn right- not the bad down, of course.” I manage a dry laugh.

I can hear the pound of dirt and shower of earth. Then another. And another. The far off groan turns into full out blaring. I hear a human voice exclaim. “VALKERYIE DROP!” The sarge shouts back, “Everyone up! Prepare yourselves! Two men formations, pair up now!” 

I get to my knees like Terrance mentioned earlier and he got behind me, both of our weapons raised. Sure enough, the forms of what I once might have thought to be saviors now dipped down like vultures of impending despair. Don’t these only act as transports for Stormtroopers? I fight my urge to bolt, swallowing it deep even as those shuttles unloaded shots into us. I wince, bracing for pain as I hear the ground light up. I feel a punch to my chest and stagger- I’ve been shot! Instinctively I put my free hand all over the spot- no blood, nothing. Thank the Emperor for…Er…Tau armor. I snap back to attention as I hear the pop of a hatch. The sarge shouts. “Enemy deployment from the rear. Target priority- shoot to kill!”

Terrance and I both pivot in one sweeping motion, I standing up as he crouches down. Oh yes, those are stormtroopers. I can finally glance the Hatchet squad peeking through the wood, but I aim my sights on the troopers descending from the air. These toy soldiers as we called them had some fucking evil weaponry, stuff that can down a space marine. I’m not giving them the chance to find out. “Squad, fire!” The boss shouts.
I pick out the nearest trooper and unload. With a light click, I hear the air gasp as my gun unleashes a volley of blue power and promptly misses. Fuck! With a thump of their undoubtedly overwaxed boots, the enemy lands and levels their weapons. Do or die. Terrance opens up and I do the same in a volley of fire. I zone in on the nearest bug-eyed helmet head and he focuses on me. A shot hits him in the chest and he drops to one knee, but fires back, hitting Terrance. I hear him yell, but he stays up and curses. I fire again, missing wildly at first but finally hitting the masked man, throwing him to the ground. Smoke rises from his body. The group was thoroughly annihilated in those few seconds, but I can see we lost two of our own in comparison to their five. “Terrance, are you okay?” “No I am not okay, dipshit! I got nailed in the foot!” I wince. Nasty. “Hold strong, Gue’vesa’la Terrance!” The sarge shouts.

I hear the comms finally go on in my helmet. “Another two valkyries inbound from the North!” I can hear the far off whistle of more mortars. I yell out. “Sir uh, Shas’ui! What’s the estimate time for completion?!” “5 minutes if the mortars stay off course!” 

Terrance and I swap positions again in the same movement, this time I can hear him grunt as he stands up. “Aim for the back of the turbines as they drop the payloads, Shas’la!” 

The reports were off. There were 3 inbound. “Break off formations! Spread out into groups of 3 and head for cover- they seek to surround us!” The crack of the mortars nearby unnerves me, Terrance gets to his feet and Santh joins up. “Terrance! Derrek! To the outpost- we can garrison it!” Sounds like a plan. We bolt for the building as I hear the dull roar of the Valkyrie turbines swoop in. Shooting at us again, shit. I hear the suction of air and the sizzling of fire. I throw myself through the building door as I hear an explosion- I think somebody got a damned good shot in on the rear of the flyers. 

I prop myself near the door in case they try to storm it, being stormtroopers and all. Santh and Terrance take up positions in the windows. I glance out and see the smoldering wreck of a valkyrie, with its surviving cargo using it for cover. To the far left I can see another squad holding up in the trailed debris.

My comm chatters to life. “Shas’ui Pertor here, you got friendlies coming to hold up in the structure- provide covering fire.” The others got it too. Santh squeezes off rounds at the group taking shelter in the wreck, while Terrance fires at the other. I can see Tau scrambling towards us, hotshot fire landing dangerously close- I see one get struck in the back as the shot burns right through his front. Something inside me burns. “Terrance, you said this thing is a good suppressant?” “Yeah. What of it?” “Cover my ass!”

I don’t even wait. I hook around the doorway and storm into the killzone. I level my gun to my shoulder and scale the side of the building in a crouch, spraying a steady stream of fire into the toy soldiers cover. I always did hate those showoffs. It takes them a moment , but they catch on. The remaining two fire warriors run past me. “Go!” I heard one of them talk back. “We’ll provide you with cover!” “Fuck that, get moving!” Regardless, I heard a click and a strange, Tau-like grenade go rolling ahead. “Look away, gue’vesa!” I turn my head and wince before I hear a pop. Sure enough, even in my helmet with eyes shut I can feel the blinding light. I look back up to see some of the troopers dazed. Now was my chance. Gripping tight, I stormed further down the side of the building before taking up behind yet more wreck. I’m solely honed in on them. I know the others have the rest to deal with, so it’s just me and those guys.

I can hear the sound of more mortars now, but they’re far off from what I can see. The drones haphazardly work away, oblivious to the havoc around them- their work nearly completed. I can see the far off glory boys charging from their cover and I quickly realize what’s going on. I fumble and switch my comm on. “Shas’Ui! I think they got a demolitions expert! The two other squads are a diversion!” 

“What? You have confirmation?” I squint through the haze of the fog and smoke. Sure enough, one has dropped his weapon and picked up what was definitely a thermal charge. “Affirmative, sir!” “By the Mon’tau, stop them! “ Dammit, I put myself on the wrong side! “Terrance, Santh, this is Derrek. You got demomen coming in from the left attempting to destroy the turrets, you HAVE to get them!” “This is Santh. We can do that gue’vesa, but we need the fire from the right diverted.” “I can do that, just fuck ‘em up.” 

They seem to have forgotten about me, and I can see the Tau pouring out of the building to intercept the demolitions, despite the hailing mortars. The stormtroopers near me open up on them and I give them a moment to get all scoped in to their tunnel vision. I fidget around with my gun, cursing as I reload it for the fourth time or so in my life. After a moment, a hiss and refresh of the ammo counter leaves me waiting on yours truly. Guess we all gotta die somehow. 

I crouch low and rush in as quickly as possible, waiting until I can get in to the closest possible weakpoint. I find it through the shorn halves that was the cockpit. They’re all hunked down in the crater with the propped wing for cover. Cover from the front, yeah. Maybe it’s foolish, but I’m trusting Hatchet squad to keep the third group off my back if they notice. 

I fix my aim on the nearest guy and open up. It punches clear through his back. I trail my aim, streaming shots across the crater. I knock another back with a strayed shot, but the other two turn on me and return fire. I can feel the air heat with their blasts and quickly pull to the side. Their wicked bolts melt the already damaged metal. I can feel the magazine is half full, so I kneel, pivot and fire again. I sloppily aim across them and sure enough, the blasts send up enough earth that I actually end up driving several out of cover. The other one pulls out a bigass knife. Oh shit. He comes right for me. 

“KILL THE HERETIC! PURGE THE XENOS!” comes from his muffled masked. I spot more shots coming from the other two, the wounded one just seems to have given up. I open fire on the charging guy. I punch a hole through his shoulder and it should be spraying blood, but the shot cauterized the wound. He stumbles even further. Shit, no time to reload! I toss my carbine aside and duck behind cover. His war cry fills my ears and I stick my leg out and swing, knocking him off his feet, but he quickly uses his momentum to jump right back up.

I hear another grenade go off and Tau fire, but the trooper lunges for me. I duck low and throw myself forward, colliding head on with him and knocking him back. I jump on him, pinning down his arms with both my knees. I feel him dig in to his side, forcing my balance off and I teeter over. His arm free, he slashes out with his knife and nicks metal. My new arm! Hell yes! I grab his wrist with my free hand and grip the blade of his knife with my prosthetic. I can’t see his face, but I can feel the disbelief and can’t help but grin as I twist the blade and snap it right off the hilt.

I drop it and punch him square in the face. He goes limp, but I reach down and fidget to get his glove loose. I check his pulse, and sure enough he’s still alive. I can hear the Tau talking now, and I slump back. I exhale for what seems like the first time in ages and start laughing. 

I’m going to have to thank Baris for this arm.


----------



## arturslv

Just... wow. I am amazed. Keep writing this story, man. I gotta know how it ends!


----------



## C'Tan Chimera

I'd like to apologize for the delay. Work, college and all that cal snowballed into a festering hunk of Writer's Block.
-----------------------


Perhaps they are just testing the waters, but there has been no onslaught since the failed Stormtrooper assault. The two troopers I wounded have been carried off to a medbay somewhere, plus Terrance for his minor injury. It obviously wasn’t mutual, but I’m happy I haven’t killed more humans.

It’s only been half an hour or so since the attack and I admit I’ve grown a bit too tense to want to rest any longer. I’ve been hanging out with the survivors of our squad- sarge Pertor, Santh, two other Tau and two other humans. I’ll admit I’ve been surprised at how many former Imperials willingly embraced the Tau Empire. “ ‘Course, there were plenty who resisted,” a soldier named Vance remarks, “They managed to pacify some of them, but the stubborn lot were gunned down. I didn’t know how to react at that point, so I took a chance.” Some of them still had bittersweet feelings about the whole thing but hell, we were all dead men anyway. 

I can hear grunting and turn to see Terrance approaching. “How’s your foot holding up?” I ask. “I’m standing, aren’t I?” He bounces right back. I offer him a spot and Pertor gestures to us all. “Reunions are admirable, but unfortunately this is no such time for one. Now that I’ve got you all in the same place, it’s time to go over the next part of our job. The devilfish transports will be here soon with the rest of the convoy. Earth Caste says this crude fortress was designed specifically to buffer frontal attacks. So we’re not going to attack them from the front.”

I can see refrained expressions on the humans and Tau alike. Nothing will ever be easy, will it? Pertor makes what I can assume is a wince and continues. “…Unfortunately, unless we gift them with the illusion of a frontal assault, they’ll catch on and adapt. So we’re getting called in to hit them as hard as possible in the face.” Nope, knew it.

Vance raised his hand. “Shas’Ui, there has to be some sort of objective that can be accomplished, right? Killing floors ain't exactly what we’ve stood for.” Pertor nodded. “Good question that I can answer, Shas’la. We’re heading in to ultimately be a diversion, but we’re also establishing a foothold. The Stealthsuits will disable all the major turret defense systems, and at that point we’re going to hold down the gates so HQ can seed drones and broadsides through the area. By turning the fortress defenses we hope to imprison them within their own fort. There we shall offer them a chance to redeem themselves through the Greater Good."

At this point he gets up. “The convoy will be here in moments, helmets on and move forward!” We do so, and we make our way out of the Tau barracks and head for the clearing serving as a LZ. I briefly stop to gaze at the Tau turret system. It looks like we lost one of them in the earlier battle, but three more remain. Massive guns installed on them- Imperium guns are pretty nasty, but I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of those. Doesn't scream air support, but nothing wrong with big guns.

As we continue to move along, I feel myself growing bothered. The other human soldiers –with the exception of Terrance- seem to be uncaring and even then Terrance isn't exactly a best friend. What is the deal? I turn to Santh as we approach the airfield. “Is this some kind of treatment they give all the rookie converts or something?” He does one of those shrug things. “I wouldn’t know, I’m not a human.” Thanks, Santh. Maybe the Tau have it in on me too or something. “Hey, are you still pissed at the greyskin slurs earlier or something?” He keeps on walking besides me as we come up to the strip. “Firewarriors are trained to distance themselves from the petty verbal hostilities your Imperial counterparts love to go on about. It’s not an issue, Derrek.” I make a face under my helmet that I know he can’t see under his, and no, I’m not referring to sticking my tongue out. “Certain about that?” Another shrug thingy. “Hey, if Shas’Ui’Dal can bear such an interest in somebody outside of her bond-brothers, I think I can accommodate such amicable behavior as well.”

I stop the conversation to behold the small fleet of ‘Devilfish’ coming in from over the trees. What is with these aliens and weird geometry? Not that it’s important, though. The frickin’ things are –*flying*- . What the Imperium might give to have Chimaeras that could do that! They touch down with landing gear that pops right out from beneath them and the hatches all slide open. Pertor looks at us and signals to the one with 4 purple…streaks on the hull. I can only assume they mean something important in their words. 
We rush inside and get settled in. A lot smaller than the Orca, but still better than the old Chimaeras back on Cadia. 

I take one last glimpse outside. Dark black clouds have begun gathering overhead, contrasting against the sheer amount of red and green fauna. It looks pretty weird. It’s like green on the ground, red in the air, black in the sky and in case of the chasm, black all over again beneath the ground. Hazes of all sorts of different flavors. Suddenly the hatch slams shut and I’m once more packed with Tau and humans alike. Almost immediately the pilot’s voice comes in through the helmet comm, calm but reserved. First came the Tau talk, then our gothic version.

“Annual spore cycles are coinciding with the surprisingly premature monsoon season, but our sensor spines are functioning normally and this shouldn’t be a problem.” The one named Vance laughs, “No need to worry about the combat drop part, guys. Weather’s manageable.” Terrance chuckles. Or maybe it was a cough. The Tau themselves don’t seem amused- not that I can blame them. I can feel the thrusters lift us off again and we’re already gliding ahead. 

“Enemy fire inbound. Prepare yourselves for some turbulence.” Just what I wanted to hear- I sure hope Dal and her stealth squads are doing their jobs well. 

The thought is cut short by our transport rocking, a few exclamations from one or two humans, but even I manage to stay calm. Well, until I hear faint booms and more screeching air. Pertor is leaned in close, listening to some sort of private channel. Damn, is it raining out there?... Who am I kidding, we all know it’s lasfire. It sounds like some sort of thunder storm. The pitter patter of small arms fire is constant, occasionally interrupted by a deafening boom outside. Pertor looks up.

“We’ll have around 3 to 5 of your minutes to clear the frontal defense lines before their heavy weapons can hone in. If we’re not dug in their own lines before that point, we’ll fail the rest of the Cadre. Do not engage them from the front of these lines, understood? Attack them from their sides- we have the devilfish support to keep them preoccupied from the front. Stay tuned in to my channel for updates.”

“ETA 120 seconds.”

He looks at us and nods. “Failure isn’t acceptable here. If we can’t claim the foothold, expect us to be up to our antennae in guardsmen by the end of the cycle.” Well, time to get ready for war. I lean over the seat and grab my carbine- I can’t say I’m envious about being the first to exit alongside the sarge, but somebody’s gotta do this. 

“Drones released, decoy launchers are active. Touchdown in 30 seconds.”

The sound of everyone loading their weapons. The thunder rumbles louder than ever outside. I fasten everything in place and stand before the hatch. I can hear the fire outside. “Prepare for deployment.” I inhale deeply. Once more, into the thick of it.

With a hiss and thunk, the hatch opens up and without thought I vault through the exit. “We have 3 minutes! Move it, firewarriors!” I’m briefly relieved to have exited from the back, until I look around after the first several lasblasts zip past me. The Imperial fortress looms ahead, but the checkpoint before it’s gates is heavily fortified and I can see dozen of faces staring back at me. “The devilfish are grouping together. Use them for cover in the advance!” As soon as he said it, three of the transports floated before us, their guns firing boldly into the defense line. I press down on myself and the others follow, advancing up behind the transports, crouched to see below them. I’m not going to lie- this felt damn cool.

“As soon as the drones are called in, get ready to divide into halves. We’ve got 3 minutes at best, so do not hesitate. Compromise their bastions at all costs!” The devilfish float ahead slowly as to not escalate things- not that it helps. Except for rumbling and the crunch of boots, it was unnervingly silent. Not exactly as cool the first few moments. Within said few moments, the tension has grown sickening. I can see their faces, lighted a soft red by the weather. Moving back and forth, holding their fire. “Drone reinforcements in 10…” I can hear the others mumbling. I squeeze the barrel of my gun. 

They’re watching us just as intently- I can see several bring forth flamethrowers. Oh fuck.

“4…”

Lightning illuminates the field. Terrance nudges me and I set my eyes on the right. I just trusted something was going to break the line so we could enter. Get in, fight resistance off, get inside. Easy. Right.

“2…”

I suddenly hear a loud humming and a sudden blaze of blue fire illuminates the dark again, shock and revulsion appearing on their faces. First, Pertor. “ALL TEAMS GO! FIRE AT WILL!” Then the Guardsmen. “OPEN FIRE!”

My legs burst into motion as I hear a sudden downpour of fire, blue streaking the fog overhead and orange razing the air. I can feel the sting of lasfire scorching my side as the land before me blurs. The fire stops temporarily. Drones doing their work. Sudden blue explosion. I can feel heat. Flamethrower? Maybe. Santh huffs. “There’s the breach. Bank left, photons set!” I hear autocannon fire. Gotta ignore it, 2 minutes left.

We hook around the bend and throw ourselves into the narrow chasm that was the trench. Sure enough, many of the guardsmen are swarmed around by the drones, but they’re all dropping so fast. Where’s the fucking way into the bastion? I don’t want to run into their turret fire! “Santh, where’s the entrance?” “Knowing how things are, I’d say at the end of the trench, of course!” He barked. We shuttle through, I can feel autocannon fire just barely off target spraying dirt our way. Running right into the fray, I’m gripping my gun tightly and level it. I can feel the fear in the back of my head, pulling all the levers and doing all the thinking.

“The drones are as good as scrap at this point! Grenades, NOW!” Santh barks. I fumble forward, grabbing a grenade from my belt. C’mon, damn thing! Please just get the detonation slot open already, I can’t stomach running while trying to do this with one hand…. Ah! There we fucking go! I press deeply into the exposed button and hurl it forward. Playing around with the helmet’s HUD, I flip the visor to blacksun filter and squint. Sure enough, the light still gets to my eyes under the lids. “Fire!” 

I squeeze down the trigger as I watch several shots pound into a group, killing one in a horrid spray of blood and knocking his friends over. Time to feel bad later. The other three stagger back but raise their guns. Our blue and orange shots soar right over one another- they take my shots and I take theirs. I double over as I feel a searing burn push inward and lurch forward. “Derrek!” One of them shouts. I'm in pain, but not dead, more then I can say for them. More guardsmen ahead, raise my gun and squeeze off another round, more shots coming from next to me. More las, this time hitting me in more armored places. Lot's of 'piffing' . More guardsmen fall down with sickly moans- I can feel bile in my stoma- that guy right there in the mi-Oh fuck he’s one with the flamethrower!

“GET THE FUCK DOWN” I stumble sideways and use my momentum to shove Santh into the dirt and just as soon hear the roar of promethium overhead, warming my armor too much for comfort. I hear a horrid scream behind me- I’m not going to think about it for the love of whatever deity is actually out there. I raise my weapon, but Santh somehow beats me to it with a shot to the neck. A voice in my helmet, Pretor. 

“A minute left- move it, right now!”

Yank Santh back to his feet as I stagger forward, spraying blindly at this point. “Derrek, right!” Santh’s hand pushes me that direction and I oblige. I hear multiple autocannons now and a steady rain of thumping dirt. I crouch down lower and yell as I feel hot blood in my abdomen, my vision blurring at the corners. It feels so draining…Tiring…No! Gotta keep going. Suddenly I see more of our guys coming in from the other side- only a handful or so. Not important, keep moving gotta keep moving. Santh rushes ahead. “I got the charge for this one! Watch me!” Protect him, got it.

I hunker down right next to him, falling to one knee. I can’t see straight. Can’t focus at all. Never been shot before. Feels weird… “We’ve got 20 seconds! I can hear the crude things warming up!” I could hear worse. The slow grinding of gears warming up- those gates…Gonna open… Shake it off, Derrek! Dammit! Fuck! I feel myself get yanked back and a tiny explosion. More sharp pain, like I got bit by some bugs the size of a large fruit or something. I bite into my lip and heave myself up, clamping down on the pain that ripples through me. Door open, door open not gonna die. Rush in like this yes. 

I feel myself collide to the floor, feel one of the other humans flip me over. “Is it a gutshot?!” “Doesn’t look like it- might just be his first time.” “He’s still bleeding, dammit!” “He’ll be fine, he just needs to get used to it! Don’t tell me you weren’t there before!” “…Fine, just trying to look out for the fucking new guy.” “Yeah I know that, but we got bigger issues.” I feel lightheaded. Gotta get up, Derrek. Shake it off, it’s just shock… I hope. I hoist myself back to my knees. I can feel it rushing up my burning chest. I frantically mash the side of my helmet till I get the release and throw the helmet off. I lean forward and puke. “Shit, man! Suck it up for a bit longer! Augh!” "Hey Reese, you weren't much better first time around you got pricked." A few more exclamations, then I hear Santh. “Everyone be quiet and help me get an EMP up this damn thing!” I lean to the side and groan.“We got it, right?...” 

I hear Santh snort. “Barely. A couple more moments and we’d be just puddles in the wake of a primitive plasma cannon.” I know those doors are opening, but I feel drained- gotta contribute somehow. Warning, yeah... “They’ll be launching a counter attack..” I shake my head, trying to fight off the blurriness. “That’s not a worry, just stop talking and reconstitute for your damn sake, Derrek.” 

Yeah… Sounds like a good idea. I slump back down and try to get it back together. That’s when I hear the shelling. Guess I was right about those counter attacks.


----------



## C'Tan Chimera

I feel like shit right now. I close my eyes to rest and I’ve been fading in and out of consciousness ever since- on the upside, I could just die, but that hasn’t happened so I’m happy. I pull myself back up and look up and down. My armor is covered in scorch marks and an occasional crater left by a shell. Blood stains the area where I was been shot. Still, I don’t feel that horrible leaking feeling anymore, so I suspect somebody got at me with some med-gel while I was out of it. Pretty damn nice, I must say.

I stagger to my feet and feel half my weight go straight to them. I’m feeling light, but there’s no way I’m going to hold everyone back…Where the hell is everyone, anyway? I walk carefully towards the stairs leading down the bastion and spot a Tau and human standing by the gates. I try to speak but cough. I run my hand across my face, smearing blood that had been on my wrecked face. “Hey… What happened? Seriously, I got shot here, I’d kinda like to know what’s going on.”

They both look up. “Ah, you’re awake. I wouldn’t have minded a rest myself.” Yeah, and I wouldn’t have minded not being shot. I strum my fingers on the banister. The human spoke up- pretty sure it was the one referred to as ‘Reese’ earlier. “Our second wave of reinforcements coincided with their own. They’ve been fighting out there to secure the gateway for an hour or something fierce like that. We got sentry duty.” 

I make my way to one of the observation slots, getting a feel for how well my body is doing after all this. Sore, bruised and a little bloodied. Not bad, I guess. I look through the slot and see the skirmish on below. The road to the gate is absolutely littered with bodies, Guardsmen and Tau alike. Half finished rockrete barriers and mangled barbed wire dot the battlefield. I can see one of the Devilfish smoking on the right- thrashed, but it looks like everyone got out. The other one…Not so lucky. It’s all over the place. I can’t see much else, but las and pulse fire occasionally streak across the battlefield. 

I fumble back towards the stairs, slowly growing aware of a really unsettling feeling in my arm. I slowly descend the stairs, gaining a bit of momentum with each step. “Hey, this is the Imperial Guard we’re fighting here. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful for the stroke of luck, but where’s the human tidal wave of guns and bayonets?”

I can hear the Tau chuckle beneath his helmet. “Remember, Gue’vesa? We don’t fight brute wars of attrition. Your former friends aren’t overtaking us because the reinforcements have struck from every point imaginable from behind. They have been spread thin. All that is left here are stragglers. “Okay, that’s damned good. “And the defenses?” He did that Tau shrug thing. 

There’s a muffled sound within his helmet and he snaps to attention. Guess its Pertor again. After a moment he looks up. “You picked a good time to become conscious- the Broadsides and drone squadrons are about to be dropped off. Shas’Ui has ordered us to head out and oversee their operation.”

I nod. I could use what passed for fresh air around here anyway. I make my way to the entrance, once more ignoring the creepy feeling in my new arm. Don’t need to think about more unpleasant stuff after surviving a shot to the gut. Reese offers me my helmet that I barely saved from vomit earlier. “Just remember, this thing ain’t a barf bag.” Yeah yeah, I take it from him. I put it over my head and feel it fasten into place. Reese hands me my carbine next and I oblige. 

We walk out through the doorway that once actually had a door and I look up at the landscape. The darkness has intensified, creating an unnerving contrast with all the red fog and green trees. I can make out the occasional flicker of lightning, hued green by the weird atmosphere. All the gunfire ceased. For now. I could hear the boom of the overhead turrets, focused elsewhere, than God Emperor or Greater Good, whatever. Chain of Flippin’ Command. 

Pertor buzzes in. “Squad, regroup at the drop off site. I want a headcount to make sure.”

Within a minute, a half a dozen or so appeared through the rubble, battered and bruised almost twice as bad as me. Come on, is the universe out to tell me I’m a wimp or something?

Pertor comes limping by a moment later, blue stuff trickling from his leg… I’m gonna go out on a limb and assume that’s his blood. That creeping feeling keeps coming back to haunt me. “Alright everyone, sound off.” 

I’ll spare you all the various names, especially the ridiculously long formal ones the Tau go by. The big point is Terrance never appeared. I want to sound apathetic, but I can’t lie- there’s a saddened feeling in my chest as if my lungs had filled with water. Vance and Santh are here, thankfully. A loud sudden hum fills the air, and I turn to look at the ledge as the others did.
Cleverly, the Orcas came from _below_ rather than above, a damn nice way to cut down the chance of being blasted. They’re as loud as hell with that low hum, but I can still hear a faint grinding sound behind me. The two transports land and open up near immediately. I hear myself slip up and whistle “Damn!” as they reveal their cargo.

Massive suits like those I had shared a ride with earlier, except even _bigger_ , with equally gigantic weapons mounted on them. “Derrek, you’ll want to step back.” Vance smirked behind me. I subconsciously do so and watch as they lumber out of the vehicle, each step kicking up puffs of pavement. I would rather get offed by a commissar than have to take one of these things on in a firefight. More of the churning noise, but I can’t be sure anymore of what it is. Dozens of drones suddenly float silently out of either transport like a swarm of the near mythical Tyranids. I don’t know much about those things other than that they exist and that I’m happy to keep it at that. From behind those clouds of metal came another massive mech. I turn to see the other ones and then my eye catches the fortre- _oh_ fuck me!

Before I can even say a word, a deafening boom is heard, the shriek of air and a shell tears through the backside of the Orca, sending it’s lucky mech tumbling forward. The Orca ignites in a roar of fire, everyone including me getting thrown to the ground. I hear the deep, cybernetic sounding voice bark from the suit “Enemy heavy armor! Two of them!”

I turn my head sideways, ignoring my agonized body and see two Leman Russes rolling from the gates. This is bad. Pertor shouts over my comm. “They must have somehow grown aware of the reinforcements! Protect those Broadsides and drones! THAT is your priority!” Fight two giant tanks. Okay. I wince as I feel that sickly feeling in my arm yet again, but the sound of the cannon fire quickly draws me away. I can hear the voices boom through their suits. “Pairing into groups of two, heading to the designated rendezvous p-“ I hear another one interrupt them, probably their own boss. “Negative! Take up positions and assimilate the threat, Shas’ui!” 

I scramble with Santh and several others to group up with the Broadsides. I puff out my sentences between gasps for breath- I won’t lie when I say my heart starts jumping with two tanks rolling in. “Santh… How the hell are we supposed… To stop these things?” He looks at me. “We don’t- we draw them away.” I hear him muse while running ahead of the slow but empowering suits. “Besides… You’ll love getting to see these things work their duty!” 

Pertor comes in again; I can hear his heavy breathing too. “Get behind them and out of their firing range…” I weave through the overbearing rockrete tank traps- somehow I doubt these are going to help us… We don’t have the firepower to destroy it, but we’re supposed to draw them away…Ah hell, I can’t think like a tactician when I got massive can openers rolling in! 
I hear the shriek of plasma cannons and leap forward on instinct. I hear the sound of bubbling magma. Don’t look back Derrek! My mind turns to the others. “Santh, you alive?!” I hear him grunt. “Could be better, but this will suffice!” It hits me. No, not the guns, thank the Throne. An idea hit me. 

“Santh! Vance! Anyfucking one listening in! Shoot them from the back! Force them to pick between priorities!” I shout more curses as the cannons blast overhead, barely missing one of the suits and obliterating the bastion I had been in just minutes ago. Glad I woke up. 

Suddenly, I can hear the sound of marching feet. Nothing can ever be easy. Pertor chirps in again. “The broadsides can’t dig in here, but they can provide smart missile support so long as you can keep those cannons off them!” I wheeze through my headset “We can do that, sir!” I hear the other survivors shouting through their sets as well. “Everyone! Eradicate the guardsmen and then open up on the back of the tanks!” Sure, I make it sound like it’s just a matter of simply doing it. It’s still better than “Try not to die fighting these tanks!” 

I take cover behind more tank traps, Santh and Vance taking up spots next to me. I struggle to not gulp for air after that sprint, but it’s tempting. The guardsmen come through the gate- quite a few of them, actually. This is bad. “Fire at will, Shas’la!” Pertor shouts. I let it loose on them, watching the bursts of blue death strike down two grunts with lasguns- a few of them duck, but most keep firing. The Leman Russ begins to churn its turret this way. Fuck! Is it aiming for us or the suits?

“Santh! Bail out!” I shout and do without thinking. I go stumbling for another bit of nearby cover just in time to hear the explosion and shower of rockrete. I hear a chorus of smaller bursts and turn to see the ‘Broadsides’ unleash a storm of rockets. I can’t help but wince at the shower of body parts- that’s a horrible way for anyone to check out…Well, maybe not compared to the Necrons. Oh shit, the Necron- nevermind, that can wait. Bigass tank shooting at us. This time the deep voice of the Broadside boss crackles in on my set. “Gue’vesa, we have briefly opened up the area! I’d be gracious if you return the favor of assistance!” Oh shit. He’s directly acknowledging –me- !. “Can do, sir!” 

I turn back around right away and go racing back into the killzone, the smell of blood and scorched guts filling my nostrils, only lending speed to my frantic charge. I level my gun and turn round the bend. More plasma fire, but I outrun it if only barely. Almost there… I hear another blast and a yell through the channel. “I’ve been hammered! Damn the Mon’tau!” I hear a furious Pertor follow in as I sweep upon the backside of the tank. He doesn’t speak louder like a pissed human would, only faster. “The Ethereals will not find us wanting, will they Firewarriors?!”I buzz in. “No sir! I am commencing right now!” I hear him hiss back.“I would hope so!” 

I cock my carbine forward and grow aware of Santh joining up next to me, also glimpsing a bloodied Vance watching our back. A lashot streaks past me and I fire like mad on the tank’s back. “TAKE THAT UP YOUR ASS! ” I find myself shrieking as I melt the exhaust pipes together. The adrenaline, the freakish sensation oozing through my arm… It’s like some kind of steroid cocktail. Suddenly the tank hatch opens up and a decorated officer appears. Oh shit he’s got a bolt pistol- OH SHIT the tank is turning our way! 

I frantically sidestep it as it turns, its turret moving counter clockwise. The officer is shouting something with a most enraged look on his face. I guess he sees we’re humans. He suddenly aims his bolt pistol and fires- I watch in horror as I see Santh take the shot and hurtle back-first into the ground, blue blood oozing from his chest. It hits me like a brick and my blood bubbles. “FUCKER!!” I aim right back at him. I fire a dozen shots, but he ducks into the tank and I find myself spitting in anger. Pertor chimes in again, ticked as ever but paling in comparison to myself. “Gue’vesa! Do something about those tanks right now!” Fuck right I’m gonna do something right now! The tanks are churning about erratically now, trying to position their guns in such ways that they could attack both us and the broadsides. 

I’m going to get caught between all their guns at this rate, and the blood in my body screams for payback. Maybe it’s not the Tau way to break mission standards, but fuck it. I was born an Imperial, I’ll act like an Imperial! 

It happens fast. I lunge at the back, digging into the damaged steel with my weird hand. I scramble on to the back and feel myself almost fall right off on to a tread. I don’t want to dwell on that. I can hear pulse fire and returned bolt fire, but the Broadsides have stopped firing altogether. The noisy sergeant whines in my ear again. “Derrek! Get off that tank right now! You’ve done enough, now let the Broadsides do their job!” “Fuck that!” I bark, no longer feeling really in control. “Derrek! THAT was an ORDER!” Pertor shouts. “That fucker shot Santh!” He’s torn with how to act now.“You walk the Mon’tau! Stop this instant!” 

Too late. I can feel the other tank commander trying to shoot at me as I pry the hatch open. I’m greeted by a bolt round that razes my helmet and cracks my visor. Another voice on the comm, one of the broadsides. “Gue’vesa! Your passion is admirable but we are setting stabilizers now! I will not be held accountable for your rash actions!” 

I reach in and feel myself pulled down by a grizzled hand. I grip onto something soft and yank free the officer’s hat. “Miserable heretic!” I hear him spit. “Ogryn fucking tool!” I spit back and hoist the man out, a feat only possible with this crazy hand- I can feel it… Shudder… Something unearthly lusting. The officer swings his pistol at me. Oh Emperor, this is playing out just like with Hauss. I headbutt the officer and force him down onto the cold exterior. I’ve lost all control at this point- images of Hauss fill my head and the anger takes over. I bash and bash and bash. “Ignorant!” Bash. “Fucking” Bash “Killer!” Oh dear Emperor, the horrible irony I’m speaking… I feel gore…Blood… “The Gue’la is a mad! Open fire now!” 

I feel a sudden vacuum of air, a realization and a pause. Then the silence is regurgitated in a huge chorus of blaring energy. The whole tank rocks forward and I stumble back. I can hear the sound of crackling fire. Oh shit. Oh shit, I feel myself back in control again. Reality is back and it’s pissed. I’m surfing a fucking tank after goring it’s commander, going totally against orders! WHAT THE FUCK AM I DOING?! I panic and scramble further down. Not good, not good! I jump just as the thing explodes behind me and roasts my back with its heat.

For a brief second I feel like I’m flying. Soaring, dazed and confused. Everything glides past me as I fly through the closing gates.

Next I feel my face collide head on with the ground. My visor shatters and my vision goes black.


----------



## C'Tan Chimera

It’s all black again. Suddenly, the world begins to spread wide in my eyes. As I slowly come to, I instinctively begin coughing, spitting blood and phlegm out. I flex my fingers and push myself up, painfully getting to one knee. Hunched over, I look around. It’s all so dark. I give it a few seconds before my vision slowly creeps back into focus. Dim, dim light barely illuminates my features, and my vision is further skewered by my visor. Half shattered and the rest covered in shiver cracking, only the visor’s LED vision allows me to make out anything beyond my body. Darkness in one eye, dim, infrared world in the other. 

I crane my neck up and see a pool of light above me… It looks like a broken grate. Don’t tell me I seriously fell through that. With a wince I get to my feet and dust myself off. This suit went from clean and pristine only a few hours ago to cracked, shattered, worn with bullet holes and covered in blood. I must look half dead, which really is appropriate because I feel that way too. My pummeled helmet still fits me pretty well, but I feel a little claustrophobic in it. It’s muffling the sounds of battle still raging above like that thunderstorm analogy I brewed up awhile back.

I gotta figure out where I am. I’m hardly an engineer or a member of the Adeptus Mechanicus, but I can safely assume this is some sort of sewer/drainage system or along those lines. I take a steady spin around. Darkness everywhere. I grow aware of the splashing of water under my boots. Only a few inches at best. Only darkness beckoning from either direction. It makes me wish this HUD camera on the side of my helmet had a light built into it… I had to have been given some sort of torch. I fumble around with my various pockets and bags in and around my fatigues, but no such luck. I activate my comlink. “Hey…Anybody there? At all? Dal?” White noise. Hey, maybe it’s a good thing in disguise. I got away from the battlefield, especially after that particularly retarded stunt I tried early…Earlie… Fuck it! This arm is driving me crazy!

I stretch it out and yank my shoulder pad out of the way. I start clawing at the spot where my flesh meets steel feverishly. It doesn’t really itch, but I can feel it under my skin… I stop and pay attention to it for the first real time. It felt like part of me before, but the more I dwell on it, the more I can feel how it’s not… Worst of all is the feeling that it’s inner workings have… Oh Emperor… I understand now. It’s crossed the line…Literally. I can feel it probing up the flesh in my arm! Not actively or violently like some parasite. No pain, not irritation. Just a revolting feeling of not being my own… And yet…The scary part is it feels at home. Not an invader, not a parasite… But a feeling of returning. It belongs here. That’s what scares me. 

I shake my head free of panic and look away. Gotta get out of here. Can get back with the Tau and Baris can yank this thing out later. I don’t think of myself as indecisive, but I’m at gap trying to figure out where to go. Darkness in all directions. At least there is –some- sort of light here, no matter how poorly it fits the definition. 

I swallow my feelings and put one leg in front of the other. Then the other in front of that one. It’s that easy, right? Just keep walking…

I see movement ahead. A flutter of gray against total blackness. My brain is screaming at me to go the other direction, but my body says ‘FORWARD’ . I’ve killed a couple guys today. I’ve got a bite sized powerfist. I got nothing to worry about… I’m not even going to put the effort into narrating all the ways my mind is refuting this. 

I start and just as suddenly I can’t stop. The splash and plod of boots in water and I am on my way. I can see the rusted pipelines running across the walls and a light flicks on in my head. Shame I can't pull it out and use it. This was a fort quickly erected on ancient ground. I must have been the final straw for some of the ancient derelict city’s strength and bust right through its drainage system. I’m in the abandoned waterways beneath an ancient city on a moon long forgotten after its fathering planet was annihilated...

Fuck the powerfist-this is creeping me out. 

I absentmindedly reach out and touch the walls. With a screech the pipe snaps in half, spilling dust. After a moment of being frozen in place, I wait for my heart to crawl back down my throat to where it belongs. I look at my hand to find it’s painted gray in a thick mess of dirt, slime and dust. I curse lightly and shake it all off. I keep on moving… All that dust. How long has this city been standing, anyway? How long has it been since the events Dal told me about? Screw it, gotta keep going. Has to be some sort of maintenance hatch around here. If it didn’t rust and crumble to scrap eons agofuuuuuuck gotta stop thinking like this!

Minutes become hours as I trudge on blindly through the dark.

The walking is no longer a conscious work of bravery calling the shots, but aimless trudging. More pipes, more rust, maybe a fungal plant here or there, but no sign out. Every once in awhile I see sickly light peering through grates far above, illuminating drifting red spores, but that’s it. Merely keeping the treacherous sense of hope alive. I can’t help but let my mind slip into dark, eerie thoughts. Was I better off down here, or would I have preferred the horrors of war to this freakish reality? Have I been walking in circles? Oh man, I don’t even want to contemplate the idea that I’ve been pacing around aimlessly for hours…

Such thoughts are suddenly set aside as I notice fissures appearing in the walls. Up ahead I see a different gape in darkness. Finally, by the Emperor! Finally…Er…Something other than just walking in a dark loop! I have to actively think about ceasing my endless march in order to turn left and peer through. The wall is thick, rotting pipes and long useless circuitry fill it to the other side. I take my detour and cross through.

Oh great. More darkness. I squint hard and notice what looks like turbines in the distance. Coils everywhere. I step through and look about. Old, worn aquilla emblems on everything. I step forward into the blackness and push through the old city's entrails. I feel my skin prick at first when I hear a loud groaning. I freeze and wait for what seems like minutes before I settle and realize that against all logic, some of the power equipment here is still running. 

I can see light emanating from what seems to be a hatch. Without hesitation I clamber through the grating and safety rails down below. I know it’s just the metal straining with age, but the noises still freak me out. That’s not important though. I guess this isn’t a waterway so much as some kind of primitive power plant. Could this city be so old that it used water and irrigation to generate energy?

Heck, it doesn’t matter. Point is that if this is their source of power and it’s still running, that Dal’s squadrons have to be somewhere down here. This is actually working out!

I squat down and wrap my hands through the hatch locks. I clench hard and pull, growling as I get alarming resistance from it. I hear the squeak of my boots and suddenly I’m on my back with a ear piercing *CRACK*. Dammit! More soreness to bitch about later. I try it again, this time turning my wrists as I attempt to wrench it up. Even with this unearthly arm it’s putting up a hell of a fight. Harder… Harder….

It finally yields and tears loose with a loud shriek and once more I fly on to my back. I laugh to myself to shrug off anxiety and kick it aside as I get back up. It dimly glows down below and the humming remains strong. Something is happening after hours of walking and I’m all so very eager. Without a doubt I vault through the narrow tunnel. It was time to find Dal. 

For a brief moment I feel the stale air rush up at me before I stick my arms out. The armor grinds against the gritty old metal, but I slow down. I worm my way loose and fall to the ground a short distance belo_oohhh_ my sweet God Emperor!

This wasn’t light and humming from an ancient, functioning water turbine. But it was ancient, and it was functioning.

I’m in a Necron tomb.


----------



## Kaiden

Awesome twist man, keep it coming


----------



## C'Tan Chimera

Thank you- you know I will! We're approaching the end of the 3rd act. Week is coming back around though, so don't be surprised if it is awhile before I post again.


--------------------

I’ve never been inside a Necron tomb before, but it’d be pretty hard not to tell this was one. Whatever had been left of the original facility down here is gone. Absolutely gone. I can see the remains of walls rotting, clinging to infinite darkness. The very ground with which it was built in has crumbled and given away to…Whatever you could call this. I can see the unearthly, green light softly pulsing beyond the hall. Where there should be walls or physical earth, there is only obsidian. Sickly veins of green occasionally glide across the edges. I dare not look directly at it as memories of the faces on that jungle ruin come back to mind. Something in my hand twitches involuntarily at the thought. 

Everything is screaming at me to turn back. To flee. I feel a bit of resistance, but after a second of internal conflict I turn back to face the tunnel upwards. I wrap my hand around the ladder rungs, only to feel my fist crush down, grinding it into ancient powder… There’s no way I did that. I look at the prosthetic hand. I feel it inside me... No, don't entertain that thought. I reach for the next rung and grasp it with my other hand. This time it pulls out of the earth with a shriek, unable to handle my weight… I look at both my hands. Why does this shit happen to me?

I spend what feels like minutes looking up pathetically at the dim tunnel above. I might as well face it- I’m not getting out that way.

I walk forward, past what little remains of whatever Imperial structure this once was. It’s walls gradually decay the farther I progress, giving away to total darkness. 

I inhale, wince and turn back to those halls. Despite their horrid, prehistoric vibe, it was still more comforting than the darkness ahead, pulsing as if it had a heart. It feels like I’m gazing out into a dead space- one with no stars; only this horrid, ancient Imperial walkway leading off into the dull throbbing sun in the distance. It’s just like with the waterways earlier. One foot in front of the other…Right? I don’t think I can do it this time. Fear is slowly creeping up my legs, holding them down. I reach out at the dark with my hand and feel solid matter. There are walls here, yes. But I still gaze at them and see an endless darkness. 

I reach out and peel away some of the crumbling sheet metal before the spot where it totally gives away to the black Necron walls. Something to hold on to- something to remind me where I really am. I march forward, step by step. I am going where nobody else has been before… I think. 

Onward I go.

Minutes drag on again as I find my steps slow and labored. I don’t want to be here… There’s a horrid feeling here. Not of revulsion or forbidden tracks, but of discovery. This feeling… I know now why the Inquisition executes many for this sort of sensation. I can feel the danger of it all. It’s so palpable, I don’t know what to do. I throw the scrap at the wall in frustration, in confusion, only to feel my blood chill as the scrap penetrates the darkness and tumbles into oblivion beyond… 

T-these were supposed to be solid walls… T-they were a moment ago! What the fuck! _What the fuck_?!? 

I feel tempted to reach out with my hand, but fear holds me back. I don’t want to know. I turn and run. Run towards the light. I don’t know anymore, I just want to get out of here! 

I push one leg in front of the other, rushing ahead toward the light. Anything is better than here- it has to be so. I have never felt such fear before… The sensations before… Hiding in the dark from Hauss… The sensation of isolation… It’s all combined. Compounded, even- 20 times over. I can’t stand this. I can’t stand this at all. I can understand it now… I can understand why the Imperium hides these things from us, oh Emperor…

I can’t keep running. I’m exhausted. I stop if only for a moment and trudge on. I feel so small here. It’s overwhelming…Crushing, in fact. I just look down at the freakishly unending walkway that pierces the darkness. It’s the only dimension here. My only comfort. Time melts once more as I take steps, slowly becoming as empty headed as this whole damnable place. 

I shouldn’t keep referring to the Emperor like he’s some kind of God… I can feel it. I know it. He is no God. This place would confirm that if everything before had not. All the time alone. All this thinking… I don’t know what to believe anymore. Who to follow. If I ever get ou-

My nervous system jolts to life as I stumble into solid matter. I fumble back several steps and stare ahead. A door. All too much like the one from earlier, above in the jungles. The door isn’t even really a door so much as an extensively decorated wall. Symbols arch and weave through each other, gliding up low relief profiles of strange beings, melting into the very surface of their skin. I can feel that creepy sensation ripple through my skin again. One melds into a being of gold, the surface of its body, it’s features seamlessly fading between a normal body and the flesh, bone beneath it. The grin on his face is entirely selfish, with bared teeth even a Tryanid would turn down. 

The being parallel to him is even more dreadful. The spiraling, dancing symbols merge into the cloak covering most of his body, but I can glimpse its face. The eyes are milky, empty, lifeless. Yet full of a horrible intelligence I can feel but never understand. Its twisted face weaves in and out of flesh and machinery. I don’t want to look at it any more. The two twist and sway around a golden orb, a million stairs running alongside and within it, constantly overlapping each other. Small symbols shaped like beings wander about them aimlessly. The only few gaps in these stairs form a coherent shape- another symbol, slowly pulsing green. 

Several other creatures circumvent underneath the sphere, one a horrible serpentine being , it’s body a husk like carrion, but all mechanical. It coiled around another, only it’s back visible, facing me. It’s so abstract I can’t even begin to tell what is what.

Curiosity sucks me in, and I reach out with my prosthetic hand, touching the golden sphere. I run it across. As I pull back my hand, the sphere suddenly spins about erratically, left one moment, right the next. I take a step back in alarm as all 4 entities eyes flash a bright blazing green, if only for a second. The entire wall slides apart into multiple sections, retreating into the pillars bordering it. Within, the void is gone, replaced with dozens of spiraling pillars, trailing off into the distance. 

I step in, and immediately the wall reassembles behind me. I dare not look back, only forward. Everything is a tapestry of panels and underlying veins of green light. It should cast a glow on the environment, but the black just seems to absorb it all… I gaze out further and see the pillars sink into darkness once more. On closer approach, green rings of light occasionally flow down, giving away the interior of the entire structure.

I step forward through the narrow walkways towards the pillars, toward the rings. As my eyes adjust, I see the pillars descend into darker than dark depths, the green pulses forever crawling down deeper. Staring further off into the dark, I can see more pillars- weaving erratically amongst each other, just like those stairs on the door of sorts. Smaller structures form a ring around these…Moving. I dare not investigate it further. 

I walk closer to the edge to find another spiraling stairwell- not really stairs, but platforms, cold and angular. I think it was referred to as the fibbonacky-something. Whatever. I feel myself drawn toward it, and I take weary, tired steps downward. I may just go where no one has been. Against green glows, I see the silhouettes of twisted statues, so stylized and abstract that you can only barely describe them as humanoid in figure. 

I continue on further down until against the sickly, pulsing light I can make out a small pyramid of sorts, clad in strange, jutting architecture. I hurry down further. After everything else, I can safely say I got nothing to lose by doing something this stupid. I'm a traitor in the guards' ranks, and maybe I'm considered a traitor in the Taus' . I'm probably going to my death, but after all I’ve been through today, death didn’t seem too harsh an alternative. At least here I can glimpse the bigger picture I’ve been denied for so long.

Finally the stairs end at the peak of the strange ziggurat, leading further within. I pause briefly to glimpse it’s insane geometries, but I feel uncomfortable if I focus on anyone thing for too long. I’m trying to lie to myself, but it’s not working. I know I’ve glimpsed faint, shimmering stars within these walls once in awhile. More barely illuminated architecture ahead accompanied by twisted, wallowing statues. I trudge forward, past them, doing my best to ignore their twisted structures. 

I walk through its large, twisting archways. Immediately the blackness lights up, and the wide open loft I thought existed above me materializes into the confines of a chamber lighted with green structures. A single pedestal occupies the concave center. It shouldn’t surprise you that I walk forward to investigate. As I move ahead, I notice the blackness filling the space between the pulsing grid isn’t there at all. Down below I can make out the shapes of dozens..hundreds…Thousands of statues, bleak and obscured by the infinite night. 

I approach the pedestal, drawn inexplicably to it. Suddenly, a shot of hot blood runs through me and I halt in place, only to slowly backpedal. Every inch of skin, every hair in my body comes back to life, begging me not to move any further. The only part of me that does not tell me to turn back is the fleshless hand that shares the rest of me. I can feel myself involuntarily twitch. 

I’m a fool for having come here. I feel myself break from the shroud of intrigue and secrets clouding my judgment and become aware of all the thousands of frozen figures within this cold, still nightmare.

I need to get the fuck out of here. 

I swing on my heel to face the exit, only to find it gone. In its place stand several figures. The hot, flowing blood in my body that had so quickly reminded me I was alive turns to cold sludge. Wait… They’re just more statues…But fuck, are they freaky. I slowly take a few steps forward, trying to figure out how to get out of here. The statues tower over me and my way out. I look them up and down, spooked but determined they are part of this puzzle. Unlike the others, they are full bodied. They look like humans, strong and clad in metal armor. Through these gaps I can see the mechanical underworkings that betray th- wait. I notice the arms and how similar it is to my…Mechanical?

Oh no. 

_Oh no oh no._

_Not statues._ I stagger back. _Not statues._ 

Mummified flesh beneath their masks. _Not statues!_

Green voids swirl into existence within their sockets.


----------



## C'Tan Chimera

Nowhere to run. I’m trapped inside a semi-physical chamber suspended in darkness with two towering specters. I don’t know what to do. Moments ago I was telling myself death couldn’t be too bad an alternative to what I’ve been through today… I was lying to myself.

The two beings loom over me as horrible guardians. At best I think I was around their waist… I can feel my blood spoil as it crosses me these things are even larger than Space Marines. They don’t move for a moment and I stare on at them, frozen, transfixed on the dead lights pouring from their eye sockets. I have nowhere to run.

I can see the flesh beneath their masks. The withered, fossilized skin clinging to the bone, the skeletal jaws exposed. It horribly contradicts the somber death masks covering their faces with a menacing grin arching out from either side…

These things were human. By the Emperor, by the Chaos Gods… By whatever is out there… These things are human. I can feel my cold, metal hand spasms with a twisted life my body doesn’t share. I want to scream, but I’m so horrified of shattering the silence… Just like earlier with Hauss… These things… They’re sleeping…With the exception of these two gruesome spartans looming before me. 

The two suddenly step forward, perfectly in sync with one another. They take another step and as do I…Except I’m stepping back. They step into the sick light and I can see their armor better… Clean, even brand new… My mind can’t help but look upon them with a macabre sense of perfection. 

They step closer. I can’t run. Nowhere to flee.

The fear I feel isn’t of death or whatever, but the same fear I had of my hand… Something is horribly wrong here, deep in my gut. A realization yet undiscovered. Something I grow and more certain of is something I never want to know, yet am swiftly on my way to unearthing. I don’t want to know.
I don’t want to know.

Get away from me…

Provoked, they only come closer. No more! I turn and try to run. I can hear the padding of unnaturally light footsteps. I glance just in time to see the two beings sprint for me in a horrible synchrony. I throw myself to the ground, face to the semi-translucent ground and forced to see the thousands of figures standing unmoving below. I look up to see the two beings dash right over me, but without flaw immediately spin back around in a single motion. What do they want with me?!

I scramble to my feet and crawl backwards from them. They march slowly towards me. I flip over and pull myself towards the center of the room. I freeze up stiff as a corpse as four more beings materialize right out of the shadow, as though it merely belied more unseen space behind it. 

I get up, not moving from where I stand. I know it’s over. The group surround me, closing in. Suddenly, their perfectly in tuned movement ceased and they begin moving independently, turning their heads towards one another. They’re not talking or gesturing, yet I see them gaze at one another. Suddenly, the one directly ahead of me kneels down and leans forward, looking me directly in the eyes… I can’t even breathe at this point. I’m terrified as to what might happen. I can’t break my gaze with it. I don’t want to show weakness… 

The thing stands back up just as suddenly. I slowly breathe back in, only to stop again as I hear a voice.

_“Now is a rather inappropriate time, sad to say.”_

It’s not coming from these…Things… 

_“I cannot say it’s been a pleasure…Yet. Until we meet again.”_

I hear a crackle and look behind me. Two have sidestepped their own ring, revealing a swirling void of light. 

_“Be on your way.”_

…What?

_*“Now!” 
*_
I bite down hard on my teeth and run for it. I don’t know what the fuck is happening anymore. I don’t know what the fuck anything is. I close my eyes tight and dive into the flowing ethereal pool…

And suddenly feel myself slung a thousand miles, rapidly closing in on itself like a stretched rubber band… only to tumble forward into a brightly lit room filled with flickering monitors, flashing red. For the first time in ages, I feel a small sense of comfort in my chest as I hear the sound of Dal’s voice.

“Derrek?! Where were you? Are you alright?!”

No, I am not.


----------



## C'Tan Chimera

*Phase 4: Embrace*

I wobble a little, having just gone through whatever the hell that thing was. I feel somewhat dizzy as well, but hey, that’s ticklish after some of the stuff I’ve been through. I can see Dal in her stealth suit thing coming toward me. 

“Derrek, I do want to know if you’re alright, but really. What in the name of the Aun’Va was THAT? “ I look her in the…multiple bug eye sensors and grumble. “Your guess is as good as mine, Dal. I’m just happy nothing has messed my face up more.” I’m not going to bother mentioning the tomb. I don’t think that would be helping anything. She mumbles back in return briefly in her xeno tongue. 

“I knew you were a good runner- “Hey, watch that.” I interrupt. Smartass. She then continues, quite a bit more irritably. “_BUT_when I expected you to group up with me after my team cut the defenses, I hadn’t imagined you would have run THIS much. Almost too convenient.” I snort, but… 

I think back to that disembodied voice earlier and can’t help but think the same disturbing thing. I don’t know if she’s aware of how valid her suspicions are. She makes some sort of motion to the four other suits and we all follow after her. “I got a rather fierce scolding from Pertor awhile back. You went berserk?” Pretty much, yeah. “Somewhat, I guess…Dal, one of them shot Santh.” I can hear her sigh under the vox thing. “Derrek, you’re not helping either of us here, you know. They got him out alive.” He’s alive? That’s damned good, minus the fact I waded knee deep up shit creek for his pale blue ass. Here we go again. “Well I’m here now and I can make up for that.” A pause. “ We’re still waiting for orders, so we’re going to regroup with the other elite subdivisions in the meantime. It’s not like this to go without orders for more than a few minutes.” 

We head into a barren steel corridor- signs of combat were apparent. A lot of bodies, complete with flashing sirens to add to the mood. I don’t know Dal is talking through some private channel, but everyone is dead silent now as we make a bend around the corridor. I get a buzz in my own comm suddenly. “Yeah?” 

I hear Dal’s voice, a lot less harsh compared to earlier. “It’s a private channel now” As I expected, but something still feels a bit off. “No, not between the whole squad. Just you and I.” Okay, now it’s getting…Interesting. I feel the heat rising up again, but it feels more pleasant than the anger like earlier. 

“Look, Derrek. I know I put you here because I want the others to see your worth, but I also don’t want to see you get killed out here in this feral sinkhole. Okay? Please don’t give them a reason to take you out of my squad.” I won’t lie. I feel good hearing that. “Dal, I’ve stayed alive so far, haven’t I?” “Yes…” almost immediately her voice hardens again,” But don’t keep doing that stupid, stupid heroism stuff. I’m no expert at Imperial mythos, but it doesn’t take one to see the consequences of heroism is being dead. I’ve already laid myself out to accusations of the Mon’Tau, don’t let it be for nothing. Don’t die, but getting yanked away is just as bad. ”

“Okay. Sorry” Is all I manage to squeak out. I’m starting to realize this is one of the few times someone has expressed care towards me outside of military necessity… I really don’t know what to make of it.

Without another word, I hear the channel close. Almost immediately another opens with Dal again, back with the calm but cold military voice. “Okay, still no messages from command. I’ve spoken with some of the other Shas’ui and we’re in agreement- we’re going to provide support to our forces below trying to take the inner sanctum. The intel we’ve gotten so far suggests that the remainders of the outpost are readying to call in all-out support from the Imperium.” 

Oh shit. That’s not good and for quite a few colorful, equally unpleasant possibilities. If they got the distress signals from a few days back, they may very well already be on the cusp of the system. That means the possibility of…Space Marines. Or worse. If they do respond, it means the Imperium has some kind of seriously important secret out here, and for all I know- which isn’t a great lot, admittedly- they might bring out the whole damned Inquisition! 

“Dal…Er, Shas’Ui Dal’yth, we can’t let that happen.” I try to formalize, hoping the slip-up is ignored on my quickly negative growing track record. “I know they have some kind of close guarded secret here. They’d do whatever it takes to defend it.” Several others voice agreements. “The Imperium is vast and we’re operating independently in this sector for the time being. We can’t allow this to escalate. Shouldn’t we be taking sentry duties instead of ground support?” 

Dal speaks in again. “Negative. We clean up the inner-sanctum and the Imperial city within its bailey, we relieve the Firewarriors and allow them to do it for us. “ Another annoying long pause “Understood.” Is the guy part sloth or something?

With that, we continue to follow her until we reach one giant elevatus platform. “We’re heading up to the curtain walls and going to attack from above. Once we’ve opened up a gap in their defenses, we’ll hold it so the Fire teams can finish the job.” I can’t fly. “Uh, Shas’Ui… I’m not equipped for this.” She turns to me. “You will be in a moment. “ Eh? “Pardon, Shas’ui?” 
I could feel her smile somewhere under that. “I took that into consideration already, Shas’La. So I requested a supply drop above. You’ll have a fresh suit with some improved gear. I couldn’t provide you with an actual XV suit, but I think you’ll find this works just as well.” I think I’m starting to really like this chick. 

As the platform slowly grinds upward, a strange twilight begins to filter in from above. The Aquilla relief in the checkpoint above slides open, revealing a blackened sky bleeding green light, the spores drifting across it like scores of blood droplets. The sounds of battle grow louder. Not deafening, but it was there. After a few more moments, we’re at the top. My attention to the freakish landscape was quickly pulled by the overwhelming fortress that we happened to stand upon.

It was like a huge ringed wall, surrounding a somewhat smaller but still giant keep within, teeming with smaller Imperial Guard structures. To think it had just been some ancient ruins mere days ago… Giant executioner pattern turrets laced the walls, but they didn’t move an inch. I could make out the faint glow of more broadsides and devilfish like things waving lasers about. Dal had done a damn good job, because it was clear that there was nothing left of the shattered southern wall. I can make out the battle raging on faintly below. The Tau have the blitz, but the Imperial Guard are dug in heavily as always. Squint and you can make out plenty of autocannon fire and more coming from the various bastions. The sheer number of corpses covered the ground, an equal mix of the Tau and Guardsmen. 

“…We’re waiting on you, Shas’La Derrek.” One of the other Tau voiced. He sounded calm, but these guys sound that way a lot. I’m betting he’s pissed, so I glance over to them.

Dal pointed to the left and I immediately notice a huge crate… Oh man…it’s like the holidays back home! 

I rush over and begin fidgeting with the seals to open it as she continues. “ The Hammerheads were kind enough to blast an opening at the top of the bailey’s peak, so we have an opening. That’s our entrance, and the Fire teams will provide us with an exit. Believe in them. Get in, cut the enemy communication relays, open up the line so the fire teams can exploit it, and finally get out. It’s all done for the greater good, Shas’la. “

I took a look at the suit within and I can’t help but feel excited all over again. It’s like my current kasrkin/firewarrior hybrid, but more plating on the shoulders and chest, plus, it’s in a dark, dark green. Almost black like the rest of it. The helmet isn’t like the Kasrkin one, however. It looks much more like one of the ‘Firewarrior’s, but even then it still has adjustments. I quickly set to ditching my current suit and I’m briefly shocked by how battered it got. I feel like I’m picking off some giant scab and it feels just as gross as it sounds.

I work my way into the new one, and all my body’s aches and pains seem to dissolve with one wink of the placebo effect. I look back in the crate and feel my jaw drop. Is that a fucking jetpack!? Oh, hell YES it is! Imperium can brag all about its superiority, but it never gave me a jetpack so they can stick all that righteous nonsense up the Golden Shithouse on Terra itself...Did I really just say that? Dal comes over. “I’ll help you get the jump pack on” Okay, jump pack. Not jet. My bad, still incredible. “Thanks.”

I turn my back to her, an expression you’d generally read as bad, but pretty much the opposite. I slip the helmet over my head and feel it all click into place as she loads the beautiful jump pack onto me. I lean in to grab the weapons. “Hey, I’m not done back here yet.” “Sorry, but I think you can understand- after all, you got this all for me. Is this some kind of date now?” I muse. I hear her grumble. “I don’t know, do the other Gue’la read this far into everything despite being told to be mindless meat shields?” I laugh now. “If we can get away with it, damn straight.” 

I heft up my new weapon. Bigger, longer. The Imperial squad mates would jokingly refer to these sorts of things in terms of ‘dakka’, as a reference to the Orks. And this had plenty of dakka on it for me. Grips, exhaust, a huge rig on top bristling with optics and lasers… I am a happy fellow.“Done drooling over it?” She says. “Nope, but I’m ready to show the gunbabies the benefits of defecting.” I grin under my helmet. 

“Then strap everything in and load up.”I can feel her pride for a brief moment before she quickly doubles back around with this: “And leave the newly acquired ego behind. A big head is much easier to shoot.”


----------



## C'Tan Chimera

I’m fucking flying. 

I can feel the power of the jump pack on my back, propelling me forward towards our destination.

This is just incredible. I’m terrified, yes, but for a change this is the kind of terror one can actually enjoy as the world hurries out of the way beneath me. I grip tightly onto my carbine as we approach the giant fracture in the Imperial Fortress’ inner sanctum. 

“Caution to all teams- your position has been compromised. Be prepared for incoming fire.” A voice stated suddenly in my helmet. Well, that’s… Pretty damn bad. I hear Dal and two others speak into shout into their comms. “Keep your cool, Shas’la and we will seize this day!” 

The blurred world gives way to a single gaping hole in the side of the great basilica’s peak, guarded only by grotesque gargoyles . I hear another member of our team speak. “Steady yourself, gue’vesa- this armor can only absorb so much impact.” 

Taking the message, I narrow my focus into the chasm, ignoring the rapidly approaching maws of the ugly statues. I tuck my upper body in and bend my legs at an angle and lean forward. Their eyes surge forward at me with empty judgment in them. I lean to the right and curl in on myself, throwing myself into oblivion. With the suction of a great wind, I holler in terror and excitement alike as I realize I’m not going to become a colorful splotch on the rim. Immediately the twilight of the outside world gives in to the darkness below. I’m moving so fast on the air that the landscape below seems just like a spiraling mass of colors. 

“Alright, drop point latitudes confirmed! Turn off your packs and prepare for free fall! This is always my favorite part.” I can hear Dal muse under her breath as she finishes her command. A ton of Tau talk starts flashing across my screen before dropping a diamond shaped reticule down below on the mess. I guess that’s the landing point. 

Suddenly my comm barks in my ear. “AUGH! Taking fire!” For the first time, I really get to hear one of these guys alarmed, turning my head to see one get knocked off course from a hail of tracer rounds. 

“Activate your cloaks, now!” Dal shouts. Suddenly the group around me is engulfed in a torrent of lightning before it quickly dies out, leaving nothing in it’s wake.. .Or so it would seem. I squint to try and get a look at their shapes before all that effort gives away to the wailing of the air. I don’t have a suit like they do. I can’t go invisible! 

“Shas’ui! I can’t activate a cloak!” A suddenly somber Dal remarks “ Draw their fire, then.” … Come on, Dal, what am I? “…Okay. Guess if somebody’s gotta go, it’s the outsider.” I grumble into the com before kicking myself forward with a burst of my pack. That sense of excitement quickly erodes into plain terror as I can hear the sound of Imperial weaponry below. 

My screen flashes red and a symbol appears in the corner. Red dots all over the screen appear and begin expanding into circles… What? I look clo- Oh shit, this thing is a projectile tracker!

I start cursing into my helmet as I frantically weave to the side as one rapidly enlarging circle reveals itself to be a hunter-killer missile. I can feel my body’s urge to loosen as I go hurtling outward in the midst of its shockwaves.The brief sound of its boosters is deafening, but it quickly dies to a silent hiss as several other missiles go completely off target. I find myself fixated at the mass of ground rising up quickly beneath me. No more foreboding red dots. Yet.

“Fire your packs up, team. Not you, Shas’la Derrek.” Dal speaks, trying to sound as apathetic as possible. 

I hear the roar of their jetpacks and see four ghostly bursts of light rush down below me, but my attention turns to the faint sound of explosions above. I turn my head briefly and grow pale as a mere fraction of a red ring begins to crawl out of the corner of my HUD*OH FUCK DEBRIS *

I kickstart my pack in a panic and go rocketing forward as I hear the groan of a massive hulk of shattered rockrete plummet behind me, briefly dragging me along in its fall. I hear the burst of tau weaponry and watch as the massive fragment explodes into molten fragments, revealing the green diamond yet again. I turn my way to it and glide forward.
“We got about 10 more seconds! Get into position!”

I funnel forward through the air, feeling as weightless as before, but the creeping feeling of gravity’s return looms below. The green diamond quickly throws itself at me and I can see visible, shattered land now. Dal suddenly blurts in, slipping up. “Derrek! Activate the damned chute!” Oh! Right! I fumble for half a second, my blood running hot as the tiles of the floor lunge for me. I mash the button and hear the hiss of relief. I suddenly begin to slow as though time has been briefly suspended… Then drop again to the floor. I wince and fall to one knee, feeling like I’ve been punched hard in the gut. I look up and can’t help but laugh… That whole thing was un-fucking-believable! 

I absentmindedly unsling my weapon and squat down low. The world phases back into existence and I’m in the midst of a shattered chapel. I gaze back up. Woah. Between the exchanges of pulse and las fire, I quickly realize how much they did to this place. This is the whole damned jungle infested city ruins –inside- a now brand new basilica. The shapes of bastions loom above crumbling ruins, firing all about. Even stranger , I can see… What in the hell? 

In the center of the ring of bastions, I can make out the works of an excavation site, but not like any other. I fidget with the controls in my helmet and zoom in even as I can hear Dal on the channel. “Shas’La Derrek, regroup with us. We’re preparing to break the line.”

This doesn’t look like the careful works of an Explorator crew… Hell, there is the Adeptus Mechanicus and… Oh shit, the Inquisition logos as well. All over the power loaders and Hades drills. On buildings and cranes alike, it’s everywhere. They are rushing…But for what? My mind briefly drifts back to the Necrons, but I glance a solitary figure standing atop the closest bastion, his cloak flapping… But there’s no wind in here. No exhaust. No landing vehi-…ve… 

I take a step back, my gaze transfixed as the figure turns to look directly right back at me. 

Bloodied and brutalized as ever, there stood Commissar Hauss. 

I quickly look away, finding myself breathing heavy for a moment. I pinch myself and look up. I tap my comms antennae and click it on. “Shas’Ui Dal, this is Derrek. I’m on my way… I’m getting a bad gut feeling about all of this, though.” 

I vault over the edge of church balcony and run into the open streets, lit only by the eerie, soft lighting of the stained glass far above.


----------



## jlaughter001

Well...I just read this whole thing in one go. Kudos, good read, and you really took the tense advice to heart. I enjoyed it alot, and I'll certainly be looking forward to the continuing story.


----------



## C'Tan Chimera

Thank you! We're winding towards the homestretch now- the final act. 

--------------------------------

Here I am, back where it all began. What had once been the open ruins of some long gone Imperial city now lies in the darkness of a fortress. Brief flashbacks trickle by as I make my way through the ruins, haunting but irrelevant. This city has always felt wrong to me, but now it is just ghastly. It is cast in a perpetual darkness, the only light that from the stained glass far overhead, and even then it is warped from the fog. It’s like a blackened, unpainted city, the only colors accidental splotches of erratic, shifting light splattered unevenly across its surface. Perhaps I’ve spent too long alongside the Tau, but this whole place feels villainous. 

Running forward, the one thing I’ve noticed about this place is this feeling of helplessness. To the sky is the great basilica’s dome, undoubtedly littered with surveillance and perhaps even some automated weaponry. Below… Well, I don’t want to think too much on that. 

There’s a buzzing in my comm, so I flip it on and can hear one of the other stealth troops. “Gue’vesa’la, Shas’Ui Dal has requested we meet up ahead and quickly. Our main forces are being pushed back by the Imperial line! If we do not make our move soon, it will spell disaster for our operation. “

I let him know I understand and flick it off, but there’s a feeling of reluctance in my chest. Regardless, I move forward. This whole city feels the same in the darkness. It’s all the same architecture, the same routes, the same ghoulish robed figures and skulls staring out accusingly at me. The occasional growth of plants juts and weaves through it, their dark red texture cast an even darker hue. It dawns on me that I’m subconsciously avoiding the light for fear of being noticed by the enemy, or worse- Hauss himself. I don’t understand it at all. I'm just a guardsman, but I know when I'm being toyed with. 

Up ahead, the sound of battle begins to dawn and an unpleasant smell assails me. Needless to say, it’s safe to assume what the smell is. As I venture forward, it all comes into view- the battle was indeed here. Bodies. So many bodies. The cobblestones and gratings beneath my feet are filled with blood and I can’t help but feel a little sick. 

I suck in a deep breath and begin to wade through them, Tau and Imperial corpses alike… Oh sweet throne, they’re still warm! I withhold a scream and squint hard. Just got to keep moving forward. Don’t look down, for crying out loud… Don’t look down. I know if I do I’ll see them. 

“Derrek, where are you? We’re waiting!” Dal shouts harshly into my headset, and between the most revolting warmth on my boots and the blood in my veins, I feel myself begin to boil. “Damn you, Dal! I’m wading through a tide of bodies! _BODIES!_ I’m doing my best to get through them, let alone puke!” I bark before turning the headset off and continuing my march, fixated on some far off building. Anything but the ground. I begin to think about what she told me- how she doesn't want me to get discharged or something. Out of guilt, I turn the channel back on. “…Look. I know I’m not helping you. I’m sorry, but…”

“Derrek, I know where you’ve been. I know the feeling, and don’t think for a second that I enjoy all the blood and death anymore then you might. Just please, get here.” She says at almost a whisper and I quickly realize it’s not a private channel. Stupid, stupid! I smack myself over the head and keep going, my trivial worries quickly forgotten by the sound of sifting flesh as I trudge on. I can see the flash of the battles on the horizon now and the distant roll of thunder. I keep heading towards that point when suddenly something grips my ankle and I find myself forward.

Green. Green flak jacket. Oh Emperor! I shout as I pull myself from the bosom of a dead man and scamble back, my fingers squirming under the skin as I brush up against bodies. Dead Tau, dead humans, blood and flesh… And moaning. My blood runs cold for a moment, but I feel the energy leap back into me as I hear it again. Somebody is still alive! I struggle to my feet.
“Hey, is anybody there?!” 

I find myself making eye contact, but not with anybody alive. A couple pair of glazed eyes stair out at me and I can’t help but look away. Most of the Tau had their helmets on, so that helped a little… I can catch a flicker of movement and rush to the source. A guardsman turns his weary head to me and…It’s Brutus!

“By the throne, Brutus!” I start pushing bodies out of the way. He looks at me, pale and tired. “…Oh, bloody hell. It’s you, damn it.” He groans wearily and turns away. “Dammit, Brutus!” I pull him over, only to be weakly swatted away. “I don’t want your help, bastard…” His voice cracks into something of a sob. “_You’re_ the reason I’ve gotten the last few turds whipped out of me.”… He’s right. Guilt seeps into me. “Look, I can get you out of here. I can get you patched up! Look at me- look at my han-“ “Don’t throw that shit at me, stumpy!” He spat with all the ferocity of a dying animal- an animal that just wanted to be left alone. “…They shot me. After I had given so much for the Guard, they shot me. Lit me up like lho stick, even after I dropped the damn xeno toy and came to them pleading to be let back in. Planks didn’t even think on it… Guilt by fuckin’ association…” His eyes are barely open, but I can see the same feeling in them that I knew so recently. “I’m gonna bleed out soon enough. Just let me be- I got nowhere to belong at this point anyway. ”

I look at him and I feel like I’m seeing some fragment of myself. I feel horrible, but I know how he feels too. I’m not going to find his wounds- I know I’d try to help out of guilt if I do. I get up. “I’m sorry, Brutus.” He coughs, blood trickling down his mouth. “Don’t. You made your choice…And I’ve made mine.” He coughs up more blood this time but cracks a frail smile. “I’ve got enough problems as it is and I ain’t got room for regret.” 

I get up and begin to walk away. “Stumpy!...” Turning back to him, he looks at me. “ There are others that would probably appreciate your fancy talk still around… Ones that can be saved… Hope the Xenos chick was worth it. Make sure to fuck her brains out so this didn’t all go to waste…” He coughs and laughs at the same time, bitterly. I wince and look away. “Okay.” I mutter under my breath and keep going… It hurts because he’s right. I did a lot of this in the beginning for her. He goes quiet and after a pause, I keep going, my stomach weighted down. 

I walk toward the flares of battle up ahead, the flickering icon in the corner pointing me towards the rendezvous point. I can’t help but constantly look over the bodies, hoping to find some other poor sap I might save to make up for what I did to Brutus. The bitterness of desertion I thought had long gone quickly returned, and it felt like I had an entire storm cloud looming above me. 

“It is your fault, traitor.” 

Freezing in my tracks just outside of the casualty pile, I glance movement ahead. Between the alleys ahead the cloaked figure of Hauss appears. I involuntarily swallow, but I don’t feel frightened either. Just empty. 

He comes down the narrow path. I can only grunt. “You came all the way back from the Golden Shithouse just to rub it in, huh.” If Hauss had really been brought back from the dead, I doubt his top priority would be haunting me. If he was actually confronting me, he would have disemboweled me by now. He looms over me, his gaze cold and uncaring. “Your blasphemies do not fall on deaf ears, whe-“ I interrupt him. “Hauss is dead. I saw him get filled full of holes. If you came here to manipulate me, you picked a pretty sorry time to try it.”

He continues to stare at me. I try to step past him and he pushes me back. “For fucks sake, you a Culexus or something?” 

Suddenly he smirks. 

“You’re close. I’ll give you credit for catching the act.” 

“You could give me credit by letting me through- I’m a little late for a rendezvous.” 

The figured disguised as Hauss shakes it’s head. “Perhaps if you walk with me, not run past me.” It grins unnervingly wide. I look away for a moment and spit on the ground before returning my gaze to him.

“I’m guessing I don’t have much of a choice in the matter, do I?” It’s grin grows even wider. “I’m glad we can have this little heart-to-heart in a ...civilized manner.” 

He turns around and steps to the left, holding his right arm out as a gesture. I step beside him and we walk. I won’t lie when I say it does freak me out, but I’ve come to the conclusion showing fear doesn’t get you far around here.

“You take this all so very hard… Derrek. It’s _almost_ as if you’re operating in denial of the fact that everything….Everything dies in the long run.” It speaks now, in a willowy voice definitely not like that of Commissar Hauss’s own. The figure suddenly laughs. I twitch. “Everything dies, Derrek. Especially you humans. Most of you exist…Or serve, really, to clog the enemy’s guns long enough for astartes…As you call them, to take credit for all of your dead boy deeds. Never a say, never a say at all.” He cocks his head at me and I grow more steadily unnerved. 

“You’ve never had a choice, Derrek. You’ve been pushed around gunpoint to gunpoint… I can help you with all of that. I thought maybe I could steer you in the right direction with some smoke, mirrors, and the occasional commissar hat. You’re obviously sharper than that, which you ought to feel good about compared to some of your kind I’ve dealt with in the past.”

I look at him, skeptical and confused. “What are you talking about?”
He looks up and smirks. “I’m talking about a solution here, my naive friend.” An uncomfortable pause passes between us. “Unfortunately, I hadn’t quite considered that you might have seen through the charade, and I’m a little tight on time at the moment.” His grin vanishes in a heartbeat and he looks back at the horizon, then up to the peak of the basilica. “Watch for me, Derrek. I’m your happy ending.” 

I catch myself glimpsing up with him, only to look back down and see that he’s vanished.


----------



## C'Tan Chimera

I’ve arrive at the rendezvous point, emotionally drained before I even enter the battle. I take my helmet off and lean against an old rockrete wall. I know I’m too late again. Not a word from Dal or the others. I stare into my helmet. I know I don’t fit in with these guys… And yet I know she cares for me anyway. I take another look at the helmet with its weirdass visors. I hold no allegiance anymore. I’ve deserted the Imperial Guard, I might as well be considered a rogue element amongst the Tau, and then there’s the thing masquerading as Hauss. I don’t know what it is, but I don’t like it or the fact that it wants me to join up with it now either. 

But… In a way… It just doesn’t feel bad anymore. A smile slowly creeps across my face. Freedom, really. For a change, I feel free, alone in these ruins. I could take my firepower and my unknown status… Flee the place. Do whatever I want. Maybe I won’t last long, but I’ll die doing what I wanted, not what others wanted.

And yet I know I can’t do that. It’s pretty obvious at this point. It’s been lurking in the back of my head all this time, but what little was left of the Imperial doctrine branded in my skull has fought long and hard to hold it back. I think this denial might be what has held me back- this wading between ideologies and motives… I glance around and open my mouth. Nothing comes out. I try again and gag reflex alone stops me at first, but finally I break through it.

“I have the hots for the Tau girl. Dal. I like her.” 

I snap my jaw shut, waiting for someone to shout or a Commissar to drop out of the sky sent by the ‘divine’ Emperor to render judgment…Annnnd absolutely nothing, but if you want a romance story, you’ve come to the wrong guardsman. 

It’s just one more thrown onto the pile of blasphemy I have committed lately, so fuck it, let them cringe if they should hear this. I pick the helmet up and look at it expecting protest- when I get none, I put it right back on my head. My first choice in my newly discovered freedom? Help the Tau out. I need some friends because I probably would have been dead five times over now if they had not been there. I grip my rifle and vault over the buildings rubble. 

I fixate my eyes on the ground, jumping and scurrying down the uneven ledge. The battle drags on just beyond the old manufactorum up ahead. I tap my headset and the comms buzz to life. 

“…Fall back to the rally point with caution, all Fire Teams- seismic activity is rapidly devolving into a disaster. Standby and be prepared for possible evacuation. The climate is quickly turning against us.”

I have no idea what they’re going on about, being stuck within a giant fortress, but I’ll take their word for it. The sounds of battle ring out like a storm now…Or maybe there is an actual storm going on? I don’t know, but the explosions are definitely there. Break through the enemy line, allow them to push into the breach, right? Right. I try speaking into the headset just for good measure.

“Shas’ui Dal’yth? It’s Derrek- I can’t really explain it over this channel, but I was delayed by… I don’t know.” 

Nothing yet. I keep moving forward but the comm quickly returns my message. “-Errek! We’re sustaining casualties! Only three of us left---- ere are you? We need your assistance!” Just keep on moving. “Fill me in on the situation! I’m approaching some sort of battery line up ahead.” More static. “Reserves attacked us after we made the initial strike on the enemy’s front line. Our spearhead is losing momentum and as soon as that happens there’s no doubt the entire force is going to turn in on us.”

I slow down as gun barrels creep over the horizon… Yup, those are definitely basilisks- the one vehicle that you always want to be close to no matter what side you’re on.

“Did you eliminate the enemy forces holding the artillery line?” Yet more garbled nonsense in the headset. “…Reserve--nything stupid!” 

Now it’s just more static mush. Take a deep breath in now, Derrek. I don’t feel like backing out on my own “die doing what I want” policy. I rush head on between the alleyway… And see the ass end of a chimera jutting out from the side. 

I’m gonna rethink my strategy. I’m on my own now against at least one whole damn APC. Hijack it? 

Nah. There’s a reason I got stuck as a conscript. 

Wait. This suit does look kind of like a Kasrki-… For fucks sake, that won’t work either! I’d just have my brains blown right out even if they did think I was for real because I was ‘slacking off’ or something. Now I suddenly remember the fancy markerlight kit they mentioned was installed on my gun. It mostly worked for supporting other teams or something, but they did mention some sort of fancy missile. Hell, I got nothing else going for me so far, why not?

I clamber into the remains of the building’s first flow and peek through a window. Just two APCs. Just two, yeah. Easy….Ugh. There’s the one right next to me outside of the building, and then one across from it, covering its blind spot. Really feeling glad I didn’t just barge out there right now. Three basilisks tower behind it, their crew- probably replacements after Dal’s dirty work- busy doing all that fancy coordinate stuff the pilots loved to always boast about. I guess I can see why since a good bit of it usually just went right over my head. 

I dick around with the markerlight’s controls for a moment, but I seem to have routed the rifle’s trigger mechanism to operate with said markerlight instead of the usual ammunition. I gingerly slide my gun through some of the debris and the next few moments drag on as I carefully line my gun up to the front of the blissfully unaware Chimera. I squeeze the trigger and feel my sense of awareness escalate with the appearance of a red dot contrasting against its dull urban paint… Really don’t like just waiting here awkwardly… Waiting…

Getting kinda nervous now… Okay fuck it one of these buttons has to do it. I start off by mashing the red button. Still nothing. 

Fuck this. I’m gonna try to just sneak around it. I work my way out of the building and walk creep through the alley, hoping to slip around a city block annddd I hear the sound of shrieking air and an explosion. My missile? Fuck it, only one way to find out.

Sure enough, the former transport is now a billowing pile of fire. I can hear shouting now and I’m just gonna go with my gut now. I jump into the back of the nearby chimera and hurry to the other side. 

Scramble like a monkey up into the turret. All guns have triggers. Really hope this gun’s trigger still works. I grab one of my fancy flashy photon grenade things and have it at the ready. I grab the boltergun and start spraying before I even see them. I finally spot a few and swallowing what little dignity I have left, I mow down several. I glance away, trying to ignore their cries. Lots of red sprays across my peripheral vision as I hear the others yelling stuff like “Take the damn vehicle!” 

A lasshot sears my helmet and I can hear boots clambering onto metal. I pop the photon grenade and lob it down beneath me. I wait and hear it burst, more shouts of anger. I throw caution to the wind and scramble over the lip of the turret, trying to ignore the las rounds and afterimage of the bloodied soldiers. I jump off the side of the chimera and find the soldiers getting back to their senses or trying to get into the cockpit. 

I throw myself to cover, aim my gun up, look away and spray my rounds wildly. I wait until the sounds of screaming stop... One or two death rattles, but now silence swoops over. I catch myself on the verge of retching, but force myself to turn back. Storm the basilisks. I turn back, only to find most of the crews fled. I try to keep my gaze fixated on the nearest basilisk and off the bodies. I just killed a dozen people. Maybe more. 

No, no. Not now.

As I approach the stairs, I can see one of the crew prone on the platform, a laspistol aimed at me. He fires and it burns my skin. Stumbling back, I raise my gun. “Don’t try that! I just killed all of your friends- don’t think I don’t have any of it left in me to add you to the list too!” I growl at him. He doesn’t move and I can feel the guilt pressing into my skin. “…I don’t want to… But I will if you do!” I hastily throw- probably failing at sounding the slightest bit compassionate. I heft my gun in his direction. “Drop that!” After a moment, he does so. I get up and kick the gun off the platform. 

“Oh Emperor… You’re a human.” He croaks… Yes… I am… Maybe even just a ‘was’ . I was human. Struggling to find a way to shrug that off with a shred of humanity, all I get out is “ A friend of mine , a loyalist, said that things are bad enough without the regret.” I look at him. “I let him die a loyalist… I’ll give you a chance now.” He looks at me, distress on his face. “I don’t know how to cope with what I’ve chosen, really… I really don’t want to kill you- but if you want to be treated with more dignity then I have, I can give you it.” 

A moment of silence.

“…I can’t do it. “ He mutters. Dal would probably want to kill me right now, but I can’t just keep acting like some cold, calculative Space Marine. I offer to help him up. “I-I can do it myself.” He grunts. I take my helmet off and look him eye to eye… Hazel eyes wide open, his sandy hair flattened with sweat. Suddenly I start to realize how quickly I’ve changed as I see the same expressions in his eyes that overpowered me mere days ago. I’m not stronger or more experience than he is. I’m just comfortably numb to it all now.

“What’s your name?” “My name?... Jax.” He nods slowly. I look him right into the eye.

“Jax… This cannon is loaded, right?” The distraught look on his face grows even larger. "Why?" I shake my head and step forward to the controls. "This thing have a big red button with a skull and crossbones on it or something? You know, like, the firing button?"

Now I feel it. The same conflict. "What the hell?! No! By the damned throne, if you even try-" I spin around. "What? What are you going to do? I was swearing by that same throne only a day or two, and all he's done is lend me a shovel to help me dig faster into this hole I made!" 

He sneers. "Maybe if you didn't go running to the grayskins you might have been spared his wrath." Maybe I should have killed the guy after all? Same fucking intolerance, different sides. "You're not the one with a headcount of 15 something fellow men, so shut it." I turn back to the controls and wince. "I hate to make it bigger, but I promised a friend I wouldn't let her down." 

I reach for the controls when I feel the movement. I swerve to the right and duck as Jax throws his fist at me. I wrap my left arm around his striking arm, yank it forward and bring my right robot arm against the back of his head and smash his face against the controls. I hear him yell and swear, but that is quickly overtaken by the deafening boom.

Suddenly all I can hear is ringing before I'm rocked off my ass and fall to the ground. A few moments pass, both of us kissing the cold floor, dazed.

"You bastard..." I hear him cough. "I can say the same, damned plankhead" I grumble right back. So much for aiming it. The thought briefly dawns on me dropping the round right on top of Dal's squad. 

I leap to my feet and grab Jax' binoculars from him. I peer through them overhead towards the horizon... Holy hell that was off target.

In fact, all I blew apart was a massive chunk of wall across the basilica- but that's not important. I look through the hole and freeze in my boots. 

Green lightning everywhere, the black silhouettes of Imperial craft sticking out against it and it's raging clouds. The orange glow of fire outside barely illuminates the bottom of the ships, and my eyes practically crawl out of their sockets to make out the emblems of the Inquisition.


----------



## C'Tan Chimera

The Inquisition. Knocking right here on the door. 

Being something of a full blown traitor, you can imagine I’m naturally a little freaked out. Yet I know they’re here for something else. Something worse. They obliterated this moon’s fathering planet Ulacant after they had unearthed…Something. By luck this moon survived it’s tumble through the void of space. I guess they’ve been looking for it all this time. Whatever that excavation I saw down in the city earlier… I think that’s it. 

Jax moans and slowly gets to his feet, blood pouring out of his nose. He storms up to me but halts as soon as he spots the ships as well. “So, Jax… Any chance they gave you a better explanation of what the hell is going on here?” He pinches his nose and shakes his head. “Nothing… Is that really the Inquisition?” I find myself nodding, speaking aloud more to confirm it for myself. “Yes. Yes it is.” 

I’d like to think this changes everything, but I got a promise to fulfill. I point my gun up at Jax. “Help me load this cannon. Contrary to what you’re hoping, I don’t intend to kill you if you don’t cooperate.” He scowls right back at me. “So what are you going to do? Pick me apart? You need my hands and legs.” I ram the barrel of my gun between his legs. “I don’t need your balls. Got that?” That got his attention. Nothing to put a guy in line like threatening his manhood. “Fuck you.” He grunts before setting to load a nearby shell into the giant chamber. 

I flip my headset on. “Shas’ui Dal’yth? Are you getting this?” A weak, static signal dribbles in. “ It’s just me and Shas’la Eyen…I’m shamed by you…” She’s trying to be formal, but I can hear otherwise in the voice. I’ve never heard her sad before. “No, no.” I mutter back in. “I haven’t ditched you.” Silence. 

“You don’t get any of this, do you? This has never been about me, Gue’vesa!” She shouts with a singe of anger. “We work differently in this Empire... And I can no longer promise that you’re a part of it.” 

I really shouldn’t be getting upset over this, but I am. “I’m about to push through your damn enemy line! I am TRYING to help!” I bark. After another moment of silence, I break it again. “You want help? I’ll tell you help. You got an entire fleet of the Imperium’s boogiemen descending on you and I can imagine they’re mighty pissed off about you guys! “ I turn it off and flip through the objectives HUD filter. Sure enough, the coordinates of the line I was supposed to shatter appears. Jax appears. “It’s loaded. Now what?” Heat rising in my cheeks, I look at him. “I’m taking over the loading. I want you to lock this thing down on .4500 Lateral and 5.300 depth, got it?” He stares at me, helpless and angry. “Now!” I shout. 

I get to work gathering shells as I hear Jax grinding away at the axis controls. More flares of fire outside that small window I created far across the structure. The worry about it is quickly replaced with another. “Jax. Wouldn’t your buddies have radioed this in to your chain of command?” I earnestly ask. Nothing from him. “I’m serious, damn it. This should be bothering you too.” Another pause, but he speaks up. 

“They better have.” He mutters. “Well either they didn’t or you just drew the short stick.” “You want me to fire this thing or not?” “Damn right I do.” He doesn’t even look at the controls, keeping his angered eyes on me as he presses several buttons. Sure enough, the great platform quakes with a deafening boom. We both cringe and stagger under its force.

“Now again.” 

This goes on for seven more firings until I hear Dal in my headset again. “Gue’vesa! What are you doing?” I smirk. “You getting my presents down there?” I bite my lip as I imagine how horrible that sounds if I’m accidentally shelling her guys instead. Definitely not what I had intended. “Yes… They’re clearing out in a panic. I’m not sure what you’ve done besides that, but you’ve got them all disorientated. Our men can finally advance… I just wish it could have been sooner.” I can’t help but smile under my helmet. This actually worked! Actually freakin’ worked! “I’m on my way down with a couple prisoners.”

I flip it off and look back at Jax. “Prisoners?” He obviously isn’t happy- I’m just unsure if it’s about my motives or the plural. “I’m tired of killing my own kind.” I remark. I begin to march down the platform when it hits. I guess we could be forgiven for assuming it artillery shells or nearby explosions, but not this. 

A great cascade of grinding and groaning steel echoes throughout the massive chamber. I look up at the stained glass above, the few dying beams of light swaying through them. I can see the ground rumbling…Shaking… 
The basilisks lurch forward. One of them is dragged forward by the weight of its own might and tumbles forward, sinking down the earth below. Now the ground is vibrating violently. Shit… I spin to face Jax. “This an earth shaker round?” He shakes his head. “Not that I ever heard o-“ His sentence is interrupted by the shrieking, grumbling roar of ancient ruins finally giving away after eons of resistance. 

I feel myself freeze up in horror as our own basilisk begins to crawl forward. “Get the fuck off!” I yell to Jax as I bolt. Immediately however I hear a great shattering and look up just in time to see all the stained glass fall apart above. I can’t actually see it, but I know its coming. I throw myself to the ground and put my arms over my neck, wince and wait. Sure enough, a thousand shots of pain ripple through me as the shards pierce me. Needless to say, I scream and loudly at that. 

The ground keeps quaking , but the hissing of lightning joins in. Despite the pain trying to tug me back down, I pull my head up and look upward to the ceiling. Green lightning floods the ceiling, washing the dark world in a sickly dancing light. A hissing, popping noise brings my attention back down to the ground I’m sprawled on, and I watch in horror as the green lightning strikes the ground. The ground spasms and shudders- then like a festering wound, it bursts. Violent, twisted figures blossom from the ground, twitching erratically.

I suddenly feel a little better about killing those soldiers earlier, because I realize I spared them a far worse fate. Those monsters I encountered on the first night… They’re back, the horrid images following on their heels. Blades unfold like fans. They’re clean…Naked, even…For now. I’m not going to be the first.

The lower half of my brain takes reign as I leap to my feet and run for the basilisk. “Release the fucking clamps!” I bark. A terrified and bewildered Jax has no problem obeying now, even though he seems to forget what’s about to happen as he does it. The machine groans and the breaks release. I watch as it rolls forward and tips over the edge.

I vault over the edge of the cliff and aim for the rolling basilisk. I hope these jump packs don't eat through fuel.


----------



## C'Tan Chimera

Okay, this is incredibly stupid! 

Thanks to my phobia of the Necron monsters, I’m in freefall above a basilisk rolling down a massive pile of rubble in the middle of an earthquake. I guess I could abandon Jax now that I got my use out of him, but I can’t do that. I’ll never be commissar material with this outlook, but I can’t stand to let my body count grow any larger. 

Recreating the same maneuver I did a little over an hour or two ago, I hit the thrusters on my jump pack and try to position myself above the tumbling vehicle. Jax is screaming something, but I doubt it will really be helpful. The basilisk is huge, so it’s not too surprising to me that its momentum is quickly giving it the upper hand. The rush of air is putting a cold strain on my body, but all I can do now is tense up harder… Getting close now…. I’m going to regret this.

I kill the power on my jump pack and feel the air give out under me. Biting into my lip, I hold back the urge to scream. Focus. Focus. All that matters is landing. Not landing isn’t an option. Jax has lost his footing and is hurled into the cannon’s shield. Focus, got to land this right_fffuuuuuck_!

I feel my foot light up as it collides head on with the machine’s workings and it feels like my brain is being flung out of its skull. I smash right into an already pinned Jax. Blood surges from my nose and splatters my HUD. Dammit! I’m scared shitless right now and the violent lurch suggests this damn thing just tripped on its own cannon. “Don’t fucking let go!” is all I manage to spit out before I coil my metal hand around his waist, pin him to my shoulder and kick myself off the side of vehicle. 

The wail of the jump pack returns and we take to the sky again. Jax is yelling louder than me at this point. I can’t look back, but I can hear the basilisk spiral out of control with deafening bangs and the grinding of metal. Horror creeps over me as I can feel Jax begin to get sucked out from under my arm, so I kill the jump pack and instead turn him over and hug him to my chest. The windburn is beginning to overtake my armor now and all I really want is the feeling of terra firma again. 

I can’t tell how far we’re going anymore and I’m too petrified to look down now. We need to get lower, and soon. I know this pack won’t be able to hold out much longer. “Jax, don’t let go or you WILL die!” I holler and kill the power yet again. You can imagine the expletives he screams as we go plummeting yet again.

Now a few feet forward with the pack. Kill the power again. A few more feet once again, not flip it off. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat. 

The world slowly begins to come back into existence again as the horizon rises for me. Quickly it rushes up and now all I need to do is take a leap…Er, well, fall of faith. I snap my eyes shut, wince and turn the power off and tell myself to refrain from hitting it. 

The longest few seconds of my life now. I can’t even scream I’m so terrified but Jax is making up for me. It’s almost as if some great invisible hand has grabbed us and is dragging us down to some horrible place. Just a few more…. Bah, fuck it, I’m hitting it now!

I mash the power again and follow it up by switching it off immediately. The invisible hand stops to a dead halt for a fraction of a second, then let’s go altogether. What feels like a punch to the gut and a blunt object to my knees strikes me and I take a face plant head on into a massive green…shrub thing. Whatever, the point being it’s better than rockrete. 

I try to speak but all that comes up is the wind knocked out of me. “UUUuuuhhhhfuck!” I spit out before finally dropping Jax, now far more concerned with my abused body. After a few moments of language so colorful that the Slaanesh guy cultists would squint, it gives away to hearty, terrified laughter. 

Getting to my knees, I yank the hot, filthy and broken helmet off my face like a resistant boot. What could pass for fresh air around here fills my blood caked nostrils and it feels damn good. For a change, I feel alive!.. Sad it takes a horrifying near death experience to cause that.

Then the whole sensation replays as Jax’ boot goes into my gut. “Throne-forsaken asswipe!” He shouts angrily. I cough up a little bit of blood, still laughing. “I just saved your ass from metal twists and becoming a colorful splotch on asphalt and that’s what you gotta offer?!” I roll over on my back now, Jax looming over me. His face is bright red and I’m pretty sure he pissed himself. I probably have pissed myself twice today too, so no shame in that. He wants to beat the living stuffing out of me, but he can see I got a point. “Whatever, psycho… What the hell were those things?”

A veil of seriousness sweeps over me as the images of the Necron creatures overtake me again. We might have escaped them now, but…

As if serving confirmation, the ground quakes beneath us with another tremor. Standing back up, I notice how much I feel like a battered sack of rations. I groan and stretch. “We got to get to Dal…” I grumble, leaning down to scoop my helmet up. Hopefully we should be getting picked up by the Tau spearhead in a few moments. Ignoring the barrage of “Who the hell is Dal?” questions, I reluctantly I pull the helmet over my face again and grind through the usual procedure to contact her.

“Dal! It’s Derrek! I’ve got a prisoner and probably went clear through the objective by now…Where the hell is everyone?” 

Silence.

“Dammit, Dal! Where are you?” 

Suddenly, a regrettably recognizable voice creeps in through the headset.
“…I regret to inform you Derrek that she’s caught up in some…Complicated affairs right now.” I feel myself stiffen at the voice. “…Okay, quit fucking with me. Show yourself.” One of his wretched pauses. “I’m to your left, Derrek- there is no need to succumb to such frustrations s-so…so…Hastily.” 

I curse some more and turn to the left. Sure enough, the thing parodying as Hauss was there, blending in with the various mournful statues lining the side of a crumbled shrine, his presence betrayed by the light of stained glass. I can hear Jax speaking to me in the background. “What’s up? The heck’s got your attention?” The creature’s eyes are about the only thing that stick out of the darkened rubble. He begins to speak again, but even from over here I can see he’s not moving his lips.

“You’-re not the only concern of mine, my dear….Plans much bigger… They call for attention, and time… Time is now running out. I would really…Really now, like to talk to you about the help I can offer.” 

The guy is freaking me out. It shouldn’t be surprising that I’m about to reject that offer. “Sorry. I also have more important plans right now.” He makes some sort of gross, drawn out licking sound. “I can’t promise this offer will last…Now… You’ve got an hour to make up that ever-so cautious mind of yours...”

Once again, he vanishes. I really don’t like any of this. “Hey, don’t go all weirdbrain on me- what kind of conversation with a friend was _that_?” Jax quips . “It wasn’t. We need to find her.” Is all I can mutter before I turn around. Suddenly, the HUD lights up in my helmet and a green area lights up not too far away from my own marked position. I think that’s her work. 

It’s time to move. 

This is much bigger than one xenos girl. I know it in my gut and can feel it in the tremors beneath my boots.


----------



## C'Tan Chimera

A horrible quietness has spread through the massive basilica. The sounds of faint war rumbling off in the distance has died down into the pitter-patter of small arms fire. It all seems unnervingly calm. The quakes have suddenly stopped, and it feels empty. Jax and I have been walking for an hour now, trying to navigate through the endless strips of foliage-devoured city ruins. The Imperials had initially sucked away all the spore clouds and other various offending fauna within their biome, but the plants have begun releasing it again, further cloaking the landscape in an unsettling darkness. 

I’m not speaking up to Jax about the Necrons. I know we’re not alone- but they haven’t shown themselves yet. I can feel that horrid creeping feeling inside me again…Twitching, squirming. They’re here. I just don’t know where. There isn’t too much to mention as Jax and I aren’t what one would call mutual friends, but he hasn’t shot me with the salvaged lasgun he found, so that’s good enough for me. I promised him that we’d let him return to the Guard by himself once I found Dal, so that seems to have satisfied him for now. As for me… Well, I just know I need to get out of here. It’s one of the feelings in my gut that I can safely go with. 

I see the craters . The holes in the walls are everywhere. The ground is pocketed with boiling slag and the copper scent of blood lingers- although to be fair, that could just be my helmet. Battle definitely broke out here, but unlike before where I had to wade through all the bodies, I don’t see a single corpse. Not a single drop of blood. I hate to double back on opinions, but I preferred all the bodies to this. This just isn’t right and I can feel it down in me. 

As we go through an old checkpoint, I can’t help but worry as we get closer and closer to the massive excavation site up ahead. Dal marked that as her position. I’m hardly worried about her so much as that one figure…

The thought is interrupted as the sound of faint shouting arises nearby. We both stiffen. “That sounds human.” Jax comments. I don’t bother taking note of the obvious xenophobic undertones. “Let’s go.” I huff as we bend around the street, dashing down the hazy streets looking for a gap on the left side. As we get closer, the sounds intensify. The sound of lasguns grow, and I can begin to hear the sounds of other weapons. 

A gaping hole in rockrete slowly crawls into view as we make our dash. I point it out and we head straight for it, clambering through smoldering ruins, still warm from weapons fire. It’s getting louder and louder, quicker and quicker as we move through. The building ruins are darker than night, but we trip our way through, cursing all the while. Then what one might be forgiven for calling light appears. I gesture to Jax, telling him to stop moving. I slowly make my way past him and peek through the rubble. 

At least a couple dozen Imperial Guardsmen were dug in to a makeshift barricade atop a landscape of craters. The excavation site lurked in the background, a massive crate with the Inquisition insignias on it. I don’t know what’s in it- maybe I shouldn’t. I almost fail to see the beings. Those horrible, horrible creatures with the metal blades for fingers. They’re scurrying across the craters towards the guardsmen. They have a single gunner with a boltgun, blasting in to the horde, occasionally stopping several but never downing them.

Without saying a word, Jax quickly runs ahead of me toward the craters… The ones I’m pretty certain I’m responsible for. “Come on! Come on!” He bellows as he runs for them. I begin to make after him, but the familiar red lights blink off in my peripheral vision. A glimmer of hope stirs in my chest and I run for it, stumbling forward through the rubble and spider web cracks scarring the ground beneath me. And yet… I stop. I look back and see the monsters scrambling up towards the horrified group, Jax uselessly trying to distract them… I’m not going to turn my back on humanity a second time. I glance over and the red lights are gone. 

I suck it all in and charge with Jax. Jump into this crater, run up into the next. I level my gun up to my shoulder and squeeze off a burst at the creatures from behind. A flurry of plasma weaponry strikes the closest monster in the back and pushes it into the dirt. I begin to fire at the next one as the remaining 6 attempt to climb the side of the barricade, knocking one off but only in time to see the other get back up, churning around to look at me. I only now notice all the dried blood caked all over its surface. I swallow deep as it begins to come towards me, inexplicably in a slow crawl now. Jax ignores me, shouting in anger as he tries to kill off another one about to make it over the barricade.

The one begins to lurch for me, it’s baleful green pupils transfixed on me… My skin. For a brief, horrible moment I idly wonder if this was the same one I encountered almost a week ago. It unfolds its great blades, striding toward me. I break my gaze from it’s to look find a place to run, only to see more…Things crawling out of the craters themselves, smothered in dirt, laced in only trace amounts of filthy, shredded flesh. Oh please, not again…
I feel myself begin to buckle down under their gazes, but I manage to pull another few rounds out of my carbine and smash one into pieces. To my horror, I realize the remainders have abandoned the barricade in favor of me. Why me for fucks sake?!

I practically shit myself as the one I smoked only a moment ago begins to twitch. All of it’s separate pieces begin to crawl to each other, struggling to pile in on top of each other like bugs. All I can shout is fuck and begin blasting at it more, tunnel vision slowly creeping into the corners of my eyes. I start to back up, only to turn and see the others _coming right back down the wall for me!_Where are the guardsmen?! Why aren’t they shooting? Did they all die? Oh fuck, whatever! Death has come for me now! I spin around with the things slinking in from every direction. I start spraying madly. “Die! Die! AND DIE _AGAIN_!!” I just keep screaming it. They’re practically on me now. Sharp points begin to move in for me like some immaterial iron maiden with shimmering green eyes uncaring from all directions. 

*“FOR THE EMPEROR!” *

The cry is universal and almost welcoming. A wave of guardsmen pour from the sides of the barricade and jump on the beasts. A single officer with a powerfist grabs one’s head from behind and rips it right off of its neck, most of the other brave- if foolish- souls lash with bayonets and gun butts. I unload on the ones where it was safe enough to avoid hitting the guardsmen. The blood begins to pour as several manage to shake off their assailants. One leans right over, throwing a guardsmen off of it and into the ground between me and it. 

He begins to yell in horror as it rears up to dig in, firing in futility at it. I lunge forward, grab him by the leg and yank out just in time to avoid being impaled. I find the rush of battle taking over now as I bring my robotic elbow into the soft spot of its neck, tearing through ancient wires. I push in deeper, the inner Imperial relishing the crunch of it’s mechanics. The guardsman I rescued fires into it’s face, disfiguring it before it throws its weight around and sends me flying. That brief moment of complete surrender ends with a violent thud. For a brief moment I’m staring up at the vast ceiling before I scramble back to my feet. The fucker is still up! 

The Necron charges the guardsman I helped, wrapping it up in a sinister hug. I can hear him scream a mix of anger and terror, but I throw myself at it. I wrap my arm around its neck and squeeze as hard as I can. I can see the man ensnared in its embrace blow all the air out of his lungs, squirming out from under its grip with the price of losing some skin to its fingers in the process. 

He angrily shrieks and thrusts his bayonet into its exposed wired guts, sending arcs of lightning everywhere. With a final tug I hear the sweet release and its head tumbles to the floor. I look to the guard and he hesitates, but shouts triumphantly as he thrusts his bayonet into its neck stump, twisting violently. I’m thrown off again, the thing flailing about violently in a choreography of twisted blades. I pin myself to the ground and crawl away from the cyclone of death right above me. 

Finally I raise my gun and blast away into its already damaged wiring. It finally stops, but not before the other guardsman shouts and kicks it to the ground with a loud bang. “Get it the fuck away from me!” I bark and scramble backwards. The man stands there, his eyes suddenly widen and he shouts before bringing his rifle up and firing more. Suddenly I hear another crunch and the limp form of another monster tumbles right over my shoulder and into the crater before me. 

I look over me and see the officer, his powerfist covering in dirt, blood and oil. I involuntarily convulse in disgust as I see his other arm- the cloth ripped revealing whole portions of his arm missing skin .The sad display hung from his shoulder by a few threads of remaining skin. Blood poured down his stoney face. I want to say his presence was inspiring, but truthfully it was terrifying. 

Suddenly their guns are leveled at me, including Jax. Guess I should have seen that coming. 

“I suppose I should thank you for intervening, but I loathe traitors almost as much as those fuckers.” He grunted, cocking his bolt pistol. I just sigh. “Guilty as charged.” I grumble. 

The one guardsmen I fought alongside pokes up, his face pressed into some torn cloth from his shirt, rapidly turning red with soaked blood. “Hudgens, Sir… He did save my life. Twice.” The officer named Hudgens briefly levels it at him. “Not another word, Kidney- unless you want to join him on the firing line.” A couple others chuckle dryly and it hurts almost as much as the blades. “Well, he saved mine too. He might have gotten us into the mess, but he’s gotten me out of it.” I hear Jax speak up. “Don’t get me wrong, he’s a son of a bitch- but he’s not like some of the grayskin huggers either. He still has some of that Cadian blood in him.”

“All the more reason to stop the taint.” Hudgens growls. Another speaks up. “He did help, with all due respect ,Sir. Call me a broad plank, but I…Look, I just dun think it’s right to be killin’ another man who helped us fight them beasties off."

He cracks his neck. "If we made exceptions, we'd all be long gone by now." I hear a click and wince. 

“You will do no such thing one way or another, gue’la!” Dal’s familiar voice rings in. The group gets up in commotion as the worn but standing form of Dal materializes out of thin air, he gun pointed at my captor. I glance around and see a couple other Tau heads –and rifles- poking out of buildings. 

“Gray skinned heifer!” Hudgens spits and I feel the cold nuzzle press against the back of my helmet. Without a word I push myself down and slide forward, the bolt round striking between my legs. That was WAY too close to my balls. I flip over and lunge at his legs while the firing starts. I knock the surprised sarge to the ground. 

I can hear the exchange of weapons fire as he gets up and lashes out at me. I jump back before using my momentum to throw myself forward again, quickly disarming him of his bolt pistol. Almost immediately though I feel a sharp crack and burst of pain as his fist collides with my ribs. I scream in pain and fall to the ground. His foot collides with my other side and it cries out in pain too. I hear him snatch the pistol up.

“If you pull that trigger I’ll kill you- slowly.” I can make out the form of Dal hovering behind him, her gun placed to the lower region of his spine. I’ve never heard her so hostile before. It was as if snakes could speak. Two of the guardsmen are dead, but the others –including Jax and the one I saved are still alive with their hands above their heads. 

“Seriously, Sir. This just ain’t worth it!” One of them mutters outside of my vision. He shouts back, angrily. “Don’t fall apart on me now, by the love of the damned throne! We’re this close to getting out of here!” Dal speaks again, sounding much more like her reasonable self. “You still can. Just release the convert. We can even cooperate to defeat the Necrons.” 

I cough through the pain. “What the fuck is even going on?!” Hudgen speaks through gasps for breath. “ We were supposed to protect the Mechanicus as they excavated the old Imperial palace and deliver their package to Inquisitor Calos. I don’t know much else. But your xeno scum buddies had to go and send it all to hell. So you can imagine why I’m more than a little eager to show you all the Emperor’s contempt. “

Even in the pain, I could feel a tug of empathy. I really don’t know what’s right any more… At the very least, I know what is wrong. 

“Why the fuck…Does it seriously take guns against each other’s heads to ever get us to come to compromises?” I spit out, trying to get up. “We’ve been clawing at each other like rats over some scrap of food…” I manage to get to one knee, looking the officer right in the eye. “Those Necrons… You have no idea… So damn busy trying to stay top dog.” Despite the pain cutting down my entire body, I force myself up to meet him at eye level. “Top dog means nothing when it just makes you an even beefier meal.” 

He sneers, but I can see the defense in his eyes. 

I turn to Dal. “You too. It doesn’t mean anything.” I spit on the ground. “Fighting inside this damn dome like it’s all some sport. I don’t give a shit who’s objective is what for whatever reason. I’ve seen some shit neither of you have witnessed and I can tell when we’re about to get fucked. We’re just shoving our spiteful thumbs up each others asses while those guys run around beneath us planning how to get in on the action... It's embarrassing to all of us!” 

Hudgens scoffs. “So you want to lead us all to glory then?” I shake my head. “I don’t even know what is going on. Do what you want- but for fucks sake, don’t do it around me unless you plan on helping.” I stagger away and sit down, looking down at the massive crate below us. 

“You’re talking like you’re in some higher position. I’ve got a revelation for you, heretic. We’re the last ones standing. They swept in and vanished without a trace. We abandon our posts now to play friendship with your aliens and we’re all dead men no matter what! At least here we’re going to be dead for a purpose!”

I look over my shoulder. “Fair enough. You even know what’s in that damn thing?” He pauses. “It’s none of my concern.” I nod my head. “Right. It’s none of your concern that maybe, just maybe, whatever is in that crate down there is part of the reason this is all happening? That maybe that thing right there is the reason you’re the last ones standing?” Now I get back up. “Do any of us even know what the fuck is going on outside? Do any of us know whether or not this is just going to be a convenient tomb!?” I can see the doubt and hesitation across all their faces now. “I’m not calling myself a hero and I’m not trying to call any shots. I just seem to be the only one so far to see things are maybe just a bit more fucked up than skeletal zombies running around killing all of us.” 

I walked back towards Dal. “You want to do your duty? That’s fine. I don’t give a shit about any of this anymore. I’m tired, I’m hurting in places I didn’t know existed, and I know it’s only going to get worse from here on in. I’m just going to get the hell out of here- I couldn’t care less about sides now that I’ve gotten a glimpse of the bigger picture going on right now. And trust me- it’s really fucking ugly. Feel free to follow me. I know I’m probably going to have to fight my way out between 3 armies now, but I’m going to give it a shot. ”

I walk past them all, gun clutched tightly in hand. God, women or shady bargain dealers; I don’t care who they are- they ain’t worth dying unremembered in this galaxy’s sweaty armpit. I trudge on for minutes that seem more like hours. 

I look over my shoulder one last time, only to see every last one of them following behind. The one guardsman I saved was running ahead of the whole group alongside Dal. Officer Hudgens trails on reluctantly behind them all. 

“Welcome aboard, I guess.” I muse aloud.


----------



## C'Tan Chimera

All thirteen of us march on towards the remains of the Imperial line lacing the basilica exit. Six guardsmen, four Fire Warriors, Officer Hudgens, Dal and myself. Much to my shock, Terrance and Santh were amongst these. Terrance is horrifically burned all over his body, so he has refused to speak or take his helmet off. The lively fellow I had fought alongside was now a distraught mute… Santh remained himself however. But something was different now. He didn’t talk to me. I guess I can accept that I truly have been rejected. The last living souls within this damn building and we’re all still divided. 

“Derrek…” Dal whispers through a private channel. “… I… I really don’t know what to make of this. You failed me… I failed my cadre… I’ve failed all of us.” I frown underneath my helmet, but I cannot help. “You should have let me die, then.” Is all I can manage to utter. “Don’t talk like that.” She suddenly snaps. “ Life and the pursuit of unity amongst it all is one of my core beliefs. You may very well have doomed me, but it would take the words from the Etherals themselves before I let someone die in front of me.” All I can do is laugh. “What?” She asks, genuinely confused. “We’ve both lost everything in just a few days because of each other.” I muse. “…That’s the only way to freedom now.” I add on, feeling a little barren. “Well then, Derrek. We’re both at the bottom now. Lead on. I’m at a loss for actions… I’m upset, Derrek. I really am...You're all I have left now...”

“Well, all I can do at this point is apologize, Dal. But if you mean that...” I begin to slow and freeze up. Suddenly, her voice begins to fluctuate, hissing with static. I turn to face her suit as she walked alongside me and practically squeaked- her suit sensors glowed green. "It's surprising, Derrek...."

“I figured even with this fine…Fine lass that maybe, just maybe… I could get you to do what I wanted. Your gene proves true even to me. Impossible to truly control…. Truly…Truly… you will make a fine…Addition… to my greatest Pariahs. It’s a shame it all has to fall…together like this. Such an epiphany would have settled better as a one on one discussion… “

I curl and uncurl my fingers, slowly moving my hand towards my rifle. “Don’t.” She…It… says. “I might be something of a…Soothing antagonist…should you play along amicably." 

“What the fuck are you? What happened to Hauss?” 

“I…Removed him from play… Quite awhile back, remember?” It whispers in my ear. “…And what about Dal?” Those disgusting pauses, augh! “The girl? Oh, don’t begin to burden yourself with unnecessary worries… She too was removed long before you met her…Shell…my dear.”

Part of me squirms and finally dies on the inside. “You bastard.” Is all I get out. “I wanted to enlighten you…Earlier… But you have proven so, so difficult to manipulate even to the smallest degree.” 

Anger starts to swell in me. “What the hell is a pariah?!” He makes some sort of humming sound now, as though searching for the appropriate words. “…It’s difficult to explain to mere mortals… Most never even get to learn so I’d suggest a little humility in the face of my benevolence, Derrek…” I sneer. “I’m waiting.” 

We keep on walking, quiet amongst everyone else, leading them into who knows what now. 

“The Pariahs… Derrek, you’re special. You contain my seed… My darling, dear seeds… So few, oh so few. Even fewer as palpable as your own… Have you ever wondered why you felt you never belonged?” 

Silence on my part.

He chuckles. “Exactly. You… You’re one of the lost… Dare I say, you’re one of my lost children. These other humans…These water balloons… Primitive creatures managed to stumble across my planet… Ulacant, they called it. They found the people there… The only ones I successfully bred all and all from a few… Entirely severed from the Old One's…_Playground_. It has proven difficult to nurture a few, let alone foster an entire planet to house a whole race of them… So you could imagine the pride I had felt...“

My skin crawls further with each word. 

“They sent their so called Inquisition and their black ships along. Thieves one and all… Trying to take those that did not belong to them… When I personally intervened they fled…Fled back to their ships… Chucking their primitive tools of the trade upon the planet for days…. Days until the planet itself was lost. My entire project… The turning point in the Great Plan… Lost. Or at the very least, even I believed it so.” 

I keep walking. It’s about all I can do at this point. 

“What I had failed to realize was that they had even begun to colonize the planet’s moons… I know now they were unfit to survive such tremendous stress… But… The other pieces to the puzzle… The grand machines… Still here, hidden under its surface by the admirable few still devout to their master during the great bombardments… “

“I’ve heard enough.”

“No, Derrek. My sincerest apologies, but no. Here is where my…Offer…Comes into play.” 

I hold my quivering tongue, clenching my gun tightly. “You are precious to me... So precious... A flicker of hope in a galaxy full of pointless celluloid and redundant protoplasm...But you may leave this place untouched and I will let you have this ravishing xeno girl… But only if you promise to spread your seed. I have always been curious about these…Upstarts…. And how they might fit into these plans.”

“What?”

It turns to face me and even in that suit I can briefly see that horrid face upon the ziggurat deep within the jungles. It grins wide. “_Be fruitful and multiply._” 

Then it begins. He laughs. No ordinary laugh… A dreadful, awful, laugh… Pure fucking evil. It’s as though a thousand rusted fans were spiraling out of control, brushing against each other. 

“Oh…Derrek…” It continues on as tears begin to blur my vision.

“I can show you…True freedom down here…at the bottom. I can…Liberate you from the confines of your existential nightmare… Or… I can give you a happy life with a blushing blue…bride…. Just so long as you remember who you and all your….offspring… Belong to in the end…And what their true destines shall be…” 

Suddenly, a flare of green light flashes across the entire basilica. 

“Just as planned…” He smirks.

I can hear the others, surprised and alerted. “It’s time to make the most important, changing decision in your life… ” He whispers. 

“You are all surrounded, by the way… So it’s time to choose…“


----------



## Serpion5

Excellent work. Pure genius here mate. Your progress and learning curve are very impressive, and your plot is obviously well thought out. 

I have thoroughly enjoyed this. Have some points. :good:


----------



## C'Tan Chimera

Thank you! We're rapidly approaching the climax now and at 82 pages so far, I can only wonder how much more can fit into this thing before it explodes!


------------------------------

“No.”

The puppeteer using Dal remains silent.

I know I haven’t said anything of the like before, but I think it can be said that universally, there comes that moment in all our lives where we find ourselves in that moment. That one moment where you truly see yourself in some subconscious mirror and you know underneath all the bullshit, the justifications, this is what you really look like. 

I see a coward. A coward not just by the Imperium’s standards, but by any good man’s standards, regardless of his allegiance. I see someone who has been in hiding since the beginning behind some cocky attitude. I see what that monster wants. I see someone who would betray everyone if it meant sparing him the inconvenient suffering men smaller than him have willingly undertake daily. I see a wretched candidate. I see those mummified machines...Those Pariahs. I see a tool. I see something I don’t have to be.

“Take your games and shove them up your ass.”

“…Truly...Truly...Truly a pity, Derrek….Personally, I’m disappointed. But… No regrets, my dear Derrek. No regrets.” 

Suddenly, one of the nearby gargoyles perched atop the crumbled remains of a chapel jerks to life and turns to me. Dal’s voice emerges from the static ridden intercom, gasping for breath.

The gargoyle looks straight at me.
_
“You’ve never had a choice once in your life. I gave you the only one and you reject it outright. You choose to remain a fool to the bitter end, then. I leave you to those you shall soon serve beside- all former fools themselves!”_

With a shattering of rock, the entire building shudders and crumbles as the gargoyle pulls itself free from the rock, his wings trailing out endlessly underneath him like ebony ribbons. With an inhuman grace, the amorphous creature ascends into the sky, his ribbons trailing gently beneath him before he folds in on himself and vanishes in a horizontal line, expanding in length until it is no longer visible. 

The green lightning strikes again, 20 times greater in intensity than ever before. The great basilica begins to sway violently, and I feel fear poke it's head out. The response is varied but universal in shock and confusion. “What the hell?” “By the damned throne, is this place about to blow or something!?” “Keep close and be ready, Shas’la!” 

A dazed and confused Dal sways towards me. “Nngh… What was…All that? Derrek?..” The tremors begin to stir beneath me and I feel the panic begin to rise, threatening to surface. “I don’t know, Dal. I just know we need to get the hell out of here and now!”

Can I ever trust her? A shell?...Then again, should I trust something possessing people and using them to manipulate me? Another violent quake. Fuck it, I don't have time for moral problems when I got a hundred other tangible ones! I look back to the whole group, fear and confusion stricken. “Everybody grab whatever weapons you have and haul ass NOW!” 

Even the baffled Dal files up behind me as I break out into my sprint. A ear splitting grinding fills the air and the ceiling above us begins to shed debris. Run. Run. I shout in alarm as the ground beneath me throws me forward and onto my face. I don’t have time for this!... I push myself back up and sprint forward as the ground bursts like sickened skin. 

The shouts behind me grow as we rush ahead, leaving the mysterious cargo alone behind us. The lungs inside my ribs begin to push harder as I can glimpse movement unfolding in the shadows now. I wince and run blindly forward as a deafening crack is heard above. I glimpse and see a monolithic chunk of the ceiling free itself from above and begin it’s slow, horrifying fall. 
“Don’t look back!” I scream at the top of my lungs. 

More and more of the great dome above us falls apart like jigsaw pieces, revealing a massive battle raging in the storm stricken skies… Something begins to crawl into view above the ruins...Floating...Can’t focus… Have to run… 

That’s when I see it. The exit! The gaping, massive gates unhinged and defeated, reinforcements marching beneath them! I push myself full force and run ahead, transfixed. Help! Help! I gotta get off this rock… Oh…
Green lightning flickers amongst the silhouettes as I get closer, and they seemingly grow in length… Thinner… Skeletons… Green eyes appear in their darkness. Keep running. I turn to my right. Eyes emerging from the shadows. On the left, more shadows. The horror begins to fill the bottom of my lungs like lead weight, and I glance over my shoulder. 

Surrounded.

The fear on the guardsmen is palpable even from this distance. Those half robot, half dead things I saw in that tomb...Pariahs, the creature called them... weave out from the darkness unexplained, their dead eyes glaring baleful green. 

I can’t stomach this. The menaces slice through them as though they’re nothing. They’re striding through them, effortlessly unzipping them with a horrid ballet of orchestrated death. Every swing, every arc severs flesh. Their very presence alone has brought some of the stragglers to their knees, screaming and vomiting. I can’t stomach this. Dal… She’s trying to fight back. She’s emptying everything she has into them… The shots hit home but do little to slow them. She’s turning… She’s running. The few left are running with me.

They’re all running and yet they continue their slow ballet of halberds. Without faltering, they dip their blades low and sweep them up, letting lose streams of dead lights. They catch some of them, coursing through them and just as suddenly they turn to nothing more but wisps of air. It catches Dal and eats through her suit. Trying to run regardless, she stumbles and falls without the suit’s support system to sustain her awkward movement. 

I don’t want to run anymore. I really don’t want to keep running. But I need to. I need to run. I practically trip stumbling forward, blindly, and frantically. 

Run. It’s all I’ve ever done. Run...I... I don’t care how much it saves my skin, the burden is growing too heavy, and yet I still manage to do so. It’s about the one thing I’m really good at.

The tears are blurring my vision and I catch myself trying to sob between gasps for air. I know if I turn this comm-link on, I’ll hear her. I know what’s going to happen to Dal. Fleeing in the face of unfavorable odds is supposed to be forgivable in her world, but it’s not... It's not in mine. My legs are tired of all the running, and so is my conscience. 

This is that one moment, while you can see so clearly… I DO have a choice…The choice must be made… A man isn’t defined by whether or not he falls, but rather whether or not he chooses to get back up. I’ve fallen down in the mud and been dragged through it long enough now... She helped me see all this. It’s only fair I let her see this now; I choose to get up. Maybe I’m about to get knocked back down again, but they always said in the barracks “No matter what, die standing.” I’m not going to die running. 

I push my heels into the ground and grind to a halt. I turn around past the great curtain of approaching eyes. Only Dal and four others remain now as the reapers close in on them. 

“I'm not going to die with my back to you! Hey, bastards! Right here for you!”
They keep doing what they’ve been doing… For fucks sake, I was _really_ hoping for some sort of tactical plan that didn’t involve martyrdom. This might be the last breath I ever take, so I make sure it’s a deep one. In… Focus… Die standing… 

Above I hear the roar of a massive explosion. Huge chunks of debris come down on the approaching Necrons. I can make out the massive shadow of a ship looming in above use… Focus! Focus! I can see Dal’s face again, along with that of several Guardsmen and Terrance. Hopelessness is all I can describe on their faces.

No. There is hope for you… I just wish I could say the same for myself. 
One foot in front of the other. Then the next. Faster. Faster…. _Charge_. This is what our Imperium was born on…

I un-sling my weapon as I barrel on towards them and the Pariah creatures. I clumsily but ultimately toss my rifle into the grip of my left hand. I’m no Space Marine, but fuck it- I don’t have anything to lose now.

I can’t quite understand the expression on Dal’s face, but I can see a glimmer of fury kindled in the eyes of the Guardsmen. Even a former bit of Terrance’s Imperial blood emerges as I push right through them, on towards the Pariahs like a missile. A dumb missile, but a missile regardless. 

I throw my right arm forward in a fist towards the nearest one’s abdomen. The darkness of the ship overhead casts us into perpetual darkness as I feel us both stumble forward on our weight. The world is cast in black and faint glimmers of green light emitted from their weapons cast the only visibility in a sickly shimmer. Darkness and dozens of green stars…Eyes… 

I feel the wind fly up out of me as the downed Necron throws me off with a shove of his halberd. The world spins on its axis before I feel my back strike the ground...Argh!...Is that a broken rib I feel? The Pariahs eyes glow bright and sickly, painting the darkness with the faint shapes of their grotesque faces. Biting down on the pain in my side, I stick my left arm out and pull down on the trigger, unleashing a splash of bright blue illumination across the darkness for a few brief seconds, punching a hole into the front Pariah. The darkness devours my carbine’s light and it’s only green again, now pouring from the hole in the one’s gut, darkened blood flowing from it as well. 

Their seemingly disembodied blades flow before them, twirling in unison. I scramble backward. Now I’m going to die…Fuck, this isn’t as good an idea as it seemed a few seconds ago!...Eh?

I feel the warm of two arms wrap around behind me and Dal helps me to my feet.

It hurts, but I don’t bother saying a word as I rush away, the Pariahs and all the other horrid eyes now all on me. Surely that deceiver is watching through them. It wants me so badly… 

The lights glide all around them, briefly revealing their bio-organic bodies in quick green flashes. It’s almost beautiful in a fucked up sense, but I can’t focus on that! I fire off another few shots at their feet, briefly stalling them so I can get a few steps to the side. They return the favor, halting their swirling lights perfectly in place, instead unleashing flashes of green lightning toward me. I strafe far right, feeling a beam eat some of the skin off my body...Fuck, it burns! I can feel the red flow out.

I fire again, and the darkness becomes a raving pattern of blackness, green flashing light, black and then blue. The faint thunder of cannon fire echoes above us, and the rain of battle can be heard lightly. But mostly all I hear is my own heart flailing about in my chest as my foes remain totally silent. The only other sounds are the hum of their weapons twirling and spinning in the faint glow of death. 

It all becomes one big dance. One big performance. The pounding of cannons…Drums… The flashing hues of blue, green and orange lasfire cut through the darkness wildly… My heart dancing to it’s beat. Fear cannot help me one way or another now. Only perseverance. 

Constantly staying just out of their blades and bounding around their shots desperately, I know I’m tiring. But I can glimpse Dal’s red eyes every so often. Every second I do this is another second she and the others have life- a chance to survive. 

The three glowing weapons lunge for me. In a panic I throw myself to the ground and fire upward…Here goes my last magazine...Die...Fucking die! Die! Die! Emperor, Greater Good, whatever! DIE! Die in the name of anything that has a fucking pulse! Just _DIE AGAIN_!

My blue pulse fire lights up the abyss in a brilliant radiance again as the shots all hit home, the last of my magazine meeting the wounded one head on. Its body writhes as the heat of my shots fuse it’s parts together. Suddenly, the darkness sweeps back in and all I can hear is a click. The green lights fade into nothing and I hear a loud thud, but its friends remain.
It’s done. I hurl my gun aside- I’ve got nothing now. I step backwards as they get closer. Up to my feet...Gotta do something!


Just as suddenly, the darkness slides, pulling up like a curtain against the ground, revealing the world again. I look above to see the dome is gone, in its place the underbelly of the most insanely massive ship I have seen in my life- the obscured face of the Tau emblem gliding above. Faintly I can hear Dal cry out something joyously about a “Manta” … 

For a brief moment I forget about the returning forms of the two surviving Pariahs marching slowly towards me. The great ship flies out before me, the muddied gray sky returning with the silhouettes of Tau and Imperial ships alike descending from above… An alliance… The Manta’s back opens, and I see dozens of suits leap from it. Drop pods begin to pepper the sk_-Erk!_

The brutal, cold fingers wrap around my neck and the ground beneath me gives away. The Pariah pulls my gaze to meet his. I feel his fingers squeeze into my sides. With one of my last free breaths I spit out “Too late…” I fumble around with my holster to pull out the tiny pistol I considered unworthy of mentioning for so long. I yank it out and stick it to my chin. A grin spreads across my face- only to vanish in an instant as the pistol is slapped free of my hand by the other Pariah. My blood turns to gravy. No! Nonono I won’t become one of you… No...

“Dal! Terrance!” I cough out as the air escapes me. “_urk_-…ill... me!...” She has a look of horror on her face but I know she can’t hear me. I must look so pathetic now... Dammit! No! No! Oh fuck no! The thing keeps it’s empty gaze fixated on me and begins to march away. I can hear the sound of flickering lightning. No! I swing my legs, desperately trying to kick it! Those creatures! No! The images! The Necron wearing my face! I get it all now- _nono*NO*_! 

I can see the Tau, Guardsmen and Grey knights break through the lines as skirmishes unfold, but darkness follows through with it…. My vision is starting to fade. Gotta hold on…No…No… No…Fight it! Fiiight... Figh... Fuck...

The last thing I see before I lose consciousness altogether is the face of the Pariah, the skull hidden away by the face of it's mask grinning mindlessly.

...Is this really my future?...


----------



## arturslv




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## C'Tan Chimera

You just made my day and it only just started :biggrin: . Thank you!

Apologies in advance if the next few chapters take awhile to come out. I want to do the ending right- I'll give you guys a list of some of the weird stuff that almost happened but I decided against afterwards.


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## arturslv

C'Tan Chimera said:


> You just made my day and it only just started :biggrin: . Thank you!
> 
> Apologies in advance if the next few chapters take awhile to come out. I want to do the ending right- I'll give you guys a list of some of the weird stuff that almost happened but I decided against afterwards.


Your fanfic certainly kept me on the edge of my seat. Keep up the good work.


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## C'Tan Chimera

I become aware of the darkness. Everything is black, but I can sense the outside world. Only the dullest of reverberations stir my mind and I feel entombed. Whispers. I hear so many whispers. I struggle to move my numb body, but it won’t obey. Terror sweeps over me. I’m here, but I’m not. Why can’t I move my arms? Where am I? Is this even my body? My mind wakes from its dazed state and the gnawing paranoia churns into a discordant uproar of mute horror. I can’t be this… No, I won’t… I have to fight this! I will not become them! No! 

I struggle to feel myself, my brain screaming at the rest of my body to return my frenzied calls of recognition. They can’t have us… They can’t have me… No, I won’t let them! Move, damn it! I will not be bonded and locked up within my own flesh! Let me out! Let me out! 

The whispers grow louder. The pounding, rhythmic vibrations stronger. What are they saying? Why is it in this darkness? Why? Why?! I can’t scream… I can’t even scream for fucks sake! Let me go! Let go! 

I force myself through the darkness, squirming and writhing to find some surface, some gasp for air. I will not be entombed in my own bones! Release me! Drop me! Fill me with pain! Let me feel my own body! I will not have this, dammit! I want to live, damn you! 

I lash out at the undefined darkness. I choose to live! I choose to live, you bastards! 

The whispers grow louder and louder, closer… They turn into shouts. The thumping vibrations turn into thunder, and the darkness peels back. Warmth begins to flow, illustrating and redefining my body’s existence. The darkness gives away…

And reality spills back into my pores. For a moment it is all blurry and unfocused, but I feel hot flesh against my own. I feel the heat spread to my own cheeks as I realize it’s Dal. Bending over me, her lips are pressed to my own, hair draped across my neck. Given any other circumstance, I’d be enjoying this like the sick, isolated guardsman I am- but after all that…Thing, that deceiver said, I don’t know. I stir under her and her big red eyes see mine. Immediately she pulls back. “Derrek! By the will of the Ethereals… I didn’t even think that would…” She breaks out laughing and pulls me to my feet.

“What the hell was that?” I blurt, blissfully ignorant of everything else around me for a few moments as the after image of her face lingers. “The Necron hybrids. I resuscitated you after one of them almost crushed your windpipe. Our combined forces pushed them out of this structure, but they insisted you were just another casualty. I refused to comply. You already risked your own life to save mine, so I happily returned your gift…” 

Terrance cracks a dry laugh under his visor. "I was going to do it originally, but I think you would have preferred death over a make out with a burn victim." I manage a grin and give him a low thumbs up. Really needed to know that, but at least he's trying to keep spirits high. 

She goes on as everything else comes back into focus as well. As much as I’m happy to have it back, my body screams out in pain from a dozen different locations at once. I gasp and double over. My neck feels weak and sore, my nose and mouth are caked with blood, my hair is a mop of sweat, my ribs feel enflamed and cracked, the burns from the lasgun still sear my stomach… I don’t even want to look at my leg right now, which feels wet and hot. This is disregarding all the dozens of cuts, bruises and aches. The one part that feels an unsettling sense of tranquility is my mechanical hand. I pale a little as I realize it- that hand… It’s Pariah. Shit… I want to freak out. But I know it won’t help me. I feel it. Musing at all the pain in the tired flesh it has been coupled to. I clench its fist- my fist- and I clench it hard. 
You work for me now. 

“Derrek? You still with me here?” 

I shake my head. “Sorry. What?” 

I’m not sure how long I’ve been out, but she’s taken quite a beating too. The bodysuit for her armor obviously wasn’t made for combat, shredded in many spots either darkened bruises, seeping blood or bandages on them. Blue blood forms a series of streaks running down her face, and I can see she’s trying to put most of her weight on one foot…hoof…Thing.

“The Necrons are pouring out from nearly every chasm and fissure in the moon. Our sept has agreed to aid the Imperial forces in escorting the so called Inquisition’s payload and in return they’re letting us evacuate from the planet… But that’s not the real issue.” No, it’s not. I’ve said a few times that maybe the big picture wasn’t for small people like me to understand… I still really have no idea what’s happened here, but I’ve glimpsed the underside. I’ve caught brief looks at the bald and ugly truth hiding in the shadows. I’ve seen only shreds of that deceiver, but I know- I don’t understand any of it, but I know I want nothing more to do with it.

“So then what the hell is the problem? If you haven’t noticed, we just got mauled!” I fire off. She inhales and lets out an irritated sigh. I also take note that the area seems to have been clear, Tau and Imperials like scurrying to and fro in the background.

“Well…” I throw my arms up. Well? “Look. I’m only being so thuggishly informal because technically you’re no longer part of the Cadre.” …That’s it? She had me scared there for a moment. “Don’t get me wrong- we’re not enemies or something. However, once the evacuation starts…” 

Oh. Now it begins to make sense. “I’m left behind with a whole legion of zealots who are just looking for scapegoats to lynch, huh.” I dryly remark. She nods back solemnly. “I’m really, really sorry. I wish there was a way I could atone for dragging you through all this just to wind back up where we started.” I shake my head. “Don’t bother. That’s not going to help now.” 

I look up to the darkened, war torn sky. I would kill more for some sun light…But here I am, in the middle of a war. I stroll over to the hammered remains of the three Pariahs. 

I'm here, stuck having to deal with some incomprehensible evil scheme, being the spawn of something even more evil. Both of the 'good' sides care nothing for my fate and only the horrors want me now. 

I guess they were gunned down from behind while they tried to drag me off. I push one on to its back. The big hole in its center confirms it was the one I killed. Ancient, cooked flesh stinks out of its carapace... Nasty! Even in death the evil lingers over it. I look into its battered face. It may be dead, but it still raises my hairs. Its frozen, fleshless grin seems eternal and defiant. A mockery of resistance. There are hundreds more of these things out there, and untold millions of its friends. We can't do anything to stop them... Especially not on my own. The Imperium will want me strung up in public and the Tau no longer care. I'm on my own, rejected by everyone bigger than me. A speck of dust in an infinite galaxy of much larger groups warring endlessly- of no importance on my own. 

And it hits me. The seemingly grim observation brings a grin of my own. Am I really alone? I look at Dal, Terrance and Santh. Unsuspecting and down- unaware of my heresies brewing. We all come out of this dead in the end anyway, so why not give it a try?

I’ve made my choice, alright.

Fuck the big picture.


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## Serpion5

Excellent. :goodpost:


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## arturslv

Serpion5 said:


> Excellent. :goodpost:


I second that!


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## C'Tan Chimera

Guardsmen and Tau warriors all marching together- I never thought I’d see that. Dal is excited that many might defect to the Tau shortly before the evacuation, but hope is something that never lasts long when you’re not an Astartes Boy Toy. I fear the disappointment that comes with it.

I can’t pretend to have a good grasp on what is going on anymore, with the alliance or the Necrons or anything. I’m just swept up in the undertow. The deceiver, though… He speaks. He whispers strange promises to me. Strange, alluring promises. I sound like I’ve fallen to Chaos, I know. Truth be told, I can feel myself fall from whatever grace I might have had with the precious veil of ignorance that once blinded me. 

I want to say it fills with me the same happiness that Dal has to see a remote spark of understanding and unity, but it’s too late for me. Shit adds up at the bottom when you’ve remained there for too long, and I just can’t care at all. All I want is out. That thing is preying on my desperation, and its working. It hurts to say it, but its working. I won’t let it win, though. I can fight it. I can stop it. I’ll take what is mine and stab it right in the back. I’m sitting in the shelter of a makeshift bunker while the rumbling of battle drones on just outside of my own little world. The choices I’m making weigh a burden on me. I know I’ve truly lost any hope of ever being at peace with the Imperium, try as I might. I suppose there’s a little comfort to be found in it, but I feel cast off. 

Then she comes in. Not in a traditional sense either. They might be working together now, but a good deal of the Imperium’s blatant bigotry remains. Normally I wouldn’t be here either, but it’s simple. A one armed Hudgens let me live only because I might receive the Emperor’s “forgiveness” should I seek redemption through service and my own death. To hell with that. I don’t want to destroy the Imperium, but I don’t want to be in line with it either. But forget about that- I’m rambling.

She appears out of nothing, a fresh stealthsuit flickering into existence in a ripple of lightning. 

“I want to make it clear my kind doesn’t hate you. We don’t think you’re ready, however. I’ve persuaded them to consider allowing you back within our ranks, if only all the way at the bottom. I managed to get a request in, too. But of course, they don’t know for what reason- not that they would have any control over it as it is.” 

Her new suit has more a form then her older, bulkier one. “Okay, I was going to treat it like a surprise to try and lift your spirits, but you’ve got that look carved into your face so I won’t make a façade over it. I got you a modified one of these.” She says as she pounds her chest. I just shake my head.

“Well…What is it that you do want, then?”

I smile a little. “You obviously still don’t get me all that well. Dal. All I really want is a bit of certainty. “

I look up at her. “All I want is to get the fuck out.”

She takes her helmet off with ease in contrast to that bizarre suit she used to wear. She’s obviously cleaned herself up since that last time. “Derrek, the only way to survive in this galaxy is to set aside the self in favor of the Greater Good. Not just of your species, but everyone. “

“You’re talking like I can even do that anymore.” 

She nods, a little cross. “Yes, you can. I’ve seen what you can do.”

I get up. “You want to know what I can do?! All I can do is kill! Kill!... You know what, not even that! I’ve seen what happens to most of my former troopers in the Guard. They just die. I've just been damned lucky. We’re here to catch traitor’s bullets and be scratching posts for aliens until the Sisters or the Inquisitors or the fucking space marines come in to take all the credit! Our Imperium taught us the same ideals, Dal- set aside yourself and serve the glory of a greater entity. You just don't have to enforce this at gun point.”

She remains silent, a mixed look on her face as she takes it in.

“Maybe your Tau Empire does it better. Hell, maybe they even do it right. But this isn’t a story book- this isn’t a myth. I’m not a hero, and I don’t want to serve anyone else. There’s only so much a farm boy raised up in a world that lives through death and fear can take. Fuck them all… ”

She sighs and walks up to me, lifting my head up with an armored finger to the chin. “We all have our doubts. I’ve felt the lure of the Mon’Tau, the seduction of pursuing what I want, and I’ve felt it many times before. There’s a reason I’m here in a division for loose cannons. Most of the Cadre looks at me and my… Well, looked, at my former squad mates as a ‘necessary uncertainty’ , as they put it.”

I begin to feel it. The change from depression and confusion. It’s like a great iceberg beginning to melt. A warmth inside me as I realize how close she’s getting to me. My heart begins to beat faster, but not out of fear. I can’t truly understand her facial expressions, but… Maybe all living things are in-tuned or something, but for once I feel like I can really mirror another person’s feelings. Her hair comes down. “Derrek. I don’t know if we’ll both be alive in just a few of your Imperial hours, so… Well…” 

I understand it. I know it. Maybe it was just the decency of Tau doctrine in the beginning, but after awhile…well, it was an unwritten fact.

“You’re the reason I’m finally giving in to that Mon’Tau.”

She leans to me and I feel it too. I put my forehead against hers.

Somewhere out there, a commissar must be swept up in the throes of an aneurysm. Because even here, in the midst of so much death, violence, blood and solitude… In a galaxy that gorges itself on the misery and expense of its own living creations… In the face of zealotry, hatred, genocide, arrogance and self-righteousness…

A morsel of love and understanding emerges.. 

I think they can survive one filthy heathen without growing too insecure about their superiority. The whole shtick once went “Serve the Emperor today for tomorrow you may be dead”.

I think they got it kind of right. 

I know it all ends for me soon. This moment is fleeting, but it makes the reality of the situation hurt less… I can only wonder if this plan will work. How will it end? With death…Or worse? I really don't know. Personally though, I hope this isn’t the only time I’ll ever get to feel flesh against flesh without it being an attempt to kill someone. 

But never mind all that-I can worry about that all soon enough. For once, I've found a shred of happiness.


----------



## arturslv




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## C'Tan Chimera

She gives me the suit and I spend some time figuring out just how to get into the damn thing. Eventually it does come on and I feel it seal up around me… It feels good. I flex my Necrotic arm- obedient as always. I let the pain in my body ache on. It's all a reminder to why I'm here, why I'm doing this all. It's because I'm alive.

It’s funny, really. I won’t say it’s my life flashing before my eyes, but I can’t help but think about it all. I’m starting to realize how much things have changed. I won’t bother you with the details…But in the end, I feel like it’s been good for me. 

A virgin of battle who fled on sight, clinging desperately to the only abuse he had ever known because he was afraid of all the other flavors of pain. That’s what I was. Now here I am, having made the choice to abandon everything I knew in favor of throwing myself into the maw of this whole fucked up world. 

Dying is the easy way out. 

I’ve come to realize that I’d much rather take this shit like a man. A man with dignity- about the one thing a man can choose to keep in spite of losing all else. Sure, they can argue that I have no dignity as a deserter. Perhaps that is true, but I’m not the one hiding behind billions of others anymore in the face of monsters. The others all blindly march to their deaths, fodder for an empire they will never fully understand. I know I can’t understand it. I’m just one man. But I do understand I don’t have to be one of them. If all our paths lead to death in the end, then I chose to take my own. Allegiances, lords… It means nothing. Maybe high up there where the pompous leaders poke and prod at their maps, their reserves… Maybe to them it matters.

I’m not one of them. 

I wrap my hand around the long barreled weapon and interlock my fingers within it’s system. The visor is good, the HUD clean, generators charged…It’s time to go. I will die like every other guardsman one day- anonymous and unremembered. The difference being at least in my last breath I can say I grabbed life by the balls and for one brief moment made it yield.

Fingering the controls within the massive cannon, I feel the whole suit shimmer and vanish. I’m here, and yet I’m not. This is pretty damn cool, as if that should be surprising. She’s out there waiting. Together with Dal, Santh and Terrance, we’re getting out of here… Well, that’s part of it at least. I’ve got my own extra loose ends to tie up before its all over. 

The HUD picks up the forms of Dal and Santh, both cloaked as well in the fresh twilight from the shattered ceiling. Terrance stands nearby, not cloaked but decked out in a thickly ghillied pathfinder suit. I step in, a brief silence.

“So…who else finds it a little awkward that I’m holding a conversation with people I can’t see?” Terrance chuckles, still managing to find some foreign well of optimism even while his voice is raked and gravelly from his burns. “You’re not the only one. It is fucking awkward to be doing this.” I add before Santh snorts. “Going the way of Farsight…The Mon’Tau. No backing out of it now, it seems. I will honor my promise.” Dal nods. “You’re not alone. None of us are here. A new bond… New brothers. ”

I look to the exposed world above. The sky is a storm of black and grey, painted with green strikes of lightning. Rain mixes with red spores, dropping a red mix down on us. "Great things have to start somewhere." Dal muses before I turn to her and look at the others.

“So, it’s simple. Help both forces escort the payload to the Inquisitor ship. The quicker, the better as more living souls get out of here alive.” Santh breathes in. “And what about the Imperium, Gue’ve- sorry. Going against my lifelong principles is about as disquieting as it gets for me. Point still stands, however. What about the Imperium? Why not just destroy it?...The payload, I mean. Not the Imperium. I'm prideful, not stupid.”

I flex myself in the new suit, getting adjusted to the ease. “Whatever these things are, everyone is interested in them.” Dal nods. “A ‘Project Undertow’ was mentioned several times during my few briefings. I can only assume that’s why my…Former…comrades were set up here in the first place. I know absolutely nothing else about it, though. Curiosity is something I look forward to sating with my new freedom.” I point to the wall and gesture that it’s time to get climbing the 15 or so feet till our hole, our narrow path to true freedom. We all approach, saving our jump packs for more important times…And to not be dicks and leave Terrance on his own scrambling up crumbling rockrete. 

“Right,” I add, “If all three big players want it, it’s better to make sure each side has got a chunk of the bigger picture. Between keeping them happier than if only one made it out with all the scraps on his plate. It might also encourage more alliances in the future.” 

“A nice bonus, I suppose. Regardless, I understand now.” Santh replies. Terrance throws his voice in. “ So it’s just playing guardian angels with them then? Drop in where it’s needed and then get the hell out?” I bob my head. “Exactly. Once they open up to get that cargo, we slip in. Then we grab ourselves an escape shuttle and bail the fuck out." I feel bad keeping them in the dark, but I’ve got my own personal game with the devil to play. 

I can feel him out there. He’s watching, and he is most certainly waiting. He will not have to wait for long. I grip down tightly on the lip of the ravaged building and vault over the edge. The sensation of yet another fall, but with a far softer landing. 

"Okay everyone- this is our one shot at this. Let’s make it work. “ Santh chuckles again. “Derrek, just promise me that we will not have to suffer another incident like we did at the gates the first time around, okay?” The small talk falls silent as I hear the soft thud of the others behind me. 

To the East, the jungles are twisted and black, caked on the tops with masses of spores. The wind rocks them violently, giving the image of the land itself bleeding under the tremors that have left the ground erratic and jumbled in a mess of soil. Those spores that have landed on the exposed earth have stained the landscape a faint red while strange plants crawl out of the mess. But the green lightning is constant now, setting the land in a permanent state of dead light. The faint light of blue pulse rifle shots ring off in their depths. The tips of massive…Things poke out over the canopy in the distance, slowly moving forward.To the North, towards the chasm… I would dare say breathtaking if I knew it wasn’t evil. Black tips have begun to raise from the abyss, giving the ridge an eerie glow. Beyond the other ridge, great, ponderous shapes float overhead towards the chasm… It makes sense now- they seized the landing zone…And this is all seen looming over the outer walls of the now-ruined fortress. We can’t fight that, but we don’t have to anyway. All we have to do is protect the soldiers. 

We circumvent the great basilica, doing our best to ignore all the bodies, blood and smoldering wrecks. It’s hard to tell who was fighting who and at what time. It just didn’t end well. The lightning flashes above, the whole world seemingly entrenched within it’s sickly lighting. 

We finally find a great gap in the wall and clamber out the side, emerging into a marshy area. Nobody says a word as the sights around us unfold into a ghostly narrative. 

Far off in the distance, one could see the trench of Old Pious Bridge…And the bizarre, imposing city of black jutting out from it. Dozens…Maybe hundreds of disembodied, flickering green eyes slowly march from it. In the jungles nearby, the flashes of green and blue behind the trunks of trees reveals that perhaps, just perhaps there is hope. Maybe I am just reading into it the wrong way.

In the skies above, looming just over the horizon a great battle rages between aerial craft. The many Imperial vessels and the few but massive Tau gunships bombard unseen targets below who retaliate in turn with great surges of beams. Strange, crescent structures begin to rise beyond what little light the hopeless gray clouds can emit. The entire landscape is nothing but a macabre foreshadowing, painted black, red and green. 

The tip of the alliance can be seen, slowly appearing out of the eclipsing fortress looming ahead of us. Guardsmen, Tau, tanks... Any other day this might seem humbling and hopeful. I can't say it feels that way right now as mechanical, unnatural shapes writhe and churn in the distance.

“So… Are we certain this is still tactically favorable? ” Santh remarks. I take a deep breath, my eyes never leaving the twisted city rising up like some great wall. We're going to have to break through that... “We’re all going to die sooner or later. I’d rather die trying than die running.” Terrance sighs, which almost sounds more like released steam than a human sound with his scarred vocals. "I had actually found this whole planet quite beautiful, too." Santh playfully pats him on the back- I can't help but admire their natural-if not naive- sense of hope. 

I hope it's as painless as I made sound for them- but as Brutus said, there's no room for regrets when you got a hundred other problems waiting to claw your back open.


----------



## Serpion5

Good stuff. :good: 

Waiting for more.


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## C'Tan Chimera

The guardsmen stride ahead of the Tau soldiers, forming a thick phalanx in front of the massive convoy of Imperial service vehicles towing the immense, bonded shut payload. Hundreds of them march forward while dozens of tanks, Tau and Imperial alike cover their sides in spearhead positions. Heavy weapon teams and Pathfinders follow up from the rear with one Baneblade. Several Tau Manta vehicles loom above, preparing to drop their elites into the imminent battle. A small group of Inquisitor Calos’ Grey Knights are in the field too.The Necrons stand for them. Waiting, almost as if expecting what was theirs to be delivered right back to them. More and more flickering green lights gather at the feet of the rising necropolis. It is only a matter of time. The storm is gathering, and the clouds are laden with darkness. The whole moon has begun to awaken with the Necron grip squeezing tighter on it. Dozens of floating Pyramids creep over the horizon, swelling with power.

It should be the makings of a decisive, epic battle. I know better. 

It’s ultimately not my battle, however. All we must do is slip into the Necron city and clear a way for them. Then it’s just a battle to survive. We make our way through the swamp, paying little attention to the muck beneath us and whatever might lurk beneath us. I apologize for not seeming too descriptive- I’m just holding my breath. I’m keeping my hope down so I’m not too disappointed . The suit takes most of the effort for me and on any other day I would be giddy from the power in this suit. Today though… I just don’t know. No regrets, though. Never room for regrets. 

Nobody can say a word as the first shots fly. The tanks fire, their shots deafening as we close in. The great, terrible Necron temples take the blows and crawl on ahead, swallowing the shells whole. The dark city disgorges its contents; a tide of slow, methodical figures jerking forward in clockwork unison. 

The shouting begins. The powerful railguns are still quiet enough to fire deafly under the universal roar of the Imperium’s walking dead. I grow tense watching the Imperial mob charge forth into the killzone under the storm of shelling. I can’t help but grow a little impatient too, running along in this suit, an XV15 from what Dal said. I buzz her through the intercom. “This isn’t working- we either need to start using these jump packs now or grow some winged heels.It's some self righteous bullshit but I don't like not being in the thick of it helping.” She muses back, “Not a worry. I’m working on that right now. I’m still part of the Cadre…” She sighs “For now.” 

“So… “ Terrance mutters, “…We got ourselves a plan B in case shit gets sour?” An awkward silence.

“This is about the only plan we could come up with at all.” I toss out there for them. “Just bite down on the strap and bear through it.” He nods through his helmet. “ Okay. Just remember I’m leaving a few friends behind for this, so this needs to be worth it.” Santh mutters under his breath. “This isn’t the time, people.”

Dal suddenly cuts in, the soft voice replaced with her hardass sarge talk. “I have my doubts too, but to look back and half-heart something we can’t pull back from is only going to make it worse. Suck it all up and save it for later.” She begins to run. “We got two piranhas inbound and we only have one shot at this. They always did say I was full of bad ideas, but we have enough Puretide obsesses. Get ready to grab on!”

A green arrow pops into my HUD and begins chirping, a measurement of distance quickly whittling down beneath it. “You’re welcome.” Dal says, thinly veiling her sense of accomplishment. A comm channel flashes in the lower corner and I let it through.

“XV15 squadron Lamprey this is Beta support squadron inbound on your position for recon, eta 15 seconds. I apologize in advance but we are needed elsewhere too, so we can only slow down for pick up for a few moments. Be ready now.” 

Dal nods to me and I gesture back, taking the lead with a sprint. The others follow as the display in my helmet chirps quicker and quicker. A low growl resonates behind me but swiftly overtakes me. Cutting through the stormy sky, several skimmer vehicles swoop down from overhead like iron hawks.

“This is Beta Squadron- your lift is here. Saddle up and hold on tightly.”Hold on tightly? I repeat it aloud to Dal, who points to a few rungs and ports on their undersides… Oh boy. In a hurry, I play monkey-see-monkey-do with Dal, I grasp on tightly to the rungs and dig my free hand into the small port. Harnesses clamp down on my arm, leaving the rest of me to hoist into a harness. “Like I said,” she muses “The only way I was able to remain in the Cadre was in this division. Bad ideas, they say.”

“No offense, but I can see where they’re coming from- this wasn’t exactly what I had in mind!” I holler. I can see Santh hook up onto a nearby one, while Terrance climbs into a tinier, rounded looking skimmer with markerlights mounted on it. 

“You all green to go down there?” “Affirmative.” “Right- on our way then.”

For a brief second I feel like I left my guts behind as the engines roar and we go rocketing forward. I’m going to do my best not to puke, let alone aim.

No turning back now, whether I like it or not.


----------



## C'Tan Chimera

My stomach tenses into a clenched fist. I finger the controls in my gun, and my gaze is fixated at the ground ahead. I’m surprised I can hear myself think under the low, powerful drone of the skimmer’s thrusters. The spores and water glide right past my visor from whatever tech these Tau have. I grip on tightly to my unseen harnesses, knowing it’s about to begin. We’re about thirty feet or so above the ground and while I feel probably the most vulnerable I ever have, I also keep forgetting I’m wearing an alien super suit of sorts. I hear Dal’s voice, but it’s garbled beneath all the noise. Taking a few moments to crank up the volume, I find myself wondering if I’m going to go deaf by the end of this.

“Derrek, Terrance is going to provide us with our targets below using his tetra system. I know you of all people hate not having a motive for your goals, but trust us here. When he marks something, fire with everything you got. In fact, just trust me on this here. “

“Right. They do plan on dropping us off, correct?” I turn my head far to the right and have to twist my body just to see her dangling from the other wing. “I’ll let them know when it’s time to go.”

Suddenly, a flash of red and a blue reticule appears at the corner of my screen. “That would be his mark. All weapons hot!” 

Sure enough, down below I can see the first wave of Necron gunners honing in on the advancing guard. I hoist my massive gun at them and clamp down on the trigger, the weapon shrieking to life with a volley of plasma blasts. It’s dizzying as all hell as we go gliding around against our own control, though. I wince in annoyance as a huge portion of my salvo go flying way off target, striking empty ground. But a few hit head on, knocking several warriors to their…What the fuck, they’re still alive?!

I scowl and unload again, determined to try and down the things for good. My guts do another churn as the vehicle makes a tight 360 turn, allowing both of us to empty more onto them. A loud pop sounds and I’m briefly shocked to see parts of the wings detach… It had those drone things built into it? Hot damn. I continue to fire but let a lenient eye follow the drones, watching them harass the troopers below as the guardsmen take cover in their former fortifications. A Tau tank blast sends a small pack of them flying out in a thousand different directions and I briefly run hot with alarm as a Necron foot soars dangerously close to me. I still burst out laughing from it, but it’s cut short as Terrance’s markerlight pulls both the skimmer and myself away. His voice chimes in.

“More spooks to the right flank, but they’ve got themselves one hell of a throne forsaken escort. This is one for Beta himself to take care of so gunners, just keep the foot soldiers preoccupied.”

“Gotcha” I rev up my weapon as the symbol pops back onto my HUD and the glider dives down, gravity flying up at me… It’s scary as hell, but for a change in the sort of way that can be enjoyable.The Necron skeletons become clear again and we unleash our weapons on them as they attempt to close in on the tank formations. “Keep the pressure off the tanks! If they take their fire off the front line for a moment, it’s good-fuckin-night!” 
Sure enough, that 'throne-forsaken escort' appears… It’s one of those giant spider things we wound up using as cover back in the jungle skirmish… Okay, okay, he said we couldn’t do anything against it anyway. Focus on the regular soldiers. 

“I hope you’re strapped in all the way, friends.” The ‘Beta’ pilot says from above. “Keep those limbs tucked in!” …Wait, what? I know Terrance said that he was gonna take care of _shiiiiiiit!_

I hurry to bunch myself as we swoop down in a shriek of wind, the thunder of battle turning into a score of deafening explosions. For a brief second I feel almost level headed with the machines, but that changes as the spider machine fans its massive limbs out in a arcing swing. I feel like a toy as I’m flung about, my suit thankfully absorbing the impact as the Piranha does a 180 cartwheel. I shriek as a massive claw barely misses taking my foot off…And immediately I’m flung the other way as it rolls the opposite direction, now facing it head on. 

The small cannon mounted on the front of the gun bellows and launches a searing light with an accompanying surge of blue. I try to blot out the images of the green lightning launched at us- dammit, I feel so vulnerable! The guts are starting to get a little fed up as it spins yet again, this time flying straight up in a bee line. Looking over my shoulder, I can see the spider thing falling behind its squad, its face a molten mess. It finally gives up and slumps to the ground. 

“Okay, get ready for drop off! Clean those guys out and we will have you back in the skies in under two minutes!”

I turn my head to try and face Dal. “Drop off?!” She nods silently and does a twisting gesture… Aagh, not this again! A red landing reticule appears a couple meters away from the Necron troopers, thankfully behind the remains of an aegis defense line. A loud clang strikes my ears and suddenly I’m plummeting from the sky-fuck!! 

Dal and Santh soar into my field of vision, light swelling from their jump packs. Biting my lip and fidgeting with the controls in my weapon, I ignite my own and catch up to them, punching clear through the sky. 

“Kill the packs now and activate refractors!” Dal shouts. Immediately their lights go out and their very images follow along with it. It takes me another few seconds with the wind whistling in my ear, but I manage to do likewise. I feel like I’m transcending for a brief second with no visible body and only a rushing, blurred world running past me. The landing zone appears through my filter and I position myself to dive for it. 

For a moment I feel like my skeleton is shooting right through the top of my head, but I land with a heavy thud. “Weapons primed! Give them the Mont’ka!” 

Instinctively I follow along with them, my HUD the only thing allowing me to even keep track of their forms. The soldiers come into view, and I feel my blood begin to run cold as I realize just how fucking huge they are. They have to be taller than Space Marines, for the love of the damned throne! There may be only 8 of them now, but I can actually respect, let alone fear something this big. Those disc drones come in from their front, drawing their shots with their own bothersome barrage, thankfully. Should those things march towards us... I'm not sure I could let myself hold ground.

“Aim for the joints!” Santh hisses as he uncloaks in a shimmering haze. Without a word, we emerge from hiding and squat into the marshes. Suddenly, the red dots of the markerlights appear all over their backs, illuminating all the gaps in their carapaces. No war cries, nothing. We just open up and unleash plasma on them, knocking several over and causing the others to swivel around, returning the silence. I keep myself from looking directly into their eye sockets. They move in strange, jerking choreography... Almost mesmerizing in a demented sort of way- no! Fight it!

“Get moving!” I bark as they bring up their bizarre weapons. The fearsome machines lock into place and return with their own blast of horrible radiance. Taking no chances, I fire up my jetpack and vault over the whole group in a brief rush of air. “Keep them busy!” I quickly shout as the ground strikes my feet again, forcing me to roll over my shoulder to soften the blow… Did I really just pull that off? Damn, I like this suit.

Again I go for the joints, this time managing to separate one from its legs after a damned dozen shots, but to my horror it behave unfazed, fumbling around with one arm. It levers its weapon and swings a green beam at me. 

“Friendly fire inbound, take cover!” I hear Dal shout. Taking a leap of faith, I throw myself to the soil despite my overwhelming urge to fall back, only to have my ears ring as the sound of overpowering heavy bolter fire pounds overhead. I look up just high enough to see the remaining Necrons fall to the ground in shreds. 

“Alright, we’re coming in- we only got one shot so be quick!”
We all leap to our feet, the HUD pointing us in the direction of the fleet of skimmers coming in. I can’t help but notice the battered mechanical corpses beginning to reassemble themselves- focus, dammit! I jump up into the air as the lead comes back in. Zoning in totally on the harness hanging from beneath it’s wing, I throw my free arm forward. A brief sensation of relief washes over me but recedes just as quickly as he begins to pick up speed again. I hurriedly strap myself back in just as they swoop us up back into the sky at dizzying speeds… There’s no way in any hell I could have seriously just pulled that off, right?... Well holy shit, I guess I did. 

I look down below just in time to see the reconstructing fighters be blown to bits by a nearby Executioner pattern tank rolling alongside a Tau vehicle. That was damn close.

Terrance comes back in. “You guys holding up well there? We’re taking a fair bit of pain down below, but we’re pushing through so far. These metal bastards are too slow for their own good...”

“...Unfortunately, they also have numbers.” He reluctantly grumbles. “We do have a window of opportunity, but it’s not gonna stay open much longer. Those massive pyramids… They’re floating fortresses and they’re trying to square us off. If we can’t get through soon… Fuck, man.” 

“What the hell can we do?” Terrance begins talking faster, which isn’t helping the sense that we’re running short of time. “They got some anti-armor destroyer things moving up. If they even manage to disable a handful of that baneblade’s weaponry, we might as well be fighting them with dance routines. Strap your butt in, because I’m sending you guys in for that mont’ka beat down now.” 

What, as if I hadn’t been dragged around like a sack of potatoes already? I grunt and brace myself- sure enough, the fleet of skimmers condense in a blast of engine ignition. I’m actually beginning to get some bearings on this as we shriek through the air, shots flying up at us every so often. This time I could feel a tinge of shock as a simple beam shot pierced right through the hull of a skimmer in front of us. 

On the horizon, the marked targets appeared with their green highlights, courtesy of Terrance’s markerlight magic. Why the Imperium has never vied to capture and re-purpose that tech is beyond me. I start to rev my gun up as we close in, but to my horror I realize these are the same skimmer things I encountered so far back, but with much, much bigger guns. As if to confirm it, a series of crackling lances pierce the air, soaring right for us. “Evasive maneuvers, now! Artillery is highly mobile! I repeat, the artillery is highly mobile!” The skimmers uproot themselves from their positions and take to the air, their centaur like bodies twisting in all sorts of angles as they look at us...Analyzing us. As one, they ready their weapons and suddenly I’m jerked back as our vehicles take evasive action. “Ethereals protect us… Here come even more of them!” 

I manage to catch a glimpse in all the ducks and rolls… Not only six of those heavy ones, but a dozen regular ones and…Something worse. Reality catches up though and as usual I’m being flung around. I decide to speak up. “Pilot! Permission to lend support fire!” “Affirmative, affirmative!” he shouts. 

The swirling vortex corrects itself and we’re once again in the sky, although I’m nauseated as hell. All I can do is rehearse "Take it like a man" in my head relentlessly to keep control over myself. The Necron skimmers form a thick carpet behind us, launching a cascade of dead lights at us. “Pull up!” I gasp and they swiftly do so, the tide of green death sweeping just below my feet. I level my gun and try my best to focus to give myself a chance at hitting something. I can hear Dal do likewise- I won’t lie either, but this gun is damn heavy... I can feel my upper arm beginning to strain. Clenching and squeezing the trigger, I return fire on the machines, only to get double the rate of fire back. Dammit! This really is bad!I let myself lower my massive arm, only alleviating some of the stress.

“Bring the drones back in! Now!” They’re shouting furiously to each other over the intercoms. I can clearly see the leader of the group… It’s evil presence is greater than even his brethren. It’s baleful gaze radiates a horrible intelligence to it, his body covered in glyphs and ornaments. Unlike the others, he bears a staff of sorts. It raises its weapon towards us. We need to bail. 

“Pilot… I really hope you can dogfight your way out of this because otherwise I would suggest getting the hell out of here!” And as if on cue they launch another barrage of energetic doom. I jerk violently as the skimmer dips down low, but I can hear less lucky skimmers crumble, a shower of fire raining overhead confirming it. I fumble to get a hold of Terrance. “Hey! How close are they to getting through the line?!” Brief, agonizing pause. “Almost! I can see what’s going on up there, though- get the fuck out!” 

The skimmer does a tight turn and goes flying straight for the air above the skimmers. “Hey, Dal! Don’t do that weird stunt like last time you fought these things, alright?” I shout. “ What, can’t I be allowed to get a little personal with an enemy once every so often?” “No you can’t! You’re a lot prettier alive, believe me!” She laughs. “That’s not important now, but thanks for putting the idea out there for me.” Fucks sake, woman. 

It’s all going way too fast now, like a steadily increasing turbine. All I can do is hold on to my guts and try not to think about the batshit insane aerial fight going on now. The one powerful weapon fires off twice, the pilot making victorious musings with each one. But suddenly it stops. “Fall back! Fall back!” My stomach practically gets slung right out my mouth as the vehicle violently stops and dips back for the ground again. I can briefly make out the convoy on the lip of the terrible city, fighting still raging on all around it. 

“You two! Unhook yourselves now!” He shouts quite commandingly. Not really in disagreement, I struggle to unhook myself from the alien restraints. A loud click, and I find myself welcoming gravity into my life once more. I’d like to say I’ve adjusted to these free falls, but no, not really. 

I can make out the convoy daring its first steps into the obsidian city. “Dal! It’s in! Get ready to haul it!” Another click on the comms “This is Santh- I’ve taken yet another hit, but it’s minor- grief to my pilots that were not as fortunate. I’ll need cover when we touch down.” 

“And this is Terrance- I’m disembarking as we speak. I’m moving ahead with the rest of the Pathfinders. I’ll mark a rendezvous point, but try not to spook the guardsmen, okay? I’ve seen some of the same shit they have down here- I know we've all had our fair share of crap, but this is bad.” 

Don’t let the conversation fool you, however- I’m still just trying to keep a firm hold on my bladder as we quickly approach the beaten earth. Finally the anticipated impact… That wasn’t too bad. I think. 

I heave myself to my feet, welcoming the return of terra firma. Fear and relief struggle for my most dominant feeling right now, but regardless of victor I find myself giggling off an endorphins high. Dal lands ahead of me with a whole hell of a lot more finesse then I do. Fighting to pipe down my detached amusement, I reluctantly look back up in the sky to see the rest of the battle. It’s almost like watching two great insects fight as they move together in thread formations. It looks like the Tau are losing, however… I feel little heavy in the stomach for them even with the jovial relief higher up. I think the sad feeling really comes from knowing there’s no room for empathy anymore. Not after what I have been preparing to do. “Pardon, Derrek…” Dal speaks up. “You think you can do this?” 

“The hell does that mean?” She gestures to the great dark city behind her, awash in a faint green glow. “I know your relations with these machines. Do you want to wait and hitch a ride with another platoon?” I can feel a surge of heat in my temple. Frustration, but mostly embarrassment.

“No, Dal, no. Don’t baby me- it’s not a question of having fear or not, simply what you choose to do with it. And if you think for a damn moment I’m going to flee and leave everyone for dead again, your naivety remains strong as ever.”

Silence from her. “Apologies, then.” I nod. “Yeah. “ 

I stride forward, quickly growing more embittered by the sheer hypocrisy of my words.


----------



## Serpion5

Love it! Don`t stop! :biggrin:


----------



## C'Tan Chimera

Right into the maw of the beast I go. I can’t even begin to properly describe the sheer scale of this. Across the entire chasm , the same chasm that practically divides the planet’s hemispheres, an entire Necron city. Maybe even more than a city, I don’t know.

I regret having spoken so harshly to Dal, because now here I am about to take the first steps into this necropolis by myself. Foolish. I really don’t want to step in here. I’m afraid it will be like the tomb all over again. I really don’t want it to be like that tomb all over again, but here it is… No real light from the storm choked skies above polluted with their lightning, their energy. But reality calls. The battle still rages, and it is very real. I can hear the convoy far behind us, the rumbling of the great baneblade matching that of the thunder- it should be inspiring, but I can’t lure myself into false hope. I hear Dal’s voice speak reluctantly over the comms channel. “We need to get a move on, Derrek.” 

The city looms before me, unmoving and dead- yet I can’t help but feel its presence. It is very much here, and it dares me to enter it. Many peaks of many a ziggurat jut towards the sky, dozens of smaller, glowing structures entwined around them. It’s almost like a twisted black crown, or a row of the dulled teeth belonging to some ancient, slumbering beast- and here I am, walking into it. Sickly, throbbing glyphs pulse within its confines, like many pairs of blinking eyes.

It waits- no sense in disappointing it now. We have the firepower- we have the will… I have the soul up for bargain. Biting down, I put one foot in front of the other until I’m running. Ignore the rain, ignore the battles, ignore the death, focus on the one glimmer of selfish hope on the other end of the blackness. 

I activate my cloak and tell the others to do so as well. All we have to do is locate Santh and beeline right through the city. It’s that simple… Yeah, I wish I could bullshit myself like that. “Dal, group up with me. Santh’s position marker says he’s only a couple hundred feet ahead. “ The HUD’s green outline of her form shows up next to me, her voice confirming it. “So what about the convoy? We have no idea how this city is mapped out. We might not have enough time to plan out a route, we need to-“ I put my hand up to her. “You ever seen a baneblade-stormlord pattern in particular- in action before?” She shakes her head. “Didn’t think so.” 

Really I’m just concerned about us. I try to put my foot forward once more, but I can’t. I grunt in frustration as the pain in my body begins to sink back in. Move, dammit! I’m too close to the end to give up now! What is it? Why can’t I dare myself just a little farther?! 

I calm a little as I feel a hand, no matter how cold in armor, on my shoulder. “I’ll do it.” Dal says calmly. She walks right ahead of me, invisible but with a powerful presence regardless. “…Thank you.” I utter. “What was that?” She chirps- “I said thank you, godammit.” She tilts her head. “Pretty certain it was merely ‘…Thank you, Dal’ though? No godammits that I remember.” My blood begins to flow again. “Okay fuck it, I’m sorry, okay? Let’s just get moving.” She nods and breaks off into a run, throwing herself across whatever great self imposed barrier I had created. Sucking it in, I follow her. “No, seriously. Thank you.” This time she doesn’t say anything as we run together, lugging our huge guns along all the way. I'm still not entirely accustomed to Tau behavior, so I really hope that silence isn't the sort we call "The silent treatment" on the human side of things.

While the buildings remain smooth, massive pyramids of obsidian, the ground was strewn in a sea of debris. Dirt, stone, sand… It was as though we’re walking into some sort of miniature desert. The pyramids themselves…They’re giant. Threatening the skies with their towering forms. The sounds of battle die off faintly behind us as we drag on, giving away to a smothering, overbearing silence. The mountains seem to follow through on their threats, eclipsing even the sky now. Everything is dark, and I can feel the anxiety gestating inside me once more. Dal motions to switch through filters, and I oblige, turning the HUD from pure vision to a blurrier night vision, all in green. “This place… How did this all get here?” Dal mutters in disbelief. “I really don’t want to know.” I hastily reply back. She turns an open channel on for us, “Santh? You still here?...Santh, come in! I’m getting your vitals on my suit, so what is going on?” 

Silence. The hairs are standing up on my skin now. That freak robotic hand of mine…The feeling is coming back. It begins to move on its own. “Dal…” 
She doesn’t pay heed, swept up in concern for her...our friend. “Santh, just give me something, okay?! Where are you?” Suddenly she freezes . “By Aun'Va...” 

I really hate moving through here, but what I hate even more than that is standing still here. “Dal, we need to go.” The green, blinking symbols on the black mountains throb lighter, looking like great and terrible eyes all fixed on me. Even in the filtered wash of the night vision, I can make their overpowering shapes and colors out. I can hear the echo of our convoy again, but I can feel more… Feel it in this damned Necron arm like it’s a conduit of thought… It’s growing restless, angry…The whole city.

“Derrek, we need to find Santh. Now.” So much for getting out of here- she can really lay it out when she wants. Guess that bond-brother thing she was talking about earlier really is serious. 

The HUD blinks in a way I’ve never seen before. Investigating, it turns into a pict-log. I can make out Santh’s body , slumped and breathing heavily amongst the rubble and Tau bodies. Above him are hunched, twisted machines. It’s like they’re entwined with the walls like gargoyles or something… “He can’t even speak aloud, can he?” I utter. She nods and swivels around, pointing to the closest of the temple-mountains reaching far into the sky.“Try and switch through your filters.” Doing so, I jump between infrared, night vision, regular and finally heat. Sure enough, I can see dull, orange plumes of heat up above, duller light still revealing a smashed piranha. He has to at least be up a hundred feet! Despite the fact that I can hear the convoy steadily approaching behind us, it’s only right to help him. Perhaps one of the few acts of kindness that I can still hope to be accomplish. I stretch my pained body and look the building over for ways to scale it. 

“We need to be quick about this.” I grunt, a tinge of panic sweeping over me as I glance over my shoulder, actually seeing the great form of the Stormlord now rumbling over the city’s borders. If they notice us, they might very well mistake us for enemies and blast us into the dirt. 

Kicking the pack to life, I embrace the sky once more as it hurls me up towards the ziggurats' ledge. I zone in and kill the switch, entering free fall, the ledge the only thing that matters now. I feel my hand grip down on the equally hard and uncaring surface. Pushing my heels into the side, I desperately swing my heavy gun arm up onto it before it gets a chance to drag me over. I kick and scramble my way up, only now realizing just how damn cold this thing is-there truly is no life here. I flip back to heat vision again and sure enough, these things register as nothing but the darkest blue on the map. Glancing up, I can see the wreck far close. 

Going back to regular night vision, I look the walls up and down. Tons of glyphs that maybe I can climb to the next ledge. I hear a loud thud in time to see Dal appear on the other side. She gives a thumbs up and a rather poor imitation of one at that. She then makes her way over quite recklessly for a place so damn high up as this. “Give me a boost, Derrek-I’ll get to him.”

Obviously knowing how to do it, I knelt down and put my hands- awkwardly massive gun included- up in front of me. Now displaying a sense of caution, she gingerly sidesteps the ledge to get in front of me. She puts her front…Hoof onto my hand and I push up with all my strength, startled as she ignites her jump pack in ignition in a loud pop of fuel, making me practically jump out of suit and skin alike. “Fuck it, Dal! You’re gonna wind up knocking me off the edge with that crap!”

“Apologies, but hey, it worked- didn’t it?” 

I grunt and slump back. Dust. So much dust everywhere. I wipe my hand through the gathered dust, earth and sand, revealing the pyramid’s true blackness… And notice some of the piled earth has dirtied bone jutting from it. Gently digging through it, I pull out a pile of half corroded bones, and a small tablet. Finally, pieces of a shattered skull reveal themselves. Piecing them briefly together, I realize it was a single gunshot to the forehead. I glance at the tablet and squint, trying to make sense of it. Every last bit of it, all written in a language I can never hope to understand. It’s scrawled in the same symbols decorating most of these buildings. I stare at it, paying no attention to the Tau talking above me. Trying to make sense of it all, I continue. I feel a sensation of sadness sweep over me. I almost can guess what happened here, and yet I will never know for certain what this former person had written down. Perhaps he had hoped all…This, these temples… All of this might not last, and one day his species would recover his tale to piece together a forgotten history. An error averted… 

No. I can’t dwell on this sad image. I gently set his remains down, only to feel worse as it crumbles apart anyway. I stand back up as my comms buzz. “Derrek... it’s Santh- thanks. She’s hooking me up with some medkits right now, so it’s going to take some time. Figured I’d warn you first, since I could hear you screaming about Dal from up here. See you on the bottom.” 
I look deep down over the ledge and swear quite loudly- the damn convoy has caught up! Worse yet, they’re actually ahead! …A second glance, and it gets even worse. I cry out to God, who I no longer even believe in. 

I can see beyond the city walls, and the green glow of Necron weaponry… It’s everywhere. Everywhere. Our living alliance, our resistance, is slowly being pushed into the city itself. 

They are taking this planet back, and they are succeeding. 

“Both of you better hurry the hell up, because I’m going right now! “ I bark hastily, trying not to think how I might very well be leaving these guys for dead if things get worse. I dash across the ledge and kick my heels, vaulting over the edge. Fumbling into cloak mode, I ignite my pack and dart right for the convoy... The thought briefly flashes through my head; could I seriously leave Dal behind? Whatever. That can wait.

The stormlord is leading the way, towing its precious cargo behind it. Several leman russ tanks and Tau transports follow up from behind. Platoons of surviving soldiers cover their rears too, watching for foes. I land with a loud _thud_ on a smaller building, possibly some sort of mausoleum. Wasting no time, I cross the roofs, jumping and jetpacking over wide alleyways… Damn, they’re picking up speed! I wonder if they’ve glimpsed something weird. Up ahead, the open ‘streets’ – if you could call them that- fork apart around a massive, massive statue. It’s a figure much like one of the three I saw on the relief sculpture within that tomb. Tall, lithe, human…But not quite , either. A blend of flesh and mechanics far more graceful than a servitor. Three long, flowing, plated robes train out from behind him. They seem almost bug like… Bizarre as hell. 

Then something catches my eye. Up in the dying skies, I can see the form of a single Imperial Naval ship descending. This has to be it. This is our ticket out… My deal with the deceiver, the deal with the devil- I don’t know. We bring that crate in, I abandon them all for myself- and yet in doing so, I also save them… I shouldn’t be worrying, though- this is universe where morals died out long ago and…and...are the ships _ascending_?! Why would th- oh Emperor no.

They’re not rising. 

The city is *sinking*.

I spin around. The last of the Imperial and Tau forces have entered the city… Oh… Oh _nonono_. I can almost hear that horrible creature laughing in the back of my head. It’s been a trap since the beginning, godammit!A trap! A fucking trap- stupid, stupid! That’s when I hear it. Looking back from the sight of the ships descending, my eyes are brought to the statue. The flowing robes the great statue stands garbed in begin to move… Begin to unfurl... Uncurl. Eyes flicker to life, hundreds of legs stretch out. Mechanical insects. Friggin' giant metal centipedes! Dozens of giant Necron bugs detach from their host behind an unsuspecting fleet.

No...We’ve come too far for this.

Not now! I’ll be damned if I’m going to just roll over and let the currents take control of me again! Fuck you, fuck you all! I rev my weapon and throw myself over the edge of the building. I ignite my backpack- my is brain on fire, just trying to process this all. The mechanical worms drop down as well, their intent quite clear as they furl up into wheels. I don't know what is going on anymore, but I do know I'll be damned if I'm not going to do anything about it!

I have not dragged us all through this shit and dust only to check out unremembered! 

_No, I have not_!


----------



## C'Tan Chimera

The first tank is doomed, and I watch helplessly as the leviathans rip right through the back of the leman russ tank… 

…How am I supposed to stop these things? As I near the ground, I start to realize that I am nowhere near armed well enough to take on one, let alone the whole damn group. And that implies that I somehow could even if I did have the firepower! These Tau toys are getting to me.

I land feet first amongst a smoldering ruin of the Leman Russ. The crews remains are strewn all over the place….Burning promethium and cooked flesh assail my nostrils. Wincing, I push my way through. The whole group advances on to the fork, the mechanical beasts scuttling across buildings, launching themselves at the group periodically. I can’t catch up. 

“Fuck!” I yell. Dal and Santh are up there doing nothing about… What about the Inquisitor ship? The light bulb flicks on in my head- that’s all I need to do! Well, I should be feeling lucky I can do anything- but still. All they need to do is hold them off long enough for the Inquisitor’s assistance. I look up at the tortured horizon and watch as the shuttle slowly crawls overhead. Looking back at the rapidly shrinking convoy and the monsters weaving through it, the only thing giving me reference to how far away they are is a trail of wrecks and bodies. Too far away… How the hell can I catch up? This jump pack can’t have much more power left in it now. 

Oh no. That’s a stupid fucking idea. 

…Okay, so I’ve survived solely on stupid fucking ideas so far… But it’s becoming madness. 

I feel like I’m using up some sort of invisible luck gauge, though. I really shouldn’t be pushing this shit. Sighing, I flip my comm link on. 

“Dal?”

Nothing at first. “Derrek, you need to head on . Santh’s bloodied worse than he wants to admit- poor fool. “ I laugh a little. “Mind reader. I’m pushing the unconventional to the limit here…” I pause to take in a deep breath as I begin running, thumbing the cloak switch in my interface. “I’m going balls out for the convoy. In case I get killed… Tell them I died doing something a bit more admirable, okay? I’m not too hot on being remembered as a turncoat.” 
Up ahead, I can see several of the worm machines ravaging the remains of yet another leman russ, the dying machine spraying bolter and flamers desperately but ultimately in vain. That’s my target… Dal returns again. “Wouldn’t that confirm your Imperial sleaziness?” Honing in now, time to brush her out. “Yeah, yeah. Look, just whatever- I’m sorry for being a disappointment.” 

“Derrek, why the hell are you talking like th-“ I cut the link off. One of the two has slowed down quite a bit- time to go. Here’s to hoping you all believe this part. 

Hitting the launch on the jump pack, I throw myself into the air with the suicidal enthusiasm of a space marine drugged up to his eyeballs in stims and mindless hymnal benedictions. Except the Space Marine doesn’t think halfway through “Fuck fuck FUCK this was fucking stupid FUUUCK ME” like I’m doing right now. 

I’m gonna die sooner or later anyway I’m gonna die sooner or later anyway I’m gonna die sooner or la-_dammitdammitdammit_ this isn’t working! I’m heading right for it and that was intended! What the fuck am I doing?!
I swing my lower body up and kick my heels up. I swing my gun arm behind me to pivot my weight and put my free arm ahead to grab on desperately. 

This is absolutely dumbbbb_aaargh_!

For a brief second there is only pure terror, but reality surges back as I land on its hard back and desperately flail my hand around looking for something to grab on to. Reaching a vent, I hook my fingers around it and grip down for dear life as the monstrosity and his friend turn their focus back on the convoy. I’m starting to realize the only reason some guardsmen are able to act so brave is because they’re not doing half the insane, terrifying bullshit I’ve gotten myself into. At this point my colon just wants to slither out my backside and crawl all the way home- if I even had one.

My heart palpitates with each twist and turn of its wicked segmented body. At first it starts out slow and I can handle myself. But now it lurches forward and brings itself down to the ground. Cold sweat now. Gotta hold on. All I gotta do now is hold on long enough to get to the convoy. It ripples and flows as one massive stream but with all the ferocity of a raging Tyranid- like one of those big ones I always heard about back in boot camp. I suck it in but I want to look away and I obviously can’t do that here. It’s hard to tell what would be worse- falling off or getting noticed. I’m not even going to bother calling this a plan anymore because it obviously isn’t. 

The thought that the resistance up ahead might wind up accidentally hitting me briefly spirals me into further panic, but the whole group has their hands full. Through the bounding back of this machine, I can make out from the blur the convoy is quickly being reduced to shambles- the planks are trying to fight back! Stupid! 

Reality checks back in with a gallop that tosses me into the air, the only thing between me and total failure being my fingers. I bring all my weight down and against all logic cling desperately to the Necron bug thing... I wrestle with my position to go with its flow of movement, with little success. This thing has to have heard my string of expletives by now… Is it just ignoring me as a lack of priority?

I nearly soil myself as the thing pins itself to the ground, its buddy leaping right over it and obscuring my vision, only to be thrown right back up as the two dance around one another… Oh fuck. 

That one definitely saw me. And yes, I know I’m cloaked. It still saw me. Sensed me. 

We’re gaining on what little is left of the convoy up ahead- the leman russes have been dragged off like prized game, leaving only a few now to ravish the Stormlord and its coupled load. Without a warning the world tumbles off its axis as the bug flops on to its sideooh fuck I think it’s trying to shake me off! I feel the ground rushing up beneath me, except this time I got a bug thing that weighs who knows how many metric tons on top of me. 

Let go and thumb the jump pack QUICKFffffAha!

There’s about a foot between me, the bug and the ground. I narrowly jet out as that space rapidly closesaannd go right into the fire as realize I’m in front of both of them now.

I hit the sandy ground. Big bugs behind me no time to describe this shit. Runrunrun fidget with jetpack jumpack whatever GO

Roll over briefly long enough to see one lunging for me and kill the thrusters long enough to fall out of its reach but wind up hitting the ground. OH FUCK WHAT they have guns?! Gotta get to the convoy. I roll back over- so close now, dammit! Massive worm shadow paints my world RUN DAMMIT Pump the legs feel the blood coursing can’t afford to slow down push it harder push it fast runrunrun.

I feel the crackling of heat and tingling of energy. Flesh screaming out as parts unseen get exposed to the world. Blood flowing FUCK. 

Shadow grows larger oh nono DUCK, FUCKER! 

I hurl myself into the ground and close my eyes as I feel the great beasts massive weight shatter the ground around me. Still on top of me. Oh fuck, this is going to hurt even more. I feel it begin to rear up again and fire my pack oh FUCK this hurts! I can feel my armor screeching beneath me as I blast out from under its grip. I can’t take this anymore. I kill the cloak switch and race out ahead, screaming and waving my gun in the air. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that these bastards can just simply sense life. 

Nobody notices as they have several other of the insect things jumping all over the stormlord, cargo and Atlas towers still composing the group. A burst of black and consuming pain invades my spine -I feel like if I got shot right out of a cannon- pure pain whisped along the wings of gravity. As I go tumbling through the air I can only idly wonder if one of those things just headbutted me like a toy ball. 

Loud thud of ground and a sickening snap o_*EMPEROR MY GODDAMNED LEG *_

I’m not going to bother narrating my scream- regardless, it’s loud and horrible. This is it.

Not exactly the way I wanted to check out, getting eaten by a metal bug while my leg is broken in ways I don’t want to know.

Oh great and now my ears are being shattered as the two approaching beasts are engulfed in fire, dirt and smoke… The Inquisitor’s ship…Never been a naval specialist and I’m happy about that… Got no clue what it is… Ahaha…Auugh…

I feel myself being dragged along and this time I’m too exhausted to react… Groaning, I look up. I see a familiar face, but I can’t figure out for certain who he is. He has a friend next to him helping drag me along, but I can’t put my thumb on him either. Between coughs, I gargle out “Who are you?” 
“Guardsfolk call me Kidney, sir- you saved my scruff back there with them long bladed bastards. You oughta be happy me and this other droog remembered that weirdass hand of yours.”

I squint, trying to make them out… Oh wow, it is the same guy. But the other… He just winks at me.

“What about the convoy? Get back to it, screw me!” I shout, not really paying attention to the fact that I’ve been in this to selfishly survive all along. Damn it, can I ever be certain on something?

“What about those things?” I grunt. The other guardsman grins and laughs. “Guess we just don’t smell too good .” He does a vile smile. Kidney nods. “If I had myself a weird shit-o-meter it would have never have even budged until today, sir. You’re a whack, yes, but a whack that’s trying.” His friend nods, not helping ease my opinion. Whatever, I’m just glad I’m not moving around myself for a change…I let myself slip out for a few brief moments.

As I slowly fade back into this unwelcoming whole, I can feel the rumbling of treads beneath me and the shouting of many men in Gothic and Tau alike. Lots of gun fire. Shapes dancing above… The ship, the bugs, the panning city… Oh fuck I’m back here again! I sit up and immediately yelp in pain. My gun is gone, too! The Kidney guy stands right next to me. “We’re almost there, hang on to your guts for a bit longer.”

Clenching down deep in my teeth, I struggle to my feet and scream as my leg is set ablaze in hot, sticky pain- needless to say, I fall on to my good knee. “Damn Sir, you’re insistent!” I feel him lift my weight up and I shift to my good leg. Another guy shouts something out to him and he scrambles above the metal canopy to some sort of gunner position. Hurting too badly to get a grip on this place, but I’m certain I somehow wound up on the stormlord. Occasional loud gunfire from the lone interceptor ship tests my eardrums limits. 

Already in excruciating pain, I figure a little more can’t make it any worse. Growling in pain, I pull myself up the rungs of a nearby ladder to poke my head out of the back of the stormlord’s now open top.

I can actually see the last few rows of buildings ahead… Almost through, thank the Emperor… So many Necrons everywhere else… All the survivors are following after our path now, desperately fighting back the encroaching machines long enough to escape. I guess the rapidly approaching fleet of Tau and Inquisitor ships wiped out the bugs cause now we’re actually standing a figh- oh wait, there are two moreAUGH I let myself drop to the ground and further bring on the horrid pain in my leg as one of the things dives right overhead, taking two gunners with it, Kidney getting lucky and escaping with only a gash running through his shoulder. Now it was his turn to be shouting in pain. 

“By the damned Throne, here they come again!” One guardsman shouts as another machine pokes its vile head over the top. The group unloads everything on it, punishing the machine and sending it reeling, but not before it squeezes off a burst of its own- claiming a guardsmen in a cloud of dust and light- and tearing off several mounted autocannons with it. A glutton for punishment, I crawl up again just in time to be blinded by a solid wall of green light with only the silhouettes of three weird crescent towers rising out of the city. My vision comes back again… Some sort of cannons? A nearby Tau soldier mutters. “Only unity can protect us now…And I can only hope for that.” as if he was saying it in anticipation. I’m about to ask what he’s talking about when the light floods back again, this time with a groaning sound.

The lead interceptor ship- my ticket off of here- is suddenly in flames and diving for the ground, it’s very foundations falling apart in trails of dust and particles.

I can only watch in silence as all of our hopes ignite in a shower of fire and steel, now just a parody of the necropolis buildings lying before us, sticking out twisted and ruined. 

The fleets overhead continue to descend, but let’s face it- as more gunners get plucked from the sides by sweeping segmented bodies, we’ll be lucky to survive another hour. The same oddly familiar guardsman from earlier walks into my vision with a big stogie in his mouth. “Don’t underestimate the resourcefulness of the Guard, Derrek- what, you a defector or something?” 

That grin spreads across his face again, smeared with cigar ashes, turning it a vile black. I know that grin. 

I wince and look away. I can’t even throw up now.


----------



## arturslv

And so are you, good sir.


----------



## Serpion5

:goodpost: 

Absolutely. I`m loving this story.


----------



## C'Tan Chimera

“Fucking hell!”

“We’re going to die on this rock for nothing?!”

“The Mon’Tau comes back… “

“By the damned throne, He’s forsaken us all!”

The cries of alarm are near universal- it’s nice to fit in for a change. The few who want to keep their cool start brandishing their weapons as though they are about to start playing commissar, but even they don't have it in them. Despite the sound of a great fire raging and the battle droning on outside of the great tank, a pall of silence has fallen over us. I can’t think of anything to say either despite all the panic, frustration and anger crawling under my skin.

The comms jibber in my ear, and I can hear Dal. “Derrek, what the hell?! Are you alright? Santh, Terrance and I are advancing with the remaining cells but…”

Suddenly, a loud, thunderous grinding noise. 

“…Derrek, we all need to move.”

“What?” Is all I cough out on my end, but more shouts of alarm arise in tune with the growing loud sound. I look up at the open canopy, and see the great wreck is...rising?...

Oh no.

“Derrek. The city is sinking.” 

Sinking. The city is sinking back down into the moon, taking us all with it. An ambush? A trap? A readymade café full of cans of undead whoopass? Fucking playing me for a fool? Well good play, I say! I guess that makes me a fool because I’ve dived for the hook, line and sinker all in one go! 

Well this is the icing on top of the turd cake, isn’t it?! This whole thing, all of it, a fucking death trap! Delivered with a bow right into the middle of a tomb! Where is that cigar chomping, make-pretend prancing fairy god motherfucker…

…He’s gone. Probably changed AGAIN into some other guardsman. The blood is pumping full of righteous anger, flowing through my veins and seeping from my wounds. I’ve never felt this pissed off before. A trap! The whole thing, a fucking trap! Well guess what? I’m tired of this shit! If I can’t just punch his face in here, I’ll do the next best thing and tell him where he can stick his plans! I’m not playing along by anybody’s plan anymore, because they either suck or are designed to purposefully kill us all!

I was talking earlier about how the only thing worse than total silence is that silence shattered. Well sign me up for the Medal of Hypocrisy award because I’ve had it up to here with playing along! Now it's my turn to shatter the silence. Screaming with the pain in my leg as I get back on my feet again, I rip my helmet off- the cold, dead air managing to be a refresher after all the sweat, blood and humidity of the enclosed helmet. The others look at me like a greenskin just barged into the chamber. 

“They’re getting us good, aren’t they?!” I shriek, hysteria and anger together working to overcome my self control. “I bet you’re all ready to throw in the towel and line up for something quick and painless, huh?!” 

Unblinking eyes, but frozen faces. “Well kick up an altar, let’s get some confessions going! I’ve been running away left and right since I landed on this fucking rock, getting suckered in to working with some other stranger offering better candy! Left and right, left and right! Guess what? The candy blows hard ogryn cock! You guys got it pretty bad, but guess what? I’ve been shot in the gut! I’ve had my arm ripped off! By you guys! I’ve got numerous parts of my left leg missing skin, and my right leg’s probably jammed up itself like a damned periscope! From those metal freaks! Those damn bugs tried taking me as a chew toy! And I’m still here, aren’t I? Hell, news flash!_WE’RE IN A FUCKING STORMLORD TANK!_And you want to give up all hope?!” I’m coughing and wheezing in-between hurried gasps for air. I slowly grow aware of the blood trickling down my lip. “Greater Good, Emperor, whatever! You know what I’ve been fighting for this whole time? My own ass! Plant a slug in-between my brain if the idea scares you, but I’ll be fucked if I’m going to curl up and cry now! I don’t care who it’s for, but we are getting off this miserable ball of shit!”

I swing around toward the front of the tank and hobble over to the sealed doors leading to the cockpit whatchamacallit. I put my head against the freezing steel. “HEY! You getting any of that in there?!”

“…Yeah, I am.” 

“Well guess what?! We’re up Shit Creek without a paddle, and your little tugboat just got commandeered by Captain Shithead of the _SS Fuckall_! Doesn’t that work out nicely?! Don't give me any of that glorious martyr, final stand junk-we are getting out of this fucking death pit even if we gotta _MAKE THIS DAMNED TANK SPROUT *POLKA DOTTED WINGS AND FLY*!_”

I look back, sweat and blood pouring down my face, my vocal cords frayed and broken with all the yelling. Some of them are still expressionless and I know there went my last chance of ever joining back up again with the Tau officially. However, I see a couple grins of disbelief spreading across some of the Imperial grunts' faces. Then the roars of approval begin- not from everyone, but enough that I got the tank commander’s attention, who’s voice comes muffled from the front of the vehicle.

“…If the Emperor wills it.” You see the Emperor here? I willed it, they willed it! Whatever, I win.

Sanity slowly creeping back into my rattled skull, I speak in a much softer voice, still gasping for breath every so often. “Permission to come aboard, sir?” After a brief period of silence, the muttering behind me grows into a demand. “Let him in! He’s so freaking mad he might get something done!” “Better let him behind the wheel then sit around here not fulfilling the Inquisitor order!” “If I gotta die let’s at least make it interesting!” 

After another pause, it slides open and I stumble in. Only a few narrow slits and projectors illuminating the room, with several seats for the commanders. I hop into the seat next to him. The grizzled commander looks at me like I came right out of the Eye of Terror. “You do all you gotta do, but give me that voxcast.” I huff. Satisfied enough, he hands it to me. I wait for him to shut the doors before I shoot my hand out, grab the pistol handle jutting from his holster and point it right at him. 

“Trust me, you’ll thank me later.” I mutter. 

“You won’t be thanking me when I sick the Custodes on you, heretic twist!” He growls back. “I’ll be gone by then, but you’ll be alive too. A win-win.” 
He starts to say something again but I heft the pistol. Squinting through the visor slits, I can see the sky is starting to be replaced with a slowly rising crust. Right in front of it is a single row of obelisks, the Inquisitor’s vessel jutting out behind them.

“Okay, see that center obelisk?” He leans in too and nods. “Yeah, what of it?” 

“Tip the bastard over and burn the rubber off these treads- we’re going to make our own entrance into that ship.” He turns back and stares at me. “…You really are out of your thick skull, you know that?”I nod.“Let’s go.” Without a word, but a grunt, he sets to working his magic on all the doohickies and controls. 

I click open the vox. “Alright, if you got something to hold on to, do it guys- this is about to get turbulent.” I hop out of my seat and toss his pistol into his lap. “Like I said, feel free to sick ‘em on me later, but let’s make it so they know we went out with a bang, alright?” Dazed, confused and obviously lacking any better ideas, he just nods. I hobble out of the compartment and past the others. “To the weapon mounts, move it!” 

Choking down the near constant pain, I clamber up the ladder and onto the catwalk where the gun mounts formerly stood. Just beyond the towed Atlas vehicle carrying our cargo, the last of the survivors are hot on our tails, a slow, implacable horde of metal monsters lumbering far behind them. I can even see Dal and Santh, supporting each other as they moved ahead, the walking bush Terrance trailing not far behind them. The rest are a mixed group of more Tau and Guardsmen, plus two weird bird looking aliens...Friends of the Tau, I guess? I look over my shoulder in time to hear the loud snarl of lascannons firing. 

The two blasts blaze a deep swath across the obelisk’s foundations, but not deep enough. I turn back and quickly reverse one last time. We got about 200 feet between us and our ticket out of here. Ignoring the living metal and shambling lights creeping everywhere through the city, I turn back to our group. I quickly hop over the ridge and look back down on the group bellow, scurrying to keep the tank ticking. “Hey! We got some survivors! Give me a hand!” 

Pivoting back over to the ledge, I suck it in- I’ve just thrown a major bitchfit and gone through a lot worse. This will pass easily.

I sprint across the hull and kick myself off the ledge, making sure to land on the Atlas with my good leg. I gotta help them. I’ve gotta find a way to atone for some of this selfishness. Crane, check. Chains, check. Platform, check. Right. Problem is both of these are lashed together and hauling a massive crate. As I hear the sound of the Stormlord’s massive Vulcan bolter rev up and pound the obelisk, I realize these are going to be dead weight anyway. Dammit!

Mind racing, I absentmindedly beckon for the others to hurry while some other Guardsmen join me on the Atlas top. We only got a minute or two at best. Too much blood on my hands as it is.

Fuck it, why not? Everything else has gone to hell, a little bit more won’t hurt. I hit the switch and send my jump pack into a light burst, vaulting me onto the crate the Atlas is holding… No obvious way to open it. Damn it! I lean over the edge and try shouting to Dal just as the Necron lightning starts flying. I can hear the great groan and cracking of the obelisk behind me.
“Dal! You and Santh got anything left in those packs?!” She doesn’t hear me at first but her gaze through that helmet is fixated. I repeat it again, yelling louder. This time she nods. “Then both of you DO IT!” 

She hesitates, thinking of the others. “DO IT- TRUST ME!” I bark. Without fail, she and Santh exchange glances and ignite their packs. I sidestep their impact points as they land. “Blast the damn crate open!” This time she does it without hesitation, melting a hole clear through the steel with her heavy melta gun thingy. Disregarding the molten metal, I hoist myself in with my expendable metal hand. Hopefully one of those Necrons somewhere feel it. 

Darkness… Wait… This thing is practically empty. It better not be that shameless a- oh, what a relief! I spot an even smaller crate…Is this some kind of practical joke? Whatever. I snatch it up, surprised by its lightness. Why the hell did they go to all this trouble for something someone could carry under their arm?! I see Santh lean over the edge and reach his hand out. I grab it and the two pull me back up. The deafening roar of the tumbling obelisk confirms it. Time’s running out. I point back to the guardsmen staring in awe from the Atlas and we all get it, jetting back onto that tow tank. Dal begins to ask me a question when suddenly she lunges and shoves me to the ground, a green bolt flying over us. I cough, but work up a smile. “…Thanks.” She nods. “It’s a pleasure.” I smile wider. “I need you to cut that chain- blast the base of that crate.” Even through the helmet I feel the confusion. “We’re getting as many out of here as possible, now go!” I shout. "Don't start crying when I begin bossing you around like the _SERGEANT_ I am!" She muses.

She shifts to her feet as I do the same, firing on it and severing the unnecessarily huge and cumbersome crate. It hits the ground with a thud and the 14 or so group of survivors run around it, quickly beginning to grow fatigued. Time to go! 

I vault over the side and land on the small dozer blade mounted on its back. The others join me as I throw the remainder of the chain out. The brightest of the group get it first. A Tau and guardsman alike throw themselves at the chain, grabbing and wrapping themselves around it. I look over my shoulder to one of the crewman standing over the open hatch. “RAISE THE CHAIN!” I bark. He nods and leans in. Immediately the thing begins to raise high enough for Dal and the other guardsmen to reach out to grab them. Pitching in myself, we pull them over onto the tank. One of the several bird humanoids not only manages to keep up, but _leaps_ onto the platform where Santh helps pull him over…Why didn’t we have more of these guys with us again? Whatever, times running low! “DROP IT AGAIN!” I yell. He nods and it repeats. 

A guardswoman and guardsman grab on this time, the tense look of anxiety shining bright in their eyes. I shout, he raises, we reach out and help them onto the tank while the other trooper helps them onto the Stormlord. “We’re running out of time! About 75 feet and closing!” He yells to me. 

Repeat the process, get Terrance and another Pathfinder up. Repeat the process. 45 feet. We can’t get them all. I turn back. “GET SOME WEAPONS OVER HERE!” I shout, a stray necron bolt flying a few feet over my head. Repeat the process, several other guardswomen, one actually a Tau convert. Repeat. 15 feet and I get the weapons. The last 6 survivors are struggling to keep up as I throw the chain out one last time. Three of them lunge for it , but only a weapons gunners and the other Tau…bird thing manage to keep hold, though. I shout and he hoists it back up just as the guardsman hands me a plasma and additional bolt pistol. “Hurry to the tank!” I bark and look back. 

The hopelessness in the last two guardsman and Tau below is crushing, but nothing can be done. I toss both weapons over the Atlas’ edge and onto the ground in front of them.They look to me and I give them a double eagle gesture as they slowly roll into the background. It’s all I can do at this point. I turn and head back for the front ledge while the last of the Atlas’ crew scrambles over, briefly turning back. The one guardsman picks up the plasma pistol for himself while the other is showing the Tau how to use the bolt pistol as the Necrons begin to close in. Once he gets the picture and takes total hold of the pistol, the guardsman pulls one of his own frag grenades out. Unity to the end… Take a few of them down to hell with you for me, guys. 

I would get all choked up maybe if not for the violent jolt as the Stormlord begins its first creep up the side of the obelisk. The pain cuts like a knife through my bad leg and I feel myself slip under the sudden incline. I begin to scream as I fall- only to be grabbed by my arm by one of the bird people. I can’t even begin to read the expression on its face, but it pulls me back in with little effort, dragging me along with its jump over onto the Stormlord with Dal on the other side. 

The bird thing pulls me along the dangerously sloping tilt while Dal blasts the Atlas free from the Stormlord. I feel compelled to see how those three left for dead are doing, but I don’t think it’s worth it. Instead I look to see how close we are to the peak of the massive structure snapped in half. As soon as we hit that peak, we'll go rolling down the other side and pierce the weakened hide of the ship.

The rain of earth and vanishing light… We’re going back down deep and doing it fast. It has to have a docking bay full of smaller shuttles near the rear still sticking above ground… 

That’s our last hope then. A race to the top.

-----------------

Next stop, _climax!_ It might take a day or two, but I've had it planned out for ages. Get ready for one big whopping final chapter.


----------



## Serpion5

I`ll look forward to it. :biggrin:


----------



## WarpSpawned

Ditto.
Great story you've got going here, chimera


----------



## C'Tan Chimera

Climax part 1 go! Yes, part 1. Trust me, you'll be happy I broke this down into two parts. 

-----------------


The great tank’s treads groan as it fights to climb the summit of the shattered obelisk. I can’t actually see it since I’m safely strapped in below the transport hub with all the other survivors, but I can feel it. 

Tipping…Tipping… 

A loud bang of weight and then the squeal of sparks, followed by total weightlessness. A look of terror spreads amongst the group and knuckles whiten with increased grips.

Gravity returns like a hungry maw inhaling a morsel and the tank. “Hold on tight and pray this noble Machine Spirit has the strength within it!” The commander shouts over the vox. Now the yelling starts as our brief slip turns into a shuttling of insane speed. I’ve done so many drops today I can’t lie about feeling unfazed, but some of the others are yelling and quite loudly. Now the scary part comes in.

I can hear the weapons revving and firing, undoubtedly trying to soften up the impact site as much as possible. Will we break through? Will we just be a colorful splotch? Could be worse, I think. I think. Clamping down on my lip, I wince as the hurried fire of weapons rains on in tune with the forced chugging of the war machine’s flogged treads. 

It hits like an ogryn’s fist to the face- I don’t know it from personal experience and I’m happy to keep it that way, but bear with me. The force hits and at least half a dozen of the guard are sent flying from their seats and into the floor. I practically smash the back of my head against the walls and Dal is flung forward with a shout of surprise. 

The squeal of metal against metal is the most agonizing thing I’ve heard as I can feel the hull of the tank struggling to burst through the ship’s iron hide. The muffled rattling of the Vulcan and bolter guns goes off again. Just in time for the uprooted guardsmen to get back to their feet, whatever was holding us back gives in and again we’re plunged into another fall. 

The thing hits the closest semblance to ground with a deafening thud as the guardsmen are tossed around again, but this time their suffering is coming to an end. Everything stops moving. The sound of fire and cackling static can be heard. The commander’s doors slide open and he staggers out, dazed and covered in sweat. He points a finger at me. “You…Are… Completely batshit.” One of his cronies works to release the hatch. Sure enough, the doors pop open not to a rain laden sky, but the twisted, confined complex of a shuttle turned upside down. 

I shrug. “Well it worked, didn’t it?” He takes a deep breath. “Fair enough. What now?” 

I unbuckle and gingerly get to my feet. “I’m no naval expert- but this thing has to have some docking bay. We find that, we get the hell off this rock.” He cracks a small grin. “I’m familiar with some vessels. I can’t help with operating anything, but I know the layouts. From the few looks I got at what’s left of it, this used to be a Sword Frigate. Why exactly they chose to touch down on these is a mystery to me, but their wisdom would far surpass my own, so who am I to question His Will?” 

I bob my head up in down in a sarcastic manner. “Okay. I just need to know how we get to the docking bay. Or in this case… Go up.” His pause confirms what I figured- we got to get an idea of where we are first. The whole group disembarks the tank and takes in the surroundings.

I guess we smashed through a section of the ship’s battery deck. Massive hubs all over the sides of the walls with only thin catwalks serving as walkways between them. Our tank is resting nose first on the remains of a smashed battery compartment. 

“…Well, we might as well be fucked when our way out is pointing up at a 90 degree angle.” One of the guardswomen remarks. The Commander turns back to face her. “This twist managed to get us this far with something twice as mad. We need to come up with something, and we will. Any of you grunts got any naval experience?”

The one named Kidney raises his hand, but only a little. “Not much, sir. Got recommended in but got ejected just as quickly because of some substance abuse issues as they call it.” He makes a long face. “Better than nothing, I suppose. Now if this is a run of the mill Sword class frigate, the bridge should be further up ahead. That means we got ourselves a path in the shape of an upside down L. Once we get past the initial climb, it’s just a walk across some odd dimensions. There should be a hangar area underneath the bridge command.” 

Muttering amongst survivors, Tau and Imperial alike. “That’s great and all” one of them interjects,” But how exactly are we supposed to climb these catwalks?” 

My mind drifts back to the Atlas vehicle. Dal’s melta weapon. “Easy.” I speak up, gathering everybody's gazes. “ We turn them into stairs. Our xenos friends here can happily pull off what we can’t. Despite having no weapon myself, I gesture to Dal. She shakes her head and gestures to me instead. Whatever. I follow over to her. “What do you need?” She jumps right to the point. I point above. “Your melta type weapon has done a pretty good job so far. Think you can hoof it up there and give these catwalks a nice change of angle?” She looks up, scanning it over. “Without a doubt, Derrek. Question is can you keep leading these people if things get ugly?” I pause, not expecting that sort of response. She stares at me expectantly.

“…Look, I don’t know.” I mutter, the deal with the deceptive creature floating at the back of my mind. “Then step down and let me take the reign.” She mutters. “…Alright. But what about their negative disposit-“ She laughs under her helmet. “Trust me.” I wince for a second. “Alright.” 

I sidestep her as she makes her way over. This is hardass Dal I’ve glimpsed a few times, but I can only wonder… Have I helped turn her into this? She speaks briefly in her Tau tongue, and immediately the ones associated with the Tau stiffen into a salute with their fists on their presumed hearts. She then turns back to face the humans. 

"Okay, I’ll speak in low gothic so you can catch this all. I’m here to help. I was a squad leader amongst a group of elite commandos that operate outside of traditional Tau doctrine. You’ll have to swallow down whatever pride you have and take an occasional order from a so called Xeno."

Some grumbles among the guardsmen. “I hear that. Sure, it’s healthy to question some of this- but get this straight. We need to cooperate to survive, and if you decide to jeopardize all of us because you can’t unwrap your mind from your indoctrinated bigotry, I will put you down like any commissar for the exact same reasons. No fucking around, alright? I’ve worked with plenty of guardsmen before. Let’s put it all aside and work not for the sake of any belief or philosophy, but the basic goal of survival so you can continue your pursuits of such ideals later." An unsettling pause tense with energy. “I am serious about the no fucking part, by the way." She grunts, patting her heavy weapon. 

Without a warning, she spins around, launches herself up the vertically challenged frigate interior, grabbing onto a railing and climbing high enough to perform another jump. Even from all the way up there, Santh can see and understand her hand signals. He makes his way through the group and blasts the lower part of the catwalk free and kicks it forward under his feet. Dal then wraps her gun arm around the guardrail and blasts the end of the catwalk. 

With a moan, it slides out underneath itself. I watch with great tension as they let it slide. If it falls, we’re fucked. It tilts into a reasonable slant, and Dal blasts the edge again with a shot of her melta weapon, fusing the metal to it’s new spot on the wall. Santh does likewise with his gattling gun thing similar to the one I had, welding the bottom to a new found position nestled up against the side of the stormlord. She tests out the slope with her hoof and signals back to Santh, who turns to us. “It’s good- let’s go!” A couple of the guardsmen give nods of approval, another outright smiling and attracting some gazes from less pleased individuals. 

We each take to the catwalks, gripping on to either side of the catwalk for dear life as we begin our slow ascent. After all the speed, fear and excitement I’ve had lately, this feels slow and tedious. I look over my shoulder, giving in to the urge to see how far we’ve gone. I regret that as I see the smashed, pulpy bottom where a whole third of the ship made impact with the ground. A huge abyss of twisted metal, loaded and pierced with hundreds of bodies. I also spot something snakelike slip through the battery holding our now tiny tank up, but I pull my gaze away for my own sake. 

The occasional muttering finally turns excited shouts as we near the peak. Dal has managed to kick open one of the secondary hatches-presumably the serf quarters-from the bottom up and fused it to the catwalk’s original entrance, giving us an uneasy, if still now possible ticket out of this vertical graveyard of empty metal halls. I watch as the two guide the survivors into reaching the rails and using their weight to swing them around, giving them enough momentum to cross the perilous distance and scramble up the side. 
Dal then gestures it’s my time. “What about the payload?” I ask aloud. She hesitates. “If it’s that important now, I trust you can figure a way.” She leaps onto the rungs herself and makes her trek across to the entrance. “I’ll be here watching just in case, but hurry!” 

I can make out through the visible part of the melted open door the Tau are standing by her side, keeping a sharp watch for any treachery. With only one arm on a guardrail and one decent leg keeping me from a tumble to a certain, anti-climatic death, I hone in yet again on my somewhat…unstable survival instincts. 

Grunting in pain, I twist on my heel and with a tight grip and kick myself forward, putting myself at the mercy of physics once more. Focus on the rung. Focus on the rung. Focus! 

Throwing my free arm forward, I grab onto it and tighten in on it as quickly as possible- now I just have to refrain from looking down. Okay, while the momentum is still good…Auugh! I glance down as I hurdle free through the air. It’s like staring into a bottomless pit of iron, but you know it has a bottom filled with slumbering corpses. Nono….Fuck it, I gotta! 

I launch myself from the wrung and into the air. Resist the pacnicHit the pack hit the pack this fucker better have enough fuel left in it…Aha!
Gravity’s impending doom is thwarted by one final burst of remaining energy in my pack, kicking me back into the air and through the entrance. Flailing my limbs forward, I hit the ‘ground’ of sorts unharmed… If I still had the Emperor as my deity, I’d be on my knees praising his name right now. Santh does a small clap that I can’t figure out is sarcastic or not while Dal helps me to my feet, being careful not to put me on my bad leg. The tank commander- I’ll just call him Jim for now- remarks “Okay, it’s a bit confusing because of the circumstances, but I believe we are in an elevatus loader shaft. Watch your step.” 

It definitely looks like one- definitely large enough and with tons of cables running across the…not hall. It is almost total darkness with the exception of dull, flickering orange glows- fires in the distance giving only small illumination to its edges. “I don’t suppose somebody brought along a bloody torchlight then?” the Gue’vesa remarks. Silence. “We head along regardless.” Jim states.
Taking to the front with Dal, we begin our slow, cautious walk through the shaft. Covered in grates, steel girdles and laced with dozens of cables, it certainly fits with the theme of the dead ship. It’s almost as though we are hiking through its spinal cord. All our footsteps echo up and down its rattling bones, further unsettling the group. All we have to do is make it toward the end and hope the hangar bays doors aren’t snapped shut. Feeling our way across the orange hued shaft, I notice evidence of a struggle. Multiple bolter casings jingle under my feet. I had almost forgotten this was an Inquisitor’s ship, and that means his specialty elite had to be here. Grey Knights, I think. The fact that they exist is essentially the one thing I know about them. 

Trudging further along, more and more bolter casings begin to show up, but with even more to go with it. Massive gashes streak the floor, walls…Whatever, point is something bad went down here. But if these guys are like space marines… What the hell could jam them up so bad? We haven’t seen evidence of any Necrons here, let alone something capable of getting up this far…

Then I notice the coils moving. Among the thick wires, some of them begin to slither. 

“We’re not alone.” Is all I manage to say, voice raised just above acceptable levels.

“Move. Move it.” Getting louder now as I break out into a hurried hobble. A door presents itself ahead as a death pit, but I’m given a shove by Dal and make it to the other side, barely. I stumble forward and land on my face, but after all of this that might as well be a feather tickle. I roll onto my back to get up as the confused and hurried group begins leaping or sidestepping the pit full of flickering fire. One of the guardsmen jumps over….

And a massive, legless Necron flies out of the pit, grabbing him and ripping him to shreds with claws twice as long as the ones that wore skin. Impaling the dying man with a sickening sound at the tip of its tail, it hurls him down into the flaming pit where horrible screams ring out. 

“RUN!” 

Fuck the pain fuck the pain holy shit! I scramble to my feet and run with the others only to grow twice as horrified as another one of the broad shouldered snakes _comes right out of the wall_ , not like it burst out. No, I mean, it’s going right through the wall like a ghost! A huge blossom of nightmarish whips and cables flail at the end of it’s spine, which it uses to snag a Tau and Guardsman, going at them with freakish surgical, bristling weapons for its own fingers. 

Dal whips around on her heel and unloads a blast of melta energy… Only to see it fly right through the thing like it was nothing but a wisp of fog. What the fuck!?!

Run. Run. Dal squeezes off another shot, only to fly through it again. I run right past her, throwing my own arm out and grabbing her. Dragging her along, I look over my shoulder long enough to see the macabre monstrosities hot on our tails, their ghastly forms defined by the contrasting glows of orange fire and green deadlights. 

“Jump, Derrek!” She shrieks and throws me yet again over another dimly lit pit of twisted geometry. I struggle to get to my feet as she yanks me back up. She opens up on them again as they come on top of us. I bite down hard on my tongue to stop from screaming as one unfolds its wicked hands, bonesaws, syringes and picks buzzing around on its fingertips. It lunges for me and I throw myself onto my side, rolling out of the way of its initial grab. 
I hear shouting all around me as the poorly named survivors are attacked. The creature lashes out with its horrible tail, again missing only because of my honed craven skills of fleeing. They fade out and fly right back into the ground…What the fuck?!

They’re gone, if only for a moment. I can hear them, though…Feel them… This damn arm of mine… Why did they retre- 

As if on cue, the bones of the great beast moan and gravity begins to tumble. Oh fuck me. I begin to slide on my ass as our passage begins to lurch forward off its axis… The throne forsaken ship is tipping over! Many shouts of alarm follow as others fall as well, tumbling violently with the ship as it gains momentum from its own weight.

We can work with this though! “Hey! Hey!” I shout, barely trying to disguise my panic. “Use it! We can outrun these things with this!” Dal scoops me up from the shoulder as we both begin an awkward dash down the growing incline, just in time to see the wraiths reappear out of the hazy smog. “Hold on!” She shouts, igniting her dying jumpack. The roar of her backpack is trumped by a much more foreboding sound.

The squeal of grinding metal. The elevatus platform! 

“GO!” I scream as a dim shower of sparks grows visible far off behind us, barely defining the corners of a massive shape sliding down the rails. She kicks us off the ground and we go hurtling down the passage, flying right past one of the monsters as it practices its disgusting art on a helpless Tau soldier. 

As we gain speed immediately on the fleeing group up ahead, I turn my head just in time to see the creature so caught up in its foul trade that it neglects to phase out- the platform smashes into the thing, even then failing to goad a sound out of the beast as it’s smashed into a dozen pieces that get grinded into slivers against its hungry edges. I won’t even bother describing the gross effect the impact had on the tau’s body. 

The other two monsters caught on, phasing out into their weird ghost haze, immune to all lighting cast upon them except their own baleful sockets. Immediately though we go soaring right past them. 

“Derrek, brace yourself!” She shouts as her pack sputters, finally chugging down the last few cells of power left in it. We fumble desperately to regain footing without tumbling head over heels down the rest of the shaft. I wince in pain each time my leg comes into contact with the chain linked walls. Struggling to catch up now, Dal and I manage to get evenly paced with Terrance and one of the guardswomen- up ahead I can see the bird men have actually picked up several terrified guardsmen and carry them over their shoulders. I think we lost Jim to one of the many open doorways. At least now there are no custodes to worry about in the future- if I can make it that far.

Glancing back over I can see both the wraith things right on us again by 10 feet or so, the platform gaining more and more speed with each second. Turning back, the life slowly being pushed from my body with each pump of the legs, I struggle to make out the directional indicator “BRIDGE LEVEL PRIMARUS” painted on its side, pointing to a particularly massive gateway. Blue and red blood splatters against my face and I would scream, if I wasn’t too busy being petrified as one of the ghosts rematerializes. I look back over my shoulder to see both birdmen and their passengers do a feat of parkour, using the cables to base jump into the double door opening. Terrance and the others follow in quickly behind them… Only for my blood to freeze as I hear Dal scream in terror.

I see an iron spine wrap around her arm, a dozen small tails filled with surgical horrors starting to gnaw at her armor. Do something! Focus! Grab the leg! 

I coil my hand around her ankle just before gravity can forever separate me from her. Roaring in pain and fatigue, I climb onto her back as the only thing keeping us aloft is the monster. Its friend turns to watch the distance between us and the speedily approaching elevatus. 

“Do something for fucks sake!” She shrieks, grabbing at several of the dendrites threatening to rip her helmet off. I reach my arm under hers and grab onto the tail thing. As if in revulsion, the monster thrusts its huge, leering face against mine, staring me right in the eyes. It's like it is offended...

“You feel that?!” I spit and not exactly on purpose- I feel like a sack of blood at this point. “I’m one of you somewhere under this flesh!” The thing cocks its head, never breaking the gaze. Digging my fingers between its plates, I try to grab at anything I can use, only to find nothing… I don’t think this is working. Suddenly, the barrel of a heavy tau gun presses against the side of its head. The thing reacts, trying to pull its head back. I let go of its tail and grab its jaw with my pariah arm, immediately feeling its strength as it tries to yank free. Not working at first, it hesitates on attacking and prepares to phase out again. But it’s too late. 

The gun bellows its approval as searing white energy vaporizes both the thing's head and my thankfully prosthetic arm, but still I briefly scream as the things neural sensors light up in a thousand needles of pain before vanishing outright. Dal ejects herself from her backpack, plummeting. Needless to say, I fall right with the pack. 

As I go hurtling about, I can briefly glance the elevator coming right down, the sole wraith phasing out and dodging the behemoth at the last second. The body of the other strikes the roaring platform, vanishing in a burst of sickly green vapor. 

I desperately grab at the wall, trying to slow my fall. That door is all that matters now. All that matters…Dal! No it doesn’t! 

I manage to throw my hand onto the edge of the doorway, only to realize of course my hand is a bubbling pile of slag. I start to slip back down and scream, only to be grabbed by Terrance and a guardswoman. I throw my other hand out and swipe out blindly, luckily managing to wrap around Dal’s waist. The weight of her suit is immense though, and I feel myself dragged down from the weight. I feel a great tug, and a pop. My shoulder. _MY SHOULDER_! Yet again I scream, but I can feel us both dragged up by the whole group. Over the lip and onto firm ground again with a thud.

I stare up at the dimly lit lights in yet another bloodless steel corridor, panting, gasping, sick and tired of everything…

So close, but I don't know if I'm close enough.


----------



## Serpion5

Yes, what story! :goodpost:


----------



## C'Tan Chimera

Moaning loudly, I’m helped to my feet. Terrance pulls his helmet off for the first time and I get to see his disfigured, burned cheek. Despite it, he’s still smiling- and that’s admirable. “We’re here! And despite that little…Uh, incident we just had, the ships tumble managed to upright things again. Man up just a bit more and you’ll have enough hair on your chest to give wigs to half the Space Marine chapters!” He snickers. I nod, swallowing blood down my throat. I can feel Dal hug me from behind. “I guess we’re even on the rescues now, huh.” 

I nod, exhausted to the point where I can barely speak. Now, there are only 8 of us left. Excluding me, Dal, Santh and Terrance, there’s the two bird guys, a guardswoman and Kidney. 

I fumble at my thigh, producing the tiny data slate from the banged up crate. Somehow untouched, thankfully. “…You guys go ahead. I’m gonna return this to the bridge…So you know, we can say we did what we were told.” I crack a weak smile. They look amongst each other, wondering.
Terrance gives me a thumbs up. “We’ll need a minute or two to pick out a ship anyway. Kidney can help us do that part.” He nods. “You bet yourself a pair of catachan boots that, yup.” 

Turning around, I see Dal remove her helmet. She’s got blue blood all down her mouth and her violet hair is a matted mess, but I can’t lie- after all of this, she looks damn pretty. “I’m going with you. You always manage to find a way to get killed.” I cough, wheeze and shake my head. “No.”
She winces. “Why not?” I just shrug. “Trust me, okay? I need some time alone for a change. I… I just gotta get my shit together before we go stuck in space for who knows how long.” 

She pauses, walks up and sighs. “…Fine. You’ve earned that much. But if you come back any worse than before I’ll make sure that time in space blows hard, got it?” I smile weakly. “Yeah, I can take that much.” 

Santh comes over and yanks his massive gun from his arm, setting it on the ground. “You’ve managed to gain my respect against all odds. Take it-no matter what happens in the next few minutes, you’ll probably find a better need for it than I.” I do a mock bow and put my hand on the gun, hearing it hiss and interlock with my suit. “Thanks, Santh.”

He chuckles underneath his helmet. “Let him keep the rest of his dignity- let’s go find our way off this tragedy in the making.” He leads the way, the others in tow. Kidney gives me a shoddy salute and Dal stops to give me one last longing look. I nod to her to try and let her know I’m coming back from this. 

Going back out the way we tumbled in, I find a ladder leading upward. Gingerly hoisting myself over the lip of the busted doorway, I begin a slow, painful climb 30 feet up or so with only one hand. I don’t think this gun will even fire with my wrecked prosthetic stump, but it will make for good bluffing. 

Looking up, I first lose what little hope I have when the doors are nearly shut all the way, but the totaled elevatus platform has finished its reign of terror, plowing right through the ceiling and tearing open a small gash in between the doors. Throwing myself from the ladder, I struggle to pull myself over the edge but make it. Cautiously crawling over to the gap, I realize for certain I can’t haul this gun through it. 

Reluctantly and somewhat bitterly I toss the dead weight down below. Getting on all fours and doing what little I can to ignore the pain my whole body is going through, I crawl through the gash…

…And immerse myself in the massive bridge. 

It looks almost more like a cathedral, but where there would be organs and choir stands towering overhead, instead hundreds of picto-screens and holo projectors littering these spots. In its pews were not worshipers but the dead bodies of many wrecked servitors and serfs alike, limp as can be. Where the great ceiling dome would be with massive murals of the alleged God Emperor and his holy Primarchs instead is the glass dome, overlooking what would be the seat of battle. Instead, I can see the true extent of the damage across the spiderweb cracks and shivering blighting its surface. 

The necropolis seems dwarfed by this wreck, now slanted at such an angle you can walk without feeling like gravity went wrong. But I feel a small grip of terror as I realize this bridge is almost level headed with the ground right before the horrid chasm leading deep below, slowly engulfing everything in darkness- only dull, throbbing green energy piercing its oblivion. 

The picters and holographs flash in syncs of red, their symbols of universal meaning- system failure. As I step into the decorated room, I do my best to ignore all the bodies. The statues of angels and martyrs are everywhere, all in celestial poses. Monks look down below scrutinizing all who step into the place. As I make my way forward, a sudden figure rises from the great balcony above from behind the controls…

Donned in massive red armor and adorned with great robes transcribed with dozens of purity seals, his face is like a slab of granite. His cornsilk hair is thrown all amuck and his face has blood across it. With his massive arms he levels a giant plasma gun at me and fires. 

Far enough away, I manage to flip out and dart out of the way, looking back just in time to see the blue inferno collide head on with the third Necron ghost, knocking it back in mid air and causing it to phase out of existence as I can hope to comprehend. 

Shaken but still in one piece, I look back at him. The Inquisition logo burns brightly on his armor. A servitor skull floats behind him, constantly transcribing who knows what. 

“You disturb my solace?” He says, calm but with such strength I can swear its almost booming. His facial features are chiseled into his granite slab face, hard and firm. 

“Uh…Yes, sir- but! But I brought what you have come for.”

He raises a massive eyebrow. “Really? You may refer to me as Inquisitor Calos… Convert? I’m unsure. Why are you adorned in the xenos armor?”

I get onto my knees. This guy is a hardass. I’m playing it safe- I can feel the power emanating from him. Even from all the way down here, I bow. 
“Allegiances, sir. Whatever had to be done…” “To survive?” he interjects forcefully. I can hear the heavy sound of his boots as he descends from high above the bridge balcony. “You are in good fortune to be within the presence of a radical inquisitor. You might already be dead if I had been a bit more…Narrow in view. But the struggle to survive… That burden is high upon my shoulders. To do what has to be done. It is always an extreme.”
I dare not look up at first, but as he gets closer, with the thud of his boots, I hear his steps become slower. “You… Unngh!” He stalls and drops his gun. Shocked, I get back to my knees and see him reeling. A massive, armored figure- a fucking inquisitor at that- in pain? “Mighty Inquisitor, are you alright?!” I shout. Alright, so maybe I’m kissing a bit of ass here but when you’re talking with a man who has arms almost as thick as your torso it can be forgiven. 

Almost falling to his massive knees, he manages to stay up and take a step back. Regaining his rock like composure, he glares at me.

“You’re the one they spoke of, then. I had received numerous reports of psychic nullification from Imperial Guard observers. You truly are a blank, then?”

I nod slowly. “Yes. I can’t lie- not here.” 

“Not that a lie could hope to hide such a glaring reality.” He adds. He begins to get closer. I think I can see a little bit of movement in the corner of my eye. “Your name is Derrek Chapel. You’re the one we came here for.”

Wait, what the fuck?! These guys too?!

“…You came for me, Inquisitor?” I stutter. He nods, a smile forming at the corner of his mouth. “I didn’t think it would be this easy, truth be told. To kill these many birds with one stone… Excellent.” 

I’m just about frozen at this point- intrigued, but troubled as well. “We had been looking for this moon, Ulacant for quite some time, yes. Investigate it too, yes. That’s what your regiment was deployed for. I wanted to know of its fate.” He sighs. “A pity history repeats itself.” 

He points a massive finger at me. “You however are why we ultimately descended. Any errand boy could bring me the recovered information you hold.” I flinch at the statement. Any errand boy my ass! I work hard to keep a straight, collected face. “ But you. Blanks have become increasingly rarer, and the Culexus Temple has been growing desperate as Chaos activity rises.” 

Okay, I don’t even know what that is and I’m not liking where this is going. He reaches down and carefully picks up the dataslate in his huge hands. “This little board carries such a wealth of information on it… Astonishing. The previous Inquisitor assigned to recover it for the Imperium failed. This is where I come in- but ultimately that isn’t my concern. Derrek, you have a great deal of potential- not only in redeeming yourself in the eyes of the Imperium, but as a bargaining chip. My leniency with policies regarding xenos has made me somewhat infamous. With you by my side, we can set this right.”

Hot damn, this guy is coming on fast- this is starting to go belly up. I need to get out of here. As if on cue, he puts his hands on me. “It must all seem very unfortunate after all you’ve survived, Derrek. I won’t offer you the illusion of free choice, however. Take comfort in the fact that in this way you serve the good of Mankind.” I squirm under his grip, only to feel his fingers tighten.

“My retinue is clearing out the path to the special docking bay containing my thunderhawk. When they return, I ask you to cooperate for your sake. You can put all this behind and start life anew as an unspoken hero.” 

Unspoken hero, everything left behind. Yeah, we know my disposition here. “What about the Necrons?...” He shakes his head. “They cannot harm us where we go. The Necrons do pose a threat, yes- but they are still all but awakening and without direction. With this information, we may be able to beat them back. Now submit yourself, and I will accept your pleas.”

No. I don’t want to! I have come too far for this shit! I don’t know what the hell a Culexus is but I can see through…This?

One of the statues is moving… Creeping from its relief sculpture imprisonment…Expanding..Enlarging…Green eyes… I revert my gaze back to the Inquisitor to try and distract him as he grows troubled by my face. “Derrek, don’t make this unnecessarily brutal for both of us. I don’t care how much luck has favored you- you will not outdo me. We have no room for the moral ideals I know you long for, and if we-_GU-UH-RKKK_"

Huge, inhuman claws cut through either side of his crimson armor, spraying a much darker hue of red across the already desecrated ground. At least four horns rise out from behind the paling, baffled face of Calos. Rising further and further, the grinning face of a semi-human juggernaut rises behind him. I too pale and fumble backwards as the humanoid lifts the twitching bulk of the Inquisitor off his feet. He pulls his head forward next to his and turns to face him. The petrified superhuman can only lock gazes with the dual green abysses flickering within the sharpened face of the other.

“…It is unfortunate that you are the best you humans have to offer, and yet you’re still so terribly, terribly naïve.” 

Pulling one of his shimmering talons from the Inquisitors body, he rakes it across his face, finally causing him to yell out in pain. Pulling his eyelids back, he pushes him down and stares almost eye to eye, grinning even wider. “Perhaps if you were truly smart you might have realized Czevak’s fate was doomed to repeat itself should you go after our writings.” 

He giggles. “ Such azure eyes…Serene like the sky, oh… So…Beautiful…Deep, wide blue …Open wide...” His fingers turn from talons to insanely long thin needles, and he slides them right into the inquisitor’s eyes. 

The darkness consumes the whole of the bridge’s canopy, casting the entire cathedral into darkness painted solely by flashing warning lights and the alien glow of the thing that can only be described as a demigod. Without a word, he dislocates the limp inquisitor’s jaw with a deafening crack and…Oh sweet Emperor! 

The huge, defined creature shrinks and slips right into his body as though it was a costume. A horrible costume. Falling briefly to his…its knees, he jerks back up violently, twitching for a moment with limbs snapping and jerking wildly. With the sick sound of sloshing slop, he pulls his face back tight. 

“Mmph! Uh… Much…Better… No, that just won’t do…” With a deafening cough, his voice changes from the willowy, senile voice I heard to a perfect imitation of Calos. “His vocal cords still work. Fantastic!” He does an awkward, massive bow.

“Truly, you have my thanks, dear Derrek. You have done more for me today then my many legions have done over eons.” I can feel myself tremble. “…Is that why they still came after me…Us? This would have been a lot easier without them trying to kill us everywhere we went.” 

He shakes his head. “It’s all in good sport. But perhaps some of those Lords felt a little envy under their shells. That is none of my concern now- there is no need for them now.” He grins and claps his hands together. “Oh, this is just so delightful!” He refrains and stops. “ As much as it’s a pity you won’t join with me as a Pariah…For now… You’ve done oh so more than enough to make up for it.” 

He leans in and does that sick smile. “I’ve been tagging along the whole time- a jolly good show indeed, my dear.” He flips the dataslate in his hands. “Oh, my many tricks please me.” He pulls on the dataslate, twisting it into a longer, obsidian tablet. He leans back in again, putting a hand on my shoulder. I’ve never felt something so cold before and yet teeming with so much life…energy…power. It’s terrifying- I struggle to get free of his grip, but it clamps down like a vice. “You just gave me an ace- something that I may use to enrich the grand game with my friends, my enemies… Oh yes, I shall be laughing more than the Laughing God tonight! Even my aviary friend in that warp will find himself scratching his many foreheads when it comes his turn to make the next move!”

Confused by his talk, I just silently watch as he flips it around his fingers, holding it up to me and all the jibberish inscribed on it. “For all their bravado and unbeaten ‘vigilance of fate’, the Harlequins knew none the wiser when I waltzed into their cherished Black Library dressed in the mansuit of a certain Inquisitor Czevak. Perhaps its their constant obsession over the history of so called Slaanesh that makes them neglect other such pasts. Dear old Cegorach must have thought his poor imitation of my routine with the Outsider was so funny it was worth jotting down in his mementos. Shame he left it with the clowns. Made it almost too easy. I took these precious tomes and hid them away should I ever find myself gloomy on a rainy day. Easy made mischief, Derrek. Isn't it just ticklish? “

He taps it and smiles. “I hold the knowledge on how I may draw the Outsider out- and when I do that, we will have soooo much fun indeed! Except it won’t be me. I’ll let you terribly curious, silly monkeys do it.” 

I can only blink. “So all that talk about Pariahs… Merely a patsy? A diversion? All the disguises, all the voices?” He gets up and dusts himself off. “Somewhat, yes. The history remains true. Do I really strike you as the type who goes about giving away his true motives? Plus. I had grown tired of waiting anyways. Your race is so persistent that it has succeeded in grinding itself and all others around it into a total stalemate. So dreadfully boring! I’ve been sitting around for thousands of years waiting for your lot to keep this story flowing. Instead you just turtle about. Turtling about, oh yes. Nothing ever being accomplished one way or another. I don’t even like to think about it! But…That? It changes today.”

Pacing slowly over to the collage of flashing red screens, he gazes out into the darkness. “I have not traversed Terra’s soil in quite a long time span. I look forward to it. But that’s not important to you, is it?...Well, at least not yet. No matter. “ He turns his face back to me, and I can see those allegedly azure eyes crackling with sickly power.

“I know you revile me. Personally, I believe every entity is entitled to one universal right- the right to continue pursuing its own existence. I haven’t eaten well in over a few million years, Derrek- I spent most of it sleeping, in fact. Can you really blame me for craving nourishment? Sure, in the end you are just another meal to me. One poor, stupid bovine amongst trillions upon trillions.”

He spins around. “BUT. You are very fortunate indeed, and I don’t think in your state of frustration you realize this. I see this as the beginning of an…Interesting friendship, Derrek. So I’ll be generous… I’ll grant you what I know you want. I’ll leave you and your cohorts alone unless I feel it’s necessary to protect my…Investments- don’t take it the wrong way, I admire your tenacity. Hell, I'll give you a little paper that gives you all the freedom of a Rogue Trader should you ever grow restless of peace. Whether it was skill or blind luck, mostly the latter, you’ve been a pleasure to watch in your persistence. I would enjoy to see it happen again some time. “

With a single leap he floats across the great space of the cathedral loft and lands in front of me. “Make no mistake though. The day she- the one source of happiness you’ll find in this noisy, bothersome galaxy- dies, I will come back. Do not doubt my capricious benevolence, however. You are still getting away with more than many untold billions would kill- and do kill- for.”
Suddenly, there is a muffled buzzing coming from his neck. Making an odd face, he runs his fingers across his neck. After a moment of searching, he grins and pierces his skin. Digging around for a few nasty seconds, he pulls out a long, trailing cord- some sort of implant. A voice growls over the other end. 

“My Lord, we haven’t been getting active signals from you for several minutes now- please respond.” 

His eyes roll back in forth in parody of making a big decision. Smiling, he crushes the implant. “There’s been too much disposition anyway- I long for some sport.” He gently brushes me aside. “You have yourself an ally powerful beyond imagining now, Derrek. Just remember what you shall owe in return. Go now!” 

Overwhelmed with fear, confusion and exhaustion, I turn to make one final run back towards those badly battered doors… Only to stop dead in my tracks as shimmering lavender lightning strikes the interior, calling forth the towering forms of four fully armored grey knights and several others cloaked in strange robes. Why can’t I just get out of here?! Several of them recoil somewhat as if hit by something. One booms out in a deep, iron voice.

“Ngh…Inquisitor Calos, my lord- who is this wretch? What has transpired here in total solitude? Your signature vanished from our psychic sight!” 

I turn back to look at the wolf in sheep's clothing…Well, they’re not exactly sheep. They tower over me, fully armored with weapons shimmering with raw power. Seals and runes lace their massive bulk. The deceiver dressed as Calos smiles. “Fate. This boy here is a carrier of the blank gene. He has also delivered the artifact to us.” 

Suddenly, they lash out their weapons in a frightening battle stance. “Your blasphemies have not fallen on deaf ears, foolish xenos! Calos has always been suspect to dabbling too far into the heretical xeno lore, and at last our vigilance shows it. His heresy was his downfall, and so shall be yours!” One of them raises his wrist mounted bolter to me. “Your conspirator shall receive the Emperor’s judgment as well!” 

Blank, psychics… I think I get it. I’ve got nothing else I can do. I throw myself to the ground just as he fires, scrambling towards his great foot. I omit you! I omit you! I don’t know how this shit works but I omit you! This pariah shit better work, damnit! Omit! Erase! Blank! Whatever!

Sure enough, the Grey Knight stumbles backward, making a gargling noise as he kicks me off to the ground. “Put him down like the mad dog he is! This is the judgment of the righteou*UUGHK*!”

The mock Inquisitor is right on top of the Knight, his very arm plunged into the grey warrior’s gut. Without speaking a word and only a grin, he smashes the knight’s helmet in as though his head were made of solid steel in an explosion of red fluid. 

“DERREK, GO!” He roars, throwing the demonhunter’s crumpled body aside, adopting a fighting stance as the others surround him. I scramble away into the shadows, realizing the one Grey Knight’s aim had not been so off target. I can feel a huge crater in my armor. I don’t feel blood, but definitely a broken rib…So many cracks across it's surface. Barely functioning.This armor is trashed at this point.

The deceiver sprouts a great, shimmering blade of his own from his hand- like, it grew from his hand. They circle one another like a ring around an entrapped animal. The false Inquisitor smiles wide. “Oh, the delectable irony of it all… All of your order dedicating your entire lives to the utmost art form of eradicating Chaos…” 

One of the robed knights slashes out first, going for the Inquisitor’s leg. He sidesteps the blow and ducks from another, parrying the blades. Sliding up the weapon arm of the first crusader, he delivers a massive blow from his elbow to his face, knocking him backward before turning around, shunting two other blows and digging his own blade in between the massive shoulder plate of another. He pushes in deeper and lifts the dumbfounded knight up, hurling him into one of the nearby statues in an explosion of debris.

“…Only to be consumed by something far superior to Chaos! Irony is one of the most delightful spices one can add to a meal, should you have all been unaware. It helps to stir the mind awake after a long rest.” 

The group jumps on the Inquisitor. “Watch the suit! I need it!” He laughs, slipping between the group with a freakish gap in all logic- nothing that large should be able to slide around like that with such elasticity. Leaping right on to the back of another Grey Knight, he pulls his head around in such a way that steers him in his own direction, plowing him into his brethren. Shying away at first, the deceiver charges again, only to be blasted with a storm of bolter fire by the surviving 3 knights. 

Falling to his knees, the Inquisitor throws up an unnatural amount of blood onto the ground. “_I said don’t damage the suit_!” he hisses furiously. His mouth and eyes flash a blinding beam of green light, and something slithers out of the face as the meaty bag of flash collapses to the floor in a pile of armor. Arising from a pile of nothing, the great monster looms 20 feet over the knights. 

It’s almost as though he’s nothing but a refined lightning storm… Encased in enough shattered pieces of perfectly sculpted metal to be given the shape of a floating human God. Where there is no metal laced with dozens of biomechanical tubes, plates and sockets, only green lighting rages. Massive flowing horns sprout from his head and the forehead of his massive, grinning mask sprouts a piercing green eye. Flowing robes ripple out of his back like silken fire. Crossing his arms and legs as though patiently waiting, he flies up in a trail of shimmering afterimages. 

Spiraling around the room unmoving, he rages a cyclone of imagery around the Knights, flickering all sorts of horrifying images. Within a few moments, the baffled warriors take their weapons to each other as the deceiver keeps on spinning. Diving down with inhuman grace, he rakes his massive talons across the chest of one of the knights, dicing him into several slices. The legs hobble about for a moment almost as if trying to stay upright before collapsing. He lunges down again, striking another from behind, sending him to the floor. Spinning closer and closer, he suddenly reverses counter-clockwise and does it twice as fast now, a green hurricane ripping through the room. 

Digging into the upper body of the bisected Knight, he punctures his ceramite armor as though it is cheap plastic, tearing his ribcage out and dematerialize it into nothing. Only two remain, dazed and terrified.“*SQUAD BROKEN!*” One of them bellows into some unseen vox. “*DELIVER REINFORCEMENTS TO RALLY POINT COORDINAT- GUUKA*“ 

The deceiver strikes with a frozen smile, the real entity blazing behind the liquid metal mask. Pushing the Knight down to his knees, brings one hand across his face, another down the middle and brings his leg up across his torso with the type of asexual grace of a long forgotten arts performer. Doing a backflip, he flies back up into the air and throws his arm up, somehow dragging the knight into the air with him. The last crusader unloads several whole clips into his back, doing nothing as the lighting flares out to consume each round. 

With a snap of the deceiver’s long fingers, all the blood in the aloft knight’s body flies out in a geyser spray from every crevice in his armor. It splatters everywhere, painting the room in a sick hue of darkened crimson. Finally, the last Knight digs his power halberd into the Deceiver’s back with a javelin throw, causing him to lurch forward in the air and descend to the ground. Landing to one knee, the alien god staggers to get up, only to be shot again by the last knight, one of the shots piercing through both sides of his back. His bravado floods back into him with all the confidence of an Imperial super soldier.“None can escape the inevitable justice of the God Emperor!” He sneers, grabbing onto the hilt still wedged in the deceiver’s back. 

I find myself getting up. This is insane. I shouldn’t be doing what my body is doing. He promised me her. He promised me happiness, no matter its fleeting nature.Legs screaming out in agony with every step, I rush toward the Grey Knight, unaware of my blank presence. He twists the blade in the back of the deceiver, driving power across the room in the form of cosmic dust. No! NOO!

I throw myself at the Knight, catching onto his arm and scrambling up his side in an angry frenzy. “YOU’LL RUIN EVERYTHING!” I shriek, worming my way across his massive pauldrons that twist and heave as he stumbles back. “You dare touch me, scum?!” He roars, grabbing my waist and starting to squeeze. “FUCK YOU!” I spit, grabbing at his helmet with my hands. Feel the void, bastard!

Concentrating hard as I can, I can hear him begin to writhe and gargle under his helmet. His link with whatever… I must be severing it. Sever it! Sever it, damn you! He begins to convulse , struggling to get me off. I falter and feel myself get hurled to the ground. I see his huge boot raised above me, preparing to pulp me into mush… 

Only for the grey knight to stagger backward as the deceiver impales him with his own weapon. Bringing him down to his knees, the powerful God Man kneels down over him. 

“If your soul should by some chance survive this… Go tell your Emperor there can only be one Lord of Liars, and I’m coming for him.” 

The Deceiver sticks his arm through the knight’s gut and tears his helmet off with the other. Relishing the moment, he rams his whole arm down the grey knight’s mouth. With a horrible frothing sound and spray of gore, the beast plucks his skull and spinal cord out with no visible difficulty. Pulling back the floppy face, the Deceiver stretches his mouth wide and puts the whole thing in his fearsome maw. With a slurping sound, he sucks the fucking energy right out of him! Without effort he then hurls the lifeless, empty suit of armor to the floor. 

“…Oh dear. His soul _definitely_ didn’t survive that! So much for the message.”

Landing back on the ground, he looks down at me with a gaze I can barely hold. It’s like he’s looking right through me. With a nightmarish cascade of many voices, he speaks in an overwhelming tone.

“Go, Derrek. Here is to the beginning of a wonderful friendship.” 
Weaving his hand, he pulls both doors apart like they were weightless nothing. 

“If you’ll excuse me…. “ He says, smiling as he slips back into the Inquisitor’s body. Pulling a long scroll from his robes, he tucks it behind my neck. Speaking in a chillingly normal voice.

“…I have much to do.” 

The ship shudders yet again. Oh god, the ship! Sucking it up for one last masochistic orgy of pain, I throw myself through the doors and for the ladder. Grabbing on, I fumble to get down the rungs in time as I feel the ship begin to teeter on its side. So much going on through my head…What have I done?!

I pull myself onto the lip and hobble through the major hexagonal decontamination chamber and into the docking bay. I spot Dal, jumping and waving for me across the great expanse. Many dozens of trashed Arvus shuttles and wrecked bombers, she stands at the open doors of an Aquila Lander. 

Thi is it- gotta go, gotta go!

The major gash through the launch bay doors reveals we are sinking below the chasm now, the grey sky beginning to be closed in by either side of its earthy maw. No, not now! Gotta make it across the cold hexagonal bay!

Go. Just go. Run, you’re so close now. All the nightmares, all the monsters, all the madmen, almost all behind you now. Just run! Run! Before it’s all for nothing! 

I begin to stagger as…something.. begins to tilt the ship further, slowly causing some of the ships to drag across the floor. 

I go right for the shuttle. It’s all that matters. All that matters. 

My blood screams as a ship’s remains goes tumbling right for me. Pushing myself even farther, I just manage to avoid being smashed by its wing. So close, so close…

Dal’s arm grabs me by the collar and pushes me through the shuttle. 
“He’s here! Let’s get the fuck out!” She hollers loudly. Kidney’s voice over the vox. “Will do, ma’am!” 

My body goes limp like total jelly. She pushes me into a seat. I just stare out blankly at the other side of the ship. The feeling of weightlessness comes back. I’m starting to zone out. 

“And we are outta here!” Kidney hoots, followed by the cheers of all the others. I hear the roar of thrusters. The gaze of the others all fall on me in quiet curiosity. I hear Dal’s voice. 

“Derrek…Derrek?” 

I weakly mutter a “Yeah?” 

“It’s over.”

_Wonderful… _

I let the blackness take me as my head falls into Dal’s lap.


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And now all that is left is the upcoming epilogue.


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## C'Tan Chimera

*Epilogue*


_Dal and I sit in the observational dome at the top of the Aquila lander, overlooking the infinite depth of space. Far, far away you can see the naval battles raging off around the faint dot that is Ulacant VI, the last surviving moon of a Necron tomb world. I don’t know if they’re winning or losing. I really don’t care.

Her arm wraps around my shoulder and she gazes at me. Nothing even needs to be said. This space, this universe… Perhaps it is beyond all hope. Perhaps it is damned to suffering and death. But we’ve taken up arms against its nature in these very acts. It’s naïve, yes. I’ve realized this after all I’ve been through. But it is what it is, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

She smiles at me and I smile back. We’re both battered, bruised and even broken in some spots, forever rejected by the allegiances that fostered us. But does it really matter when this universe is so supposedly hard and cold? What is really lost? There’s no justification to be found here. No order, no hope, no control. No worries. I don’t claim that any of this is in the right. Selfish, no doubt. But yet, I feel like maybe we are doing something good. Her hand picks up my own, and there is a tiny glimmer of hope. Unity and harmony, not cold hard resolve, are what got all of us through this. Kidney, Santh, Terrance, Dal… The Kroot, as it turns out they are called…

I’m not sure what we’ll do next. Find a place to touch down and recover from it all. Set the bad aside long enough to enjoy the few beautiful things left in this ravaged galaxy. I know it will not last forever... The Necron God made it clear. But that makes it all the more precious, all of it. Maybe we can try to spread it around, this unity. Perhaps like a virus it might spread. Maybe. That’s the hope talking. But I enjoy it.

I’m not saying I know what’s right, nor am I pretending I’m some innocent lover- I've spilled lots of blood and perhaps damned the galaxy to get this. But a man who remained fixed to the ideals I once felt bad over abandoning said there's too much shit in this world as it is- no room for regrets. Dal and I embrace each other in ways many from either side might find repulsive, but isn’t that how it always is when someone ventures into bold new territory?... I’m rambling. But I’m happy. We’re happy in ways many poor souls may never feel, and that makes it all the more important to take it as a whole. 

All that’s happened, all the broken allegiances and guns pressed to allies heads…All for this, the love of another… No looking back. It's been worth it. We’re just a couple individuals who happen to be leaving a blazing trail that might lead on a path to horror and devastation… But isn't it heading in that direction anyway? We just happen to be making the most of what we’ve been given. I'll reap the consequences all in due time.

Go ahead and judge me if you want- I don’t care. I like the things I do. 

It doesn’t feel bad anymore._




*The End.*


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## Serpion5

I owe you Rep. That was fantastic. :goodpost: :clapping:


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## WarpSpawned

Aye, an excellent ending for an awesome story


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## arturslv

You... you just blew my mind... This, in my opinion, is the best fanfic I have ever read.


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## C'Tan Chimera

Hah, thanks guys! :biggrin: I was getting concerned for a bit when no replies first came in- _"Oh man, was the epilogue too tacky?!"_

I've got plenty to reflect on with the story, but if I put it out all at once I'd bore you all to tears. But I enjoyed writing this thing- I'm not gonna entertain delusions of grandeur writing for GW, but if this is as close as I get to it I got no worries. I set out to make a 40k story that was more then just an action pacer, and I think I did pretty well for a first try, although I don't want to think too much about how much time went into it.


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## arturslv

C'Tan Chimera said:


> Hah, thanks guys! :biggrin: I was getting concerned for a bit when no replies first came in- _"Oh man, was the epilogue too tacky?!"_
> 
> I've got plenty to reflect on with the story, but if I put it out all at once I'd bore you all to tears. But I enjoyed writing this thing- I'm not gonna entertain delusions of grandeur writing for GW, but if this is as close as I get to it I got no worries. I set out to make a 40k story that was more then just an action pacer, and I think I did pretty well for a first try, although I don't want to think too much about how much time went into it.


Time well spent! I'd give you some rep if I could, so here's OVER 9000 Internets. You earned them.


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