Secret War (Warhammer 40,000)

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Adrassil
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Chapter 30

#31 Post by Adrassil »

We emerged back into the corridor; I half expected to be greeted by splattered, scattered corpses but found everyone alive and well. Helma glared at us in anger for the delay. A rage I couldn't blame her for, but I ignored her. Then within a split second wave of the captain's hand, we were instantly moving again.

I walked aside the Stormtrooper pushing Karmen's bed and had to fight the urge to glance at her always. Instead, hesitantly electing to listen to the firing bolters and screams. I couldn't believe the mercenaries were holding off the Space Marines for so long; how many were there, fighting? How many have died already? How many mercenaries were yet to die? But what I couldn't wrap my head around was that they were fighting, still fighting against enemies they had no hope to defeat. They were mercenaries; they held no surge loyalty to Taryst and his organisation, especially after the Rogue Trader's more recent acts. They had no real reason to sell their lives short.

A dark thought occurred to me as we walked, and I furrowed my brow, looking down upon the supine Karmen. She hadn't been in communication with me for a long time; perhaps she was controlling their minds like puppets, as Etuarq had with Edracian as he had, perhaps controlled his mercenary force back at Edracian's mansion-fortress. I remembered that they'd the same psychic implants in their brains I once had, implants that allowed Karmen to delve into their minds easier than ordinary people. Implants that she had implanted. Did that allow her also to control them easier?

The thought made me sick; out of all the morally ambiguous actions taken during this time, this one stunk the worse. Assuming it was true, of course, but something within me knew it was.

This probably was what Taryst had been planning all along; too bad he didn't live long enough to see it.

The sound of battle receded as we came closer and closer to the northern elevators, and the sound of grinding teeth caused me to look sidelong at its source, finding it was Helma, the lho I'd given her smoked and discarded a long time ago.

I was opening my mouth to say something. However, as I approached the last corner, I didn't know what into the elevator lobby and the two leading Stormtroopers exploded, their torsos reduced into bloody ruins, and their legs smashed against the wall with such force they became plastered there. Blood and ichor coated us. I barely managed to close my eyes in time to keep from being blinded. Helma wasn't fast enough as she screamed in agony and clutched at her face with clawing armoured fingers.

"Back!" yelled Roldar, the sergeant taking the lead. But it was for nothing as I saw a Space Marine for the first time and regrettably not the last time in my long, long life. It abruptly appeared around the corner, its heavy, running footfalls shaking my bones and innards. Its bolter raised. It was only a fraction of a second before everything turned into a blur of screaming chaos, but for me and perhaps just me, it was enough to get a good look.

I'd heard Space Marines were huge, but I never imagined they were even half this huge. Standing at over two metres tall even out of its armour, and as wide as I was tall. Its light red and gold armour was more unadorned and less adorned than Brutis', but that made it all the more intimidating. The helm it wore was inhuman, unforgiving; its eyes glowed an almost undead red with an intensity that seemed to bore into my brain.

Despite the fear I felt, I was then moving, as the Space Marine was in the midst of pulling the trigger of its mind-bogglingly huge boltgun. My power sword blazed into blue life and sliced straight through the bolter.

The Space Marine bellowed out through the grill of its helm, but it wasn't out of fright, or fear or rage, or even in surprise at my inhuman speed or of my possession of a power sword. I didn't know what kind of sound the Space Marine uttered, and even until this day, I didn't know even after meeting many of its kind and fighting alongside them on countless occasions.

The Space Marine reacted, far faster than anything that size had any right to react. Instantly, it smashing the remains of its bolter at me. I darted back, and it missed me by the barest of margins, the onrush of air that followed almost knocking me off my feet. With its free hand, a fist large enough to fit my head into and more, it threw a punch at my skull, a blow I barely weaved under, but it seemed to see this coming as with the same arm, it swung its elbow toward my torso. I danced aside; then the space marine thrust its bolter my way; I leaned out of its path then saw the opening and dashed forward, cutting my sword into its side with a roar. The sword's power field cut through the ceramite with ease and drew a massive, brief burst of blood, but I instantly knew it was far from a killing blow; I'd only succeeded in making the huge bastard angrier. With a horrible roar of curses, it spun out, forcing me to throw myself hard to the floor to prevent my body from being pulped by its gigantic limbs.

Then the Space Marine raised its armoured boot to crush my head.

The whine of Hell gunfire echoed, and the constant stream of red light swathed into the Space Marine's side. It penetrated the armour with ease, sending it reeling and cursing savagely but was far from dead.

Wordlessly, Thol stalked forward, quickly retrieved the fallen plasma gun from one of the dead Stormtroopers and vaporised the Space Marine's skull with a single shot. I was in the t junction, and something caught my eye as Thol approached, looking like he would congratulate me or something. I suddenly kicked out my feet and was up, smashing my shoulder hard into Thol and sending us careening clumsily back into cover a millisecond before bolter rounds tore into the wall where we once were.

I'd seen the messy remains of the Stormtroopers who'd guarded the elevator lobby and two more Space Marines emerging into view. One with a bolter, the other with a power sword and bolt pistol.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" I screamed; Darrance was abruptly beside me, power sword held ready

With impressive speed, Thol was up and tilting around the corner, about to pull the plasma gun's trigger, but Roldar pulled him back.

"You might damage the elevators!" he yelled over the cacophony.

"Go!" yelled Darrance, giving me a meaningful look. "Take the western elevators, Attelus and I will hold them off!"

I gaped, unable to appreciate what was, perhaps, the first-ever time Darrance had called something other than 'apprentice' as pain suddenly thundered through my chest, and I looked to Karmen. That meant she'd be out of my sight! I'd be utterly unable to protect her!

Roldar seemed to see this instantly and said, "don't worry, kid, we'll protect your girlfriend!"

"You're insane!" exclaimed Thol as he attempted to fire around the corner with his hellgun, and two other Stormtroopers joined him but quickly found themselves pinned.

"Yeah," said Darrance with a shrug. "And you should thank your Emperor that we are! Now go! We will meet you on Vex's floor!"

Thol nodded, then hesitantly, he and the other Stormtroopers began to withdraw, along with everyone else. I couldn't help watch Karmen being wheeled away forlornly.

"Focus, apprentice!" snarled Darrance, and I tore my attention away from her, just in time to see the Space Marines abruptly appear.

I had the one with the powersword, whom I assumed to be a sergeant. Darrance, the one with the bolter. Just my frigging luck.

Before I could think, the sergeant was cutting a downward vertical arc. I swiftly sidestepped then sliced out horizontally, an attack it barely managed to back-step in time, obviously taken off guard by my enhanced speed and agility. The hesitation didn't last as long as the sergeant's huge boot kicked out. I weaved underneath and cut up at his exposed knee. But the Space Marine had withdrawn his foot far too fast and was cutting his power sword in a vast horizontal arc. I slid back, only just out of its path and sidestepped the Space Marine's following thrust.

Then something odd occurred, the Space Marine laughed. Its laugh was somehow even more terrifying than its roaring and curses. It boomed down the corridor like a bolter shot and made me flinch in fright, then; for the first time, I heard a Space Marine speak.

"You are quick, tiny man," he said with amusement. "A challenge, almost. I never thought I would find a mortal who could even start to fight me mono a mono."

I grinned through my gasps. "I'm not mortal," I said.

The Space Marine tilted his huge helmeted head in what seemed to be curiosity; then I was moving, cutting out at his thigh. The Space Marine's power sword blurred and parried my attack with ease; the impact made pain shiver up my arms and sent me stumbling sideways. I barely managed to lean aside of his uppercutting gauntlet, then dart away from his slashing sword, slipping back out of range from another potential attack.

The Space Marine laughed again and pointed the tip of his sword at my head. "You! You are quite skilled! For being able to stand against me, you deserve the honour of knowing my name! I am veteran sergeant Letharc of the sixth company of the Desolation Inculpators! And I will slay you in the God-Emperor's name! Traitor!"

I grinned again, dearly wanting to see how well Darrance was going against his opponent but didn't dare take my attention from Letharc for even the barest fraction of a second.

I pointed my sword at his head and echoed his stance. "I am Attelus Kaltos, mercenary assassin now given purpose! And I am not a traitor; I'm the same as you, merely a pawn manipulated to be here!"

"I am no one's pawn!" roared the Space Marine, his strange sanguine mood replaced suddenly by terrifying rage, and he hurtled at me like a huge, psychotic grox.

My eyes wide and teeth clenched in fear, I dived aside. The Space Marine rushed past, and his slipstream hit me in mid-air with the force of a tank, throwing me across the floor, bouncing for what felt like forever before finally coming to a stop. My whole body was alive with agony, and stars briefly dominated my vision. If it wasn't for my Wraithbone bone structure, I was sure I would've been far worse off.

The tumultuous footfalls of the Space Marine seemed to shake everything like the strongest Varanderian earthquake as he slowly approached me. Bellowing laughter again, and his shadow darkened my vision. My back was to him, but I could see from his silhouette he was raising his foot for the finishing blow, and he said.

"You are quick for a mortal, but you are still like all of your kind. So very breakable."

Before I knew I was moving, I stood and pivoted into a thrust, which impaled him through his breastplate almost to the hilt.

If he felt any pain at all, he didn't show it, but his complete silence seemed to announce his shock louder than any cry or yell.

"It seems we have more in common than just being pawns!" I snarled, then with all my strength and a roar almost as loud and powerful as an Astartes. I turned, and with the sound of cracking ceramite and the spraying of blood, I pulled my crackling blade up through his chest then out the top of his skull. My back was to the Space Marine, but I heard and felt him crash into the floor with such force it seemed to shake the entire tower.

I had no time to even slightly consider the seemingly impossible achievement I had just managed before the sounds of Darrance's struggle drew my attention.

He had lost his sword, and his right arm hung limp, bloody and broken. His face was a mask of grimacing desperation as he continuously dodged and darted through the Space Marines, horrifically fast-flying fists and kicks. I saw the Marine's bolter laying nearby, almost cut in two.

Fighting against my pained limbs and attempting to abate my incessant gasping. I charged at the Space Marine's vast back. It was only about ten metres between the Marine and me, it took me less than a split second to make the distance and my footfalls, all but silent across the floor, but somehow he was in the midst of turning toward me as I lunged at him. So my sword stabbed straight through his faceplate instead of the back of his head.

Instantly, I kicked out into the Marine's gorget, allowing me to tug out my power sword and dropped to the floor as the Desolation Inculpator. I landed harder than predicted; my knees buckled from the impact and forced me into a crouch. I gasped once, twice then my attention rose to Darrance.

He gaped at me with eyes as wide as saucers while clutching at his arm; it was without a shadow of a doubt that I'd never seen Darrance in such a state before.

"How?" he managed.

"Luck," I said with a shrug as I slowly stood; my whole body shook with adrenaline and fear on a level I'd never felt before. Like I'd just drunk twenty cups of caffeine in as many seconds.

He continued to gape, his jaw working dumbly.

"Or the blessing of the Emperor!" I snarled sarcastically, losing my patience. "Get it together; we've gotta move."

I smiled as I pushed past Darrance; it felt good to be the one chastising him for a change.



Darrance seemed to find himself quite quickly, pulled an injector from one of his belt pouches, and plugged it into his neck, injecting it with an audible hiss.

Painkillers or combat enhancers? Both more likely, either way, it was more than fair enough under the circumstances.

In silence, we moved back toward the northern elevators, and as we approached the t junction, I stopped at the corner and peeked around it.

"Clear!" I hissed through clenched teeth, and we slipped out, swords raised. Darrance was forced to wield his normally two-handed scimitar with one hand, but he still managed to carry it quite well.

I bit back a sigh, finding I was missing Elandria more than ever now. I would've given anything for her to be here than Darrance, her or Castella. It seemed due to our similar specialities Darrance, and I had been forced into an impromptu partnership. But the thing was, I didn't like him, and he didn't like me. Also, he lacked the physical assets both Elandria and Castella held in abundance.

I shook away the thought, sickened by it.

"Tell me how, apprentice," snarled Darrance suddenly.

I rolled my eyes. "You saw how!" I whispered back. "Took him by surprise while he was trying to kill you!"

"No, I meant the other one," he said. "I saw his remains...How?"

"Luck, okay?" I snapped. "Now keep quiet! They might..."

I wandered off in mid-sentence as abruptly another two Space Marines plodded into view, in blocking the elevators. Both had bolters; one held a huge auspex the other had a meltabomb and looked like he was about to use it.

For a split second, they stood looking at us as if caught unawares; then their bolt guns raised.

"Stairs!" I yelled, and without hesitation, Darrance, I split up. I darted up the left side stairs; he went up the right. Taking them two at a time, with an almost reckless abandon.

"After them!" I heard one roar, and then came the thundering, shaking of running feet. I made it up the first flight a millisecond before bolt rounds exploded the wall where I was and started up the second.

The Space Marine's curses echoed up the stairs after me, and a split second after the stairs shook with his ascent. I found the third flight, and quickly, from the space of his footfalls, calculated he was taking four steps at a time and would be upon me in another two flights. I was the quicker sprinter, but his legs were almost as long as I was tall upon reaching the peak of the fourth stairwell and a desperate plan instantaneously formed in my thoughts. I unlocked the door with my key card with quick hands, flung it open, and slipped behind the door, my back to the wall.

This took less than a second but was done just before the Space Marine was on the turn. I held my breath, knowing he would hear my breathing, perhaps even smell my sweat. When he didn't continue upwards, I knew he hadn't fallen for it, so I pushed the door closed and moved, flinging myself hard against the floor, out of sight, behind the next flight of stairs. The bolter rounds ripped the handrail and wall asunder in my wake.

"You are a quick little boy," said the Space Marine as I heard his feet slowly started ascending. "Or girl, I can't tell; I doubt many can. You are far quicker than a normal human, and you seem immune to my auspex. What are you? Mechanicum enhanced? Did that traitor Rogue Trader have you made? As a bodyguard, maybe? Or as an assassin? I would have given you the chance to surrender, but with that trick you just tried to pull, you must have thought I was stupid. I also smell the stench of a recently dispelled powerfield. You wield a power sword, and that combined with your speed makes you a threat, even for an Astartes like me."

I sniggered. "Your two brothers found that out the hard way," I gasped. "And for a Space Marine, you talk way too much."

There was a long, weighted pause, and the Space Marine's feet stopped, then he laughed; it was the very last reaction I'd expected.

"You are trying to bait me," he said; it was a bland statement, not a question. "I had recently lost the signatures of brother-sergeant Letharc and brother Pellrenth; did you kill them? Did you actually manage to kill them? An impressive feat, I must confess. Although I do suspect the reason, you managed it was they underestimated you. I will not make the same mistake."

Then something heavy suddenly landed beside me, and I knew what it was without even looking. My arm instinctively shot out, my tiny hand barely able to wrap around it even slightly, but my enhanced strength allowed me to keep my grip and throw it down the stairs with a grunt. I smiled as I heard the Space Marine yell out, then the frag grenade explode. I fought the urge to lunge down the stairs and try to plunge my sword into the Marine; I didn't know what condition he was in, so the risk wasn't worth the reward. I leapt to my feet and started sprinting up the next flight of stairs. Despite his claim not to underestimate me, the Space Marine had managed to do just that.

I swiped open the next door and dashed inside just before more bolter shots bellowed after me. I ran into an office area, a vast expansive room filled with rows upon rows of cogitator desks. I hadn't chosen this floor by accident. Instinct innately made me weave, dart side to side, through the fire aimed at my back. I vaulted and leapt over and around the countless obstacles in my way, never slowing, never hesitating as bolt rounds exploded and tore apart everything around indiscriminately. Ancient cogitators, each worth more thrones than I'd see in a lifetime, destroyed forever. It would've saddened the long-suppressed historical scholar in me if I wasn't running for my life.

There was only one exit, one door set in the centre of the northernmost wall and seeing this caused me to curse. I veered right, knowing that would lead me toward the corridor leading toward the elevators. I needed to get to the 31st floor, needed to get there to convince Helma to bring Adelana and the others with us. I just hoped they'd taken my advice and gone to Vex's office instead of being evacuated like everyone else.

My hand reached into one of the pouches on my belt and pulled out two krak grenades, a simple act made hard while in flight and would've been impossible for almost anyone else. I risked a glance over my shoulder. Seeing that the Space Marine hadn't followed me further into the room, electing to stand near the doorway and to shoot at me from there, as I'd hoped he would.

With a laugh, I discreetly primed both grenades, then slid, pivoting on the balls of my shoes and threw one in a curving arc straight at the Space Marine. He reacted instantaneously, faster than the other Marines before, diving to the side as it detonated. I'd predicted this as well, so I threw the second straight into his path. It exploded right next to him, and he roared in rage and pain.

Not daring to dwell on my achievement, I ran for the doors, pushed the unlock button, and shoulder barged through. I turned right, a second before more bolter rounds shattered the glass doors after me. I sprinted on, whispering curses constantly; I'd hoped the grenade would've killed him or slowed him down more, but alas.

Struggling to breathe, I slowed to a jog. I needed a rest; I needed to...

My thoughts were interrupted by the roar through the wall; I stopped and saw the Space Marine smash into the corridor a few metres ahead of me. His armour was blackened and cracked; the explosion had knocked off his helmet, showing me for the first time the blunt, flat, cheek boneless features of an Astartes. Half of his face was bloody and battered. If I'd continued sprinting, he would've crushed me into a pulp.

"You! Little! Bastard!" he growled, raising his bolter and aiming it at my skull.
My short story Of An Asur living in the land of Bretonnia:

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Adrassil
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Chapter 31

#32 Post by Adrassil »

I leaned aside the round and was about to dart forward, but a second shot forced me to the floor. I rolled into a crouch and, with the flat of my sword, desperately knocked aside the next. Sending it careening and exploding a large hole in the wall, it sent horrid jolts up my arms, causing me to cry out. I clenched my teeth, ignoring it and knocked away another and slowly began to advance. Dodging and ducking, deflecting and darting through shot after shot, but I was merely delaying the inevitable, I knew. The Marine laughed.

"You cannot keep this up forever!" he roared, having lost all sign of his earlier calm and calculated manner. "I will not let you close in! And I will avenge my brothers!"

I just need another metre! My mind screamed.

I took one more half a step and, in my exhaustion, miscalculated the next shot; it detonated far too close to the hilt, sending it flying from my grasp. Any other sword would've exploded into shards then, sending them slicing into me in the ultimate betrayal for a swordsman. Still, it was a mastercrafted Velrosian blade, so it stayed in one piece.

My instinct screamed that there was only one way to close the gap, and I threw myself forwards into a dive. An action that seemed to take the Marine off guard for less than a split second, he didn't expect me to keep advancing without my sword, it was only a split second, but it was enough for me. Bolter shots thundered over me by mere millimetres, and I finished in a crouch. I ejected a throwing knife from my sleeve and sent it flying with a backhanded throw. I was only two metres away; the blade moved so fast it almost instantaneously embedded into the Marine's left eye socket. He cried out and reeled. I was abruptly leaping, pulling out my last krak grenade, primed it then stuffed it into the Marine's gaping maw.

I darted back as it went off and the Marine's head was just suddenly gone. A krak grenade was designed to take out tanks; they exploded in a small concentrated radius, so there was very little shrapnel, luckily for me or else I could've been torn apart by shards of his skull.

For a few seconds, the Marine's corpse stood deathly still before abruptly collapsing against the wall and slid to the floor.

I stood, trying to catch my breath, gazing down at the body. I'd almost liked this Space Marine; I almost regretted killing him. Then I laughed; I didn't mean to; it just burst from my throat in an insane bark. That was the third of the inhuman Astartes dead at my hand! I have managed to achieve three times in one day, not many others could claim in a lifetime! What other absurd things would I manage to do in my now limitless life?

My laughter slowly faded into a chuckle, now truly glad I hadn't used that grenade on those mercenaries in Edracian's fortress earlier. It was funny; somehow, I knew that was that very same grenade; fate was a truly strange mistress, wasn't it?

Shaking my head, I turned back and retrieved my sword, and although there was no blood on it, instinct made me whip it before sheathing it. I approached the dead Marine and bowed in the most profound respect before setting off again at a brisk pace, fighting the roiling sickness in my stomach.



With the Marine dead, I now heard the battle still rumbling through the lower floors. The now way too familiar sound of bolter shots, accompanied by the immediate screams of agony and death. I could hear las shots and solid projectile fire here and there, sometimes.

I peered around the corner, leading to the elevator lobby cautiously and held back a relieved sigh when I found the coast was clear. Unlike on the other lower levels, this lobby only had one exit and entrance, yet another reason why I'd chosen this floor. I was glad I'd taken the time to learn the layout of much of Taryst's tower. I'd decided to use the southern elevators, guessing that Karmen would have her puppets guard that side the most due to it having the only lift to Taryst's grotto.

I pushed the elevator call button then instantly slipped to the left side wall; as I saw the elevator, there was the one ascending, my sword activated and readied. They were large, strong, sturdy things. I knew they could carry two, maybe three, Space Marines, so my caution was more than justified.

It only took a few seconds for the elevator to find this floor, but it felt like a lifetime before it finally dinged, and the doors opened.

I had to fight the almost overwhelming urge to immediately just run in there; I kept waiting, watching. It wasn't until the doors had almost slid completely closed that I moved, placing my foot between them, so they opened again. It was empty, much to my relief, and I stepped inside.

I pushed the button for the 31st floor, such an absurdly, stupidly simple act under the circumstances I couldn't help but laugh.

The elevator surged into its ascent, and I slipped my shaking hands into the pockets of my flak jacket then tapped the tip of my shoe on the floor at an even faster rate than usual. I was still high on adrenaline; it made me twitchy and impatient, my breathing shallow while watching the changing numbers on the screen overhead.

It felt like my lungs could explode at any second, and my thoughts whirled with anxiety. Had Helma and the others reached the 31st floor? Had they even made it to the elevators? If they had, was Karmen still with them? Had a stray bolt round managed to hit her? We were risking much in this escape attempt; what was going to happen after we lifted off? How were we going to escape the Astartes ships and into the warp? So much was left to do, left to achieve.

I sighed and turned to look out the window, away from the ascending numbers. Omnartus travelled out before me, as far as I could see and the mountain range further south. I remembered what seemed like a lifetime ago, looking out at the mountains, thinking of the flowers that had evolved to survive at high altitudes to avoid the pollution that had covered most of the surface of the world. I'd never thought until now that it was a good metaphor for me. I'd gained much since then, an almost indestructible bone structure reflexes far beyond that of a normal human being, but what I'd gained more than anything else was wisdom.

The elevator found the 31st floor, and there, the view of the hive outside the window was abruptly engulfed in thick blackish brown of the pollution clouds.

As I turned and exited the elevator, knowing that was, perhaps, the last look I would ever get of Omnartus. Then abruptly, I realised that it was most definitely the last good look I would get of Omnartus; it was soon to be dead. Dead just because of a simple pict I took. There was no way we could stop the Space Marines from destroying it. No way in hell.

My heart sunk and horrid regret, fear, and anger seemed to expand through my chest like cold, painful writhing tendrils.

"Why did it have to come to this?" I whispered to myself while walking into the corridors. "Why? Emperor, why?"

I felt tears welling in my eyes and let them flow freely.

What had I done to deserve this?

Despite being almost lost in loathing self-pity, I walked the corridors, instinct making me innately find the fastest way. When I'd reached the vast cogitator cavern, I saw six Stormtroopers, Selg, Hayden, Torris, Jelket and Roldar, standing guard around the medicae assistant and Karmen's bed, just outside Vex's office. They all looked far more beaten and battered than when I last saw them, and I had a bad feeling those storm troopers included the ones Olinthre had earlier left to look after Vex. I hurried my pace, jogging toward Karmen to see if she was okay.

Without a word of greeting, they let me through, and I only just managed to notice their silent expressions of awe at seeing me still alive.

"How is she?" I asked, and it took me a second or so to recall his name again. "Halsin?"

"She is fine," said Halsin, his already enlarged eyes even larger behind his glasses. "I...I..."

"I, what?" I snapped and instantly regretted my tone; I was tired and oh so irritable. "I'm sorry."

"I do not understand how you can still be fine," he said.

I pursed my lips and shrugged. "Got lucky, I suppose," I said.

Hayden approached, patted me on the shoulder and said, "that and a frigging shit ton of skill, I bet. Do you know how Darrance is?"

I flinched, realising I hadn't spared one thought for my erstwhile comrade. "I don't know; we got split up in the chaos. It looks like you guys ran into trouble too."

Hayden nodded. "Found another Space Marine on the ground floor, tore its way through us like a whirlwind, killed six of the Stormtroopers with us. Would've killed us all if Thol hadn't purposely overloaded his plasma gun; the explosion vaporised him and mortally wounded the Marine. I finished it off with a point-blank shot of my long-las.

I nodded and sighed; I barely knew Thol, so his death didn't affect me much, but the destruction of the Plasma gun irked me. With Darrance MIA and that gone, it just put more pressure on me to be the damned hero. Now I'd seen the endurance of an Astartes first hand; I doubted that a hotshot from Hayden's long las would affect them much unless at complete close range.

"That's six down, I suppose, I said.

Hayden's brow furrowed in bemusement, about to ask me to elaborate, I was sure, but then Helma, Arlathan, Verenth and five more Stormtroopers emerged from the office, a sullen-looking Vex in tow. I could hear weeping and pitiful pleading, and an ugly, middle-aged woman I instantly recognised as one of Adelana's colleagues walked out after them.

"Please!" she cried as she tried to grab at Helma's elbow. "Take us with you! Please!"

"Getaway!" snarled Helma, snatching back her arm. "All non-combatants were meant to evacuate! You should have left with the others! Emperor only knows..."

The captain trailed off in her sentence and gaped as she saw me.

"You!" yelled the lady at me, and behind her, I could see the kid, the gruff old man and lastly, Adelana emerging from the office. Adelana's smile made me weak at the knees. "We did as you told," carried on the woman, who I'd momentarily forgotten was there let alone speaking to me you 'Go to Vex's office at the first sign of trouble,' so here we are! Please help us!"

Tearing my attention away from Adelana, I nodded and smiled the most reassuring smile I could muster at her, but for the life of me, I couldn't frigging remember her name.

"We need to take them with us," I said to Helma in my most commanding tone.

Helma's eyes narrowed. "Did that Space Marine smash your brain out of your head? Are you insane or stupid? You yourself couldn't tell for certain how big Taryst's escape craft is! They might not be able to fit with the rest of us! Anyway, even if it does, they'll just slow us down; it's a no go, I...

She trailed off in her sentence, and her features softened for a second, and for that second, she seemed, despite her huge scar, almost beautiful.

"I am sorry, Attelus but..."

+We are taking them with us!+ Karmen's voice suddenly echoed through my thoughts, and everyone else's it seemed as we all seemed to flinch in fright simultaneously.

"Is that you, the infamous Karmen Kons, I've heard so much about!" snarled Helma. "You finally deem us worthy enough to speak to us?"

+I have been occupied,+ she replied hesitantly, and I could see she was exhausted. +I can tell you for a fact, captain, that Taryst's ship does indeed have enough space for them and us. We are taking them with us!+

"But...!" tried Helma, but Karmen interrupted her.

+There is no time to argue! There are very few mercenaries left now, and soon the Astartes will be here!+

Helma grimaced, looking like she'd try to argue more, but she let out a huge, irritated groan before bellowing.

"Alright! Alright! Attelus, it's because of you; they're here, so they're your damned responsibility! The witch is right! We've got to move!"

With that, she waved us onward, and we began toward the exit. I fell in step with Adelana.

"Thank you," she whispered.

I shrugged and pursed my lips. "I did nothing; it's Karmen you should thank, not me," I said, and I couldn't help wonder why she did.

She shrugged back. "You still tried, so thank you."

She hid it well, very well, actually, but with all my years of training, I could still tell the poor girl was utterly terrified. I couldn't help but be impressed and even a bit envious. She was better than me at hiding her emotions even after all that time I had spent as Glaitis' apprentice. Already, I could see potential in her, great potential.

That might've been why Karmen had insisted they come with us.

"It was the very least I could do," I said, feeling my face flush almost walked into Hayden's back as he and the others suddenly stopped in their tracks.

"Too late," said Helma as five Space Marines, their bolters raised, abruptly fanned out into the cavernous room.

"How?" managed Roldar, a nanosecond before the Space Marines opened fire.



With all five shots fired, someone went down, Jelket's right arm exploded, and the poor man couldn't even scream as he was flung onto his back and instantly lost consciousness. Selg's large chest suddenly had a huge hole I could've seen through if it wasn't for the deluge of blood. One of the Stormtroopers lost his head, literally. Another's torso simply evaporated, and a third Stormtrooper's hip and stomach were gone.

The rest of us leapt for the cover of the surrounding cogitators; I gripped Adelana by the arm and pulled her roughly after me. The old, gruff man being a combat veteran, wasn't far behind, but the middle-aged woman flung herself foolishly to the floor, but the boy didn't even move. He just stood still, slack-jawed and stupefied, and I couldn't blame him, in all honesty. Not even I could run fast enough to save him before a bolt round exploded his body from the hips upward into nothing but red mist.

Adelana cried out what I assumed to be the boy's name, but I couldn't even begin to hear her over the deafening cacophony, which seemed to shake the entire structure to its core.

But the woman somehow miraculously stayed unscathed as she coward through the chaos.

The survivors leaned out and fired back; there were countless lines of cogitators between the Marines and us. But they were shattered and smashed easily; they wouldn't protect us for too much longer.

I cursed, kneeling and clutching at my sword. I was useless right now, there was no way I could dash across the room through that amount of bolter fire without being hit, and even if I did somehow manage that, then I'd be locked in close combat with five frigging Space Marines.

Fighting one at a time was bad enough, thank you!

I felt a shaking hand grab at my flak jacket's sleeve, and I turned to find it was Adelana, her beautiful blue eyes filled with tears. It pained me to see her so upset, and she pointed at the woman who was still curled up in the middle of the thoroughfare, still somehow unharmed. I knew what Adelana wanted me to do; I didn't care much for the woman, in all honesty. But with a roar, I suicidally sprinted from cover, grabbed the woman by the scruff and hurled her behind the next line of cogitators. Despite her obvious obesity, I threw her easily and even over the bolter fire, I heard a crunch and her piggish squeal in agony as the impact broke something. It made me wince in sympathy.

I darted back to join up with Adelana and the old man, feeling the fire strafing my wake.

As I made it, Adelana abruptly threw her arms around me in a tight embrace; her thanks murmured into my chest as the old man clasped my shoulder, and I couldn't help but think what Karmen thought of this.

"Karmen!" I roared. "Karmen! Why the hell didn't you see them coming? You've gotta do something we're trapped like rats and pinned down!" Please!"

+I am doing something!+ her voice growled in my head so strong it made me wince with pain. +I need to concentrate, so leave me alone! Just watch your left!+

Her psychic voice conveyed more than just anger at my interruption, but also something else. Shaking away the thought, I looked left, past the cowering woman and the blank, black plastcrete wall beyond.

What the hell did she mean by that? Adelana let go of me as we saw Roldar die; a bolt round blew half his torso into oblivion as he attempted to lean out to shoot his inherited hellgun.

"Damn it!" I breathed. "Roldar!"

Another Stormtrooper was torn apart a second after, Torris, who took cover beside the poor bastard, screamed as fragments of bone and carapace armour embedded in him. He fell to the floor, clutching at his face.

Then I saw something I never thought I'd ever see; Arlathan Karkin burst from cover with surprising speed, grabbed the unconscious Jelket by the gorget of his flak armour and pulled him into shelter. Halsin then ran up and began the utterly pointless attempt at stemming the blood.

I sighed and shook my head while scratching the back of my skull, Torris was surely a more savable cause, but he was two rows back, so they didn't know he was injured at all.

"We're going to die, aren't we?" yelled Adelana, sounding admirably calm.

I opened my mouth, my first instinct to lie, but as I met her gaze, it died in my throat.

Instead, my reply was a sad smile, and carefully, I peered around the corner to see the Space Marines. They hadn't advanced at all, just stood out in the opening, shooting through the lines of cogitators; there were only a dozen rows left; we didn't have much time.

A hand landed lightly on my shoulder, making me flinch in fright, and I turned to see it was the old man. He held pushed me aside and pulled out an autopistol that was tucked in his pants. Tears welled in my eyes as I instantly recognised it. It was Castella's; she'd given it to him in the mailroom hours before.

I fought the urge to snatch the pistol from his hand as he raised it and fired. The pistol was now his, and I had no right to take it.

Besides, he'd be better at shooting it than me, I was sure.

The old man emptied the clip pistol's clip and miraculously wasn't torn apart in those ten seconds.

With practised professionalism, he pulled back, ejected the empty clip and reloaded, then turned to me.

"Where is she?" he asked. "The nice, beautiful young woman who had given me this?"

I winced and hissed, my attention falling to the floor.

The man's expression turned sympathetic as he instantly understood.

"I am sorry," he grunted. "I hope she died well."

I shrugged, my eyes still downcast, not sure if she did.

"Well!" he said as he popped out to shoot a few shots. "Have no fear! It looks as though we will be joining her soon! At the God Emperor's side!"

Again, I shrugged and shuffled my feet, knowing that I won't be, not for long anyway. Also, because I knew that sentiment was complete and utter bullshit, to be absorbed by the warp was the only fate for our souls.

I wanted to say this but held my tongue, knowing now wasn't the time for such words.

I winced as the echoing destruction of the cogitators became even louder; it would be soon, very soon, I would be losing even more friends.

+Clear the left side wall!+ said Karmen, +and be ready to move!+

"What?" I said less than a second before an explosion suddenly shuddered the entire place; it was so strong that even the Space Marines hesitated in their fire. Another followed that it knocked the old man off his feet, and I stopped Adelana from falling with a quick hand on her shoulder.

+Someone, hold on to me please!+ she cried, then there was a third explosion.

I saw a large part of the wall had become superheated, and I realised what was happening a second before the fourth explosion finally blew a huge hole through in a rain of heavy, ground shaking debris. Instantly a flier screamed through the gap; the pintle-mounted Autocannon set in the ships open side spewing withering fire at the Space hovered low off the floor and waited.

+Get in!+ Karmen screamed.

It took me less than a second to recover my wits then I was pushing Adelana and the old man toward it.

"Go! Go!" I yelled, and they needed no more prompting; they ran across the gap and together helped the injured woman to her feet.

I glanced out from the corner; the Space Marines had fallen back into the corridor; not even their armour could withstand Autocannon fire for long. Yet still, they were trying to shoot from behind their cover.

After seeing this, I sprinted out, straight toward Karmen, Jelket, Arlathan, Halsin and a remaining Stormtrooper.

"I'll take Karmen!" I yelled, pushing past the Stormtrooper to take her bed off him. "Arlathan, Halsin! Take Jelket! You! Torris is injured behind the last row; he needs your help!"

I didn't wait for a reply before I was moving again, almost recklessly pushing her toward the flier as bolt rounds exploded around me, she was strapped down so safe from falling off, but I could still trip and fall easily.

Eventually, I reached the flier, running to the other side, then, with Adelana's and the old man's help, lifted her inside.

I turned in time to see Verenth, Vex, and Helma climb inside; both of them didn't bother to spare me a look; both looked beyond terrified. Verenth looked like he was on the verge of despair; Selg was dead, his friend. I didn't know what to say, so I said nothing.

I slipped past and looked around the edge of the flier, seeing to my satisfaction that they'd followed my orders. Arlathan and Halsin carried poor Jelket, who, much to my shock, was somehow now semi-conscious. His head lolled about, his face a mask of shock and agony.

Following them was the Stormtrooper struggling with Torris, the large ex arbitrator's arm over his shoulder, his face coated entirely in blood. I looked down to the entrance, seeing the Space Marines were properly pinned, but I doubted that they would be for much longer. I saw no sign of any.

Without hesitation, I sprinted forward, making the roughly twenty-metre space in such a short time the Stormtrooper didn't notice me until I was slipping Torris' left arm over my shoulders, forcing him to flinch in fright.

"Come on!" I roared, and together we ran toward the flier.

Just then, the frigging Autocannon decided to run out of ammunition.

I reacted faster than even I knew, shoving the Stormtrooper into cover. He cried out and fell to the floor as I slipped beside him.

With a roar, I lifted Torris onto my back; he was a good one hundred and thirty kilograms even out of his armour. It was a feat of strength I would've been utterly incapable of before my enhancement, but even now, it was a struggle; my back and legs screamed in pain.

Roaring again, I ran on with all the speed I could muster, stepping side to side in a pathetic bid to avoid the surely soon to come bolter fire, but I knew it was all for nothing. I heard Torris mutter something about leaving him behind.

But the bolter fire never came; instead, there was a yell, a pained cry that made me look over my shoulder; what I saw made my eyes widen with surprise and almost stop in my tracks entirely.

Darrance was amongst the Space Marines, his power scimitar a blur of slashes, keeping them at bay. One of the big bastards was on the ground, both of his legs cut off at the knees, three of them were disarmed, their bolters cut in twain and discarded on the floor.

The Stormtrooper then caught up and helped me carry Torris the rest of the way. We don't bother to take him around the other side of the flier; together with help from Arlathan and Halsin, we lifted Torris into the ship.

+Get in!+ Karmen roared in my mind, but I ignored her, turning back to watch Darrance in his desperate fight.

"No!" I said and started into a sprint, activating my power sword in a blaze of blue light.

+Attelus!+ she cried, but I ignored her; enough people had died this day! I didn't like Darrance; he was arrogant and, at times, downright cruel and incredibly condescending. A jerk who I would never even consider being friends with, but he was a comrade; we'd fought side by side on numerous occasions. He had willingly put his life on the line against the ornithopter only because I'd asked. He'd stood up for me when Etuarq had cruelly torn into me verbally.

I wasn't going to let another comrade die after losing so many already, not even Darrance.

As I ran, Darrance was abruptly disarmed, one of the Space Marines smashing his sword from his grasp with a mere flick of his wrist, then he was in the midst of wrapping his huge paw around the stunned Darrance's neck was when I converged on them.

All their attention was on my comrade, so they didn't see me coming until my power sword sliced through the wrist of the Space Marine, reaching to crush my comrade's windpipe. I darted forward and cut apart another's bolter.

"let's go!" I roared, and we turned, sprinting and weaving as the last remaining bolter fired at our backs while the rest gave chase. Their huge feet hit the floor so hard it was a struggle for me to keep my footing as they shook everything.

"Karmen!" I yelled. "Get the flier going!"

She didn't respond.

"Karmen!"

+You're insane!+ she screamed, her psychic voice high pitched with panic and upset.

"Just...frigging...do...it!" I screamed, wanting to say, 'I'm nearly there,' but said nothing, knowing now wasn't the time for my snark.

A second later, the flier lifted off and started toward the huge hole in the wall, hovering only about a metre off the floor.

With a feral snarl, I picked up the pace and glanced over my shoulder; Darrance was lagging a good three metres behind. He was barely keeping his distance from the pursuing Marines.

"Frig!" I snarled as I saw the nearest Marine's gauntleted hand reaching to wrap around Darrance's ankle.

The hotshot took the Marine straight in the face; it didn't kill him but sent him sprawling backwards, head over heels, smashing hard into the Astartes running just behind.

Despite myself, I laughed and turned away, raising my sword in thanks to Hayden a second before the flier flew through the hole.

I veered right as the distance lessened and saw the flier turn outside, so its side was facing the tower, Hayden and Arlathan waving us in. The gap was a good five metres wide; I was pretty confident I'd make it, even onto a rumbling, constantly moving flier, just, but Darrance...

It was a frigging long way down, thirty-one stories down to a very, very messy death.

Despite this, I didn't hesitate, throwing myself into oblivion toward the open. I screamed, my arms swinging, flailing around as if it'd make me go further somehow. I mustn't have spent more than a second flying through the air, but it felt like a million frigging years. A million years, screaming before finally landing on the ledge of the passenger area of the flier with such strength, it caused pain to echo up my legs and me to cry out.

I cried out, my hands spinning around as I began to overbalance and fall. Arlathan's hand grabbed me by the collar of my flak jacket and pulled me back in.

Arlathan looked like he was about to say something, but I ignored him and turned just in time to see Darrance jumping off after me.

Instantly, I knew he wasn't going to make it, not by a long shot.

With a cry, I sheathed my sword, threw myself to the floor and reached out, down below the flier's bottom side and my fingers barely wrapped around the wrist of Darrance's reaching arm.

Darrance yelled out, and he swung to a stop as the flier began to pull away.

"That is the second time I meant to die today!" he cried. "But it is the second time you've stopped me from doing so! Soon you might be even with me, apprentice!"

I laughed and began to pull him up, but there was a cry of dismay; then something huge and heavy landed abruptly landed into the flier. Something so huge and heavy it caused the ship to tilt sideways a good thirty degrees violently. Before even I could react, I abruptly slid off the deck and flew into empty air.

I screamed, and my hand shot out desperately, only just catching the ledge with my index finger and thumb. I cried out again; the wind and cold battered at me as I struggled to get a better grip while the combined weights of Darrance and me threatened to make me let go. The flier abruptly adjusts itself flat, only a split second after I got my grip, but I still couldn't see what was going on inside the flier.

A dead body was suddenly flung from the flier. I knew it was dead because it didn't scream, and I managed to see brains and blood flood from its crushed skull. The blood coated Darrance and me as it dropped by us. I couldn't tell who it was; it fell too fast.

I hoped to hell it wasn't Adelana.

"Karmen!" I screamed as the flier began to veer, and my fingers started to slip. "Help me!"

Then on the left, someone abruptly fell to the deck, their head over the edge, looking down at me with wide eyes. It was the old man; I still couldn't remember his name.

"Help! Please!" I cried.

The old man didn't reply, couldn't reply as two huge, armoured fingers wrapped around his neck and squeezed.

The man's head popped off with an almost absurd abruptness, then his corpse was tilted forward and off the edge, falling through the black-brown clouds out of sight.

Then the Marine appeared over us; its red eyes unforgiving, unrelenting then reached out.

I cried out and closed my eyes, preparing myself for the pain and long fall after, but instead, I felt the fingers wrap gently, almost daintily around my hand, and suddenly, I was hauled back onto the craft along with Darrance. The Marine lifted us with breathtaking ease.

Gasping for breath, I tried to comprehend what had just happened, but I was quickly answered.

+I cannot hold it for much longer!+ Karmen's voice screamed through my thoughts.

Either she had miscalculated or was using understatement because a split second later, he shook his head and was seeming to regain himself. Then began to advance on Darrance, drawing back his fist. I fumbled for my sword, seeing now that Darrance had lost his, but my arms, my fingers and upper body screamed with pain. I glance about, leaning on my left elbow to see the others were crowded in the furthest corner, holding on for dear life. Adelana was there, much to my relief, Arlathan, Verenth, Torris and the old woman, the one remaining Stormtrooper. Helma and Halsin were laid still on the deck. Hayden's back was sitting back against the wall beside Karmen's bed and Jelket; his head hung limping lifelessly forward, and I winced as I saw his right shoulder was almost crushed into pulp.

Darrance scrambled back, trying to make space between him and the behemoth, but his back quickly hit the edge of the entranceway. The Marine, punching to crush Darrance's slightly built body.

The hotshot round exploded deafeningly through the flier, hitting the Space Marine in the punching hand, causing him to stumble slightly. I turned to see Hayden; he had his smoking long las raised with one hand.

It was only a slight opening, but it was enough as Arlathan sprinted forward with a roar and the Stormtrooper opened fire with his hellgun, blasting the Marine in the face in an almost constant stream of laser shots.

Arlathan drew a short sword from a sheath on his belt, and it came to life in a blaze of light. I recognised it immediately as one of Glaitis' power blades. I'd forgotten he'd taken it after her death and, with one slash, cut it into the back of the Space Marine's knee.

The Marine didn't make a sound, no scream or anything, but his leg gave out even still, and he dropped into a kneel.

Before Arlathan could finish him, the Space Marine swung out his hand and clipped the Magistratum detective's chest. I winced with the sound of bones breaking, and he f against the wall, unconscious. He would've slipped out the door if Torris hadn't run out and stopped him.

One of Hayden's hot shots hit the Space Marine square in the face, breaking in the Marine's faceplate and sent him crashing onto his back, growling, writhing.

Darrance was finally on his feet and running as I felt hands wrap around my arms and began dragging me across the floor. I looked over my shoulder to see it was Adelana and Vex.

I gave Adelana a smile which she returned and turned to watch as Darrance snatched up the fallen sword, activated it and plunged it down into the Marine's throat, with all of his weight and momentum behind it.

The Marine's blood coated the deck, but he wasn't dead as he tried to crush Darrance in his grasp, one last ditch to kill another of us before he bleeds out, but with a roar, Darrance tore the sword through his chin, then skull and lastly out the top of his helm in an explosion of ichor.

It was exactly how I'd killed the Sergeant earlier.

Darrance abruptly fell to his knees as the rest of us just looked on, utterly stunned at what had just happened.

We'd escaped from the building, so now what?

+Someone close the doors,+ said Karmen, her tone was strained and pained, but also I could hear the anger in there. More than likely, anger aimed at me for a myriad amount of different reasons.

+We are going to fly to the top of the tower,+ she said. +There is little oxygen there, and it is freezing, someone, please close the doors and get seated..+

Her tone could've been mistaken as condescending, but I could tell it was exhaustion mixed with impatience.

Torris and the Stormtrooper were the ones who finally found themselves enough to slide close the doors.

"What?" said Darrance as he approached the unconscious Arlathan and started to check his vital signs. "What do you plan on doing then? Shooting your way in again?"

Karmen's weighted silence was enough to say that was precisely what she was planning.

Slowly, I climbed to my feet, helped by Adelana and Vex.

"There must be Space Marines up there already," I said as we went to approach the seats.

+I have the void shield still activated,+ she said. +They cannot enter Taryst's quarters if they are. I can deactivate it once we get there!+

I sighed and looked around; Helma was stirring; there was a huge, black bruise across her face, and the Stormtrooper picked her up and placed her into a seat. Darrance was helping poor Halsin, who was conscious now but pale and pained, it looked like his right arm and left shoulder was broken.

For a second, I couldn't help gape; how the hell hadn't the Space Marine killed more of us? Then the sound of someone crying caused me to jump from my thoughts and turn to Adelana. She was weeping, her attractive features all scrunched up; I wouldn't say it made her unattractive, just a little less so than usual.

I didn't know what to say or do; she sat right next to me; surely there was something I could do? I remembered when I'd wept when I'd first met Estella, she'd hugged me close, but I didn't know if she'd appreciate that. Instead, the old woman staggered up to us and hugged poor Adelana close.

"It's okay, honey, it's okay," she murmured while stroking Adelana's long red hair, and I had to stop myself from bursting out laughing. After all these years being under Glaitis tutelage, she'd taught me much, how to read people, how to manipulate them for your ends. But never did she ever show me what to do for people when they were upset.

I felt stupid; I felt incredibly awkward.

"I...I'm sorry," I managed, making Adelana's red, puffy-eyed attention look at me, causing me to flinch. Did she somehow know I was indirectly responsible for this?

But my fears were allayed as she smiled. "It's okay," she said. "You didn't kill them, but why? I don't understand. Why are the Space Marines trying to kill us? We did nothing wrong! Aren't they meant to be protecting us?"

I looked away and pulled out my pack of Lhos, suddenly feeling like I really needed one.

"You know, don't you?" she asked, but there was no anger in her voice.

"I do," I said sadly while lighting the Lho stick, clenched in my teeth. "It's complicated."

A thought made me suddenly smile. "Or as a friend would've said, 'it's convoluted.'"

Darrance approached and sat next to Vex. "It is, young mamzel," he said. "You are better off not knowing, in fact."

"It's Taryst, isn't it!" said the old woman. "He was into some dodgy business, wasn't he?"

My eyes widened, and I looked at her; I hadn't heard 'dodgy' being used that way since...

"Ma'am, may I ask, you wouldn't be from Elbyra? Or to be more precise, Velrosia?"

The woman nodded vigorously. "Yeah! I am, was from Salthain, a town in the south. My husband and me left for Omnartus after the war; why did you ask?"

I smiled. "I recognised your use of 'dodgy' in that context. I'm also from Velrosia, Varander, in fact. What a coincidence, huh?"

"Just a bit!" she exclaimed. "Now I think on it, your accent does seem familiar."

I shook my head, funny how such a vast galaxy could somehow seem so small at times.

"You're right," I said, my expression turning stern. "It was Taryst who was responsible for this, all of this in fact. He was us to 'dodgy business.' Although now isn't the time for me to explain. I'll tell you everything once we've escaped."

"Really?" said Adelana, her eyes wide with disbelief.

I flinched under her gaze, knowing that I shouldn't really make such a promise.

"I will," I said, despite my hesitation; they truly did deserve to know. If they made it out alive, they deserved to know the how and the why Omnartus burned.

'Omnartus burned,' I was already referring to it in the past tense, how easily that'd come to me.

Castella sure as hell wouldn't have approved of that.

"You were close, weren't you?" I asked Adelana.

She nodded. "They were more than just work colleagues, Attelus. Grayhelt was like another dad to me, and Velg was a true friend. They...I...I can't believe they're dead."

So that was their names! I decided to make an effort to remember them; they were more innocents dead because of me, and soon, very soon, there would be many more.

Many, many more.

I looked sidelong at Adelana; soon, she'd have to deal with the trauma of not just losing the rest of her friends and family but her whole world.

Perhaps Castella was right; perhaps it wasn't a good idea to save her after all.



+We will be at the top of the tower in thirty seconds,+ said Karmen sullenly. +Get ready; there are rebreathers under your seats. The climate display shows it's minus twenty degrees outside, so be prepared for the cold.+

I switched on the internal heater inside my bodyglove, unbuckled my restraining harness and slipped off my flak jacket, handing it to Adelana.

"Put this on; you'll sure as hell will need it," I said.

She looked me up and down, her full lips parted slightly. "What about you?" she breathed hesitantly.

I was wearing a tight, sleeveless bodyglove with jeans. I must've looked pretty stupid, giving her my warm, armoured jacket.

"Don't worry about me," I said with a smile. "Got heaters inside my bodyglove, I'll be good."

She nodded, looking nonplussed as she started to slip my jacket on.

I turned away and started to take out the rebreathers from underneath the seats, but I still managed to catch a glimpse of Adelana and the old woman exchanging meaningful looks as she climbed to her feet.

I gave them a rebreather each and slipped mine on, then helped them put on theirs. They were single visored, expensive pieces designed for combat., the oxygen tanks had straps so they could be worn as a backpack.

+I am opening fire with the lascannon, now!+ snarled Karmen and instantly I heard the familiar sound of lascannon shots through the flier.

Darrance walked by; I could tell he was smirking at me even through his rebreather.

"You have complained about your luck on too many occasions to count, apprentice," he said, as he started to help Jelket off his seat with his good arm. "But look at me this day, I have broken my arm, had to run up almost thirty-one stories worth of stairs with a Space Marine chasing after me. I have lost my prized and mastercrafted power weapon and almost got pulped by an autocannon on an ornithopter. But you! You get yet another girlfriend! When will it be poor Darrance's turn, I wonder!"

I flinched and felt my face flush with embarrassment.

Then it was followed by a sudden urge to punch Darrance in the face.

I stormed across the deck and slipped up the slight staircase leading to the cockpit. Watching out the window as the pilot continuously blasted the roof of the corridor leading to Taryst's quarters. It was a strange sight, one which I never thought I'd ever see. Yet here it was, I never thought I'd ever had to go toe to toe and kill several Space Marines either, but for some reason, this seemed the strangest thing of all.

"What are we doing, Karmen?" I said.

She didn't reply.

I sighed. "If I look around the seat, I'm going to see the pilot is blank-eyed, utterly under your sway, aren't I?"

Again, no reply.

"Just like you did with the hundreds, no thousands of mercenaries under Taryst's employ, huh? Sacrificing them to the Space Marine guns so we could escape, am I right?"

+Attelus!+ she cried finally. +Now is not the time for this!+

"No, I guess it isn't," I growled. "Just tell me this, Estella Erith. Was this part of Taryst's plan, right from the start? If he didn't have me killed, would I have been amongst those slaved to your will, sacrificed so he could make his escape?"

Karmen sighed. +I would never have let that happen, Attelus. Why do you think I tried to have him recruit you properly?+

"I thought it was because I had 'potential,'" I said sarcastically. "And thank you for admitting it, Karmen! By the Emperor, he was truly a selfish arsehole. Have no idea what Jeurat saw in the bastard."

+Just like you see 'potential' in the Adelana girl?+ Karmen's voice snarled back. +I've seen the way you look at her, the way you talk to her! Do you think I'm blind or stupid? The ends justifies the means, Attelus! If we're able to escape to stop Etuarq from destroying more worlds, their sacrifice will be worth it! Besides, they were all going to die when the planet's destroyed in Exterminatus!+

"You sound just like Faleaseen," I gasped in exasperation.

+It's been done, Attelus! It is too late to argue about it! Let me ask you this, okay? How many people have you killed? Over the last day? Over the last seven months and the seven years of your career? They were just faces to you. Strangers, the men I controlled, I knew them, all of them! Their every desire, their every secret, their dreams. Do you think I wanted to make them die like that? No! I have to live with that, Attelus! I have to live with that guilt. Please don't make this harder than it is, please!+

I laughed bitterly. "You think you've got it bad, Karmen. You've got nothing on me! This whole world is going to die because of me! Billions of people; dead because I took one pict! At least when you die, you can forget your guilt and pain, but I will never get that."

+What?+

I didn't reply as abruptly the wall and roof caved in under the sustained lascannon fire.

Space Marines were standing on the rubble; their bolter fire exploded and panged off the fliers bodywork and window.

+We will discuss this later! Now get to the passenger area and be ready! I'm about to land this sucker.+

I clenched my jaw but still turned and slid down the handrails on my palms to the deck, hitting with a loud clang!

Adelana looked at me with wide, confused eyes, looking like she would ask me something but seemed to think better of it.

"I'll tell you later," I growled and walked past her.

She watched me as I did, looking like she was starting to regret getting involved with us, and I couldn't blame her, in all honesty.

The flier veered steeply to the right, and I joined with Darrance, the Stormtrooper and Verenth, standing at the door. The only four of us the only ones still in any condition to fight, and Darrance was a debatable case at best.

"What's your name?" Verenth asked the Stormtrooper, hauling his inherited Hellgun and adjusting the gun's pack on his back.

"Daylith," answered the Stormtrooper. "Trooper Daylith Vark."

Verenth nodded. "Good to meet you, Vark. I'm Gilret Verenth, good! Can't stand seeing all these guys dying around me who I don't even know their names or even their faces."

Vark nodded back. "I doubt we'll make it any further, those frigging Space Marines. They aren't human."

I couldn't help but smile; now that was the understatement of the millennia.

+Alright!+ came Karmen's voice. +There were eight of the bastards, but I had killed four with the lascannon. It's run out of energy, though. The rest of them have fallen back, their backs to the shield! You're going to have to hold them off until everyone else is off the flier, somehow.+

"Karmen!" I sighed. "Really? Four of them? You're frigging insane; you know that, right?"

"She is a psyker," said Darrance, sounding insufferably calm and cheery about it all. "They usually are."

+I...I know I'm asking much of you...+

"Hell, yes, you are!" interrupted Verenth.

+Just hold them off!+ she snapped. +And this isn't what I ask of you; this is what the circumstance asks of you. Succeed in this, and we live and if you don't...+

She let that hang.

+Once everyone else has disembarked, I'll take care of the rest, okay? Now open the door!+

Vark, his hand visibly shaking even with his thick, armoured gloves on, reached out and, with one swift tug, opened it. We hovered a few metres beside the strange sight of the rubble covered, red-carpeted corridor. A place I'd regularly been in for six months and hated every second of it, now it was destroyed, perhaps I should've been elated, but all I felt was dread.

Vark looked as though he was to jump, but I stopped him with an outreached hand.

"Darrance and I first," I said. "We'll draw their attention, allowing you and Verenth to get on there without being blown into bits, okay?"

The Stormtrooper's expression was hidden, but by how quick his nod was, I could tell he thought it was a damned good idea.

"Everyone!" I yelled over my shoulder and activated my sword in a blaze of blue. "Wish me luck!"

Without waiting for an answer, Darrance and I leapt.
My short story Of An Asur living in the land of Bretonnia:

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Adrassil
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Chapter 32

#33 Post by Adrassil »

A microsecond after my feet hit the debris; I was running diagonally across the width of the corridor. My eyes fixed on the Space Marines as their bolters opened up in a deafening crescendo and strafed my wake.

It was only four metres between them and me, but it may as well have been miles. As it was earlier, time seemed too slow. I could see and feel it all innately when they were pulling the triggers and where exactly they were aiming a microsecond before it happened.

I weaved, ducked and darted countless bolter rounds. I'd lost sight of Darrance in the utter chaos of light and sound, being too involved in me living from one split second to the next.

My progress slowed to a snail's pace; I'd barely been at it for a second or two, only made it half a metre before feeling fatigue ebb at my limbs.

Hellgun lasers started to stream overhead and sliced into one of the Space Marine's torsos. The bastard barely flinched and just fired at the shot's source.

I cursed, smashing away a bolt round flying for my head. I needed to get into close combat to stop them from firing at the others, but I couldn't. I knew I couldn't. Even if I did, even with my enhanced abilities, there was no way I could take on four of the Emperor's finest for very long.

"Faleaseen!" I screamed through clenched teeth. "I could really use your help right now!"

There was no answer, nothing, as a bolt round managed to skim my shoulder but luckily didn't detonate, making me reel back. Utter agony and blood abruptly ran down the length of my arm.

I cried out but managed to keep my focus.

"Frig it!" I roared, giving up on trying to advance and purely devoted myself in deflecting the bolt rounds, sending countless of them hurtling away to detonate on the walls or floor.

Another shot skimmed me, glancing off my ribs, throwing me off my feet and to the floor.

Winded, gasping in agony, I kicked out my feet and was up again, darting and winding through the fuselage to draw their fire. I wanted dearly to look back to how my comrades were faring, but frigging didn't dare.

For a split second, the Space Marines seemed surprised at this, then concentrated their fire even more on me.

"You aren't going to kill any more of my friends!" I snarled. "You ugly, misshapen bastards!"

+Attelus!+ Karmen cried. +Everyone is off the flier now! Get back and down, now!+

"Why?" I snapped. "What the hell do you plan on doing?"

+Just do it!+

I threw myself to the floor, screaming at the pain it caused, just a nanosecond before the flier smashed suddenly through the left side wall and into the Space Marines. The impact rocked the whole tower to its very foundation. The integrity of the entire corridor had already weakened, cracked by the Lascannon fire, or else this would've been impossible. The flier's momentum caused it to slide and screech briefly across the floor, then crash out the opposite side of the corridor. It transformed into a hurtling fireball that plunged through the sky like a meteor, and I could see the now laughably small figures of the Marines falling along with it.

It all happened so quickly that it seemed they were there, then they just weren't.

Then the void shield flickered and disappeared.

+Move! Move!+ urged Karmen. +More of them will be here soon!+

Slowly, I picked myself up, still awed by it all as the others hurried past me. I saw much to my surprise that both Verenth and the Stormtrooper (Who I was ashamed to admit, I'd already forgotten the name of) had made it. Verenth was helping the medicae assistant, while the Stormtrooper did the same for Helma.

Arlathan was now up, helping the somehow still alive and breathing Jelket. Darrance walked by too, looking unharmed beside his broken arm and was supporting Hayden, who seemed pale and pained. How the hell the sniper was still conscious after suffering his injury was beyond me.

Next was Adelana, she wheeled Karmen's bed, and I tried to meet her gaze, but her attention stayed firmly forward. Her mask of fearlessness was gone, and she looked terrified, completely, utterly terrified. I had a horrible feeling she was scared of me.

Lastly, it was Vex and the old woman, both of them had Torris' arms laid across their shoulders. Her attention was to the floor, but Vex was looking at me.

"Remind me to never to punch you again," he said, raising his black bruised knuckles to me. "Still hurts like a trigger, and after seeing you do that..."

I nodded nervously after seeing what I'd just done. Dodging and deflecting all that, they must've thought I was some freak, that I was as unnatural as one of those Space Marines, and I was, to an extent.

With a sigh, I deactivated my sword's power field and sheathed it, slipped my hands into the pockets of my pants and followed them.

I entered through the crimson curtains when I heard the elevator open and turned to see another two Space Marines emerge.

One was wearing very modified power armour and carried a bolter, a large crane jutted from the top of his back, and I could see he had the cog on his left shoulder plate, announcing his allegiance to the Tech-Priests of Mars.

He must've been the one who had hacked the security of Taryst's elevator; that was how they'd been here before we'd arrived.

The other was in very ornate armour; his left hand was a power claw, sheathed in dancing light. His right held a plasma pistol.

I smiled at them, and as they raised their weapons and opened fire, I'd already stepped through the curtains, and the void shield activated.

+Yes, Attelus,+ said Karmen. +Taunt the Space Marines, such a good idea.+

I took out a lho stick, placed it in my mouth with my index finger and thumb then lit it.

"Come on, Karmen," I breathed, even though the very act of speaking hurt. "Allow me some fun in life, please."

Her reply was an exasperated sigh.



In silence, we rode the elevator down to Taryst's quarters. I sat alone in one of the corners, trying to cope with the constant agony.

All of us were exhausted or injured in one way or another. I was both. There was a massive tear right through the skin and tissue, down to the bone in my left arm. But already, the blood had clotted despite the hideousness of the wound, frig it was agony. It seemed my bone had deflected the bolt before it could detonate, or else I would've ended up just like poor Jelket.

Disarmed, literally, and I couldn't help but smile at the terrible joke.

The bolt round that had hit my side had torn a huge gash in my bodyglove; there, a horrific blue-black bruise was in plain sight. Again my wraithbone bone structure had deflected the shot before it blew a hole in my torso and before the kinetic force could pulp my internal organs into mush.

Adelana was kneeling next to the old woman who was curled up in pain against the opposite wall. I don't know what I'd broken when I'd thrown her, but she'd seemed to be able to cope with the pain it caused until now. She was quite a tough old bird, I had to admit. It didn't lessen the guilt I felt over hurting her, though I'd saved her life. I could've been a bit more gentle in the process. Guess I didn't know my own strength.

Adelana suddenly noticed I was looking at them and looked back at me with wide eyes.

I smiled at her, and despite the pain it caused, gave her a small wave, but much to my hurt, she flinched, and her eyes abruptly fell to the floor.

Arlathan approached, limping the way while clutching at his side, then sat beside me but said nothing.

I sighed. "What, you think I'm some kind of freak as well?"

"No," he said, and my attention snapped to him, seeing it for the lie it was instantly.

Arlathan sighed too and, with a pained grunt, adjusted his seating, "yeah, alright, maybe a bit. We all saw you do all that stuff, dodging all those frigging bullets. I've never seen anyone move nearly as fast as you. Then we saw you get hit not once but twice, but still, get up and still keep going, that's just...that's just..."

"Impossible?" I said.

Arlathan only shrugged. "It's more unnatural. How? How did you get that way?"

I hissed through clenched teeth and closed my eyes as a new wave of pain passed through me. I almost lost myself to sleep in that second; it was an act of tempered will just to open my eyes again.

"It's...It's a long story," I hissed. "I'll tell you later."

Arlathan looked pointedly at my arm. "And that wound. I was given basic medicae training in the scholarium, and that wound shouldn't have stopped bleeding; hell, you should be unconscious from blood loss!"

"You say that with Jelket in the room," I growled. "Now, can you leave me alone? It's pretty frigging obvious I don't want to talk about this right now, okay?"

"You were the one who brought it up," said Arlathan with a shrug he instantly regretted. "At least give me smoke, could really use one right now."

With a heavy sigh, I opened my case of Lhos and handed him one. I was getting low; only five were left.

Arlathan smiled, took it, and I hesitantly lit it for him with my igniter.

"Think about this," Arlathan said as he exhaled smoke. "If I thought you were some; therefore, would I be sitting next to you, smoking your Lhos?"

"Yes," I said, without missing a beat.

Then we laughed, laughed like there was no tomorrow, laughed with the idiot joy that only those who knew they had survived something they shouldn't have survived could. I laughed even though each time it hurt.

Our laughter drew all attention to us and took us a good half a minute for us to stop.

I looked at Adelana once finally done; her expression was one of bemused, gaping horror as she gazed at me. The old woman had regained some of herself as she smiled at us in understanding.

"I can't believe we are still alive," gasped someone, and we looked to see it was the Stormtrooper; he kneeled on the floor, his hellgun pointed to the ceiling. "We should all be dead, Space Marines. I can't believe it; I just can't..."

He trailed off in his sentence, then he turned to me, his expression unreadable beneath his helm. "All because of you."

I furrowed my brow, unsure what to make of his panicked tone and started to get to my feet; sensing something wrong, I reached for my sword.

The Stormtrooper tore off his helmet, revealing plain, ruddy features and short messy blonde hair stood up and abruptly approached, his heavy boots clanging across the metal floor.

Then he suddenly fell into a kneel.

"Surely you are blessed," he said. "Surely you are an avatar of the Emperor's will! To be able to move so fast and survive those bolt rounds, you truly must be. The God-Emperor must have sent you to protect us!"

I took a step back, utterly bewildered, and Torris burst out in a bitter barking laugh, followed immediately by a horrid groan of pain.

"I'm not, I'm not," I stammered.

"Yes, you must be!" he said on. "In the scholam, they taught us of the saints, ones said to be an embodiment of the God-Emperor himself, they taught us they fought with inhuman strength, speed; Iand endurance. Just the same as you."

I laughed nervously and realised everyone's attention was on me. Arlathan looked on with an amused smile. Adelana's expression was that of profound confusion. Still, I could see a bit of understanding glinting in her bright blue eyes, she too must've been wondering how I was able to do what I did, and she must've thought his explanation made sense; the old woman had a very similar look. My heart sunk at such a thought.

Verenth's brow furrowed, and his arms folded over his chest as if the mere thought I could be the chosen of the Emperor made him want to break something, probably me.

Vex was sitting, arms wrapped around his knees, looking up at me through his glasses, his expression unreadable, and yet again, I was reminded how frigging young he was.

Torris seemed amused like Arlathan, but sarcastically, as though he knew that I was so far from being chosen by the Emperor, the Stormtrooper couldn't have been any more mistaken.

And I wholeheartedly agreed with him.

"I'm not!" I snapped, managing to regain my wits. "Get the frig up now!"

"But..!"

"Get the frig up!" I yelled, anger abruptly overtaking me. "I don't even think the Emperor is even a god! I Haven't even been to an ecclesiarchy service for years! I'm the least pious person you could ever meet! You're so frigging mistaken it isn't funny! Now get the hell up!"

Again, the Stormtrooper hesitated.

"Now!" I roared.

He slowly got to his feet, glaring at me balefully and almost nose to nose. "So, what are you then, huh?" he snarled through his teeth.

I said nothing, just glared back, a glare that said, 'someone who can kill you before you can blink, so shut up and back down.'

The Stormtrooper did, spitting on the floor before retreating into a corner, his face foul.

I held back a sigh and turned away, trying to look discretely sidelong at Adelana to see how she'd reacted to that. She watched me walk by, gaping up at me in what could've been awe or fear in equal measure.

The elevator then abruptly found the floor, shaking to a halt, before the doors slid swiftly open.

I was the first to step into that familiar white, brightly lit corridor, the cells lining the sides of the walls and couldn't help but blanch as I realised the others were going to see the corpses still in them.

Vex, who was helping Halsin, was the next out; then it was the Stormtrooper with Helma and Verenth aiding Jelket. Last were the bewildered Adelana and old woman pushing Karmen's bed. I meant to ask what the woman's name was but felt it would've seemed rude.

I allowed the others to pass and fell in step with Adelana.

"I'm sorry, Adelana," I whispered to her. "I have no idea what you can make of all this."

She looked at me, tears welling in her eyes. "I don't understand what's going on, Attelus," she hissed through clenched teeth. "Space Marines? Why are we here? Why are they killing us? I heard you talking to yourself or her," she nodded at Karmen as she laid lifeless on the bed. "You were saying something about this world dying soon and that you feel guilty about it, that at least when she dies, she could escape her guilt, but you won't be able to; what did you mean by that? How were you able to hit the Marines gunshots with your sword and dodge them? If you aren't chosen by the Emperor, then how were you able to do all of that? The way you said it, it seemed you knew for a complete fact that you weren't, and she's a psyker; how did she become part of this organisation? I...I...I."

She looked like she would have a panic attack, and I reached out to comfort her but abruptly drew it back as I thought better. I barely knew her; she barely knew me; I didn't know if it'd be appreciated.

"I'm sorry, Adelana," I sighed and shook my head. "I will tell you everything soon, I swear I will, but I will say this. This is reality; this is the era we live in; there is only war, Adelana. There may not have been war on Omnartus, nor most worlds in the Calixis sector, but it is always somewhere. It has found you; I'm sorry to say, as it had found me, as it has found countless upon of others. Trillions before us and more to come. I'm sorry, so, so sorry."

She looked at me, a sad, almost sympathetic smile on her face that seemed to say. 'What happened to you that made you like this? Whatever it was, I am sorry.'

I looked away, unable to stand her pity.

"What's the password?" growled the Stormtrooper; he stood at the keypad, his eyes hooded sullenly and looking at me. Everyone else looked into the cells with wide-eyed horror."

I cleared my throat. "It's j-garrakson."

The Stormtrooper raised an eyebrow, but that was that as he turned away and typed it in. The door swished open, and he flinched in slight fright.

"Vex!" I said; he was staring into the cell that contained Interrogator Heartsa's corpse. He instantly snapped from his stupor and looked at me.

"What?" he asked dumbly.

"Get onto Taryst's cogitator," I said, even though I knew he knew what we expected of him. "Hack it and get all the data you can."

Vex nodded, and we filed into the small room. Jelket was placed on the bed with the Halsin and Helma while the rest of us milled around. I fought the urge to join them and my eyelids from closing.

Vex pulled out a miniature cogitator from a bag slung under his shoulder, pulled out a cord and connected it into the giant black table and began to type into it loudly.

I leaned my back against the wall and began to take out my ceramic case of Lhos. Then I caught Adelana looking at me again from the other side of the room, still with that damnable smile, and she didn't look away when I looked back.

I wanted to tell her to keep her pity to herself but felt it was more than I deserved from someone like her. But the more I saw, the more it didn't seem like pity; it was something else, something I couldn't place my finger on.

Before I could think more about it, Darrance walked up to me. "We have better take a look at that ship. You know where it is; there might be medicae facilities on it."

I nodded, pushed myself off the wall and walked for that small door. It slid open, and we began down the corridor lined with shelves holding many plasteek supply boxes.

"Attelus Xanthis Kaltos," said Darrance, and it made me stop in my tracks and turn back.

"What did you just call me?" I said.

Darrance shrugged. "Your name, or has it been so long since you have heard it that you have forgotten it?"

"Is that your idea of a joke?" I asked with genuine bemusement.

He shook his head. "You don't know anything about me, do you?"

"No, I don't," I said with an uncaring shrug and folding my arms across my chest.

"Just like I don't know how you became what you are now," he said. "But I do know that it all happened after that psyker had visited your medicae room. It seemed strange to me why Glaitis had made them keep you on life support for so long after the Twilight Bar incident, and now I know why. You were going to be her new little super-assassin that you were made, no—engineered to be the one to finally kill your father. What did that psyker do to you, exactly? I saw frigging bolter rounds bounce off you. It has scared the others, but you know that already, right?"

"Yeah, I know," I sighed and turned to start. "It's even more complicated than that, believe me."

"You just have to be careful," he said. "If an Inquisitor besides Brutis Bones sees that, they might have you captured and on an operating table before even you can blink, okay?"

"Good to know you care, Darrance!" I said with a slight wave of my hand, still walking and keeping my back to him. "I'll keep that in mind."

"You bloody well better!" he snapped at my back.

The small door slid open, and I stepped into the hanger. The massive ship loomed over me and dominated the place. Weapons bristled all over it; there was a Lascannon on each wing, three high yield heavy bolter turrets, one on top, one on the bottom and one on the back. Lastly was a Plasma cannon set underneath the nose.

It was streamlined and smooth, made for speed as well as comfort, thirty metres long and a good sixteen wide, excluding the wings, which were both about half the length of the body. I couldn't identify what design it was or make; I didn't have much knowledge in such subjects. But I could tell it would easily transport us all with no problem.

I just hoped it was warp travel capable; Glaitis' ship in orbit had warp drives, a Geller field all of it, assuming it was even still there; with the vox down, there was no way to know.

The door swished open behind me, and I heard Darrance let out a long whistle.

"Nice," he said, and I looked over my shoulder at him.

"What's nice?" I asked.

"Why the ship, of course," he said. "A Salvani class VIII Guncutter, I can see Taryst spared no expense and had a good taste while at it."

"A Guncutter?" I said. "So, not warp-capable?"

Darrance snorted and shook his head with an amused smile, then approached the ship, rubbing his hand on its sheened metal surface.

"A ship this size isn't even slightly large enough to house a warp drive, let alone a Geller field, too," he said. "You show your ignorance spectacularly."

I pursed my lips and shrugged, feeling he was merely stating a fact rather than trying to insult me.

"We all can't know everything about everything," I said.

It was Darrance's turn to shrug, but he said nothing, so enraptured by the Guncutter.

"It'll have an internal medicae capability, right?" I said. "If this ship is so frigging, super special awesome and all."

"Yes," he said while beginning to walk around the ship, gaping in awe.

I had no idea that Darrance was so into ships; he would've been the last person I could've imagined being interested in such a subject.

"I would even say the medicae facility would even be automated," he said after a long pause. "I would suggest you get the psyker and the other injured here."

"She has a name, you know," I said.

"I'm sure she does," he said almost wistfully, still keeping his back to me, still sliding his hand across the Guncutter.

"Fine," I said. "Be that way, then."

I turned to walk away when the door suddenly slid open, and Adelana stepped into the hanger.

"Oh, hi!" I said and felt a smile unintentionally crossing my face.

She smiled back, but it didn't reach her eyes. "Vex sent me; he's managed to get into the cogitator's vox system. We've received a communique, and she wants to talk to you."

I nodded; she looked very visibly scared all of a sudden.

"Yes," she said, shivering despite the warmth in here. "She said...She said that she was an Inquisitor."



Adelana, Darrance and I emerged back into the quarters.

Everyone who could still stand was crowded around the cogitator desk, gazing down at the large display. It was now showing the head and shoulders of; a woman wearing black, ornate power armour. Her skin was a dark chocolate brown, and her blue eyes were incredibly piercing, suggesting they were extremely advanced augmetics. Her long, thin white hair tied into a top knot.

I stepped into view of the display, the others stepping aside to allow me in.

The woman's eyes narrowed as she saw me.

"You are Attelus Kaltos," she said; her voice boomed from the speaker; it was the confident voice of someone who was a leader, a true leader and who knew it but didn't revel in this knowledge. It was a statement, not a question.

I managed a nod, and she smiled, it was a sensual smile, but it wasn't pleasant at all. It was almost predatory.

"Yes," she said. "Wesley had told me much about you in his reports. I apologise; allow me to introduce myself. I am Inquisitor Jelcine Enandra of the Ordo Hereticus."

She held up a Rosette, briefly, casually as though such a thing didn't give her power and influence beyond measure.

"I have just arrived in the system," she said. "I have brought with me ten ships of the Calixis battlefleet, and they are about to engage the Space Marines."

I involuntarily flinched as some of the others suddenly let out a cheer.

Their elation didn't last long as Enandra's expression darkened and said, "I doubt they will last long, though; they are merely a distraction."

"A distraction?" said Arlathan. "A distraction for what?"

She sighed. "A distraction for your escape. My personal ship, the Audacious Edge, is built for battle and stealth, and we have entered the system undetected. We are orbiting the blind spot of the local star. It is at great risk that I am talking to you now."

"How?" said Darrance. "How did you get this frequency?"

Her eyes narrowed again but in bemusement. "Wesley gave it to me in one of his astropathic messages; he never told you that?"

"No," I said and wondered how the hell he got it in the first place; he seemed to have neglected to tell us a lot before his death.

+I gave it to him,+ said Karmen. +I gave him this frequency; I knew Taryst had a high powered vox situated down here, one capable of interplanetary communication. I felt that the reinforcements he sent for would need to know it, although I didn't believe it would amount to anything. Obviously, I was wrong.+

'Wesley also told us he never got any reply," I said. "Did you send anything back, mamzel?"

Enandra's eyes widened and straightened as if I'd asked the most stupid question in the verse.

"Yes, of course, I did," she said. "Where is he?"

"He's...He's dead," I answered hesitantly. "I'm sorry."

"Really?" she said but didn't seem at all upset by this, more surprised. "Always thought that old bastard was indestructible. Tell me later how and why he died; we don't have the time now. It's sad to hear; I was hoping he might be able to talk my former master down from this, rather disproportionate, retribution for Omnartus and its people."

Adelana and the old woman looked at me then, looking very anxious all of a sudden.

"You two should get to the ship," Arlathan said to them. "Take Karmen with you, please."

They both nodded and hurriedly; took Karmen's bed, then left the room.

"Did I say something wrong?" said Inquisitor Enandra.

I hissed air through clenched teeth, "not everyone knows everything."

"Frig yeah, we don't," said the Stormtrooper sullenly.

"What's happened to the System Defence Force ships?" said Arlathan.

"Already dead," stated Enandra. "Or, to be more precise, destroyed. The Space Marines had lost none of theirs in the process, but a few were damaged. The Marine ships are all now in orbit, blockading the planet's air traffic and destroying the orbital platforms and soon, very soon, they'll initiate the Exterminatus once the orbital battle is won."

"What about the surface to orbit defence turrets?" said Arlathan.

Enandra sighed again. "From what I understand, according to the PDF vox; I have been monitoring him, they seemed to have been...sabotaged."

"What?" said Arlathan, his eyes wide with disbelief.

Then it hit me. "it might've been the Adeptus Arbites!"

Enandra turned her head and said sceptically, "Adeptus Arbites?"

I nodded and quickly relayed the events of their earlier ambush. It was rushed and abridged, and I withheld some details.

Enandra looked at me sidelong once I finished, her jaw clenched slightly. She could tell that I'd skipped some things, but after a few seconds of pondering, she eventually nodded.

"I see," she said. "After you had informed me of that, your theory does have some merit, that they are either under the influence of my former master or Inquisitor Edracian, but at this point, it matters little. Do you have a void capable ship?"

"Yeah," I said. "We also have a ship in orbit..."

"I don't care if you do!" Enandra interrupted me suddenly. "You are to go to my ship and none other! Any other ship is suicide at this point and besides."

She smiled, but again it was that predatory and strangely sensual smile. "I would like to talk to all of you face to face, and I mean literally, so I can make sure you are..."

She paused and raised her eyes to whatever ceiling was over her in a mock, exaggerated imitation of someone struggling to find the right word to use.

"Proper," she said eventually.

"In all honesty, mamzel," I said, leaning close to the screen. "The way you said that doesn't give us much incentive."

She laughed, and it was a genuine laugh; it was almost musical, and I couldn't help but like it. "Yes, I guess it wouldn't. I like you, boy. From what Wesley told me, I knew I would like you, Attelus Xanthis Kaltos. Son of the infamous Serghar Kaltos, it seems you didn't inherit his anti-social qualities."

"You know my father?" I asked as I felt my face flush.

"No," she said, for the first time smiling genuinely. "I know of your father; there are very few within the Inquisition who do not."

"Of course there isn't," I sighed.

"Anyway, your ship has more than likely been destroyed anyway," she said, becoming sober and professional again.

"So, what happens now, mamzel Inquisitor?" said Verenth, his voice shaky.

"The Calixis battlefleet ships will be first engaging the Marine spacecraft in about half an hour," said Enandra. "They will be fully engaged another fifteen minutes after that, so I need for you to wait for that timeout then leave Omnartus. Fly for the local star, and once you are ten thousand kilometres away, send me a brief communique on this frequency. There I will give you the coordinates of the Audacious Edge. Then I will allow you to board and, from then on, wait it out until the Space Marines and my erstwhile master have left the system. Does that make any sense?"

"Wait, with respect, mamzel Inquisitor," said Verenth, and I couldn't help wince and hiss through clenched teeth. "Did you just say, 'wait it out until the Space Marines leave?'"

Enandra glared at him, her jaw twitching slightly, dangerously. "That isn't quite verbatim, but it's close. So, yes."

"Aren't we gonna do something?" he cried. "We can't just stand by and watch! They're gonna destroy my world!"

Enandra sighed, her eyes falling to the floor, and for a second, there was true despair on her attractive face.

"Yeah," she said as her gaze suddenly snapped back on us, a look of fiery determination on her face. "Yeah, I do, and if you don't want to, there is another option. You have a weapon, you can use it on yourself, or I could do it for you. I'm sorry, I am; I wish it could've ended in another way, but it's too late. Just too late."

Verenth listened with wide, teary-eyed horror, his mouth gaping, and I felt sorry for the Hammer.

"I must end this communique," said Inquisitor Enandra. "I have almost gone over the safe time gap already. I am sorry; I wish all of you luck and hope to see you soon."

Then the screen abruptly went blank.

For a long time, we were silent, the only sound, the pained moans and groans of the injured.

The first one to find his head was Arlathan. "Alright!" he snapped. "We've got three-quarters of an hour to get things ready! Attelus, Darrance, Verenth, Vark! You four get the heavily injured into the ship."

"What are you doing?" said a voice, and we turned to see Helma was groggily getting off the bed; she was smiling at us. "Brutis Bones put me in charge, didn't he?"

"You shouldn't be up, captain!" cried Vark, but she waved him off.

"I have been unconscious and useless for much of what has happened," she said. "I'm sorry, now it's about time I will be of use."

Helma turned away and hauled up Jelket by his good arm, then placed it across her shoulders,

"I heard what the Inquisitor had said," said the captain. "She's right; we can't stop this. But if we escape with all we know, we can make sure that Etuarq will never be able to do it again."

She started to the door, and I held out my hand to offer help, but she shook her head in decline.

As she passed, I once again saw the enormous black bruise on the side of her skull and fought the urge to flinch at the sight of it. I had no idea how she was awake, let alone moving.

I reached down and hauled up Hayden; he was the heaviest of the injured, so thought it was fitting I carried him.

"Well!" I said. "You heard the mamzel! We've got work to do."



It took us a good ten minutes to take the injured into the ship. The interior was almost beautiful, comfortable and well made. Soft, red carpet with slight gold lining was on the floor; the walls were cream, curling waves produced from thin lines of gold. The corridors were as thin as any other ship its size but seemed slightly wider because of the decoration. Darrance was with us; he seemed to know the ship's layout and showed us to the medicae area. We laid Hayden, Jelket on two of the four gurneys while Torris, who was still conscious, laid himself down. The two servitors who staffed it immediately began to treat their wounds. Darrance left for the cockpit, claiming he needed to 'get to know the controls.' Or something.

In all honesty, I wasn't sure if I was at all comfortable with Darrance piloting, but I kept this thought to myself.

I wandered off to explore; I found the lines of small personal quarters near the medicae area, eight of them on the ship's lowest level, all of them a good size and luxurious. Then the engine room at the other end.

I ascended the stairs into the large common room and kitchen and found Adelana and the old woman there. The old woman's torso covered in bandages, and they sat in silence in the corner on one of the large comfortable couches. Adelana seemed to be staring out into space, looking hunched and defeated, my black flak jacket laid crumpled on the floor at her feet. The old woman was asleep, her head hung forward, and her snoring reverberated through the room.

For a few seconds, I stood, looking at Adelana and admired yet again just how attractive the young redhead was. Quickly, I decided not to disturb them and turned to walk up the stairs I assumed led to the cockpit.

"What's going to happen, Attelus?" Adelana asked abruptly, making me stop in my tracks.

I turned back to her, but I had no idea what to say, what to do.

Then again, she started to cry. "How?" she cried. "How could this happen?"

My attention fell to the floor.

"My world!" she yelled. "Is my world going to die?"

All I could manage was a slight nod; I saw no reason to lie anymore.

"But why?" she whimpered. "Why?"

I didn't answer, couldn't answer.

"What's going to happen to my friends? My family? My mother, my father, my little brother and sister? Can't we save them?"

I only shuffled my feet.

She shuddered with tears and looked away.

"Why? Why did you save me?" she cried, her face abruptly turning into a mask of anger. "Why have you brought me here?"

"I thought..."

"No! I bet you didn't think!" she snarled. "You never stopped to consider what I wanted. Was it because I was nice to you? Talked to you? Are you that pathetic? You said that this was reality; this was the 41st millennium, that there is only war. What if I didn't want to know that? What if I wanted to live in ignorance? What if I wanted to die in ignorance?"

"It's not just that," I murmured, fighting back the tears starting to well in my own eyes.

"What?" Adelana snapped.

"It's not just that!" I cried, my hands curling into fists at my sides and just then, Helma, Verenth and Vark walked into the room. "...It's not just that."

"What is it then?" she yelled.

"I'm...I'm not a good person, Adelana," I said. "I've killed a lot of people, and I'm going to continue killing a lot of people."

I pursed my lips and gave Helma, Verenth and Vark a glance.

"When I met you, Adelana, when we talked, it lent me a new perspective," I paused. "No, sorry, it renewed an old perspective. I'd just been through hell, but you, talking to you, made what I'd went through worth it because it assured me that there were good people out there worth fighting for and worth dying for. Even though this galaxy is a horrid, dark place, and I've seen the worst of it, I believe that you deserve to live and..."

"So, you wanted to save me just because it inspires you?" she interrupted, sounding horrified.

"N-no, that's not what I meant," I stammered. "I couldn't save Omnartus, hell I couldn't even save your friends! I...I."

I stopped and sighed. "No, no, you're right, Adelana. I brought you here for selfish reasons; I never even considered how you would feel about I was warned, but I didn't listen. I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry."

"Go away!" she screamed, and the abruptness made me flinch in fright. "Get away from me!"

"I'm sorry."

"Don't even talk to me!" she roared. "Leave me alone, you selfish bastard! I hate you."

I recoiled at her fury, nodded, then turned and started toward the exit. The others moved aside to let me past.

I paused at the peak of the stairs and looked over my shoulder at her. "I still intend on telling you the truth, Adelana," I said. "When the time is right, of course. I'll tell you everything I know, and once you know it, you will have a new purpose, a reason to live. You can hate me all you like, and I understand if you do, but please don't hate me. I was selfish and idiotic, without a shadow of a doubt, but that's because I'm only human. I'm a flawed, idiotic human. But hate, hate, Adelana is the worst emotion us humans possess. It has been the source of so many of our problems; it can be manipulated by those who know-how. It can twist and contort and drive good people like you into becoming monsters. Monsters like me, like my master, like the man who ordered the death of this world, like my father. So I ask you not to hate me, not because I don't want you to hate me, but for yourself, for your humanity and your sanity. I hope you can one day forgive me, Adelana. I truly hope you can, but I'd understand if you can't."

She continued to glare at me, her expression still set in anger, but I could see in her sea-blue eyes that she'd understood what I'd just said.

I turned and started down the stairs, ignoring the others as they watched me leave.

"I'm sorry," I said under my breath, finally letting the tears flow down my face freely.



In sullen silence, I went to the medicae servitors and had one bandaged my arm, then applied soothing salve to my ribs while I smoked my last Lhos as I winced and hissed with the pain.

+Attelus?+ Karmen said as I was in the midst of slipping my body glove back on.

"What do you want, Karmen?" I growled.

+I heard what you said to that Adelana girl.+

"Of course you did," I sighed.

+Now, are you aware of what Glaitis tried to make you into?+

"Yes."

+Do you remember what I said to you in this bunker a day ago?+

"You said quite a few things back then," I said. "Elaborate."

+I said I was here to save from losing your sanity,+ she said. +Like I had back in the ruins of Varander seven years ago, do you remember that?+

"Yes, I do," I said. "And I'll always appreciate what Estella Erith did for me back all those years ago, no matter how much she has changed. I needed you back then when I was a stupid teenager..."

+But you don't need that now,+ she finished. +I don't know how you managed to keep your sanity after all you've been through in the last few months.+

I laughed suddenly, bitterly. "How do you know I'm still even sane, Karmen? What does that even mean? Is there some indelible line between sanity and insanity? Torris had said that I suffered from something called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. That doesn't sound sane to me!"

She didn't reply.

"No, I think you need me more than I need you," I said. "The woman that was once so caring and kind is now a woman who can callously control and have thousands of people slaughtered..."

I paused and sighed. "The woman I'd once loved, now I know she is capable of such acts."

+I...I won't try to justify what I've done, Attelus+ she said, her voice breaking with utter sadness. +I'll just say I did what I believed I had to, that none of us would be here right now if I didn't do it. But you are right; it is morally wrong.+

Yet again, I sighed and remembered the saying, 'anything and everything to win,' Karmen had adhered to it to its most logical extreme. She was the embodiment of pragmatism; she was far stronger than I could ever claim to be. Karmen showed the dark side of that philosophy, the philosophy I've always tried to live to; I hoped that I wouldn't wind up that way.

But was sacrificing all those men worth it? Just to save the few of us? Just because of the meagre knowledge we know. In all honesty, I wasn't sure.

Inquisitor Enandra also adhered to that, sacrificing all those ships, all those Navy personnel, so that we could escape the fate of Omnartus. A fate we had a hand in causing. I should've felt privileged, I suppose, but it made me feel sick more than anything else.

+Do you hate me?+ she said, interrupting my train of thought. +Do you hate me, Attelus Kaltos?+

"No," I said without a second's hesitation. "Do you think I'd hate you after what I'd told Adelana? That'd make me the biggest hypocrite in the millennia-long history of hypocrites. So no, I don't, I won't."

She sighed with palpable relief.

+But you don't love me anymore?+

"No," I said, it was a lie, but it was one of those few lies that needed telling. "I can't; I'm sorry."

Her reply was silence.



I left the Guncutter and walked back to Taryst's quarters. Only Arlathan and Vex were still there, and both glanced up at me as I entered. Vex knelt in front of his portable cogitator, his fingers a blur as they worked over the keyboard while Arlathan stood over him, leaning forward to watch Vex work. I was surprised the temperamental little teenager would put up with that.

"How goes it?" I asked, trying to attempt to hide my severe depression under a mask of fake cheer.

"As good as it can go with such a short time limit," said Vex sullenly. "I have managed to hack in, and I am uploading as much data as I can into my cogitator, but it's all frigging encrypted. It's an encryption code I've never seen before. I'm hoping that I can find something, anything I can use to decrypt it."

I sighed and scratched the back of my head. "I know that the sniper, Hayden Tresch is also pretty good with cogitators. He'd hacked into the Adeptus Arbites data stream a few months ago; he'd have been able to help you if he wasn't fighting for his life right now."

Vex shrugged. "I wouldn't want his help anyway; I am Vex Carpompter. Vex Carpompter doesn't need any help."

"Don't be stupid," I said, folding my arms across my chest. "Everyone needs help from time to time. You needed help from sergeant Garrakson so you could effectively punch me in the face. I've needed help on numerous occasions to survive many of my battles."

Vex shot me a withering glare. "That is all to do with physical violence. When Vex Carpompter works with data, Vex Carpompter does not need help!"

I shared a bemused look with Arlathan, who smiled and said, "Vex Carpompter better stop referring to himself in the third person. It makes Vex Carpompter sound like a complete arsehole."

Vex let out an animalistic growl. "Okie frigging dokie!" he snarled through gritted teeth. "Just shut up and let me concentrate, okay?"

I smiled and shook my head; if I was even half as skilled in something at the same age as Vex. I'd have been almost as arrogant as him.

On second thought, perhaps not, I could've been classed as a master swordsman at seventeen. I guessed the difference between him and me would've been that I didn't know I was as good as I was. Vex knew he was; his skills were in huge demand; in fact, he'd probably earned more thrones in his short life than I would in decades. Also, I'd never intended to use my martial arts and fighting abilities besides being a mere hobby.

I was just another killer, an effective one but still only one among billions upon billions of others. Now Vex, he was one of the very few who held such skill outside the Adeptus Mechanicus, and I couldn't help but wonder how he'd gained such knowledge, especially at such a young age.

We acquiesced to his request, Arlathan and I wandered the room in silence as we waited for Vex to finish his work.

I kept glancing at my wrist chron, seeing the remaining fifteen minutes quickly whittle away. Every once in a while, Vex would announce some setback with another animal roar of frustrated rage, and he hit the floor with his fists.

It wasn't until one minute remained when we heard something other than an utterance of anger from the young hacker. It was a whoop of triumph.

"Got you, you son of a bitch!" he cried. "I've got you!"

"What did you get?" I asked as I approached.

"This!" exclaimed Vex, pointing at a line of code that looked like all the others to me. "This will allow me to decrypt the data! It's all binary, but binary made in numbers from another language! I see it's Cartharsian! A language from..."

"Yes, that's all well and good and all," interrupted Arlathan. "But how much data did you get, exactly?"

"As much as my miniature cogitator's memory core is able to hold," he said, the sullen tone returning. "Only about two hundred years worth, if I didn't have to leave my main cogitator behind..."

"Oh, shut up!" snapped Arlathan. "We couldn't bring those with us even if we weren't running from Space Marines! Two hundred years will have to do, now come on! We've got to go!"

"But I still have to decrypt it!" Vex whined.

"Can you do that later?" I growled.

"Y-yeah."

"Well, then do it later!"

Pouting his lips in anger, Vex abruptly tore out the cord and climbed to his feet.

Arlathan grabbed Vex by the arm as the hacker closed the cover of his portable cogitator, and we moved quickly out the door. Most of the plasteek supply crates had been taken off the shelves, carried into the ship, I assumed.

"So," said Vex as he tore his arm from Arlathan's grip. "What happens now?"

"Now," I said. "Now we're onto the hard part."
My short story Of An Asur living in the land of Bretonnia:

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Adrassil
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Chapter 33

#34 Post by Adrassil »

I walked with Arlathan and Vex on my flanks up to the cockpit. I fought the urge to look at Adelana as I passed by her, but I could sense that her eyes were on me.

I entered the cockpit, finding Darrance was still at the controls; it was quite large, with five seats. Verenth was at the sensor screen, Helma sat at the console of the Lascannon and Vark, the Plasma cannon.

"Everyone's onboard," I said as I took the co-pilot's seat. "You ready to take off?"

"Yes," he stated, and I'd never heard him sound so serene. "I have gotten used to the controls. I'll be able to handle this."

"I had no idea you could pilot voidcraft," I said. "It's mighty bloody convenient if you ask me."

Darrance snorted and, with quick hands, began to push buttons and flick seemingly random knobs around and said, "you have no idea about anything, Attelus."

I frowned and furrowed my brow and heard the others chuckling at my expense.

The Guncutter shook and abruptly lifted off the ground, making my stomach sink in sympathy.

Darrance took the wheel with his one good hand; his broken one was not in a caste and a sling, "if you really must know, I am the son of a long line of voidship builders, a dynasty if you will. My father taught me from a very young age how to control them; I was his eldest son and was in line to take over from him when he died..."

He grimaced and left it at that.

"Look up," said Darrance, and I did.

Above us, the ceiling clanked and crunched loudly with the sound of moving gears; then, it began to open. Then other gates to open after that, countless of them. Finally, lights abruptly switched on, one at each corner, in quick succession, all the way up the gigantic shaft. Revealing just how dizzyingly high it went. How the hell Taryst had managed to build this in secret was anyone's guess.

Slowly we began to take off; the only sound which accompanied it was a slight hum, followed by a whir as the landing gear retracted into the ship's belly.

"Here we go," said Darrance as the main thrusters fired up and slowly, carefully, we began to ascend. The shaft was far wider than the Guncutter, but I could see Darrance's brow furrowed in concentration.

He noticed I was looking and snapped, "it's been a while, okay? And one of my arms is broken! I am not at my best!"

I shrugged, "well, you're doing better than I would."

Darrance looked at me as though I'd just said the basest of insults, then turned away, "you are annoying me, apprentice," he said. "Could you go somewhere else? I would suggest you take control of one of the heavy bolter turrets. Take the time to get to know the controls before we engage."

"You think that we're gonna engage the enemy?" I asked.

Darrance shrugged, "this ship has stealth capability," he said. "This Taryst was a smart bastard; it must've cost him a fortune, but an escape craft like this would most certainly need one. I hope it'll work, but knowing our luck..."

He let it hang.

"Can I stay here?" I said, attempting not to sound too pleading.

"What? Are you scared of that Adelana girl?" he said. "I would be if I were you, but you're just going to have to get over it, now go away."

I frowned but, even still, got off my chair and left with a sigh.



I sat at the Heavy Bolter turret, leaning forward in the chair. I hadn't bothered to even look at the controls or watch the wall of the shaft speed by me.

When I sat down, the depression hit me, overcome my mindset like a grain of sand engulfed by a tsunami. The ache of my wounds had returned too, along with the exhaustion and my stomach roiled with horrific sickness.

A world was going to die, and it was my fault; I was manipulated, but that somehow just made it worse. It was my selfishness, cowardice and sense of self-preservation that made me take that pict if I'd been stronger if I'd just seen through 'Edracian's' lies.

That was the thing, though how was I supposed to know it'd lead to such severe consequences? Edracian was an Inquisitor; he was supposed to have the good of the Imperium and its people at heart. Not the destruction of an entire world, a hub world, a world of billions. When Omnartus dies, it'll take much of the sub-sector with it; many more will die as those worlds will be engulfed in chaos.

Perhaps 'chaos' there had a double meaning.

I punched the wall with a backfist and ignored the pain arcing through my hand as a consequence. Why! Why didn't this Torathe see it? What could drive a man to do this? Order the destruction of an entire bloody world just because his daughter was killed. It was insane! He must be insane!

Completely insane!

"Attelus?" said a deep voice, and I instantly recognised who it belonged to.

My teary-eyed attention snapped to Torris as anger suddenly hit me.

"What do you want?" I snarled. "Are you here to accuse me of manipulating Jeurat again? I don't need this! Haven't I had enough for today? Haven't I?"

Torris said nothing, and his beaten, bandaged face showed no anger, but this didn't negate my own.

"Just go away," I growled. "I've enough to take responsibility for things I've done, and I won't take responsibility for something that I haven't."

Torris sighed, "I have no idea what you must be feeling right now, and I have no idea what to say. I can't say that you're not somewhat responsible for this because I'm sorry to say you are. But kid, don't give up, you said it yourself, this is just the start of a long road, a road as long as the galaxy's length; Roldar had told me you'd said that. If you can't save Omnartus, you can save other worlds; you can stop this Etuarq from destroying any more. I've seen what you're capable of, and I know if anyone can do it, it's you."

Then anger lit his large, bulging eyes, "now maybe you did manipulate Garrakson, maybe you didn't. But frig what that arse Arlathan Karkin said, my instinct tells me you at least tried to, and I've learned to trust my instinct. But either way, it doesn't matter, does it? We're onto something far bigger than that, far bigger than all of us. So, kid, I'll be behind you; I'll have your back."

"So, what does that mean, exactly?" I said.

Torris didn't answer at first as if weighing up his words before he finally said.

"You saved my arse back in the tower; I owe you; that's what it means," he said coldly. "But get your head together; if we're going to escape, you sitting around mopping isn't going to help us. Get on that emplacement and be ready; I'm on the other one. Good luck."

The large ex-arbitrator turned his back on me and walked off.

I rubbed my eyes and tried to blink away the tiredness. He was right; damn it, too many had died today because of my mistakes. I might be immortal, but the others on this ship weren't, as far as I knew, anyway.

The internal vox crackled, and there was a chime announcing a call.

"Everyone stand ready," said Darrance. "We're about to exit the shaft into the open skyline in approximately thirty seconds. I am turning on the ship's stealth field. If anyone is at all religious, I suggest you begin praying. If you aren't, do something of actual worth, please. Thank you."

I jerked upright, quickly beginning to look at the controls, and I couldn't help wonder, why the hell hadn't Taryst slaved servitors to them?



We emerged out the shaft and into the open sky. The view which greeted me was familiar, again the mountain range piercing through the thick brown-black clouds of pollution. I realised I loved that view and was going to miss it dearly. It showed that even on a world as dirty and horrible as Omnartus, there could still be some beauty. Just as Adelana showed me that even in a horrible, idiotic race like humanity, there could still be truly beautiful, kind people among us.

Was it selfishness that I wanted to save her because of that? I guessed it was, and what was going to happen to her after she sees her world die? If she didn't take her own life, would she become like me? Or like, Emperor forbid, Karmen Kons?

Would saving her just kill her in another way? I hoped not, but I doubted it wouldn't. The destruction of my city and the subsequent lengths I had to go to survive in those ruins was enough to set me on this dark path.

I sighed and took the controls of the heavy bolter turret as I watched the sky fly by. I relaxed despite my dark thoughts and the depression threatening to overwhelm me completely, but this didn't last long as the vox beeped and crackled again.

"Whoever's been praying, please know it's a load of crap because we've got two enemy gunships, closing in from the west," said Darrance. "Be prepped for evasive manoeuvres, please."

I activated my vox link, "you think they've detected us?"

"No," said Darrance. "But be ready..."

The explosion suddenly rocked the ship, missing my turret pod by only a few metres and making me flinch in fright.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" Darrance snapped as I felt the Guncutter veer left abruptly

"What?" I yelled. "How did they detect us?"

"I think they were waiting for us," said Darrance. "The stealth capabilities protect us from their scanners, but not from visual, now shut up and let me concentrate!"

"Of course they were," I sighed, cut the link and looked at my turret's scanner. The enemy ships weren't within range, but I still swung around to face the bastards as we banked through Lascannon fire in seemingly chaotic turns and twists.

I could see them, slightly, a pair of big, boxy unwieldy looking craft that seemed more like troop carriers than fighters. I clenched my teeth and fought the urge to open fire, knowing ammo would be limited and zoomed in with the turret's view display a harder action than usual as the craft constantly swayed and weaved. The Lascannon fire was almost a constant stream now, but the Guncutter was extraordinarily sleek, agile, and it was apparent Darrance was a fantastic pilot. Even with one hand almost literally tied behind his back.

But yet the bastards were gaining; I could tell this even without the distance metre on the display.

We were slowed by dodging their fire but also, they would've had larger engines; they were like a charging Grox, fast but less manoeuvrable. Our ship was more like a Gazzeller, an animal native to my world, a light, nimble herbivore. Unlike them, we both had the teeth of carnivores.

We dived abruptly as the enemy ships closed in more, dived a good thirty degrees pushing me hard into my seat with a grunt.

With surprising agility, the gunships followed us, their lascannons blaring and blaring. Darrance made the ship turn and twist through it.

My stomach dropped and kept on dropping as the ship kept diving and diving for what felt like forever. I clenched my teeth, trying to fight against the g-forces pushing me into my seat.

Then I heard a chime from my rangefinder and looked to see the enemy ships were finally within range. Their greater weight allowed them to catch up in decent; I still couldn't understand why Darrance was doing this?

I saw bolter fire erupt from the turret underneath mine, and it brought me into reality; then, I opened up with mine. The muffled Chug! Chug! Chug! Sound and the slight kick which shuddered up my arms was more than a little satisfying.

The enemy gunships barely moved from my sights, besides the normal slight, constant shuddering and juddering. I couldn't tell whether any of my rounds hit and doubted they did. My display showed me the direction of the wind and its speed, but it was hard to look at that while getting crushed by the g-forces and shooting.

But of course, now they were within range of our bolters, so was the same for theirs. Bolter rounds suddenly showered from their noses. Not even Darrance could dodge such a concentration of fire as it smashed and ricocheted off the Guncutter's hull.

I cursed and flinched as a few collided into the window of my turret, which made my brow furrow and, with a roar, fired with even more determination. Then the Guncutter suddenly slowed, slowed so much that the looming gunships came so close it was almost impossible for me to miss; I could see my bolter shots shower across their snouts ineffectually; I would've even seen the pilots through their windows if they weren't tinted black. Their fire rained on our hull with such consistency the clanging almost became one sound, but the lascannons set on the wings were too close to finishing us properly. Then they passed by us.

"Everyone brace!" Darrance yelled a mere half a second warning before the Guncutter abruptly turned, almost a ninety-degree angle that would've thrown me off my seat if I wasn't harnessed in. Then I heard the familiar sound of a Lascannon firing. The sight of the brown-black clouds was gone, replaced by a terrifyingly close view of Omnartus' skyline; I could see in great detail the towers and tell if they were made of plastcrete or rockcrete and the airships continually streaming through the sky. I only managed to see this for a nanosecond before blacking out.

The sound of triumphant whooping over the internal vox speakers caused me to come too.

"One is down!" Darrance yelled, sounding uncharacteristically ecstatic.

I couldn't feel anything besides horrific sickness and see nothing but a blur, then vomited hard onto the floor.

"Good, good, now what?" I asked no one in particular while wiping away the sick still on my chin with a forearm.

My vision finally managed to clear and again greeted by the fathomless view of the brown-black pollution clouds. There was no sign of any pursuing ships.

I activated my vox, "what the hell just happened?" I asked as another wave of nausea hit me, making me retch.

"I killed one and lost the other," Darrance informed as though it'd been the simplest task in the galaxy.

"How?" I managed.

"I'll explain later," he said. "You, with your rather simple mind, won't be able to comprehend it right now; let's just say that the manoeuvre I just pulled was one even the Adeptus Astartes would find hard. The internal dampers are state of the art in this thing; not many ships could pull that off without crushing its occupants into pulp. We'll be flying in the pollution for a good ten minutes or so; we need to gain as much space as possible before we ascend and leave orbit."

I nodded, even though he couldn't understand such an acknowledgement.

"Get someone else to man this turret," I said, sounding angrier than intended, but I didn't care and switched off my vox link.

I would've asked him never to do that again, but that'd probably just encourage the bastard.

With shaking hands, I took off my restraint and slipped off my seat, then stumbled toward the living area; I needed to see if Adelana was okay.



Adelana was as it'd turned out; she and the old woman were strapped into pullout seats, both looked a little dazed and vomit was on the carpet in front of them. I didn't dare approach or say anything to them for fear of facing Adelana's wrath again.

The servitor from the kitchen was cleaning their mess, and I hoped it'd do the same to the rest of the ship. I turned back and walked down the stairs; that was when the exhaustion hit me, like a punch between the eyes. I stumbled the rest of the way down and turned toward the living quarters. I turned into the first I found and threw myself roughly onto the bed. I needed to rest, I needed...

Instantly, I fell into a fitful sleep.



I found myself in a desert, no, not quite a desert; it was once a city, a great city with towers almost as tall as those on Omnartus. Now sand dominated it all, covering almost everything, but it wasn't ordinary sand; it was coloured the ruby red crimson of blood. The intense sun beat down from a cloudless sky; it would've been blinding if it weren't for the tinted visor of my helm. The stark contrast was unsettling; the beautiful, almost normal sky seemed strange against the cruel nature of the blood-stained sand.

I wore a cameleoline cloak over my synskin body glove and black flak jacket; both wavered with the strong, hot wind. I could feel my bodyglove's internal fans working hard to keep me cool from the sweltering heat, and I held a silenced bolter of ornate but understated design, my powersword sheathed at my hip. It all felt so real, so very real, even though I knew it was a dream.

A figure fluttered and appeared at my side; I turned to see it was a woman, but she wore a very similar armour set up to me, so I couldn't tell who she was. Then I glimpsed a few strands of red-gold hair hanging from underneath her helmet.

"Adelana!" I said with wide eyes.

Her helmeted head tilted slightly in bemusement, "yes, it's me; you'd ordered us to split up and meet back here at this time; why are you surprised?"

I shook my head to try to find myself, "I uh, hello, how are you?"

"I'm alright," she said uncertainly. "Or as alright as I can be in the circumstances, are you...alright?"

All I could manage was a nod, and she walked past me, and I couldn't help but have my gaze wander down to her wonderfully shapely arse, easily seen beneath her tight, grey bodyglove. We stood in a very tall, shattered building; a huge hole had been torn through the wall; it was almost perfect, unsettlingly rectangular; it surrounded the view like the frame of a painting by some sick, depraved artist.

Adelana stopped to stand near the ledge, her back still to me, her lasgun held loosely, confidently in her grasp.

"I hope you do know, she will forgive you, even after you tell her the truth, the whole truth," she said suddenly. "It'll take some time, but she will."

"Adelana," I said, taking a step toward her, but she was suddenly gone, replaced by the overly tall and esoterically armoured Farseer Faleaseen, who turned back to me.

"Do you mean that?" I said.

"Of course," she said, gazing over the scenery, her thin arms clasped behind her back. "I promised you that I would tell the truth, and I meant it."

"What is this?" I asked, trying to hide the joy bubbling within me.

"The future," she said. "Or a potential future, I again will be honest with you, Attelus Xanthis Kaltos. I can see some of the future, but to me and all my kind, it is all in pieces. Like what you humans would call a jigsaw puzzle, we must be piece it together part by part. We find tiny snippets, but we cannot gather it into any consistency. This is one of many, but one of the most recurring I find for you when I search your thread."

"When are we?" I said. "Where are we?"

Faleaseen shrugged a strangely human motion. "I do not know, that is one of the many problems my fellow seers face, and I face. This could be five years in the future, or it could be two hundred for all I know. Sometimes I see this vision, and the Adelana human is not with you. Sometimes it is instead Arlathan Karkin, sometimes it is Marcel Torris, more rarely it is Karmen Kons, but it is most commonly, Adelana. Where is it? Perhaps you can guess that better than I. This is a Mon'keigh city; it could be any Mon'keigh city of the countless cities that infest this galaxy. They all look the same to me. What sets this one apart is I sense the warp here; it is truly infused into every grain of sand, every inch of rockcrete and steel. In the earth hidden beneath the sand. I do not know why you are here nor how."

"And to me too," I breathed, and the city abruptly shimmered and shattered into a bright white nothingness which in turn changed into what I recognised as the bridge of a gothic, Imperial ship. There were corpses everywhere laid over the consoles, the floor, the walls, the seats. They were all human, but some were ship crew, some were warriors, some ship menials and servitors. There were too many of the dead to count. I stood in almost knee-deep blood.

"This is another recurring vision," said Faleaseen, who I'd almost forgotten was near, being so horrified by the scene. "Again, I do not know where this is, nor when, but I have a feeling this one is close, very close to coming into fruition."

I nodded and regained a measure of my thoughts, "I don't understand," I said.

"Don't understand, what?" said Faleaseen as she started to circle the room, stepping over and around the corpses with her long limbs inhuman grace, not touching one even slightly.

"Why are you communicating with me now?" I said. "Why weren't you able to help me against the Space Marines? Like you had when we'd fought Edracian before."

Faleaseen sighed, "you ask a fair question, Attelus Kaltos. The reality is this, I must be cautious in my communications with you, in lending you my power as a conduit. Among the number of Space Marines attacking Omnartus are their Librarians. There are six of them in total. They are psykers, and due to the longer Space Marine lifespan and their enhanced cognitive structure, they make for quite powerful users of warpcraft. If I had helped you in any way, they would have detected my presence, and in doing so, potentially revealing your true nature and our connection. I could not risk it. I am sorry I could not help you more, help you save more of your friends and comrades. But you must understand I cannot be there to help you all the time."

She smiled, "but you have proven yourself far more capable than even I could imagine without my aid."

I furrowed my brow and pursed my lips; I was no longer in the attire of the last vision, back in my usual black flak jacket.

"If that's true, why are you here," I said, "how are you talking to me now?"

"When you sleep, when you dream, your mind is more attuned to the sea of souls," Faleaseen explained, still circling the large bridge. "Most dreams that humans dream who are untouched by the warp mean little, besides your own subconsciousness speaking to you. But even blunt humans can be communicated with by psychic practitioners powerful enough to do so in dreams. Your Emperor does it regularly. You are correct about him, Attelus. He is very far from being a god, but he is still hard to overestimate. Thus here I am, having to use less strength than if you are awake. The Space Marine Librarians will not be able to sense me here, not unless I linger for a very long time."

I nodded; it was a good enough explanation as any; it was utterly fascinating, in fact, "what happens here?"

Again, Faleaseen shrugged, "you will see in a few seconds."

I started as I heard the sudden sound of heavy footsteps clanging toward my back, and I turned to see at least thirty Stormtroopers advancing professionally down the wide corridor, Hellguns raised. They wore the black and dark red uniforms of the Inquisitorial guard.

A tall, slender figure in an advanced form-fitting, power armour followed them. She held a plasma pistol in her left hand, and her right was a power fist. Inquisitor Jelcine Enandra swaggered into the bridge, utterly unfazed by the slaughter before her. Her piercing blue eyes scanned the room. For a split second, she seemed to look right at me but not see me at all. She, too, was followed by a shadowy, smoky figure I could not make out but whose very presence made me sick, made me recoil with horror. It was a familiar feeling, the same feeling I had back in the Twilight bar. It was a psychic blank; how it'd even slightly shown in Faleaseen's vision was beyond me.

Enandra's eyes narrowed, "search for survivors!" she snapped suddenly.

Jelcine looked like she was going to say more but stopped as one of the corpses shuddered slightly. I'd already drawn my sword before someone, or something abruptly burst out from underneath the bodies with a strangled scream. But before I could see more, the vision fazed into white, so suddenly it took me a second to realise it.

"That is when the vision always ends," said Faleaseen, as she seemingly materialised into view. "I do not know who or what is under those corpses."

"Do you have any more visions to show me?" I asked.

"I do not," she said with a shake of her head, again a very human movement. "While I have seen other visions of the future I..."

She seemed to trail off; there was extraordinary shame on her face and in her tone, "I cannot remember them, not to any useful degree, anyway. I have spent cycles upon cycles trying to get those two visions lodged in my memory. The other farseers of Dalorsia are trying too, but none have succeeded to even a slight degree."

"It's Etuarq," I said. "He must be doing this, somehow."

Faleaseen nodded, "I have come to the very same conclusion, Attelus Kaltos. How Inquisitor Etuarq has managed to gain the power and knowledge necessary to befuddle us, I do not know. It may have something to do with the power gained from the souls he has gathered or if he has aligned with the four great powers of the warp or a combination of the two. Either way, he holds power equivalent to that of the great Eldrad Ulthran or even more."

I sighed and shuddered as tears suddenly threatened to overwhelm me. I had to ask her, even though I already knew her answer and dreaded it beyond belief,

"So, Faleaseen. Is there any way we can save Omnartus?"

She looked at me sadly, but there wasn't pity in her gaze. It was sympathy, genuine sympathy, and I don't know why that filled me with fear and dread beyond measure.

"I am sorry, Attelus, but no," she sighed. "Etuarq has won this day, but you already knew that, did you not? But as others have said, you must not give in to your guilt and your despair. You are able to prevent him from doing it again. This is also not a burden for you to bear alone. I, too, am responsible; I did not share information with you and my other agents that may have allowed you to prevent this, such as your immortality; if you had known of that, you might not have taken that pict. I failed to foresee this, and let us not forget it was Etuarq who had manipulated these events. It is Inquisitor Torathe who is the one who ordered Omnartus' destruction directly."

"Will I have to live for all eternity?" I asked. "Dealing with that guilt?"

Much to my relief, Faleaseen shook her head, "no, you are perpetual, but you are only a perpetual for as long as I live. As I explained before when you die, and your soul is plunged into the warp, I can track you down and pull you back into real space, then rebuild you; we are connected, well and truly. But! I am giving another the power and knowledge to be able to meld with you, to take my place if I die before our work is done, just in case. If I die and it is at the right time, you can choose whether to break the connection and renounce your immortality or for another farseer to take over from me."

"I would rather like that," I said. "I mean, to be able to die one day.

She smiled; it was warm and genuine, "I doubt that. I have seen who and what you truly are, Attelus Kaltos. There will always be something new for you, something you want to live for, another new purpose. You will also never fully believe you have atoned for the events on Omnartus."

I sighed and was about to ask another one of the billions of questions I wanted to ask, but suddenly Faleaseen's cried out and clutched at her head, her expression a mask of pain.

"I am afraid this is where our meeting is going to end!" she said hurriedly. "You are about to be in the presence of a blank, not even I..."

Then she was gone, and the normal, eternal pitch black view of sleep took over and...



Abruptly, I awoke; a hand had grasped my shoulder and was shaking me urgently. I sighed and rolled over, expecting to see Arlathan or Torris or even, much to my hope, Adelana. But instead, I found the barrel of a hellpistol right in my face. Instinct instantly took over, and in a split second, I had my arm around the Inquisitorial stormtrooper's neck and his pistol placed on the side of his skull.

The other two near the entrance of the quarters reacted with impressive speed, their Hellguns ready.

"Don't move!" I snarled, trying to ignore the horrific feeling from the psychic blank nearby.

"That was impressive," said a voice and Inquisitor Jelcine Enandra stepped into the room. She was the same as in Faleaseen's vision, the same form-fitting black power armour; she wielded the same plasma pistol and powerfist and moved with the same confident, sensual gait. She smiled at me with that now very familiar predatory smile.

"Now, let me ask you, young man, what will you do now?" she said. "You have sergeant Kollath at your mercy, but what if I am not merciful? What if I..."

Her Plasma pistol came to life with a loud, piercing hum, pointedly

"What if I am prepared to shoot through him to kill you? What if I am prepared to sacrifice one good man like Kollath so you cannot kill me or any more of my men? Let him go, please, and I won't have to. Also, it'll be such a waste of effort for me to go through so much trouble to save you, just to have to kill you, now, so please..."

I smiled, "you were prepared to sacrifice thousands of navy personnel and ten ships of Battlefleet Calixis to rescue us, so I know you could do it...But wait. Wait, but they're different, weren't they? You didn't know them personally, did you? They were mostly nameless and faceless to you. But this sergeant, he's different, you actually know him, you are friends..."

Enandra's full lips twitched slightly as I said, 'friends.'

"No," I corrected. "Lovers. Well, I've gotta say, he's one lucky bastard."

I glanced about briefly, pointedly, "or not. Happy coincidence, isn't it? Or not, it does make sense that the one who has true feelings for you would be the one most willing to place himself in harm's way. Hence he was the one who woke me."

Jelcine raised her plasma pistol fully, "just let him go; you are wearing my patience thin," she said wearily.

I did as told, pushing the Stormtrooper away and tossed the hell pistol to the floor. Raising my hands in supplication.

The other two approached me, guns raised and with a healthy helping of caution. One grabbed me by the arms, pulling them behind my back and the other clasped my hands together with heavy wrist binders.

Enandra approached me, coming so close we were almost nose to nose. Her face was grim.

"You are fortunate that I like you, boy," she said. "But do not try anything like that ever again, or you will have to suffer the fate of those who do not get a second chance, understand me?"

I nodded in acknowledgement, and I meant it.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I acted on instinct."

Her eyes narrowed; she glared at me for what must've been about half a minute.

"Alright," she said. "Just as long as you understand."

Enandra turned away, her blood-red cape sweeping theatrically behind her with the movement.

"Take him!" she said. "Take him to the others."



When I walked into the corridor, I finally got a good look at the blank. He was a slight, short, pail and an unassuming looking man wearing a pitch-black armoured bodyglove. He had a small moustache on his lip, and his short brown hair was utterly unkempt. His attention plastered to the floor, his arms folded across his chest, and his left hand stroked his non-existent chin. At his hip was a large holstered bolt pistol, and instantly, I knew this blank was not to be underestimated.

In silence, they herded me out of the Guncutter, down the boarding ramp and into a vast hangar bay. It was the typical gothic design and dark grey grimness of an Imperial warship. There were seven other ships in there. One, another Guncutter, one was a stately transport ship, the five others were sleek void to air fighters. Menials and servitors moved around us in obvious preparation for battle.

"Hmm," I murmured. "Expecting a fight, huh?"

Enandra, who walked in front of me, didn't deign to respond, and I expected one of the Stormtroopers to shove me pointedly, but none did.

I saw the others through the wall of rushing bodies. A line of Stormtroopers stood guard around them, and they all had their wrists bound and were on their knees. Even Karmen, her face still covered in bandages, but she was now conscious, a psychic nullifier collar around her neck.

Next to her were the poor petrified Adelana and the old woman. They both looked close to tears, and I couldn't blame them. This must've been a terrifying experience for any Imperial citizen.

I was forced to stand beside Verenth and Vark before being pushed onto my knees. Neither of them bothered me even a glance; they both looked sullen, although I couldn't quite figure out why. There were just too many reasons for them both to be pissed off at this moment.

"Well!" said Enandra as she stood before us. "Most of us have met already, but for those, I didn't see on the vox viewer. I am Inquisitor Jelcine Enandra of the Ordo Hereticus."

In an almost perfect echo of earlier, again, she raised her Rosette with casual abandon.

Someone let out a horrified wail, someone I guessed to be Halsin.

"I am sorry about this," she said with a sigh. "Believe me; I didn't want to have you here, in restraints before me. You have all been through enough already; this is merely a precaution, I assure you."

I frowned, unsure what to make of that, and I wasn't at all surprised to see she was a brilliant speaker; she wore power armour but didn't need to use vox enhancement. She didn't shout but projected her voice, comfortably above the noise of the hustle and bustle of the hanger.

"All of you will be held in separate quarters," she said on and started to pace again. "I will be honest with you. All of you will be guarded, and I will be questioning all of you, one at a time. Your meals will be provided to you there."

She paused, "I will be kind to you if you are not being questioned; if you wish to, you can move through the ship. Under escort, of course, and you will be limited in your exploration. If you move onto a part of my ship forbidden to you, your Stormtroopers escorting will let you know. If you...If you."

Enandra paused again and made eye contact with each of us; in turn, her brow contorted in genuine sympathy and sadness. If her eyes weren't augmetics, I suspected they'd be welling with tears.

She licked her red lips and said, her voice cracking, "if you wish to see Omnartus...Die. You are welcome to watch on the many live pict feed viewers we have available. I suspect not many of you will be willing to, and I would not blame you, but if you feel you must..."

She let it hang, and she paused for a very long time, "do any of you have any questions?"

"Yeah, I do," said Verenth. "Why can't we stop it?"

Enandra sighed, "we do not have the capabilities to even stand a tiny chance. You must have seen the might and capabilities of the Astartes, haven't you? My scribe calculates there is almost half a chapters worth of them in the system now. It is a fool's errand; it is suicide, I am sorry, so very sorry, but there is nothing we can do. My former master is a very long-serving member of the Ordo Malleus; his influence is far beyond my own, even with his steadily decreasing sanity."

"What about that?" I cried, my emotions getting the better of me. "Why is someone so off his head allowed to still be an Inquisitor? Why the hell is that?"

Enandra looked at me; her soft jaw set slightly, "one of the strengths of the Inquisition is. Thus, every Inquisitor is the head of an organisation unto him or herself. We are, all of us, independent. That is also our weakness; my master has been out of communication with the rest of the ordo for three years. Acting on his own, that was not unusual for him or for many of my kind, but I suspect that during much of that time, some corruption had beset him. This incident proves this, he was always very faithful to the Emperor, but he used to understand not everything is black and white most things in this galaxy aren't. After this, he will be declared excommunicate, traitorous and killed or captured for trial. Omnartus is a hub world, and even if its corruption were proven without a shadow of a doubt, it would be cleansed with an invasion, then resettled. The locals who are found innocent and free of taint rejoining the fold of Imperial society. Those that do not..."

She let that hang.

"Any other questions?" she asked, breaking eye contact with me and glancing over my fellow survivors. Survivors, how easy was it to start using that word for us.

"Yes," stammered and squeaked a meek little voice."I have...a question."

I didn't need to look to know it was Halsin.

"Yes," said Enandra with a patient nod. "Go ahead."

"What is to happen to the wounded?" asked Halsin, gaining some measure of strength in his voice.

Enandra smiled again; it was actually quite sweet, "oh, of course, my apologies. I forgot yes, they will be taken to the medicae station on the sixth level."

"I...I wish to go too," said Halsin. "I had promised to look after them; I swore that I would. I wish to help your medicaes."

Enandra nodded; there was great respect in that nod, "of course, that area is open for you. But you must be escorted; I am afraid."

Halsin nodded back and grinned broadly.

She looked over us again, "any other questions?"

There was none.

"Alright," she said, then looked straight at me, and my heart sank as I realised what that meant. "I wish to talk to Attelus Kaltos first; the rest of you will be taken to your assigned quarters, thank you."

The Stormtroopers pulled us to our feet and began to file everyone but me toward the left side exit. I watched Adelana as she was forced away, and she looked back at me, her brow furrowed, her full lips pursed. Her sea-blue eyes were red from tears, and I expected anger in them, but much to my shock, it was absent. It was actually concern. I couldn't have been any more surprised to see this.

I watched her leave and was so involved in this I almost didn't notice Enandra approach.

Enandra smiled at me knowingly and internally; I cursed at my idiotic obviousness.

"Let's go, shall we?" she said. "We have much to discuss, Attelus Xanthis Kaltos."

"Oh, I'm sure we do," I sighed as we started onward.



We walked into the wide corridors, Inquisitor Enandra and I surrounded by ten Stormtroopers and accompanied by the damned blank. My wrists still bound, about ten minutes of moving through the continual hustle and bustle of the ship. Enandra, the blank and two Stormtroopers, including that sergeant from earlier, began to turn off a separate corridor; she stopped and turned back to me.

"I will meet you in the interview room in a few minutes; I have a few errands to run," she said. "Take him to interrogation room one!"

"Yes, mamzel!" chorused the remaining Stormtroopers as they ushered me on and Enandra and her escort disappeared.

I sighed; I was to be 'interviewed' in an 'interrogation room,' now that was frigging reassuring.

For a good ten minutes, we moved through the confusing maze of corridors, but I was utterly sure I could find my way back, just in case. The Stormtroopers didn't deign to speak to me, and I found myself craving a smoke of Lho, but I'd run out a long time ago.

We eventually found the door labelled in bright white letters, 'INTERROGATION ROOM 1', and they led me inside.

The place was bigger than I thought, perhaps five metres by four, a large metal table was set right in its middle, and there was a one-sided reflective mirror fixed on the wall facing me.

One of the Stormtroopers made me sit on the seat looking at the mirror, then another took off my wrist manacles and chained them to the table before clamping them back on again. The six others covered me with their Hellguns the entire time.

Once done, the six of them filed out of the room as the other two took positions on each side of the door behind me.

Frig, was I tired, I had no idea how long I'd slept for, but it wasn't nearly enough.

"Frig!" I groaned and rubbed my eyes with my thumbs, "either of you got any smokes you can spare?"

I watched them on the reflection of the one-way glass; neither of them moved even the slightest inch.

I sighed; it was worth a try, I supposed.

So I waited, twiddling my thumbs and fighting the urge to look at my wrist chron every few seconds.

I pursed my lips and kept glancing at the one-way glass, knowing that Enandra and Emperor only knew who else was watching me on the other side. The feeling of the Blank's presence was gone, but I could sense something else. Something that I'd started to become more attuned to since Faleaseen had fixed me, someone was using psychic powers, and they were close, too. Karmen seemed immune to this, but this person wasn't as well trained. I closed my eyes, exhaled out my nose, and then I knew this psyker was trying to delve into my mind.

I wanted to smile at the glass but fought the urge.

Abruptly, the door slid open and now wore a black bodyglove; Inquisitor Enandra stormed in carrying a data slate. I couldn't help it as my eyes wandered over every inch of her very brilliant body.

"Enjoying what you see, I hope, Attelus Kaltos," she said, without taking her attention from her dataslate.

I flinched, and my attention shot to the floor.

She turned her gaze on me, her brow furrowed intently, "you are a very handsome young man, do you know that, Attelus?"

I didn't answer as I felt my face flushed even more.

"Yes," she said, "beautiful, some might say. Has anyone ever told you-you were beautiful?"

My first instinct was to say 'no,' but then a memory hit me.

"Yes, it was a man; he didn't tell it to me, though," I said. "About three years ago, I was on a job on Scintilla and was walking one of the main boulevards. When he and a bunch of his friends walked the other way, they were all staring at me, gaping at me like idiots, and I heard one say after the past, 'he's beautiful.' Whispered it, thought I couldn't hear him over the blaring music from the clubs around, but I could."

Enandra pulled out the chair across from me and sat smiling, placing her jaw into the palm of her hand, her elbow on the table. It reminded me unnervingly of Glaitis.

"Do you know why I told you that, Attelus Kaltos?" she said sensually.

"I don't," I said, my eyes never leaving hers.

"Because it is the truth," she said. "You aren't my type, I'm afraid. Too pretty, too feminine featured. But I told you the truth because I am an inquisitor of the Ordo Hereticus, and that is what I trade in; that is what I live for, to find the truth. To know the truth."

The door suddenly slid open, making me flinch in fright, and another woman walked in. She was plain-faced, scalp shaved of any hair, tubes stuck from the back of her head like dreadlocks, and wore a dark blue uniform tunic. I didn't need much intelligence to know she was a Sanctioned psyker, most likely the one who had been trying to delve into my mind.

The psyker stepped to stand beside Enandra; she arms folded her arms and glared down at me balefully.

"This is Selva, and as you have likely guessed, she is a psyker, sanctioned by the Imperium of Man to use her gift for the good of mankind," said Enandra as she gazed lazily at her data slate. "She has been trying to delve into your mind, but she finds herself unable; she says that you have perhaps the most powerful mind block she has ever seen. She cannot even read your surface thoughts."

The psyker's hands moved, flickering and fluttering angrily, her eyes never leaving me.

"Oh, and she is also mute," said Enandra. "It's the first time this has happened to her, and as you can tell, she isn't happy about it."

My eyes narrowed; I really didn't like where this was going, despite being happy in other ways.

"Tell me, Attelus," she said and licked her lips, "how did you get such a powerful mind lock placed upon your mind?"

"I uh," I managed.

"And I implore you, Attelus, please do not lie to me," she said, staring at me intently. "Because I will talk to the others, and I will find the truth from them, so please do not lie."

I swallowed; my heart thundered in my chest. I should've known this would happen, should've seen this coming.

"Was it the woman, Karmen Kons?" said Enandra; she pursed her lips and glanced at her data slate. "Or is she now Estella Erith, again? I cannot be sure."

My jaw dropped, "how?"

"The truth, Attelus, always comes out," said Enandra. "Always."

I furrowed my brow, "how much did Wesley tell you, exactly?"

"Enough," Enandra stated.

"I thought you dealt in the truth," I said.

"It is the truth," said Enandra. "He told me enough, and we both know, don't we, Attelus? The best way to lie is to tell the truth."

I sighed and curled my hands into fists, clenching my teeth. Trying to think of an appropriate response but stopped as the lights suddenly flickered on and off, a few dozen times in the span of a second or so. Then I saw in the reflection of the one-way mirror, Farseer Faleaseen. She stood facing me despite Enandra and Selva, who both seemed frozen in place.

I gasped, "what are you? You might..."

Faleaseen pursed her lips and placed her very long index finger on them, silencing me. Then with slow, deliberate movements, she put her hands upon Enandra's and Selva's heads. For a few seconds held them there; I could sense her strong psychic might; it was the power that was capable of crushing a tank in an instant. But it was also subtle, very subtle, tuned to a perfection beyond what even Karmen could comprehend, as it coursed through her arms and into their minds.

She took her hands away and looked at me.

"What did you do?" I said.

The Farseer didn't answer. Instead, she walked around the table toward me and, with almost forced slowness, reached out then touched me briefly on the forehead.

"What did you do?" I asked again.

"They will not know of your mind block, now," she said. "I have changed it, from henceforth other psychic beings if they look into your thoughts will read something of your mind, a fake thought sequence of sorts one that you can control, contort and create with your will and imagination. I should have done this earlier. This time I have done it for you as there is little time for you to learn this and do it now. My apologies; they will also have conveniently forgotten of this. Now I must take my leave, we are very far from the Space Marine Librarians now, but this is still a great risk for us. See you soon."

Then she was gone, the lights then flickered as they had before, then Enandra and Selva were moving again, just in time to hear me say.

"See you."

Enandra's brow furrowed, and she looked at me sidelong in bemusement.

"Are you talking to me?" she asked.

I frowned, allowing my sadness to take over me and my gaze fell to the floor, "no, I am saying goodbye to all the good people who have died over the last day and months before."

I glanced at Selva and saw her face was no longer a mask of anger but of forced neutrality like I imagined the expression stormtroopers had behind their helmets.

"Selva has looked into your mind," Enandra said, and for a split second, I saw her face grimace slightly in mid-sentence, as though some part of her subconscious rebelled against the fake memory. "What she saw was very interesting."

I nodded, trying not to seem interested, as I wondered what exactly Faleaseen had forced the psyker to see.

Enandra grimaced again, "she showed me everything; I am sorry, so, so sorry you have this on your conscience; it would've driven a lesser man insane or end his life. Now I know what you have gone through; I apologise if before I seemed unsympathetic, but I am an Inquisitor; it is a mode I must be in from time to time. I have been doing it for such a long time that it is almost instinctive, now."

She picked up her data slate, "and you were Mechanicum enhanced?" she said.

I fought back a smile and nodded again.

Enandra nodded too and met my gaze, " but you are still very human, perhaps too, human. Wesley told me you had taken that pict. But I was a little sceptical; your memories confirm this beyond a shadow of a doubt. I...I think this interview is unnecessary now. In fact, I feel that it can wait; it can wait for all of you. I'm sorry if I seemed unsympathetic before."

I frowned and furrowed my brow in sadness and bemusement, "you don't think I'm cowardly?" I managed. "You don't think I'm stupid for doing that?"

"No, I do not," she said without a hint of hesitation. "While I will concede that your powerful sense of self-preservation was a factor. Edracian, as far as you knew, was an Inquisitor. And I know just how much power the Rosette can possess. Like most Imperial citizens, you are bound to his will. You had no clue it would lead to this, and how could you? How could you? I know more than anyone else that this galaxy is made almost entirely of varying shades of grey, that as that ancient saying teaches, 'the road to hell is paved with the best intentions,' while your intentions were not the best, it still fits, I think."

Enandra shook her head, "and now I know, it was all the more important to save you now. Now I am certain that Edracian was just a puppet. Wesley had suggested it in his messages. Etuarq is still out there and must be stopped. That young Vex may hold the information necessary to this, and you might too. I swear, I will help you all I can."

I narrowed my eyes and looked at her sidelong, "so you are aware..."

"She did see that you were there due to Etuarq's machinations, that your very conceivement was because of his order," she pursed her lips. "And I honestly believe him to have pulled such a stunt, to have pulled such a masterful plan. He must've had foresight, and he must still have a plan for you."

"But you're not going to kill me?" I said. "Even though it may screw over his plan?"

"No!" she said, sitting back, her palms held out and her eyes wide as if such a thought horrified her. "I don't believe in fate; I believe that you can overcome whatever Etuarq's future plans are. You can make your own destiny. You will make your own destiny, and I believe it'll be stopping that traitor. Also, I believe in the punishment coming after the transgression."

She shrugged, "besides, now I have seen what you are truly capable of; I would rather have you a friend rather than an enemy. I would rather you were...close to me than someone else."

Again, I furrowed my brow, and the mute psyker's hands were a sudden flurry of fevered movement, her face alight with anger.

"What do you mean, exactly?" I said, straightening although I already guessed the answer, and it filled me with equal measures of dread and joy.

"Calm down, Selva," snapped Enandra with a raised hand, and the psyker stopped. "I am sure you have already guessed, Attelus. That I wish to employ you, I feel with your skillset you will be a valuable addition to my organisation. That while I believe it is your destiny to stop the former Inquisitor Etuarq in whatever dark goal he has, you will need all the help in this galaxy you can get. I can provide you with this help. What say you?"

I sighed for what must've been the millionth time now, "do I have any real choice in the matter?'

"No," she said with a shake of her head and smiled that nice smile. "I will be honest with you; I will be offering all of your fellow survivors a position too. To be able to go through what all of them went through proves that they have, at the very least, a strength of will beyond the norm."

"Even that old woman?" I asked, my eyebrows raised in bemusement.

"Yes, even Seleen Gorret," she said with a smile. "And now you're under my employee; you've better start working on that damn memory of yours. At least an average to a good memory is usually a requirement for even the lowest acolyte."

Her smile disappeared, and she leaned forward on the table, "believe me, Attelus. I am a far better employer than both Glaitis and Taryst combined, but even then, it's not really saying much."

I nodded; I believed her. She seemed legitimate, hard but fair. She seemed to be one of the most real people involved in the disaster. I only wished she'd got involved sooner.

She looked at me hard for a few seconds, seemingly searching for a sign of something, before eventually nodding and reclining back.

"Good!" she said. "Now we have that understood; you may go to your quarters. We will discuss more on this later! You are dismissed, now."

I frowned and looked pointedly at my manacles.

Again, Enandra grinned, "who's the one with the bad memory, eh?" she said with a chuckle.

She waved the two Stormtroopers forward, who obediently walked up and unclasped me from the table.

"And take off his manacles, please, Donphin and Setril," she said.

Both their attention shot to her, and she shrugged, "I know enough to trust him, now. Take them off, please."

Hesitantly, they did as told and rubbing my wrists, I slid to my feet.

"Thank you," I said. "Thank you for understanding."

Enandra shrugged again, "I think you and I have much in common, Attelus. We both see the cosmos in grey, and we both can see the bigger picture."

I stood, still rubbing my wrists, waiting for her to say more, but she just reclined in her seat and looked down at her data slate, her long legs crossed.

Getting the hint, I nodded and turned to leave.

"Oh! And Attelus!" she called, causing me to stop in my tracks and turned back to her. "Wesley explained to me that he informed you I was part of the Seculous Attenlous philosophy, a rather controversial philosophy in this day and age, wouldn't you say?"

I nodded.

"So I would ask you to refrain from telling any of your friends who don't already know; that would be most appreciated. Thank you."

"Of course," I said, then left.
My short story Of An Asur living in the land of Bretonnia:

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Adrassil
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Chapter 34

#35 Post by Adrassil »

I was taken to my quarters by the two Stormtroopers. I stepped inside with a sigh, my hands in their pockets.

"Can you," I said, turning back to them. "Please get me some Lhos; I could use a smoke right now."

One shook his head as if to say, 'bloody addicts,' but the other nodded and said, "I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you; it'd be more than appreciated," I said.

He nodded again and walked out of sight.

I walked further in, and the door slid shut behind me; the place was unsurprisingly spartan, gunmetal grey with bronze edgings and linings. It was surprisingly large, though about six by seven metres wide; a double-sized bed was in the right side corner and a large cogitator bank in the left. There was another door against the far wall, which I guessed to lead into a private bathroom, but I just couldn't be bothered looking.

Now I was alone; the depression I'd been holding back was beginning to overwhelm me again.

I needed something to take my mind off everything; I needed to do something. Enandra may have been right about my mistakes, but I was still responsible. I closed my eyes and inhaled through my nose, deep down to my stomach, then exhaled out my mouth. An old breathing exercise my father had taught me for what felt like a lifetime ago now.

I stretched my weary, stiff muscles for a good thirty minutes after that were pushups and crunches. Then despite my exhaustion, I began to train. They'd taken my sword, so I worked on my hand to hand drills. First, I practised singular techniques, always ten times slowly, then fifty times fast. Left then right jabs, left then right crosses the Back fist, the uppercut, the hook. Kicks followed them, first the front kick, both snapping and thrust, roundhouse kick, side kick and the hook kick. I worked through every technique I knew, some I hadn't practised in years. Even indulging in the fanciful stuff I usually wouldn't bother with, the spinning side, hook and round kick. Afterwards, I practised the jumping kicks (At first, I'd almost jumped into the ceiling due to my enhanced strength), the axe kick. My father had taught me those techniques despite advising me against using them due to their impractical nature, only so I'd understand them if they were used on me, just in case.

Then it was shadow boxing, and by frig did I get involved in that. I never felt so focused, and I seemed to move so fast; it almost seemed like I was dodging and parrying my techniques. Every step, every pivot and strike felt verged upon perfection despite my speed.

Being so lost in my training, I hadn't noticed the Stormtrooper enter until he shouted my name.

Utterly drenched in sweat, I turned.

"Sorry," I gasped, leaning forward with my hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath.

The Stormtrooper shrugged and tossed me a small pack of Lhos, which I almost failed to catch in my haste.

"There ya go," he said. "You're lucky I could find them, kid. The mamzel doesn't approve of Lho, medicae studies say..."

"Yeah, yeah," I sighed. "I've heard it all before. Thanks for this, though. Appreciate it, I do."

The Stormtrooper took another step inside. "I don't intend to tell you what to do, but..."

"Please!" I snapped. "I'm not in the mood! I need this now! Now please, just leave me alone!"

He stood there for a few seconds staring at me, whatever his expression was, hidden behind his helmet, before eventually nodding and backing out the door.

I stood up straight and, with shaking hands, placed the lho in my mouth and, with my igniter, lit it.

After wiping the sweat off my forehead with an arm, I looked at the cogitator. It was an old battered thing, large and boxy.

I remembered that Enandra had mentioned we could watch Omnartus, and I began to approach it. Then suddenly, the door behind me swished open, and I turned, anger abruptly hitting me, thinking it to the Stormtrooper again.

"Look! I'm..."

I stopped and gaped as I saw it wasn't him.

Karmen Kons stood in the door, her face still bandaged, the psy limiter around her neck. Her bright blue eyes focused on me.

"What do you want?" I said, turning away. "Here to try and justify what you've done again?"

"No," she said, shaking her head. "I just wanted to check up on you."

I had nothing to say; anger blazed through me always, but it wasn't at her; I didn't know what it was about. The universe, I guessed, for making me be in this shitty position.

"You've been training?" Karmen said as she walked further inside. "Good idea, take your mind off it."

I took a sharp inhale of Lho.

"Yeah, I guess," I said and grimaced as tears welled. "We've failed, Karmen. Omnartus is dead, and there's nothing we can do; everyone says that we're going to live on so we can stop this from happening again. But! How can we? If Etuarq can see the future if he can do all this, how can we stand a chance? How?"

"Maybe the God-Emperor..." she started.

"Don't give me that grox shit!" I snarled, making her start. "How do you know that this wasn't the God-Emperor's will? That he wanted this? It is his Astartes, his angels of death doing the deed, isn't it? If it wasn't his will, and if he is truly the god people claim, why hasn't he intervened? Why, Karmen? Why?"

"I...I don't know," she said.

"What's the point, Estella?" I sighed. "If humanity is so frigged that we can do this to ourselves, what's the point in trying to save us? I saved Adelana because she was a good person, but now what's she going to become? Like me? Like you? I'm screwed up; you're screwed up because of humans invading and destroying our country and don't frigging try to claim it was just because of Chaos. Sure, whatever! But that those flaws exist in the first place for Chaos to exploit says something, doesn't it?"

Estella sighed. "I have no answers for you; humanity is frigged. We've always had arseholes among us, and we're always going to kill each other. Just look at you; you've made a career out of killing, haven't you? And you are going to continue killing people. You are one of those arseholes, Attelus; you know that, right? Many would claim that you are truly evil for what you do."

I glared at her. "I have been told that in no uncertain terms before, on numerous occasions. Why do you think us mercenaries are thought to be the scum of the verse? And I'll admit, it's true we just kill for money, for no true ideal or anything we could be seen as truly evil, easily."

"So, what are you going to do?" she said. "Put a laspistol in your mouth and pull the trigger?"

I didn't say anything, knowing that such a thing would be pointless as Faleaseen would just bring me back and feeling; perhaps, it wouldn't be too bad an idea if it was permanent.

"Do you expect every arsehole would do that?" said Karmen. "See, that the human race would be better off if they just pulled the trigger? Do you think Etuarq is going to do that? No. Well, then it's up to someone else to do it, then, isn't it? Or at the very least, stop him as you'd once shown, as I'd once shown, as Adelana had once shown. There are good people in the world. It also shows that complete and utterly irredeemable arseholes like Etuarq are going to continue making good people into people like us. It just makes it all the more important we stop him? Isn't it?"

I looked at her, wide-eyed, stupefied.

"You were wrong, Attelus," she said, shaking her head. "You do need me more than I need you, and for all your going on about not hating people, you are bordering on turning into a hypocrite. For all your humanity is shit crap, aren't you?"

I still couldn't say anything.

She then grabbed me roughly by the wrist and began pulling me out the door.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"We're going to man the frig up and see what a true arsehole is capable of!" She snapped. "We're going to watch Omnartus die!"



"I've been hired," I said as we moved. The now four-man Stormtrooper escort walked both in front and following behind.

Karmen smiled; although I couldn't see it, I could tell. "I'd guessed that would happen."

"The Inquisitor said she was going to hire all of us," I said. "That we had no choice in the matter."

"No," she said. "No, we don't."

I narrowed my eyes and looked at her sidelong.

"You're worried that you are merely replacing one slave master with another," said Karmen.

I shrugged. "Yes and no. After all, I've learned from this disaster is to read people better. I think she's legit, Karmen, but I might be wrong."

"What do your instincts say?" said Karmen.

"My instincts say," I smiled. "My instincts say that I'm right, that Wesley was right to trust her, and she'll be a great ally and employer. We were truly lucky that she came to us, but my instincts also say..."

"Says, what?"

"It just seems all too convenient," I said.

She laughed. "Really? A world destroyed? And we just manage to luck out enough to be rescued by a good person who's willing and ready to help us in our endeavour? You call that convenient?"

"Yeah, I do," I said without hesitation.

"If it's any consolation," Karmen said. "I agree with you."



One of the Stormtroopers had voxed forward, so we were unmolested as we walked into the Sensorium then taken to an enormous pict viewer, already showing the familiar brown cloud-covered world of Omnartus. There were eight chairs set in front, six of which occupied. Darrance was in one, his legs crossed, elbows on his thighs and his hands intertwined, index tapping, watching so intently he never noticed our approach. Torris was on another until he saw us, then his eyes widened with abstract surprise, and he pushed himself to his feet.

Vex was there too; he sat hunched forward on his seat, his fingers flying across his portable cogitator's keys, but every few seconds, the kid would glance up at the pict screen.

Vark sat, still in his carapace armour, and he barely spared us a glance, his expression a contorted mask of disgust and rage. Next to him was Helma, she seemed to watch on impassively, but I could see her eyes were welling with tears, her hands gripping the armrests so hard, her knuckles were stark white.

The last two I couldn't have been more surprised were there. Arlathan was watching from beneath a hooded brow, leaning forward, his expression intense. He only noticed us after Torris got to his feet, and he looked almost as shocked as Torris that I came. Last was Verenth, and to see the ex-hammer there made me respect him all the more. He looked at the screen with fierce, laser-like intensity.

"You're here!" exclaimed Torris. "I didn't expect to see you here."

I shrugged and managed a smile. "I...I guess I should..."

I trailed off as I looked closer at the feed, seeing the vast explosions ripping across Omnartus' surface in seemingly sporadic bursts.

Torris' eyes narrowed, and he looked at Karmen. "He's here because you made him come, didn't you?"

She nodded. "I felt he should witness this."

He bristled with barely contained anger. "Do you have any idea the psychological damage this could do...?"

"I'm fine," I interrupted softly, stepping closer to the screen. "I need to see this."

"No," said Arlathan so firmly, it forced me to look at him while he was abruptly getting to his feet. "I agree with Marcel. You shouldn't be here, Attelus."

"If you think it's going to be psychologically damaging for Attelus," growled Karmen. "How can you be here then, Arlathan Karkin? This is your homeworld; yours and Verenth's there. Won't it be even more psychologically damaging for you and him?"

Arlathan's jaw set. "I watch because I think it'll temper my will," he said. "Force me to work all the harder in the future to stop it again. Force me to keep on working inward to turn myself into a better person. I've been trying to do that, lately and because of that, I agree with Marcel. He shouldn't be here, but I agree for a different reason."

"And what's that?"

It wasn't Karmen who'd said it, and all of us turned to the speaker. My eyes widened, and I gasped in shock and surprise. Now she was the very, very last person I expected to see here.

"Adelana!" I gasped.

With a sad smile, she walked toward us through the hustle and bustle of the Sensorium, her two-man Stormtrooper escort at her flanks.

Everyone, even Vex, got up from their chairs.

Arlathan was so shocked he seemed unable to answer her question.

She continued to look at Arlathan. "And what reason is that?"

He managed to find himself. "I believed he should be with you. Helping you through this instead, but..."

"But, here I am," she said. "I can see all of you are shocked to see me here."

"Can you blame us?" said Torris.

Her attention fell to the floor. "No, I can't. I don't even know how I can be here."

"So, then," I said. "Why are you here?"

She looked straight at me; her large eyes sparkled with tears, but there was no anger there, just a sadness of such strength it took my breath away. "I've never seen my world from orbit before. I wanted to see it for the first and last time before...Before, I'll never see it ever again."

I wanted to point out that technically we're weren't watching Omnartus from orbit at all but kept my idiot mouth shut.

"Will you be able to handle that?" said Helma. "I mean, won't it..."

She wandered off in her sentence.

Adelana shrugged. "I don't know, but if I can't, and I decide to...If I decide to take my own life, please do not try to stop me. My life is my own, and if I choose to end it..."

"Your life isn't your own," said Enandra as she walked toward us, the Psyker and one Stormtrooper, who I guessed to be her lover at her sides. "It is the Emperor's, and only in death does duty end."

Adelana flinched at the Inquisitor's intensity, terrified of her.

Enandra's hard expression disappeared suddenly, replaced by a warm smile. "You are still young, Adelana. You still have duty left unfulfilled."

"But, I..." Adelana squeaked, and she began to retch with tears. "But I..."

I threw caution to the wind; despite the intense anxiety it caused me, I took Adelana in my arms just as she started to collapse to the floor. Pulling her close and she wept into my chest; it reminded me disturbingly of Elandria only a day or so ago. I'd failed in saving her just as I'd failed to save Omnartus, to save Castella, Garrakson, Wesley, so many. I just hoped I wouldn't fail Adelana as well or that I already had.

"You may end your duty, Adelana," said Enandra sadly, and somehow her words made Adelana stop her weeping and turn to look at her. "I will not stop you, that is your right, and I honestly wouldn't blame you. But I sincerely hope that you do not. That you managed to leave your quarters to be here speaks of a strength of will that astounds me. You have potential, great potential, Adelana."

Enandra attention turned up, and her eyes wandered over all of us. "All of you have great potential!"

She looked back down at Adelana again. "I can see that others can see that too," she said as she glanced at me pointedly. "Please see that, and please believe that even at the very, very worst of times, there can still be the best of times later."

"I don't care!" Adelana suddenly screamed, making me flinch. "I don't care about your potential crap! My mother! My father! Everyone I know and love are going to die! Why should I care? Why?"

"That is the truth in life," said Enandra. "It is such a truth that it is now, as an ancient Terran dialect would call it, cliche. All of us will face death, everyone, everything. Whether it is sentient or not. You must care, Adelana, because if you don't, you will end your life, which won't make anything better. It will just completely and utterly eliminate any potential of it ever getting better. Do you think your mother and father would want that? For you to snuff out the life, your life which is a life of such boundless potential that they had the honour and luck to bring into this galaxy, just because they have died? Just because they were claimed by the one absolute that will claim us all."

She shook her head. "No, I don't believe they would."

"You can't...You can't," Adelana whispered weakly.

"I can't know that?" said Enandra with a shrug. "Is that what you mean? No, maybe I cannot, but I am an Inquisitor of the Ordo Hereticus. I am a product of decades of experience and learning. And if I may sound extraordinarily arrogant, I can read people frigging well. From what I can read of you, I can see you are an intelligent, well adjusted and good person. Most of the time, but there are always exceptions. Usually, that means their parents loved them dearly, treated them well, but not too well. I'm sure they made mistakes; no one is perfect, but..."

Enandra trailed off. "I am meandering, my apologies. Adelana, just think on that, please," she sighed.

Then much to my shock, Adelana made a slight nod. I'd never been held in such awe ever before; this woman, this Inquisitor, was genuinely great. She was worthy of her position and more, on the same level as Brutis Bones, perhaps even more so. I could tell Enandra's words were also aimed at me. Even if I knew it'd all be for nought, I wouldn't have done it after Estella's earlier words.

With this thought, I glanced over my shoulder to Karmen. I caught her looking at us, and she suddenly flinched her attention toward the floor.

"Thank you," said Enandra, and she walked by us, then stopped to stand and watch the pict feed with us.

Still holding Adelana close, I watched Enandra, my brow furrowed, my expression grim. My earlier suspicion rekindled. She was good, just too good to be true.

I pushed away such thoughts, clenching my teeth and inhaling sharply.

"Please," said Adelana, "please let me go; I need to see."

Even though it stung me to do so, I instantly did as told.

She smiled at me sadly. "Thank you," she said, although I wasn't sure why exactly she was thanking me.

Then Adelana walked past, and we watched the pict feed.

We watched Omnartus burn.

Then die.



It happened only over about an hour; it was hard to believe such an act could be possible. Billions of lives snuffed out, just like that, an hour seemed like a bit of time in a human's lifetime, but in this galaxy, it wasn't even an eye blink. It almost made me laugh out loud as I thought that metaphor was indeed the understatement of the galaxy, perhaps the universe. For the first time in what must've been thousands of years, the black-brown pollution clouds dispersed by the falling bombs, they fell to such an extent and number the blue skies of Omnartus would've been seen clearly by those living on the upper hive.

The view would've only lasted a few minutes before being engulfed in fire. Each explosion was massive, in quick succession followed by another, then another until it seemed to conjoin into one tremendously huge dome of flame, and even that just seemed to grow and grow and grow.

I couldn't look away as tears flowed down my face freely and my body seemed locked in place. I couldn't even glance to check on Adelana, who stood right beside me.

Verenth got up and left about halfway through, storming out, snarling, cursing and crying almost insanely.

The poor bastard, I hoped he'd be okay.

Once it finally finished, we were silent for a long time. I stood still, struggling to breathe; the agony in me felt like a freezing, constant jolt of raging thunder that tore my insides asunder, hollowing me out.

I was brought out of my stupor by Adelana's weeping, and I looked to her, though I had no idea what I could say. She turned and stormed off, her hands covering her face. I raised my hand, but I didn't know why, as she disappeared from the Sensorium.

I stood there gaping stupidly; hand still held out.

"What are you doing?" said Karmen, and my attention snapped to her, anger raging through me suddenly.

"What?" I growled.

Karmen stopped as she approached me, tears shining in her eyes, the bandages that covered her scared features crinkling with her grimacing, "go to her, you idiot," she squeaked. "She's only here because of you. Help her."

"How?" I gasped out.

"Tell her why, Attelus," she said. "Tell her the truth. Like you'd promised."

"But she'll hate me!" I cried.

Then she slapped me in the face, striking me; it stung horribly and sent me to my knees. I heard a crunch! Indicating she'd broken her hand, but she didn't let out a cry of pain or anything.

"It doesn't matter if she hates you!" Karmen roared down at me. "That's your damn fault! Don't be so frigging selfish! I can't believe you can be so selfish! Now get up and tell her everything! And deal with whatever consequence it brings because it is your own!"

I wiped the blood from my split lip with a forearm, fighting back more tears and climbed to my feet with shaking limbs.

"What about Verenth?" I said. "Surely he deserves to know too."

"I'll take care of him," said Karmen. "Don't you worry. Now go frig you!"

I nodded and turned, then left.

The two Stormtroopers led me to Adelana's quarters. They understood my haste, so it only took us a few minutes to find it.

I said my thanks to them and pressed the door alarm, then waited.

I waited for a good half a minute, trying to keep calm, tapping the tip of my shoe on the floor while smoking another Lho.

After that time, I hesitantly called again, thinking the worst, but this time, the door almost immediately slid open. I found myself almost face to face with the old woman.

"What do you want?" she said, looking at me darkly.

"I'm glad you're here," I said. "I'm here to fulfil my promise to Adelana; I believe you too deserve to know the truth."

"Of course I bloody do," she stated. "Omnartus may not have been my native world, but I have lived there for the past six years."

I nodded. "May I come in?"

The woman's eyes narrowed, glancing me up and down, before eventually nodding and stepping aside to allow me in.

"Thank you," I said and slipped inside.

The quarters was identical to mine, but the illumination globes were off, endowing the place in darkness. The light from the corridor outside allowed me to see Adelana, who was curled up in a foetal ball on the bed.

The quarters was in almost complete darkness as the door slid shut, and the woman walked past me, sitting on the bed next to Adelana.

My eyes quickly adjusted, and in gaping silence, I slowly approached, unsure how to begin or even where.

"It's alright," said the old woman, and I could see she was smiling at me. "Take your time."

I sighed and nodded, and I could hear poor Adelana crying softly into her hands.

"I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry," I said. "I didn't mean...I didn't mean for this to happen. Please don't hate me, please."

"I'm sure you didn't," said the old woman. "How could you? But it seems like you think you are somewhat responsible for this travesty."

I shrugged, unable to say anything more; my courage was fast failing me.

"I've made...I've made mistakes, stupid, stupid mistakes."

"And who hasn't?" said the old woman. "Look what you did to Vex?"

I flinched at the mention of that. "I shouldn't have done that, but I've done worse...I don't know where to start."

The woman shook her head as she stroked Adelana's hair. "Where else can you start? But at the beginning?"

I sighed, her words reminded me of Garrakson, and then I knew exactly where to start.

"I was born in a country called Velrosia, in its capital, Varander on the agri world of Elbyra..."

I told them almost everything, leaving out most of my very rocky relationship with my mother, especially what she'd done to me when I was really young. I spoke of my father's teachings and who and what he was. I told of the invasion of Elbrya, how I'd survived in the ruins of Varander, but left out my desperate cannibalism. Then my subsequent meeting with Estella Erith and our battles and subsequent escape south.

It didn't take long for Adelana to sit up and watched at me with a wide, watery-eyed, almost awed gaze.

I told of how Estella had attempted to change my memories. I spoke of my decision to become an assassin and my escape from Elbyra on a refugee ship. My first paid killing and of how Glaitis saved me from execution then took me under her wing.

For most of my six-year employment under Glaitis, I skipped. That time wasn't important to the overall story. It felt like years wasted; I was mostly a low-level enforcer, almost all of what I'd learned during that time was from Glaitis telling me rather than showing.

I told of my arrival on Omnartus, of Karmen placing the mind lock on my mind. I summarised the six months, fighting the local Hammers with Garrakson, Torris and Elandria and the search for Brutis Bones.

Then the Twilight bar incident, I left out how utterly injured I was by the Arco Flagellant and Faleaseen fixing and enhancing me just that I was in a coma for a month.

All of it, pretty much all of it, from my fight with Elandria, all the way to just before we met them at Vex's office. Never once did they interrupt me; I just sat utterly taken in with every one of my words.

Once I'd finally finished, the old woman and Adelana sat in stunned silence for a good ten minutes.

"I...I," squeaked Adelana, breaking the silence.

My attention snapped to her, my breath baited, hoping to all hell she'd believed me that she wouldn't hate me.

"You've led one interesting life, Attelus," said the old woman. "I don't know what to say."

"You believe me?" I said.

"I do," she answered. "It's a lot to digest, but I believe you."

I nodded, finding I liked this woman; I just wished I could remember her damn name.

"So," said Adelana. "The whole reason you were born was so you could take that pict, so this...Etuarq can use it to destroy Omnartus?"

"Yeah," I said. "I told you it's complicated."

"That's horrible," she said. "I don't understand..."

She wandered off in her sentence, and her attention fell to the floor.

"Don't understand what, honey?" asked the old woman.

"How, how can you be okay after learning that?" she said. "After everything you have been through, how can you be so..."

She grimaced and sighed, looking like she was struggling to find the right word.

"So sane," she said before I could make a suggestion.

I sniggered slightly and shook my head. "I am far from sane, Adelana."

She opened her mouth and inhaled, looking like she would say something but seemed unable to.

"I'm sorry, but I have to say, Omnartus died because of a pict? A single pict?" said the woman.

"Yes, a pict I took," I said.

"The guilt you must feel," she said.

"Is overwhelming," I said.

"But it's not your fault," said Adelana. "No, really, how were you supposed to know it would lead to that."

"I should've..." I said, tears welling in my eyes and my hands balled into fists. "I should've known; I should've done something. But I was so caught up in selfishly saving my own arse."

"Wanting to live isn't selfish, Attelus!" Adelana cried. "I think many others would've done the same. Although maybe you wouldn't have succeeded, you mustn't let your guilt overtake you! You still have to stop that Etuarq monster!"

I looked down at her, shocked.

She sighed. "Thank you for telling us, Attelus. It must've been taken a lot of courage to have done it."

"Yeah," breathed the woman. "Hell yeah."

"I thought you'd hate me," I said.

Adelana shrugged, "after what you said in the ship before, I did some soul searching. You were right; hate is one of the things wrong with the galaxy. So I won't hate you, I can't. You were just a pawn in this; I see it now."

She frowned. "But I'm not sure I'm grateful that you saved me. You did it for selfish reasons and..."

"And?"

"Just give me some time, please," she said. "Just let me have some time, too...I've gotta think moreover."

I nodded. "Yeah, more than fair enough, I will hopefully see you sooner rather than later," I said, getting the hint and slipping my hands into their pockets, then turned and left.

Still escorted, I walked back to my quarters; it was only a few doors down from Adelana's.

When the door slid shut behind me, I stepped inside and let out the most protracted sigh yet. The exhaustion hit me again, along with the many aches and pains of my injuries.

I stumbled in and threw myself onto my bed; I laid there, staring up at the gunmetal grey ceiling.

An entire world dead, it was hard to believe. Hard to comprehend that humanity had such insane power at its hands.

How many billions of years did it take for Omnartus to evolve and change into what it was? Only to be reduced to fire and ash in a mere hour.

Again, I tried to sleep, but my mind was awash with thoughts. I still couldn't believe Adelana didn't hate me even after finding out the rather central role I'd played in the destruction of her homeworld.

She seemed almost to feel sorry for me. I didn't need her frigging pity.

But on second thought, the way she looked at me, it wasn't pitying, not really. It seemed almost to be admiration. Now she knew what I'd been through, the horrors I've had to endure.

The visitation alarm shrilled suddenly, making me flinch in fright, and I let out a pained groan.

"Whaaat?" I growled as the door swished open, and Darrance stepped in.

"Apprentice," he said with a formal nod.

I didn't reply, just glared at him balefully.

"I hope I'm not interrupting your brooding," he said.

"What do you want?"

Darrance sighed. "Alright, alright, I can't really blame you for being upset right now."

"Oh, good to hear!" I said sarcastically. "Good to know you understand."

"I've been working on things; with Glaitis dead and Hayden in a coma, I am now the senior-most assassin in our organisation," said Darrance. "I thought you should be updated."

I sat up on my bed. "Life goes on, I guess," I sighed.

"I visited Hayden just before," he said. "The medicaes say he will live but will need an augmetic to replace his shoulder."

I frowned and looked to the floor guiltily; I'd forgotten about poor Hayden entirely in everything.

"And what about Jelket?" I asked.

"He will live, too," said Darrance. "Don't know how he made it; it's almost miraculous."

I nodded. "Good, that's good."

"I have also written up an astropathic communique I will send to Glaitis' cult," he said. "It's too dangerous to send it now; the Space Marine fleets are searching the solar system for us as we speak."

My expression darkened. "And what does it say, exactly?"

"Pretty much everything," said Darrance with a shrug. "Excluding your psychic enhancement, of course, and your apparent manipulation of Jeurat Garrakson."

"You're sure that's wise?" I said.

"Yes," he said without hesitation. "If we are to one day stop Etuarq, we'll need all the allies we can get."

I grimaced. "What if they're secretly allied with him?"

"What if they're not," he countered. "Besides, if they are, he had probably informed them of everything anyway; now they think we trust them."

"That sounds awfully like backwards logic to me," I said.

"Does it?" he said with a smug smile. "You seemed awfully quick to trust this Inquisitor; how do you know she isn't secretly allied with Etuarq? It's one of your many weaknesses rearing its ugly head yet again, can't say no to a pretty face, can we, Attelus?"

I sighed. "Under the circumstances, we don't have much of a choice to trust her, Darrance. But yes, perhaps you're right."

"Trust nothing, suspect everything," intoned Darrance.

My frown deepened, and I briefly considered telling him of my suspicions, but for some reason, I quickly decided against it.

"What are you going to do now?" said Darrance. "Lay there and keep on mopping? Or something constructive? I'm going to the bridge; you coming?"

I raised an eyebrow. "We're even allowed on the bridge?" I said.

Darrance shrugged. "Not sure; I thought I might try."

Then a thought hit me. "Why are we still here?" I said while straightening, my eyes widening.

"What?"

"Why are we still in the system?" I elaborated. "Why haven't we escaped into the warp already? It's too dangerous to stay here, just too dangerous."

Darrance shrugged. "To watch Omnartus burn? Confirming its destruction, maybe the Inquisitor is completely sure in the stealth abilities of the ship."

I shook my head. "I doubt it's just that if she's so sure, why were her forces readying for a fight?"

Darrance shook his head. "And You would know why it could be just in case."

"Hmm, perhaps," I conceded with a shrug. "But I still feel..."

"You coming or not?" said Darrance impatiently.

"Yeah," I said. "Yeah, I think I will."
My short story Of An Asur living in the land of Bretonnia:

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Adrassil
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Chapter 35

#36 Post by Adrassil »

To my surprise, we were allowed onto the bridge and even more surprising, Helma and Arlathan were chatting with Enandra. The Inquisitor was back in her power armour and sat cross-legged on a solid, copper coloured plasteel throne in the bridge's epicentre, like a regal queen of old. Flanking the thrones' was the mute psyker, on the right the Stormtrooper sergeant, who was now helmetless. His handsome square-jawed face was insanely masculine, almost on par with an Astartes, his red hair typically close-cropped and short of a soldier.'

I'd half expected it to be the same bridge in Faleaseen's vision but found it couldn't have been any more different. I wasn't sure what to make of that.

"Why are we still here, mamzel Inquisitor?" I heard Arlathan ask as we came close, stepping through the constantly moving crew. "Shouldn't we have left already?"

I smiled, glad I wasn't the only one who'd come to such thoughts and once again impressed by the detective's intellectual acumen.

They glimpsed Darrance and my approach, and all of them turned to us.

"Ah!" said Enandra, smiling and waving at Darrance and I. "Colohris had voxed ahead that you would be coming; it's good to see you both!"

"Mamzel," I said with a polite, slight bow, my hands held behind my back.

"I agree with Arlathan," said Helma abruptly. "Why are we still here?"

Enandra sighed. "I guess, after everything you've been through, you would be suspicious of me. I understand. I said that all of you held potential; this emphasised even more now. I see you are already asking the right questions; that is good, very good."

My eyes narrowed. "I am surprised you approve of that," I said.

She smiled and looked at me, sidelong. "Knowledge is power, young Attelus, and sometimes knowledge can only be won by asking the right questions."

Enandra tilted her head and smiled wider, placing her fist against her cheekbone. "Or by shedding and bleeding enough blood, but you would know this more than anyone, wouldn't you, Attelus?"

I couldn't help but smile and nod back; yes, I did. Or at least I thought I did.

I hoped I did.

I was wrong; I didn't know, of course.

She sighed again and reclined back on her throne, stretching her legs and placing her palms behind her head.

"I want you to know that you can trust me," she said. "I want all of you to know I am not like Glaitis or Taryst. That I am willing to share my plans and truths..."

"But only if we ask the right questions?" asked Helma, her eyes narrowed approvingly as her arms folded across her chest.

"At first, yes," said Enandra. "But once you have shed enough blood and bled enough blood that you won't have to anymore."

"Are you going to tell us or not?" Darrance said through clenched teeth.

"Of course I will," said Enandra sounding amused at Darrance's impatient tone rather than annoyed. "You asked the right question; I will give you the answer you deserve. But my psyker Selva will have to take certain liberties with your thoughts to make sure it won't leak out, understand?"

We glanced at one another in hesitation; no one liked the idea of a psyker rifling around in our minds. Especially me.

Enandra raised a hand. "She will not erase your memory of it; just make sure it will be hard to rile up this information by another of her kind. Just a security precaution, I assure you."

Eventually, all of us nodded our approval.

"Good," she crooned. "As I had said before, knowledge is power; this also includes, know your enemy..."



Four hours later, I was back in my quarters. Enandra had given me back my sword, and I was stripped to the waist, my pale white skin glistened with sweat. Training slashing and slicing, stabbing and stepping. Every attack of the unactivated blade whistled and sung with absurd brevity. I could've sworn it followed a split second after I'd finished.

Inquisitor Enandra had told us her plan; it was audacious and detailed but leaned on assumptions a bit too much for my taste. But she didn't have the luxury of farsight that Glaitis did. Or perhaps she did; perhaps that was why she could plan on such assumptions, I couldn't know. Her psyker hadn't done anything intrusive, just blocked our surface thought so that we couldn't speak of it verbally. So I didn't know the details. It'd worked on me, or it'd seemed to for Selva.

With a snarl, I side kicked the air, then cut diagonally upward. I'd been training for a good hour now, how I was managing to do it after everything I'd gone through today. I didn't know, but some energy drove me onward despite my aching limbs and horrid weariness. It was anger, I supposed, and pain, the pain of a different kind than that echoed in my body.

I'd practised for another ten minutes when the visitation buzzer chimed again.

I let out an animalistic growl and kept attacking the air, some of my considerable skill lost in my anger at the interruption.

A good ten seconds later, there was another chime, and I snarled, "go away!" Even though I knew whoever was at the door couldn't hear me. I didn't care who it was; I wasn't going to answer.

The third shrilled so long after the second I'd thought whoever it was g up and gone.

I flinched in fright and finally stopped my training, wiped the sweat from my forehead with an arm, then absently, skillfully sheathed my sword and stormed toward the door.

"What the frig are...!" I roared but wandered off in my sentence as the door swung open to reveal it was Adelana. Her attractive face set and hard, but I could still see her eyes very briefly glance me up and down in appreciation. She was holding my beaten, torn, and bloodstained flak jacket before her.

It took me a few seconds to regain myself, stammering stupidly in monosyllables.

She blinked away tears and shook her head in bemusement.

"Can I come in?" she said.

"I...I'm sorry! Of course! Come in!" I stammered and stepped aside.

She stormed through the door, handing me my jacket on the way and rounded on me, making me flinch. "I was thinking about what you said, and you were right!"

"Uhm, I've said a lot. Can you please elaborate?"

"You said on the flier that once I knew the truth, it would give me purpose! A reason to live!" she snapped. "And you were right."

I smiled and laughed, and this caused her to hiss as though hurt and look away. "That'd be the first time in a bloody long time I was right, then," I said.

"I want to help!" she said. "I want to help stop this Etuarq, help make sure he can't do this again!"

"Okay!" I said as I laid my sheathed sword onto my bed and turned back her, slapping the sides of my thighs. "Talk to the Inquisitor; she'll have someone willing to help you, then."

"I want you to help me!" he said. "I want you to teach me!"

I furrowed my brow and looked at her sidelong, unable to hide my surprise; it was more surprising I didn't see this coming.

"I...," I said with a shaking voice. "I'm not qualified to teach you anything; I'm only an apprentice. I wouldn't be..."

"I saw you dodge bullets! I saw you deflect them with your sword!" she exclaimed. "Who else is more qualified than you?"

"I've never taught anyone about anything in my life," I said. "I can do that stuff, sure, but that doesn't mean I'm a good teacher."

"Then you'll learn!" she said. "Just like I will learn! I'm only here because of you! So it must be you who trains me! Please! You are partially responsible for the destruction of my world; you owe me this. You owe me!"

I flinched, hurt by her words and the truth behind them. I would've liked to teach her; I really would've...

"Why me?" I breathed.

"I already told you," she said hesitantly.

I looked into her eyes. "Is there, is there...another...another..."

Adelana met my gaze for a good few seconds, but her eyes widened, and she abruptly tore her attention away.

"I just need someone to teach me, and you owe me," she squeaked.

"Yes, yes, of course," I sighed and closed my eyes, once again feeling guilt hit me. I barely knew her, and Elandria wasn't long dead; what the hell was I doing?

"I should leave," she said and pushed past me, walking quickly toward the door.

"Adelana!" I said, causing her to stop and look back at me.

"I'll teach you," I said. "Starting tomorrow."

She smiled sadly and nodded, then went to leave again.

"Adelana!" I exclaimed again, and she halted. "I have to ask, how old are you?"

She furrowed her brow, bemused. "Nineteen standard. How old are you?"

"Twenty four standard," I answered, and her eyes widened with surprise.

"Really? You look seventeen or eighteen," she said.

I sighed. "Yeah, I get that quite a bit, anyway. I ask because you must know I've been training from when I was pretty much old enough to walk. So it'll take you a while to get up to my level."

"I understand," she said. "I have been studying to be in the Magistratum, so do have teaching in close quarters combat."

"And long-ranged combat?" I asked.

"Yes," she said with a slight nod. "I was third in my class at the shooting range."

I sighed and scratched the back of my head; damn it, everyone seemed to be a better shot than me. "I really, strongly suggest you get Hayden Tresch to teach you how to shoot better; that's just not me. I'm an average shot at the best of times."

She frowned and shrugged, "I was third at the range," she said again. "But I had an average of ninety-eight point five per cent. The two others higher than me were only point one and two per cent over me, respectively. Maybe I could teach you how to shoot, then?"

I smiled. "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Will meet you at the training facility at 0800 hours tomorrow morning."

She smiled, nodded again, and left.



With a snarl, I sliced off the soldier's head, then impaled his ally through the chest. A third attempted a point-blank full auto flurry with his lasgun, but by the time he'd raised his rifle. I'd already darted in, cut it in two, then opened his throat with a diagonal slash.

Behind me, Adelana, Verenth, Vark and Helma slipped out of the cover of the two nearby outlets. Their hellguns fired flurries of laser down the wide, dirty brown corridor. The enemy soldiers took cover thirty metres away, cowering behind the outlets there.

"Cover me!" I shouted, then started sprinting forward, pulling out a frag grenade, pulling the pin, and throwing it into the left side.

The resulting explosion, followed by screams and the five others on the right leaned out, opening up with their lasguns.

I dodged and deflected the las-fire before darting behind the nearest outlet, throwing a knife a Microsecond before moving, which stuck fast into the eye socket of a soldier.

It'd allowed my friends to advance behind me, and withering hell gunfire strafed through the air followed by more screams.

I clenched my teeth and pushed my back against the wall. Three months! It'd taken the Space Marines three frigging months to finally give up searching for us in the solar system and leave into the warp. I knew they'd be tenacious but didn't expect it to take that frigging long. It was a harrowing, stressful game of cat and mouse we played; we'd almost been caught five times once a Space Marine craft had passed within two hundred kilometres of us. It was so close for void ships we may as well have been breathing down each other necks.

During that time, I'd tried to teach Adelana how to fight. Unfortunately, I didn't do very well at first, showing how to do techniques far too fast and expecting her to perform advanced fighting forms, which came to me as naturally as breathing. Still, for someone starting, it seemed almost impossible.

I'd tried to get teaching advice from Darrance, but he proved to be pretty damn useless in this regard. If he was upset, me a mere apprentice, was teaching someone, he didn't show it, and I hoped he'd keep it out of his report. I would've gone to Enandra, but she was busy with the whole business of keeping us alive.

Adelana had proven to be a pretty lousy close-quarters combatant, despite being surprisingly fit and robust. She was a Magistratum trainee, so she was used to a submission, grappling style. I used more of a striking style, so she'd had to start almost all over again. Adelana had also admitted privately she was thirtieth in her class, out of forty total.

Out of a moment's inspiration, a month in, I'd decided to used my father's teaching as a template. Despite his anti-social tendencies, he was a good teacher, and she'd improved more since then but was still far from being even below average.

But in contrast, thanks to her help, my marksmanship had improved somewhat.

Much to my surprise, Enandra's plan had gone exactly right. Once the Space Marines had left, we'd emerged from hiding, and as she'd expected, Torathe had been hiding as well, waiting for us. Finally, after a brief void battle, we'd been boarded.

We'd been ready; Enandra had briefed us fully before we'd dropped the stealth field, and we'd set up pre-built defences of shoulder-high flak board walls throughout the ship. The only danger was of Space Marines being on Torathe's craft, but Enandra had predicted there wouldn't. She'd believed that it was now personal between her and her former master, that his pride wouldn't allow their help in this fight. Also, he'd had the Astartes for so long they wouldn't agree to spare any more for any longer.

So far, that theory too had proven true; there were no Space Marines among the number of Imperial Guardsmen and navy personnel taking part in the fighting.

Vex had first hacked into their vox network and shut it down with some sort of virus or something. So, even outnumbered and took numerous casualties, we'd pushed them back into their ship, leaving countless corpses in our wake. Enandra had surprisingly put me in charge of a kill squad consisting of Adelana, Helma, Torris, Verenth and Vark. I'd expected everyone but Adelana to resent me for this, but they'd quickly fallen in, following my orders without complaint and hesitation. It seemed finally being able to take the fight to those responsible for Omnartus' fate had allowed them to put aside their dislike of me for now.

I'd at first been hesitant for Adelana to take part in the battle; her training was far from even beginning in my eyes, but she'd insisted on fighting with a passion and fire, I couldn't even begin to deny. Besides, what she lacked in close combat ability, she more than made up for in skill in a firefight. This was a boarding action, and even though I'd never taken part in one before, I knew it'd be mostly close range and brutal.

"Clear!" I heard Helma call, knocking me from my train of thought, and I slipped out of cover.

Wordlessly we continued to cautiously, silently, professionally advance, from outlet to outlet, shadow to shadow. I led the way, sword held at the ready, but the power field deactivated. It wasn't long before we heard more running footfalls from around the next corner, and quickly I calculated it to be at least twenty pairs of boots. Karmen and the other in incorporeal psyker had gone forth first, using their abilities to shatter and destroy the glow globes throughout the enemy ship.

I sent Torris, Helma and Vark back behind an outlet a few metres back with quick movements of my hands. While me, Adelana and Verenth slipped behind the nearest, all of us dissipating into the shadows behind our cameleoline cloaks. Over the past few months, almost everyone had been hard at work training to fight and everything in between. Adelana hadn't excelled at much, but she'd done well at stealth. The others were trained by one of Enandra's men, and he'd taught them frigging well. Although I was sure both Vark and Helma had first-hand experience in commando tactics anyway.

We waited for the enemy to storm down the corridor; they'd heard our firefight, they were on the losing side, and there was a strong camaraderie among them. So they wanted to go to their comrade's aid as quickly as they could; this made them almost reckless, predictable.

They barely check their flanks as they passed us by and went to check the bodies of their dead comrades. I was right; there was twenty total a full squads worth. I raised the replacement autopistol, given to me by Enandra's armoury and blew a hole through the back nearest guardsman's head with a manstopper round. Then, seeing it for the signal, it was the rest of my Kill team opened up, catching them in a crossfire. They wore thick, grey flak armour, but it provided them with no protection from the highly penetrative hellgun fire. It was a slaughter; within a few seconds, they were dead or grievously injured.

I finished the last screaming survivor by stabbing him through the heart, and Torris approached me.

"Can't believe that worked," he said.

I shrugged and pursed my lips. "One thing you can always rely on is the idiocy of humanity."

He smiled grimly. "Yes, of course," he said knowingly.

I smiled back, knowing he meant me, but didn't care, then waved us onward.

We found the next corner in silence, and I peered around carefully, the coast was clear, and I signalled this. As part of the briefing, Enandra had provided us with the schemata of Torathe's ship, The Imperial Crusher; from this alone, it seemed that she'd been planning a confrontation with her former master for a very long time. I'd studied it well and had the printout in my pocket. But I didn't need it now. I knew we were advancing along the port side, through the fifth level. There was going to be a staircase in another two turns about eighty-five metres away. The stairway zigzagged up to the tenth level. The bridge was a level above that; we had separated and scouted ahead of Enandra's main push, taking a long way around, the path least tried. They'd know we were here after that first ambush, there would be more of them coming our way, but the vast majority were distracted. Another kill team, led by Arlathan Karkin, was advancing along the starboard side; we were to converge together on the tenth level at 1800 hours.

I glanced at my wrist chron; it was only fifteen thirty-two. Until then, we were to sow chaos and confusion in their rear echelons.

This was my type of fighting; she'd chosen me well. I felt Arlathan was vastly under-qualified, but he'd seemed to have found great favour with Enandra. It was quite rare to see the pair not together over the past few months though both Darrance and Hayden were with him, so if he followed their advice, they should do pretty well.

We moved down the corridor unmolested, but we never lost our disciplined, zigzagging advance, checking every inch and every corner with our green hazed, low light gazes.

As we reached the next turn, I heard more footfalls; they were light but quick and disciplined. Quickly, I calculated they were walking down the stairs, about eighteen metres down, although I couldn't tell how many exactly.

I ordered us to fan out with deliberate hands, Adelana, Helma, and I to the left. Torris, Verenth and Vark, right. I signalled to let them past, then we wrapped our cameleoline cloaks around us again and waited.

It only took a few minutes for them to come around the corner, but it felt like forever; there were ten of them peering through a slight gap in my cloak. They had no lamps on their assortment of weapons, indicating they too had low light vision contacts. One of them carried an auspex, and I couldn't help but smile. We'd all gone light, wearing synskin bodygloves.

They were good, very good I figured they might've been some of Torathe's entourage, sent to stop whatever infiltrators had moved so far into their midst.

With bated breath, I watched as they walked right by us, expecting in any second for one of them to notice something, anything that'd give us away. One of them, a towering brute in carapace armour, even seemed to look right at me, but he saw nothing and moved on with the rest of his mates.

I changed my mind; these bastards were too good; they could wreak havoc on the main force. I indicated this with a tap of my vox link, and in an instant, we were up and firing into their backs at a practically point-blank range. Four of them were cut down, but the remaining six reacted with impressive speed, starting to spread out into cover a few, even managing to turn and fire back; one shot winged Verenth causing him to cry out and spin away. One clipped Vark's thigh, and he was forced back into cover, clutching at his wound with a pained growl.

I activated my sword in a blaze of blue and dashed in, decapitating one and kicked another in the ribs sending him smashing hard into his comrade and against the wall.

Another tried to swing out at me with the butt of his autogun, but I weaved away the kicked it from his hands so abruptly it took him a second to realise it'd gone allowing Adelana to bash in his face with the swing of her hellgun. The next tried to bring his gun upon us, but a point-blank shotgun shot from Torris exploded the side of his skull, then Helma converged on the last, taking out his legs with a sweeping kick, stamped on his face; which connected with a sickening, crunch! Then finished him by stabbing the tip of her knife into his neck.

I killed the last who was starting to get to his feet, cutting him horizontally across his chest.

I turned to the others and nodded my approval, especially at Adelana, genuinely impressed.

"They will be missed," hissed Helma, whipping the blood from her knife on her thigh.

I shrugged. "We'll worry about that later, check on Verenth and Vark, please," I said.

Torris and Helma nodded, then turned to help the injured.

"I am alright," said Vark, limping into view, gripping his thigh.

"You'd better head back," I said. "You're in no condition for-"

A flicker of movement caught my eye. The slightest thing but still made me slide to the side, so the slashing sword from the darkness at my back instead cut across my lower bicep.

With a cry of pain, I struggled to keep my balance. The dark corridor was suddenly alight with hellgun fire. Only a little more than a shadow, the figure laughed and, with breathtaking speed and agility, dodged and weaved through it.

Then his sword's power field came into life, a thin curved blade; I could see him now. He wore carapace armour and a storm coat. His sharp-featured face half-covered in a fringe and was smirking almost psychotically; how the hell he'd almost got the drop on me was beyond me. Then he dashed straight at Adelana, thrusting at her.

Clenching my teeth against the pain, I snarled and smashed aside his thrust, throwing a sidekick that sent him spinning back.

I charged forward, cutting out at his thighs diagonally. He parried and reposted with a high horizontal slash at my skull. I ducked. He was forced to backpedal from the counter cut.

"Ahh!" breathed the attacker, his voice hoarse and whispering, like a desert wind. "Attelus Kaltos! I have heard so much about you!"

I grimaced; seriously, does everyone know me?

"Who are you?" I demanded.

"I am Interrogator Leonard Rodyille," he said with a deep bow. "Inquisitor Etuarq sends his regards."

I waved everyone back. "You're Etuarq's Interrogator?"

"No," said Rodyille. "I am Torathe's Interrogator, but I am truly working for Etuarq."

Suddenly came screams, hideous, blood-freezing screams that seemed to erupt from Rodyille.

"What the hell are you?" I hissed, recoiling back in horror.

"He said you would be here," said Rodyille, ignoring my question. "At this exact time, he sent me to kill you and your little friends. So he knew you'd be here; he must also know that I'd kill you."

I laughed despite myself. "You think that, do you? Feuilt thought the same thing too; then he died at my hand. I think he's sent you here because you've run your course; you're no longer useful to him. You're expendable."

Rodyille grimaced. "Your father taught me how to fight! How to kill! I am his best agent! His most loyal! I have been enhanced beyond normal human ken! I am too valuable to be expendable!"

"Enhanced?" I said, my eyes widening. "Best agent? So you're not the only one? You're the same as that assassin who attacked me on that thoroughfare, aren't you? I wonder how many of you Etuarq has out there in the sector; you're not special. Your master, Etuarq, just manipulated the death of an entire world, then he has sent you to be sacrificed at my blade. How can you be loyal to him? I just don't understand."

Rodyille's jaw clenched but said nothing.

"You seem to know much," I said. "Join us, Leonard Rodyille. Tell us what you know, and we can stop the bastard!"

Rodyille smiled and sniggered.

"Do you know why I've told you this?" he said.

"Because you're so sure you can kill me, it doesn't matter?" I said, and he frowned, indicating I was right; I couldn't help finding it amusing, knowing even he managed to, it wouldn't make any difference at all.

I smiled sadly. "No matter what I say, you won't see sense, will you?" I sighed.

Rodyille dashed at me with an enraged roar faster than thought, slashing out at my neck.

I blocked and reposted with an upward vertical slash, forcing him to sidestep. He spun into a hook kick which would've smashed knocked my legs out from underneath me if I hadn't backstepped.

He cut overhead, and I slid aside then stabbed at his head. He leaned back by a hair's breadth, and I followed with a darting horizontal strike at his stomach.

Rodyille barely managed to parry it and threw a front kick at my chest. I slid aside and countered with a kick with my bladed shoe at his shin. Rodyille threw himself back.

"Oh, for frig's sake!" I heard Torris' exclaim. "Are we just going to stand around and watch you fight? Frig! It's even happening so fast I can't even make out what's happening!"

I smiled and knocked away Rodyille's charging thrust. Throwing a roundhouse kick that crashed into his side, sending him stumbling, it would've shattered his ribs into oblivion if it wasn't for his armour, I was sure. Pain flared up my leg, but I ignored it, finding my feet in a blink, before sliding into a vertical, downward slash aimed at Rodyille's sword arm.

Rodyille managed to recover and pull his arm out the way by the barest of margins. I turned my blade and pivoted into a horizontal slash. Rodyille dropped into a kneel and sliced up at my groin.

I parried and kneed at his face; Rodyille leapt to his feet, ejecting himself out the way, arms out wide.

He went to stab at me, but I sidestepped, darted in then wrapped my free arm around his wrists. Too close to use my sword, I smashed an elbow hard into his jaw with a crack! Sending him reeling and crying out, then backfisted him in the side of the face. His back bashed against the wall, causing him to straighten. Then, with a strangled cry, he managed to tear his arms free and desperately chopped out, forcing me to dance blindingly fast backwards. But the tip still cut a painful gash across my chest.

I clenched my teeth and growled in pain but barely blanched.

"You bastard!" Rodyille slurred, indicating a broken jaw. "You frigging bastard!"

Then again, I heard the screams, and for a split second, Rodyille's face changed. It was a horrifyingly hollow-eyed, hollow mouthed, tortured monstrosity that seemed to writhe and struggle under his skin. Then his face was back to normal, healed, instantaneously.

"What the hell are you?" I gasped.

With a feral snarl, Rodyille turned and started sprinting back the way he came.

Now with clean shots, my comrades opened fire at his back, but he innately weaved side to side through it and disappeared around the next corner.

"You alright?" asked Adelana as she stepped to stand beside me.

"Yeah," I managed with a nod, not sounding at all convincing. He said he was enhanced as well. Was Etuarq using his power also to change his spies?

I blinked as suddenly memories flashed through my thoughts, but with new additions. I could now see the writhing, screaming faces in the skin of the daemons I'd fought with Castella.

I remembered the same screaming faces jutting from the sides of the conduit and in the streaming and swirling light that rose from its tip. I could see the faces now flowed through the air around the pews Edracian had lifted with his telekinesis like ghosts.

+This is hardly a surprise,+ said Faleaseen. +I should have known; no true daemons are alike, those things that had attacked you at Brutis Bones' hideout. Were not daemons of the four, it seems. I do not know how it had gone undetected so far, but that is not your problem now, now you must...+

"I know!" I growled through gritted teeth, causing everyone around to flinch in fright and started down the corridor without even a backward glance.

"Shit! Shit! Shit! After him!" I roared. "But we need him alive! Hurry! Hurry!"

Me, Helma, Torris and Adelana moved silently through the darkness with the utmost care; now I knew how skilled our quarry was at stealth. But I wasn't taking any chances. Vark and Verenth having gone back for medical treatment.

My teeth were on edge, adrenaline still pumping through me.

I really wanted to chase after the bastard, but that'd open us up for an ambush. I knew if he'd just run, Rodyille could be anywhere on the ship by now, and we'd never find him.

I hissed a curse under my breath, wishing like all hell I could've sent back the others also, but another possibility was he'd gone back to get reinforcements, and they'd most likely be too much for me alone to handle.

Actually, there'd be most likely too much for all of us to handle, but I digressed.

Another reason was there was just no way I could cover even a fifth of the area by myself.

When we eventually arrived at the start of the stairs, utterly unmolested, I wasn't sure how to feel about it, in all honesty.

I held up a hand for the others to halt and cautiously peered up the stairs, expecting in any second for a withering fire to shower down at me, but there was none.

Clenching my teeth, I signalled the all-clear, and despite the stairs being made of metal, my feet didn't make a sound as I started to ascend and couldn't help feeling a bit of pride when even I could barely hear the footfalls of my comrades following me.

There were four flights until the next floor, and I knew it led into a mess hall. It was a large span, about thirty by forty metres, tables and chairs, everywhere a bloody great place for an ambush.

I glanced around the door, seeing the place was empty or empty as I could see from here. It was in tidy condition, stark and clean to an almost ludicrous degree.

I darted to stand behind the right side of the door as Adelana joined me, pushing her back against the wall, Helma and Torris just behind.

"Torris," I whispered. "Hunker down and watch the door and our backs. Adelana, Helma, with me."

With weapons raised, we swiftly slipped inside. Me in the lead, and with two quick points of my fingers, I ordered my comrades to split up.

Six main thoroughfares were splitting up the maybe seven-metre long tables. The doorway was set in the centre of the room, and we advanced through the right. I checked the left, Adelana down the middle and Helma on the right. My plan was if and when we reached the other side, we'd check the cooking area before falling back to search the left.

I guessed or hoped that Rodyille hadn't gone back for reinforcements; surely they'd be here already?

My heart in my throat, pistol raised and continuously swept across the scenery. Back and forth, back and forth, and we moved hunched and low, so we could easily see beneath the tables.

When we'd found the end of the room, I'd glanced back to check on Torris. I couldn't see him and be glad at this fact.

I ordered Helma and Adelana to wait and watch the room, then vaulted over the serving bench, landing into a silent crouch. I knew there was a cold air chiller behind the cooking area, and in there would most likely be where Rodyille was lurking.

I approached the small, large door and slowly pulled it open with my sword hand, seeing only a little of the large cold room beyond.

Sword readied; I slowly searched through the hanging skinned carcasses, I tried to hold my breath, so my steaming breathing wouldn't be visible. I was afraid, terrified. Hoping to all hell, Rodyille wouldn't be able to overwhelm and kill me. I didn't know how long it'd take for Faleaseen to bring me back. An hour? Two hours? A day? It didn't matter; it wouldn't be quick enough; I was the only one able to stop him, and with me out of the picture, it'd allow him to kill the others.

He must've known this; now was the time to strike when I was alone.

I spent a good ten minutes searching every inch of the place, but there was no sign of him, nothing. I really wanted to look again, just to make sure, but I fought the urge. We were already low on time to meet our objective.

With a slight sigh, I left, closing the door behind me. On second thought, perhaps it was a bit too obvious.

Helma and Adelana glanced at me, confused; they'd obviously thought the same as me.

I shrugged and, with quick gestures, indicated we were searching the now right side of the cafeteria.

They nodded, and we began to head back in the same formation and searching the same way.

It was when we were all the way through that Rodyille decided to strike. On the far right, one of the tables was abruptly flung into the air, smashing hard into poor Helma off her feet and across the room. Adelana barely managed to dart out the way with impressive speed, and I simply sidestepped.

Rodyille seemed to materialise into view, his curved sword coming into life, and he sprinted at Adelana. Adelana and Torris opened fire, forcing him to slow and weave through it, but I was already moving and activating my sword. Even still, he reached Adelana before me. Lightning-quick, he pulled Adelana's hellgun from her hands, turned and fired a flurry at Torris.

I heard Torris cry out, and his shooting stopped. Then Rodyille dropped it, grabbed Adelana by the hair, and then placed the edge of his blade at her throat, making me stop in my tracks. Hissing through clenched teeth, my pistol aimed.

He smiled insanely over her shoulder. "Ahh! I could tell you liked this girl. Who wouldn't? She's just so damned pretty. So very, very pretty. Don't move! Or I will spill all her pretty blood onto the floor."

I clenched my jaw. "I don't understand how this is going to help you," I said. "Let her go!"

"I don't know how this will help me, too!" he exclaimed. "I'm just having a bit of fun! I know this is Torathe's final hour!"

"You also know now that to Etuarq, you are expendable," I said. "He had sacrificed Edracian and his entire organisation. He had sacrificed Feuilt once they'd lost their use! Join us! Help us! Now please let her go!"

"I have helped influence Torathe," said Rodyille conversationally. "I am partly responsible for the death of Omnartus; would you take me in knowing that?"

I flinched and hesitated. "If you regret it and wish to..."

"Well, I don't!" said Rodyille simply, suddenly throwing aside Adelana and shooting a Hell pistol he'd hidden behind her.

It happened so quick; not even I could react as the highly penetrative, superheated shot shattered my wraithbone rib, burst my left lung, then out my back.

I wheeled, twisting, crying out in agony and fell onto my back, writhing, gasping. My pistol and sword flung somewhere from my hands.

Rodyille laughed. "You speak grox shit!" he snarled. "My master would never! Ever! Abandon me! And for that...!"

He threw aside his hellpistol and grabbed Adelana by the ponytail as she was in the midst of getting to her feet. Then stabbed her straight through the shoulder.

Adelana screamed an agonised scream; then he threw her to the floor so hard I could hear bones break.

"You'll have to watch me torture poor pretty, pretty to death here before I kill you!" he snarled.

"I'll...I'll," I gasped.

"You'll...you'll what?" Rodyille said, in mock imitation of my gasping. "Kill me? What? In the condition, you are in now? I doubt it! I will not be killed by you on this day of days!"

He clutched at Adelana's cameleoline cloak and pulled her back to him, sliding her across the floor, making the poor girl cry out.

"Oh! Perhaps! I could do something else!" he said. "Something worse than plain old torture, yes!"

"N-no, no!" I cried as sharply as I could, fighting to keep awake.

He grabbed her by the hair again and pulled her up, so they were face to face, then licked the nape of her neck. Then, he smacked her across the face twice with short, sharp movements.

"You bastard!" Adelana snarled through clenched teeth, blood oozed from her split lip, and she spat right into his face.

Rodyille laughed then backhanded her to the deck.

"S-stop!" I pleaded. "Stop this!"

Rodyille ignored me, just continued to laugh, and he began to rip off Adelana's cameleoline cloak roughly.

"Can't you see? I gasped. "It's the souls that Etuaq used to enhance you. They're driving you insane! Please, we can help you."

Still, Rodyille laughed and finished pulling off Adelana's cloak, she was struggling, raining punch after punch into Rodyille's face with her gauntleted fists, but the bastard barely flinched. Despite the bloody broken nose she'd given him. He wrapped his fingers around her wrists and pinned Adelana's arms over her head.

"Stop, you son of a bitch!" and despite the agony, I climbed with agonising slowness to my feet. "Stop this now, or you'll never come back from this if you continue...!"

"Or you'll what?" he snapped.

"I'll kill you," I snarled. "I'll kill you in the most painful way imaginable."

Rodyille suddenly ran at me, and I only just managed to slap away his punch as it headed toward my face. The act sent waves of agony through me; I cried out, my vision blurred, and I couldn't stop his kick from colliding against my chest, sending me careening hard to the floor.

He was on me, grabbing me by the hair, then smashed my skull against the deck. My vision blackened, and I writhed with the pain. Then Rodyille hooked me across the jaw.

"Don't be stupid!" he roared. "Don't say stupid things! People who say stupid things like that are stupid! And deserve bad consequences for their stupidity!"

I would've laughed at his idiotic, redundant words, but he kicked me hard in the guts, and I reeled forward, gasping like an aquatic creature deprived of water.

Rodyille got to his feet and began back toward Adelana, turning his back to me.

I was on my knees, grasping his storm jacket with a shaking hand. I was weeping openly now, but not out of pain, Adelana had been through so much, but she was still a good person despite it. If he raped her, it'd break her; I couldn't let that happen. I couldn't lie back and do nothing!

"Please!" I hissed. "Please!"

Rodyille smiled and kicked me to the floor with the tip of his boot.

"Karmen!" I cried, curling up in a foetal ball. "Faleaseen! Help, please!"

I got nothing.

Nothing! I knew Karmen and the other psyker would be busy battling whatever psychic thralls Torathe kept, but I couldn't understand why Faleaseen wasn't able to help.

Adelana was crawling across the floor, reaching for her hellgun, but Rodyille stamped on her hand. I winced as I heard her fingers break.

Then he grabbed her by the neck, with one hand lifting her as effortlessly as Brutis Bones had hauled Arlathan when in power armour months ago now.

Adelana struggled, choking in his grasp with one, smooth, deliberate movement, and he unzipped her bodyglove.

I winced and closed my eyes, unable to watch. Then it hit me; this could be me one day; this could've been me years ago. Psychotic. It reminded me horrifyingly of my dream, the dream I'd truly wished to forget, the dream that'd terrified me beyond anything before or anything ever since. The dream I would never tell any living soul.

Then I heard it; two hell gunshots echoed from behind me; they shot over me, so bright they left orange after images on my retinas despite my eyes being closed.

I looked, and Rodyille stood with a shocked, gaping expression on his face. Two large, red hot holes burnt through his torso.

He let go of poor Adelana and fell to his knees, then collapsed limply onto his back, dead.

Despite the pain it caused, I turned back. Seeing Helma holding with one hand her smoking hellgun, how she'd kept hold of it, was beyond me. She was broken, both her legs and other arm hanging in unnatural angles, and Emperor only knew what other bones.

Helma smiled at me. "I am sorry," she gasped, indicating a punctured lung. "I know you wanted him alive."

Then she lost consciousness.

Adelana got slowly to her feet and viciously kicked Rodyille's corpse.

"Frigging bastard!" she snarled.

"Adelana," I gasped, and she approached my side; looking down at me with distinct, almost ironic concern, she held out her good hand to offer aide.

"Forget about me; I'll live," I said. "Check on Torris, please."

Adelana slowly nodded and went to do as asked with great hesitation, reaching for her vox bead and began calling for aid.

Rodyille was right, I thought with a smile; I wasn't the one to kill him on this day of days.

I never got to hear all of Adelana's words before darkness utterly overtook me.
My short story Of An Asur living in the land of Bretonnia:

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Adrassil
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Epilogue

#37 Post by Adrassil »

Image

The figure ascended a staircase that swirled and twirled around and over a vast collection of floating rocks and boulders, both great and small. Everywhere around it was a backdrop of pure, cloudy, contorting chaos made up of reds, oranges, purples and colours utterly unknown to humanity.

Eldritch forms steadily moved, contorting through its depths, black things of indiscernible shape, some the size of titans, some the size of humans and everything in between.

The thing which was Wesley Jeksen lacked legs and hands; instead, it walked on the stumps, which ended its arms at an unnatural rate of speed. Its movements halting and flickering. As he moved, he changed, warping and crunching into a form that resembled a man, but was far from human.

His arms elongated, his hands grew back, and he sprouted short legs from the stump, which ended its torso as it too grew in length.

Its skin withered away, replaced by purple sinus, which was rough, coarse like the bark of a tree. Wings sprouted from its back; wings made up of countless multicoloured feathers made from the same stuff as its skin. Its eyes bulged and moulded into circular milky white orbs, and from its face, a large, curved beak grew.

A large ornate golden staff abruptly appeared in its left hand, which became three razor-sharp talons.

After what seemed an age, yet somehow didn't, the thing found the top of the stairs. There was a huge rock and set upon a throne, its back facing once-Wesley.

The throne's true size and dimensions were unknowable. In one second, it seemed to tower over the thing; the next, it was so small it didn't even come up to its knee. The shadow it cast was a complete contradiction to the throne itself, engulfing the daemon in its darkness when the throne was tiny, but not when it was massive. The shadow also always seemed to flicker, blinking in and out of existence in a pattern unknown even to once Wesley, but there was a pattern of that its ancient, alien intellect was certain.

The daemon fell to its knees, bowing to the throne.

"Master," It said, but it seemed to say it in every language known, Low Gothic, high gothic, Velrosian. Sartathian, Fenrisian. Even those languages and dialects thought extinct, and those not known at all by the mortal races. Its voice echoed through the miasma, making the floating rocks reverberate and the things in the cloudy light of reds, oranges, purples and colours unknown to humanity moan and murmur. Whether it was in fear or pain, or both could not be known.

"Everything has gone as you had planned," said once-Wesley. "Omnartus is dead, billions more mortal souls have been fed to the machine and the Inquisitor Etuarq's power, and influence grows."

The Thing sitting on the throne suddenly got to its feet, making the once-Wesley pause.

"His fate is sealed," It said after a long moment. "He does not know it, but he does your work, your bidding. The one with the initials AXK is now in place, and through him, chaos will spread throughout the Imperium of Man. Billions upon billions more will die, and billions more will know you and bow to you, as they rightfully should. It all started with the invasion of the seemingly insignificant little world of Elbyra, the invasion that you had guided through the Halo stars. All we need do now is wait for a few short decades, and all your plans will come into true fruition. The Imperium will burn, and the galaxy will be yours. My master, my weaver of fate."

The thing looked over its slender shoulder at once-Wesley and, with its massive beak of razor-sharp silver teeth, smiled.



Surrounded by her stormtrooper escort and Relcreth, her blank. Inquisitor Jelcine Enandra approached the bridge. She'd been fighting at the front, her still crackling power fist coated in gore and blood. Her armour splattered all over with the stuff. She walked by Darrance and Hayden Tresch; both were wounded and unconscious. Their backs were against the wall as two medically trained stormtroopers were treating them.

She'd also heard the word that poor Attelus, Torris and Helma were in critical condition back in her medicae triage on the Audacious Edge. If Enandra were the praying type, she would be praying for them on their behalf. She just hoped they'd live, to survive through all of that, only to die now would've been a tragedy.

According to Adelana, they were attacked by an Interrogator Rodyille, who was a double agent for Etuarq. She'd never known about this Rodyille until now; he must've been recruited during Torathe's three-year absence. She knew all of them were formidable; young Attelus' was skilled in particular, and for this, Rodyille to take out all of them single-handed spoke of great skill. Too bad Helma had been forced to kill him; Enandra would've liked to have...Learned from him.

Adelana had also claimed that Rodyille hinted there were others of his kind out there. More elite, unbalanced agents working for Etuarq somewhere, which scared Enandra more than she cared to admit.

She'd also lost communication with Arlathan and his kill squad hours ago. She'd only found out about the injured Darrance and Hayden a few minutes ago. There was no sign of Arlathan and the rest.

Enandra couldn't help feeling great concern; she'd come to like the ex-magistratum detective over the past three months. She saw great potential in Arlathan. Attelus too. But his was a different potential than Arlathan. Attelus could be a great assassin and spymaster, perhaps one day even surpassing his father in skill. He could also be a leader, a great planner and a manipulator. Attelus' mind was complex, labyrinthine and imaginative, according to Selva. Along with willpower and strength of character beyond belief.

But Arlathan! Arlathan Karkin had even greater potential; he could be genuinely great. He could be a true leader, cunning, forward-thinking and manipulative beyond compare and perhaps even more willful than Attelus. But he could also be charismatic; something Attelus Kaltos was not. Attelus had too much of his father in him. Enandra had already decided Arlathan would make for an excellent Interrogator. She had to admit, not many would see it, but Enandra did. That was one of the many reasons why she was an Inquisitor, she saw potential when others didn't or wouldn't, and so far, she'd never been wrong.

Enandra just hoped to hell she hadn't already sent him to his death.

They turned the corner directly, leading finally to the bridge of The Imperial Crusher. Enandra had ordered all her troops back, she wanted to take the bridge, she wanted to confront her former master, but she saw something unexpected. Something that made her stop dead in her tracks along with her escort.

She'd expected the huge adamantium doors to the bridge to be closed. The bridge staff inside waiting for their meltabombs to blow through, with their weapons raised.

But the door was already destroyed, and the scene inside took Enandra's breath away and bile to rise in her throat. If she weren't more versed in seeing such visages, from her decades of service to the Golden Throne, Enandra would've vomited onto the deck there and then.

Corpses laid everywhere, almost floating in a knee-high sea of blood that expanded out into the corridor.

With her powerfist, she hesitantly waved the others onward.

Their boots sloshing through the blood, they slowly approached, with guns raised.

Her stormtroopers were first in, fanning out with admirable calm and professional ability, Their hellguns covering every inch and corner.

Enandra, when she was a young Interrogator, must have been on this bridge countless times, and besides the numerous dead, it hadn't changed at all. The bronze walls with silver edging and the piloting cogitators and navigation view screens.

Enandra also recognised many of the dead, some she'd known for years, like captain Qyalt and many of Torathe's longest-serving warriors.

She then saw a few of hers, six of them all of them. Fultol Smetrel, Ukulth Nerlark, Olik Smarl, Kilvt Plyrth, Kajl Jofet and Serl Jorl. All of whom she'd sent to accompany Arlathan Karkin.

Relcreth's hand laid on her shoulder, but she didn't even flinch; she'd long ago gotten used to the presence and even touch of a psychic blank. He pointed, and Enandra looked to where he indicated, and she saw him. Inquisitor Devan Torathe laid as dead as everyone else; he wore his trademark grey carapace armour and grey storm coat. His once handsome features now creased with age, he was bald on top, but his long white hair around it grew to his hips. Enandra could see his throat had been slit.

Her eyes narrowed, not sure how to feel about this, not sure at all.

"Search for survivors!" she snapped and was about to say more, but suddenly one of the cadavers shuddered slightly.

Then something burst out from underneath, letting out a strangled scream.

In an instant, every gun, including Enandra's plasma pistol, was aimed at the blood-covered figure.

"I'm on your side!" the figure cried, raising his hands in supplication. "Don't shoot!"

"Who are you?" demanded sergeant Kollath.

The figure swallowed and instantly seemed to regret it before answering, "I am detective Arlathan Xathrian Karkin of the Omnartus Magistratum, and I'm on your side! I'm on your side!"
My short story Of An Asur living in the land of Bretonnia:

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Secret War: A Sanction for Sanity Chapter 1

#38 Post by Adrassil »

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Six figures moved lazily through the night. They wore battered flak armour roughly painted a light purple. The torches attached to their Las guns sweeping back and forth in lazy arcs across the battered landscape, the ruins of what was once a city.

There was undisciplined laughing and joking amongst them as they seemingly savoured the surrounding destruction with almost sickening glee.

The patrol stopped, looking over their shoulders as a massive explosion rocked the horizon, the result of some battle miles away. Then that was followed by another and another in quick succession.

The explosions suddenly stopped, and the six purple armoured figures stayed still for a few seconds more, standing in eager anticipation for another, but another never came. They turned, walking away in distinct disappointment even though, for all they could know, it may have been their allies killed in those explosions.

One of them stopped, reaching down and began to fumble with one of the pockets on his belt, the rest walked on, but another turned and said something that made them laugh out loud.

But one was cut short, his once hearty laughing interrupted by a horrific wet gurgling.

Before the other could even react, a knife flew past the first soldier's shoulder, glinting in the moonlight as it sped through the air, then the tip stuck fast into the second soldier's throat.

The remaining four stopped and turned; they saw one of their comrades lying face down in a slowly expanding pool of blood while the other was on his knees with a short shadowy figure standing behind him. The figure held a knife, a knife buried to the hilt in the base of the soldier's skull, while in the other, it held a laspistol, a laspistol which flashed four times.

The killer tore out his knife and swiftly descended on the six corpses like a desperate vulture.

The moonlight revealed that it was a young boy, no older than seventeen. A scruffy, dirty, beaten, and bloody teenager with long messy hair wearing a damaged old flak jacket.

With speed only a seasoned scavenger could be capable of, the boy retrieved what he needed. Ammo, rations amongst many other things, then he was gone, disappearing back into the night as though never there.

It took three hours for another patrol to stumble over the long before looted corpses of their comrades. But by then, the boy was a mile away, walking almost casually through the ruins, his hands in the pockets of his flak jacket and a smoking lho stick hanging from the corner of his mouth.


Attelus Kaltos suddenly awoke, sitting bolt upright, his mind snapping into the abrupt clarity forced on him right from day one of the war. His Laspistol raised to cover the entrance of his makeshift living space but found no one was there.

This didn't appease his suspicious instinct, so he swept his pistol to cover the entirety of the small space. Sweeping it back and forth for a good minute before finally deciding he was alone.

He relaxed slightly, and that was when he realised his hands were shaking like all hell.

Attelus ignored it; his hands always seemed to shake. At first, he had worried about it; it had even initially affected his aim. But now he had grown used to it, to compensate instinctively when lining up a shot.

He slid out from under his sleeping bag and glanced at his battered wrist chron seeing it be midday, then slowly approached the entrance of his hideout, his gun again ready. He had holed up in a basement that had survived despite the hab unit collapsing over it during the initial bombardment; this was his tenth hiding place now. The first three the enemy had forced him out. They attempted to smoke him out like a rat, but he had learned his lesson after that. Everyone he had left within a day, now he was always on the move.

But he had stayed here for two days now, far too long, he decided while walking up the stairs. But this place was warm, well sheltered from the harsh Varanderian winter as constant cold southerlies and powerful northerly winds buffeted the city day and night. That was why the rest of Velrosia during peacetime had nicknamed the capital city of Velrosia "Ventilated Varander." A terrible, horrifically cheesy name but one that Attelus couldn't help but agree with.

With a grunt, Attelus forced open the door slowly and slightly, peering out at the ruins outside.

The general area was free of anything but rubble and the wind, the frigging wind.

He dropped the door and walked back down the stairs. It was daytime, so that he would be still stuck indoors. It was better to move at night, sure there were more enemy patrols, but he could cling to the shadows. Going out during the day was almost suicide.

Attelus couldn't comprehend why the enemy still insisted on holding the ruins of Varander. There was very little left standing; hardly anyone left to subjugate, so why didn't they leave? Use the reinforcements garrisoned here to take part in the war in southern Velrosia (Attelus knew of the war down south due to the almost constant explosions from that direction.) Perhaps it was the symbolism that the city which had stood for a thousand years, surviving invasion after invasion as an embodiment of Velrosia as a country. Perhaps they wanted to show that now it was theirs forever, to rub salt into the horrific wound caused to the people of Velrosia from its destruction.

On second thought, why did he still insist on staying in Varander? He could be a lot safer if he fled into the thick endless bush to the north or perhaps even find sanctity in the south.

He shook away such thoughts. He didn't have the necessary supplies to flee so far. That wasn't something to dwell on; he needed to know was the enemy was here and needed to think about how to dodge their patrols.

How to survive.

Attelus began to pack up his supplies methodically. He wasn't leaving for a good nine hours, but it didn't hurt to be prepared, just in case.

He paused as he finished with his sleeping roll, seeing his sheathed sword lying on the floor at the end of his bed.

Ever since the start of the war, Attelus refused to use the monomolecular enhanced blade. Instead, using his stolen Laspistol, throwing knives and the knife he had taken from his first kill. It was idiotic, perhaps, but just looking at that sword brought back memories. His father, Serghar Kaltos, had given it to him when Attelus was a child, and he had trained with it for years. It was ironic, really, the weapon he had learnt to kill with so effectively, and finally, when he had the opportunity to use it, he didn't, he couldn't. It caused him to remember all that he had lost, and he couldn't afford to remember, and remembering was the worst thing to do when in such a fight for survival.

Attelus turned away from the sword. But still, he insisted on carrying it. It was a dead weight as long as he so resolutely refused to use it.

Perhaps it was because one day, maybe he could bring himself to wield it.

He then heard the yell, a huge bark in the harsh language of the invaders — the sound penetrating through the ceiling of the basement with ease.

Attelus almost jumped out of his skin, his pistol suddenly ready, his leaping heart lodged in his throat. Have they found him? He heard the all too familiar sound of Las fire followed by a piercing scream that sent shivers up his spine.

Someone ran straight over his basement, their feet lightly shaking the ceiling, and he could hear the gasping of what sounded like a woman.

He stood frozen, unsure of what to do.

A second later, her pursuers ran over the basement, reverberating the entire room with their horrifically heavy footfalls.

They weren't after him, that he was sure, but who was it they were chasing? Someone like him?

Should I go out there? He thought, should I try to help her? No, let her handle it; she was stupid enough to allow herself to get caught. Why should I go and risk myself to save her stupid skin?

He suppressed a sigh; in all honesty, the only reason he lived so long was because of the training. Serghar had taught him the necessary skills for survival; not many people could claim such aid. He had been alone for so long now; he was always a recluse, always a loner.

But now he realised with a start, he was lonely actually, truly lonely, and suddenly a fear fell over him, a fear like he had never felt before.

Attelus immediately snatched up his flak jacket, slipping it on with one swift motion. Then made for the door, throwing away pretence of precaution as he bashed them open and emerged into the sunlight. Immediately, he fell into a desperate reckless sprint, so much so that he almost tripped and fell.

He was now a creature of instinct, a creature completely attuned for survival, so running out so recklessly into the middle of the day seemed anathema to his very being. But something was overriding it. This fear, something deep down in him, knew if he didn't at least attempt to save this girl, this person, that all this scavenging and killing and desperation would be for nothing.

Then to the east, he heard it, more Las fire and from the sound of it was an intense exchange indeed.

Attelus slid to a halt and, for a few seconds, was at war with himself. Every ounce of him seemed to scream for him to turn, run back to the relative safety of his basement, but the fear was still there. The fear made his chest tight made it hard to draw breath; he had no idea why it made him run right into danger; usually, the fear made him stay away.

But this was not fear for his life but something more. Something that Attelus couldn't quite understand in his instinctive state, but he knew it was important, beyond important.

Without any further hesitation, Attelus ran on, sprinting over the rubble right toward the guns.

As he came closer and the sound of gunfire became more intense, Attelus slowed his pace, starting to sneak through the ruins moving quickly but cautiously.

He came to the ruins of what looked like an old store that was utterly caved in by an artillery shell; the gunfire came from the opposite side of the ruins.

Pushing his back against the remains of the wall, Attelus cautiously approached the corner and peered around it. What he saw made a cruel smile spread over his slender face, a corpse laid in the curb near the next corner, the body wearing the purple flak armour of the invaders.

Attelus slid out from cover; his Laspistol raised and approached the body. It looked like someone had unloaded an entire clip of las rounds point black into his torso, as evident from the scorching, gaping hole in his chest.

The teenager bent down and took the Laspistol from the corpse's holster. All the while, intentionally ignoring the man's face, a mutated face changed into something almost unrecognisable as human — changed by whatever foul god that the invaders worshipped.

Quickly he checked that the pistol's charge was full and moved onto the next corner with both pistols held tightly in his quivering hands, then he looked.

About twelve metres down the alleyway were nine purple armoured figures. Their backs to Attelus as they hugged cover behind a broken mound of rockcrete and exchanged fire with someone at the alley's end, which was a dead end.

Attelus smiled again and shook his head in complete contempt. The idiots were so intent on their prey that they had forgotten to cover their backs. A mistake that they wouldn't live to make again.

He swiftly stepped out from the corner, with both Las pistols raised to cover the attackers as he almost casually approached them.

They never noticed him until he opened fire, shooting the furthest two attackers simultaneously. As the rest turned to face this new threat, he shot the next most distant pair.

The one in the middle of the line as he turned, his raised Las gun was abruptly kicked from his grasp, then his teeth knocked in with the butt of a Las pistol. Without hesitation, Attelus lunged forward, so now to be standing between the two comrades, who were at once on the unconscious soldier's flanks.

Attelus' sidekick connected with the left side soldier's guts; hitting so hard the enemy flew into the man behind him, and they both collapsed into a hefty heap of limbs. The next on Attelus' right attempted to face Attelus, but the teenager's pistol-whipped him in the back of his neck. Stunning the man and forcing him to bend double forwards with the impact, allowing Attelus a clear shot at the next Invader.

The teenager's pistol spat twice, caving in the soldier's mutated face. Then he kneed the last stunned soldier straight in the throat; the blow threw the Invader onto his back, gasping on the ground and clutching his neck.

Without hesitation, Attelus finished them all off with four point-blank blasts of his Las pistol.

Killing like this was what his father taught him to do, use surprise to its fullest, to be efficient, merciless. Attelus couldn't help but feel his father would be proud.

"Hello?" the voice cut through the quiet, bringing Attelus back into reality, and he ducked swiftly to hide behind the debris.

"Hello?" the woman called again, and he could hear her careful footsteps on the beaten ground, "hello? I'm not going to hurt you."

Attelus couldn't respond as pain suddenly shot through his chest, and his hands began to shake worse than usual. He had no idea what to say, what to do after so long being alone, after only ever encountering humans who were trying to kill him. Finally, meeting someone who meant him no harm, but that terrified the young survivor more than he cared to admit.

"Hello," the woman said softly as if to a child, "you can come out; I mean you no harm."

She was getting closer to Attelus, and if he didn't act soon, she would be right on top of him.

He swallowed back his fear, clenched his teeth and in a split second, stood up with both pistols raised to cover her.

"Whoa!" the woman cried out, her hands quickly rose in supplication. She wore the familiar black with white trim flak armour that belonged to the Velrosian attachment of the planetary defence force. She was also stunning with a heart-shaped face and noble, elfin features. Her large eyes widened with fright, a piercing blue, her long deep black hair pulled back into a ponytail.

Her Las gun hung loosely from her shoulder, but Attelus took special note of a long sword sheathed behind her back.

"I am not here to hurt you," she said again slowly. Her eyes attached firmly to Attelus', "I am sergeant Estella Erith, of the Velrosian P.D.F. I am here to help you. Now please put the guns down-"

Estella had attempted to take a slow step closer as she said this, but the sudden violent gesture from Attelus' guns made her go no further.

"Alright," she said with a smile, "alright. I don't know how long you have been alone in these ruins for, but it is obviously long enough that you now find it hard to tell friend from foe. But, I can tell you, I can swear on my mother's grave that we are on the same side. I am not your enemy, now please lower your guns."

The boy clenched his jaw even tighter, and the guns didn't move even an inch. Something within him genuinely wanted to do it, but the rest of him wouldn't let him. He couldn't begin to believe that now, finally, he had found a friend; it just seemed just too good to be true.

A slight impatient frown creased her attractive face. "Okay, now I am going to reach for my gun, and I swear I am not going to try to shoot you with it. I am going to place it on the ground so that I can't attack you. If you drop your pistols, you can kill me if you see me do anything even slightly suspicious, okay?"

Despite himself, he answered her with a slight nod.

"Okay," and slowly Estella reached for her Lasgun, slowly she slid it off her shoulder, slowly she placed it on the ground, and she kicked it away and well out of reach all the while keeping her gaze locked onto his, then she got back to full height.

For what felt like hours, the pair just stood silent facing each other while Attelus fought a desperate war within himself, but finally, with a painful gasp, he lowered his guns.

Estella let out a sigh of relief, "now can I approach you without you shooting me?" she asked lightly.

He managed another nod, as suddenly he felt incredibly weary, wearier than he had ever felt before.

She smiled, nodding pleasantly back and walked to him, but halfway there, she suddenly stopped in her tracks, an expression of severe shock on her face, but it was gone as quickly as it came.

"So," she said when she approached but still keeping a respectful distance, "can I ask what your name is then?"

Attelus nodded again, finding himself already warming to her infectious smile.

Estella's eyes widened in an almost comical fashion, "so what is your name then?"

They came out almost immediately, the first words he had spoken since the start of the war: "My name... My name is Attelus. Attelus Kaltos," his once soft voice, now harsh and gravelly from a long time of disuse.

"Well, I am pleased to meet you, Attelus Kaltos," she said, holding out her hand to him.

He hesitated, immediately feeling the fear begin to creep back again.

"Don't be afraid, Attelus," she assured him softly, and something in her eyes immediately made it disappear.

For the first time in a long time, a genuine smile split across his dirty, bruised face, and he took her hand in his, his calm no longer shaking hand.

"Pleased to meet you too, Estella Erith," he replied. Standing on the ruins of what was once the greatest cities in Velrosia and perhaps even the most magnificent city on the entire planet of Elbyra, they shook hands in the ancient Terran way.
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Secret War: A Sanction for Sanity Chapter 2

#39 Post by Adrassil »

Attelus led Estella back to his hideout, holding her hand, only briefly letting go earlier so she could retrieve her Lasgun.

In all honesty, he never wanted ever to let go of her hand ever again. His heart jumped with so much joy it felt close to bursting out his chest, and the grin on his face, so big it felt close to tearing his dirty cheeks.

Finally, he had someone to talk to; he had someone to be with! Now, just suddenly, it seemed to fill a massive gap in Attelus. He couldn't describe it; he still couldn't completely understand it; Attelus just knew he wasn't lonely anymore.

They came to the entrance of his hideout, and he tore the doors open and walked inside, unaware of Estella's grimace at the smell wafting from its depths.

He turned to her, almost smiling from ear to ear, then went back to his pack, opened it and began to rummage through it.

"D-do you want something to eat?" he asked.

"Sure, thank you Attelus, I have been on the run for hours and haven't had any time to eat; that would indeed be very appreciated," she said, "but it might be a bit easier for you if you let go of my hand."

Attelus immediately stopped his search and turned to her with wide eyes.

"Oh!" he said, distinctly blushing, "sorry," and hesitantly let go.

Estella smiled and began to wander around, looking around the small basement.

Finally, Attelus found what he was looking for, tugging from his battered backpack the dried field rations he had lived on for the past few months when she asked.

"Is that your sword over there?"

He froze and turned back to her. "Y-yes."

"You don't mind if I have a look, do you?"

After a few seconds of thought, he shook his head. "N-no, go ahead."

She smiled and picked up the sword, then slid it slightly from its sheath.

"It's a good sword, Attelus," she said, "but..."

"It's monomolecular?" he finished; before the war, mono enhancements were illegal for blades in Elbyra for the reason that Attelus didn't care for and his father didn't care for as well.

Estella nodded and abruptly slid the sword out, stepping into an impressive but fanciful flourish and returned it into its sheath.

"It is a very, very good blade," she said as she sat across from him, "the balance is perfect, and it was masterfully made; it must have cost a fortune. You don't mind if I ask, who gave it to you?"

Attelus handed her one of the ration cans and began to tear into his food with a plasteek utensil.

"Thanks," she said.

"It was my dad he..." Attelus managed through a mouthful, "he gave it to me."

Despite going so long without food, Estella ate with an almost ingrained refined grace.

"Thank you again, Attelus; I have more rations in my pack to reimburse you for these."

Attelus paused briefly in his ravenous eating, treating her with a happy, broad smile that said, "don't worry about it."

"So who gave you your sword?" he asked.

"Umm, sorry?"

The teenager swallowed his mouthful with a substantial animated gulp and asked, "who gave you yours?"

"Oh, this?" Estella looked down at the sheathed blade at her hip, "my father gave me mine too, funny that."

"Your good with it too," he commented, "did your father train you?"

"No," she said, looking back to him, "it was our family's master of the blade who taught me."

Attelus paused before biting his next mouthful and raised his eyebrows in distinct bemusement, "family's master of the blade...are you?"

"Yes, I am," she paused, "or I...was a noble."

"That explains it then."

It was Estella's turn to be bemused, "explains what then?"

"It explains the way you used my sword," he stated, "your technique looked very familiar, looked a lot like the sword style which Velrosian nobles are taught it in, Valisuth."

"You could tell that from just one move?"

"Yep, sometimes I would watch the tournaments you nobles take part in, before the war, I mean, to learn the way you fight, that flourish you used was a Tsured am I right?"

"Yes, yes, it was."

"It's an advanced move. Not taught until the fifth stage of Falisuth, and you did it almost instinctively, which shows you're very skilled."

Estella smiled, "I appreciate the compliment, Attelus, but actually, Tsured is not taught until the sixth level of Falisuth."

Attelus shrugged and began to chew on another mouthful. "Which just further emphasises my statement, you're good. I like Falisuth; it's a good style, even if it's a bit too fanciful for my taste."

"It is the style that king Royd Antares himself created after he returned from Despasia and liberated Velrosia from under the rule of the tyrant of Maranger, Voltarin," said Estella with no small amount of pride.

Attelus shrugged, "yes, but it's a style meant for someone with almost superhuman agility and speed. According to the legends Royd had each in such quantity, he may as well have been one of the Emperor's Primarchs."

Estella smiled widely at that. "He may well have been, you never know Attelus, you never know. Anyway, speaking of superhuman speed and agility, how did you learn to fight? I saw you kill all those..." she paused as a grimace of disgust came across her attractive face, "...traitor guardsmen, I was very much impressed."

Attelus turned away, trying to hide the sudden flush to his cheeks at the compliment, "I-I caught them by surprise; that was the only reason why I took them down."

"It was still an impressive feat, Attelus; I don't think that many of the scouts of the Velrosian 1st could perform such a feat."

He reddened even worse, "th-thanks."

"W-what happened to your parents?" Attelus blurted out.

Estella raised an eyebrow, not in annoyance but curiosity. "Why do you ask?"

"Y-you said that you were no longer a noble; what did you mean by that?"

"Oh," she said, and Attelus immediately regretted asking the question as a look of extreme sadness appeared on her face, "I did? Alright, but first, can I ask you a question?"

"S-sure."

Tears appeared in her blue eyes. "What happened to you, Attelus? Where are your parents? Why are you in these ruins alone? You should not worry about me; I am not the one who has fought such a desperate fight in these ruins for so long."

Attelus stared at her, feeling tears well in his own eyes, "I-I don't know, it j-just happened, one second I'm walking home from my scholam and then the bombs came, and, and..."

He whipped away his tears with his sleeve, "then everything went to hell I don't know I-"

She suddenly took Attelus into her arms, embracing the boy tightly as he cried ragged sobs into her chest.

"It's okay," she cooed. "It's okay."
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Secret War: A Sanction for Sanity Chapter 3

#40 Post by Adrassil »

When Attelus finally pulled away, his large hazel eyes were red with tears. In all honesty, he felt guilty as well. Estella had seemingly confused his questions as a legitimate concern, but actually, he asked them more from his suspicion than much else.

"Thank you," he managed.

She smiled and nodded back. "It's no problem, Attelus," then she sighed. "Alright, the reason why I am no longer a noble is-."

"You don't need to tell me," he interrupted, "if you don't want to."

"No, it's okay, Attelus, I want to tell you, you see I am," she paused, 'or I was the youngest daughter of Lord Isaac Erith he was the lord of the small northeastern province of Tasilin, I don't know if you have heard of it."

Attelus nodded confirmation.

"When the bombs struck Attelus, they didn't just ravage Varander but most of north Velrosia, including my brother's city..."

"Your brother's city?" asked Attelus.

"Yes, my father died a few years ago, so my brother had taken Lordship," she paused, "the city of Foruthian was where my brother sat in power; it was also the city the hardest hit; nothing was left standing from what I have heard."

Attelus looked to the floor, unsure exactly what to say, "I'm sorry...where were you when the bombardment began?"

She smiled, "I was south, serving with the P.D.F. in Hyrition..."

Her words trailed away as she stared blankly at the wall in what seemed to be reverie.

"A-Are you okay?"

His words brought her abruptly back into reality, "yes, yes, I'm okay."

"I'm sorry, Estella."

"It's okay, Attelus," she smiled sadly and patted him on the thigh, "it's okay."

"I uhm, can I can ask you another question?"

"Sure."

He sighed; it was the most obvious question of all, the one which he really should have asked right from the start but hadn't been able to build up the courage until now. "How did you get here?"

Estella grinned and shook her head in amusement, "I knew you would ask this sooner or later and fair enough."

She swallowed before continuing. "My squad and I were sent to scout the ruins of Varander. Our forces had managed to fight a small gap in the enemy line, which allowed for my squad and I to sneak through without detection. Everything was going well until we were..."

"Ambushed?" Attelus asked with wide eyes; he could see where this was going from a mile away.

"We were," she said with a nod, "but don't get me wrong, the foolish ill-disciplined soldiers did not ambush my squad that you have seen, no these, these attackers they were different."

"How so?"

"For starters, Attelus, they did not wear purple flak armour like the rest of the invaders, no they wore red, and..." she paused, shivering despite the warmth." They wore iron masks with grotesque; horrific visages emblazoned like, like-like snarling daemons, and they were good, very, very good disciplined and brutal."

Her tone and body language welled with pride. "There were eighty of them Attelus, eighty! And even though they had the surprise and we were only twenty, by the time we were two, they were reduced to twenty. Trooper Herst Vanti and I were the only ones remaining; he was badly injured. I tried to carry him with me as we ran, but..."

She paused, her pride replaced by a sudden sadness, "at his insistence, he stayed and gave me cover fire while I ran; it was thanks to him I managed to escape."

Estella must have seen the shock in Attelus' eyes, "I did not want to leave him, Attelus, but we still had to complete our mission, I still had to complete our mission to scout the ruins of Varander, so here I am with you, my friend."

Suddenly Attelus sighed.

"What's wrong?" she asked, concerned.

"You've lost so much," he said, shaking his head, "so much more than I have, your brother, your city, your squad, and here you are comforting me, I-I..."

Estella's expression turned hard, "Attelus Xanthis Kaltos, how old are you?"

He looked at her, incredulous, "what?"

"How old are you?" she demanded again, this time with much more force.

"I don't know; I don't know, I'm sixteen- seventeen maybe, I think."

Estella hugged him tightly again and said in his ear, "Attelus, I am thirty-five years old; I have served in the military for seventeen years. It's hard for me, but you have to remember that you are still a child, you are skilled at fighting, and you have killed, but you are still young, and nothing, nothing could have prepared you for this hell. So do not think for one second that I am any worse off than you. Nobody your age should be forced through this, absolutely no one."

Attelus hugged her back but thought as he did, how the hell did she know my middle name?

They talked for another hour or so, but it was soon evident to Attelus just how exhausted Estella was despite her putting on a face.

Finally, he asked, "how long were you on the run?"

She looked at him with weary eyes before replying. "Two days, Attelus. The patrol was chasing me earlier; I stumbled upon when I entered the Varanderian outskirts, just my frigging luck. I was foolish. I didn't think the enemy still patrolled the ruins."

Attelus frowned. "Yeah, I was recently wondering along the same lines. But enough about that, I can see that you're exhausted; take some rest."

She nodded a slow, tired movement. "Are you sure? Will you be alright?"

He smiled, shaking his head in amusement. "Yeah, I think I'll be alright. I've lived alone for this long I think I can cope now, perhaps. Get some rest, Estella. We're going to move at dark. I've been in the place for too long now, and after that battle, we might attract more unwanted attention."

"M-kay," Estella said softly as she began to slip onto her side, her eyes slowly shutting simultaneously, "wake me when it is time."

Attelus nodded, although he knew she wouldn't be able to see it.

He sat and watched Estella sleep, trying to remember whether or not he had told her his middle name. But after a while, he shook away such thoughts, now wasn't the time to dwell on that.

Attelus slowly got to his feet again and started up the stairs to look outside with a sigh.

He now had a guard duty to perform.
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Secret War: A Sanction for Sanity Chapter 4

#41 Post by Adrassil »

Attelus laid in a makeshift shelter amongst the rubble near the entrance of the hideout; he tried to fall back into his instinct, but it proved impossible; he couldn't rid himself of the nagging thoughts of Estella.

Her sudden appearance, her inexplicable knowledge of his middle name.

She seemed genuine, but he had been alone for so long, and now, he wasn't so sure what to make of it, of her and the new complications her presence potentially created.

It was like his father used to say; "if it seemed too good to be true, it usually was."

He sighed to himself. The next eight hours went by slowly, and the entire time Attelus fought desperately with boredom and lingering thoughts. Only a few hours ago, he wouldn't have had to worry about such a trivial matter, and he found he missed that mindset; everything seemed simpler.

The watch went without any new complications, and as night drew near, Attelus slid silently from his hiding place and walked inside.

He found her still fast asleep, and he felt a twinge of guilt as he hesitantly reached over and gently shook her awake.

"Hmm, is it time to go already?" Estella said as she rolled onto her side.

"Uhh, yeah..." Attelus trailed off as he realised he was blushing again; he had never been in such a situation before.

Estella pushed herself into a sitting position and stretched with a huge yawn.

"Alright!" she exclaimed all of a sudden on her feet and moving to gather her weapons, "have you any plans on where to go next, Attelus?"

"Uhh, I did," said Attelus as he reached over to his pack to retrieve something to eat, "good space to hide, three kilometres east of here, but..."

She paused, looking at him sidelong with wide eyes. "But?"

"Well...that place was once viable but now with us killing that patrol..."

"The place may have enemies near it now?" she finished.

Attelus could only nod, his gaze guiltily falling to the floor.

Estella grinned and slapped him playfully on the shoulder. "Don't worry, Attelus! I know that you're not blaming me! I hope I can make it up to you, though, by helping you find another."

"Thanks, Estella," he said with a smile and a nod, then opened his new pack of food and began to tear into it, "we should have something to eat before we go, though."

They ate in silence for another nine minutes, and it was Estella who finally broke it.

"You know...we don't actually have to look for another hideout Attelus," she said.

He swallowed his latest large mouthful and looked at her intently. "Why?"

She met his gaze with her beautiful blue eyes, "I will have to go soon, Attelus; I will have to go back south to report my findings to general Tathe."

Attelus nodded, then his eyes went as wide as sauces, "Tathe? You mean the general Tathe of the Elbyran detachment? He's here? Really?"

Estella smiled widely. "Yes, he is, the fabled General of the "First Amongst Equals" is really here, apparently when he heard of the attack on Elbyra, he instantly made a large portion of the protectorate fleet come to our aide."

"Have...have you met him?" asked Attelus in no small amount of awe.

"I did; he actually ordered my squad personally on this mission, he could have sent the fabled Velrosian 1st scouts, but he chose us," she said with pride.

Attelus frowned as the cynic in him suggested her squad were only sent because they were more expendable. Before the war, he had researched into the great general Tathe. He knew the general wasn't actually a native of Velrosia or even a native Elbyran; he was an off worlder who had been made by the Warmaster himself to command the Elbyran Imperial guard detachment.

Tathe was the one who decided (and with a considerable amount of controversy) that the separate countries of Elbyra would make a separate regiment each, The Velrosian 1st recon, the Marangerian 1st light infantry, the Galak Heim 1st heavy infantry and the Despasian 1st armoured division.

It was an audacious decision which Tathe had infamously said; "It will inspire rivalry among the men, and make them fight all the harder."

From what Attelus heard, it worked. The Velrosian 1st was highly, highly lauded throughout Segmentum Obscurus for their skill in battle, and the rest of the attachment was well known as well.

This was a great source of pride for the Velrosian citizenry, and Attelus knew of many students from his scholam who had enlisted right on their eighteenth birthday.

"You have been here for a long time now, Attelus," Estella said on, bringing Attelus out of his train of thought, "I need to ask you, do you know where the enemy patrols are coming from?"

Attelus paused in mid-chew, thinking. "Hmm, yeah, I do; they all seem to come from somewhere in the north-west. Of course, knowing that, I've kept as far away from that area as possible."

"I still need to find at least the approximate disposition of the enemy here," said Estella.

Attelus nodded, "I see. So you'll need to go there to look."

"And then leave Varander to meet back with the General to report my findings," said Estella, "I would report over vox, but my personal one is out of range, and my squad's vox unit was destroyed in the ambush."

"Fair enough."

"And you should come back with me."

Attelus' eyes widened.

"I will go north-west alone," she said before he could adequately respond, "I can scout the area by myself, just hide in the ruins until we can make rendezvous-"

"No," Attelus interrupted as he suddenly got to his feet, "we don't need to rendezvous because I'm coming with you."

"But-"

"I am coming with you. As you said, I've lived in these ruins for a long time now, so I know this place far better than you do, you need my help," he sighed, "and you're right I need to leave, I have thought about leaving a few times but haven't been able to work up the courage, but now...Now with you here..."

He trailed off and smiled at her.

She smiled back, "thank you, Attelus."

"It's the least I can do," he said as he went to retrieve his equipment, "It's the very least I can do."
My short story Of An Asur living in the land of Bretonnia:

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Adrassil
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Secret War: A Sanction for Sanity Chapter 5

#42 Post by Adrassil »

They moved through the night. Sliding ever silently from shadow to shadow, ruin to ruin like born spectres.

At first, they went westward, out into the hilly suburbs surrounding the city's central business district, while along the way taking advantage of Varander's many bush filled parks to mask much of their advance.

Varander was built eight kilometres along the northern coast of Lake Varander and sprawled further inland north for another twenty. A good majority of Varander is almost entirely made of hills, its roads ever falling and rising, turning and winding in harmonious accordance with the landscape. Of course, the streets were all now cracked and cratered, bent out of shape from the bombardment.

Attelus liked Varander; sure, it wasn't perfect with the almost constant wind, the cold winters and many people loved to complain about the endless hills; he didn't mind them at all though, they gave the city some character.

They moved as quickly uphill as down; Attelus had walked Varander countless times; he was used to traversing the terrain. He knew the city well.

Once when walking through the bush on a high hill, Estella briefly stopped to stare intently over the coastline lake and city below.

It was an uncharacteristically cloudless, calm winter's night in Varander, they could feel the edge of cold in the air but no wind to enhance it.

"It is just amazing, Attelus," she had said, "that somehow...even after all this destruction, Varander can still look so beautiful."

Attelus didn't reply; he couldn't as he wasn't looking at the scenery; he was looking at her; seeing Estella in the moonlight suddenly made it extremely hard to exhale.

"Attelus?" she said, turning back to him when he didn't answer.

"W-we really s-should get m-moving," he stammered stupidly.

She raised a bemused eyebrow, "Yes, you are right, but are you alright, Attelus? You're acting strange."

With no small effort, Attelus managed to tear his attention away from Estella.

"Y-yeah, I'm okay; let's go."

They were back on the move again, with Attelus fighting the sudden urge to always look over his shoulder to make sure that Estella was still following behind him.

She always was but looking would allay the fear for a little while before forcing Attelus to look again.

It was a distraction that he couldn't afford, and he again found missing the more simplistic time before her appearance.

Once three kilometres into the west, they turned north, zigzagging through back streets and back yards, moving through the hills as chaotically as they could.

Six times, they came close to enemy patrols; each time, they had to hunker down amongst the ruins just out of sight.

Each patrol consisted of ten purple armoured Chaos soldiers and reinforced by a half-track armoured personnel carrier.

As they moved more and more north, Attelus became surer and surer where the encampment was.

They walked off a side street and into the bush.

"Be careful," Attelus hissed over his shoulder, "there's should be a sharp incline-"

He stopped short as his foot found air.

With a cry of fear, his hand shot out, grabbing onto a nearby branch before he could fall down the bank proper.

"Attelus, are you okay?" asked Estella behind him.

Attelus didn't answer at first as he struggled to find his breath.

"Y-yeah, I'm okay," he said, turning back to the concerned Estella, "I almost fell..."

He sniggered slightly. "How frigging ironic would that be? Just as I tell you to be careful of a sharp incline, I immediately fall down it."

Estella sniggered back. "Well, you are lucky you didn't then..."

She trailed off as she looked over his shoulder and into the deep gorge.

"Well, it looks as though you found their base of operations, Attelus," she said.

He smiled and looked back; in the gorge below, lights shone brighter than anywhere else in Varander. The gorge was vast, stretching eight kilometres westward from Varander's main highway, with the road flowing through it into more suburbs beyond.

Logically, it was perfect for the enemy to make their base in the gorge, protected by the surrounding hills. It was already a heavily industrialized area full of maintenance sheds and buildings that were excellent for their vehicles.

"The Nagwai gorge," he said, "I had a feeling this is where they would be."

"Yeah," she breathed, "and I can see why."

Estella reached over and affectionately mussed up his long brown hair.

"You have done well, Attelus," she said, "thank you."

He blushed again and smiled. "No problem, no problem at all."

Estella smiled back, and they hunkered down into the bush.

She took a pair of binoculars from her belt and raised them to her view while brushing a few strands of black hair off her face.

With great effort, Attelus managed to tear his attention away from the beautiful soldier to keep an eye on their surroundings.

"Hmm," she murmured, "they seem to be very busy for so late at night."

"Perhaps they're preparing to move out?" suggested Attelus.

"Hmm maybe, from what I can see, Attelus, they have six squads worth of the purple armoured soldiers, each with a Half-track transport, it seems."

"Anything else?"

"N-whoa!"

Attelus' attention snapped back at her, his heart suddenly leaping in his chest. "What? What's wrong, Estella?"

She lowered her binoculars, her eyes wide.

"I don't know there was something, moving through the buildings, it was quick, really, really quick. I could hardly catch a view."

"Can I have a look?"

She nodded and handed him her binoculars.

He saw all she described, the six squads of twenty soldiers each camped in front of their Chimeras; what he found strange was that they seemed relaxed too relaxed.

Attelus swept his view over the edge of the camp, they were fenced in, but he saw no sign of any overt patrol.

He lowered the binoculars and turned to Estella, "something isn't right, I can't see any signs of any obvious patrols, yet they seem way too relaxed."

Estella frowned, shaking her head, "I know, but we had a deadline, Attelus we were meant to report back to General Tathe a day ago, but I cannot get a proper disposition with binoculars up here; I need to go down there."

"And that means you're going to go now?"

When Estella looked down and didn't answer, Attelus turned away, sighed and shook his head, "Okay, you're late. I understand that," he said, "but the mission has gotten a little more complicated; the only logical option is that we wait, Estella. We wait, and we watch."

"I can't wait-"

"Perhaps for a day, perhaps two," he interrupted, "let them show us their numbers and perhaps whatever it was you saw will show itself as well. We can't rush in any way if you want to get a proper 'll have to look inside every single warehouse, and there must be dozens down there; it's only a few hours before dawn. If we do it now, we'll be caught and killed or captured."

"Attelus!" she said, her large blue eyes desperate, "you must understand that I cannot delay any more."

He shook his head again, "as far as I can see it, and as you should too if we don't delay if we go in now, neither of us will live to give Tathe the findings."

Estella sighed, "you don't understand, Attelus; this is my last chance, my last chance to prove..."

Attelus furrowed his brow, "last chance? Last chance to prove what?"

She attached her eyes to his. "To prove myself to general Tathe to prove to the Velrosian 1st I'm good enough."

"Good enough for what?"

"Good enough to make scout," she said, "a few years ago, I tried to join the Velrosian 1st as a scout, but I failed; I failed the test. I was about to ship out as a normal trooper, but my father pulled some strings and made me stay in the PDF. So can't you see this is my last chance?"

"But you'll die!" he cried, feeling sudden strong desperation come to the surface, the strongest, most overtaking desperation he'd ever felt.

Estella's face suddenly turned as hard as stone. "If I did, then I die Attelus, I am a soldier in the God-Emperor's service, and it is my duty to die in his name."

"But you'll die for nothing! Estella...isn't there enough pointless sacrifice in your God-Emperor's name in this universe already? Why do you have the urge to add yourself to the tally? Estella, please listen to me."

Her expression didn't change. "When I first found you, you gave me the twenty questions. You really, really did, and fair enough, Attelus, if I were in your situation, I would do the same. But now it's my turn, I think. I saw you kill that patrol; I watched all of it. I'm wondering how someone of your age got the necessary training to perform such a feat."

Attelus frowned, bemused at Estella's sudden change of subject. "A-as I said, it was only because I took them by surprise."

She shook her head and looked pointedly at the sword sheathed at his hip, "you said your father gave you that, didn't you? That highly, highly illegal mono-sword, so I'm going to assume your father was also the one who taught you how to fight. Am I right?"

He could only manage a slight nod in response.

"Well, who is your father then, Attelus Xanthis Kaltos?" she demanded sharply, "Sly frigging Marbo...?"

She trailed off as she saw the evil smile spread across his face.

"You did it again," he said.

"What? Did what again?"

"You called me by my middle name again," he said.

Immediately Estella's attractive face paled white with fear.

"I..."

It was then the stench hit Attelus, the strange stench that overpowered any scent from the surrounding bush, a stench which reminded Attelus of rancid off milk and something else he couldn't quite put his finger on.

"Can you smell that?" he said, sniffing the air, "it's like off milk, milk and...and..."

"Mint," she finished, "milk and crushed mint...what the?" Estella's eyes widened even more, her attention fixing over Attelus' shoulder.

"Attelus, move!" she bellowed suddenly.

Without hesitation, he lunged, slipping sidewards faster than the eye could follow.

Attelus slid to a stop and spun back, Las pistol raised. Seeing Estella, her expression impassive, now on her knees in the undergrowth and shooting her Las gun on fully automatic. The flashing fire lit up the night and tore through the bush as she strafed her fire after some unseen target.

Then he saw it; the gigantic hole sheered indiscriminately through the bush where he once stood, and the razor-sharp metallic shrapnel showered amongst it.

Attelus managed to tear his attention away from the horrific destruction, Laspistol snapping around as he desperately searched in the direction of Estella's stream of fire for a target.

Now the foul stench of mint and milk was almost overwhelming, and Attelus fought the urge to gag.

Estella's Las gun clicked dry, and with one swift movement, she reloaded.

"What the hell was that?" he yelled, "did you kill it?"

"No! Frig it! I am sure that I hit it, frig!" Estella snarled as she got back on her feet, teeth clenched, eyes wide with fear, "Attelus, we need to run, run through the bush strafing side to side, use the trees as cover as much as you can."

Attelus frowned and looked pointedly to the devastation wrought to the bush by the enemy's weaponry; no tree could even begin to protect them from that.

"Run! Run now!" she roared.

Attelus immediately fell into a sprint, long legs carrying him through the bush, never slowing even while dodging and weaving through the trees. All the while hoping like all hell Estella could keep up, fighting the urge to look back to see if she was following.

Running for only the Emperor knows how long, Attelus sprinted into a small semi clearing, lunging over a large fallen log and hunkering down behind it.

Sweat stained and struggling for air, Attelus carefully looked over the log and found much to his extreme disparagement, the complete absence of anyone following him.

"No," he gasped, slowly shaking his head in disbelief, "no! No! No!"

Sudden pain flared through his chest as powerful panic threatened to overwhelm him. Had she lied? Saying she'd run but instead staying to distract the attackers from his escape? Was she unable to keep up with him? Did she get lost?

Attelus glanced around his surroundings; it was obvious it was hard to get lost, the hillside still sloped clearly, and he could make out through the trees the road, barely thirty metres uphill.

He was well adjusted to the bush, having grown up in a small town far north of Varander and ever since his youth Attelus seemed to have an innate sense of direction, whether walking the countryside or urban areas, he could always find his way no matter where and in this panicked state, now was no different.

She must've stayed. Even if she couldn't have kept up, she could have just keep running straight.

With this revelation, Attelus moved to climb over the log; he needed to go back, he needed to save her, he needed to make sure she was okay.

Glimpsing the slight movement in the treetops made Attelus go no further. Whatever the hell it was, it was frigging fast and seemed to flow through the bush like water, and immediately Attelus' sense of smell was again assailed by the horrifically strong stench of milk and crushed mint; it wasn't Estella and wasn't human.

Trying to control his ragged breathing, Attelus raised his pistol. Attempting to peer through the canopy, his heart in his throat and his shaking hands worse than ever before.

A sudden movement in the trees made Attelus' attention snapped to its source, his Laspistol flashing five times, crazing and cutting through the scenery.

None of the shots hit, but briefly; the light from the lasers revealed his target and horrific fear shot through his body.

It was clinging to the side of a tree, a grey-skinned lizard-like sinuous quadrupedal form with red eyes and a massive snouted, sharp-toothed grinning maw. It looked to Attelus like something taken straight from a horror holovid. And the gun attached to its chest was pointed right at him.

The teenager leapt barely a second before where he sat was entirely engulfed in an all-encompassing shower of razor-sharp shards.

He landed badly, almost twisting his ankle on impact, but the adrenaline drove him on as the Thing fired again, making the bush behind him erupt into a shroud of slivers, slivers that bounced off or stuck fast into his flak jacket.

After making a few metres Attelus, made enough of a gap to safely stop and shoot five rounds in the Thing's general direction, the first three missed completely, but again he used the light from the laser to reveal where it was, allowing Attelus to adjust his aim for the last two. The fifth hit the weapon on the Thing's chest, which blistered and moulded out of shape from the heat.

Immediately the Xenos seemed to know its weapon was inoperable as it lunged from the tree and began to slither across the clearing at a terrifying speed. Its smiling maw snapping forward to crush his skull.

He desperately sidestepped its huge jaws and brought his gun to bear, but it seemed to have anticipated his dodge, suddenly slashing out its razor-sharp claws.

His backpedalling was quick enough to avoid all but their tips as they sliced cleanly through his flak jacket and across his chest.

He howled in pain and stumbled further, managing still to raise his pistol and unloaded the last of his clip into its scaly torso. Six point-blank shots that, much to Attelus' dismay, did nothing but make it reel slightly from the impacts.

Las weaponry seemingly ineffective, he holstered his pistol and reached for another weapon. Attelus' first instinct was to go for his sword but drew his knife instead. Figuring the power and momentum he could put behind the shorter blade's tip would pierce its thick hide easier than if stabbing it with his mono sword, and he slipped into a defensive stance as the creature stood watching him, ready to lunge.

Then it struck, turning around suddenly to smash its long tail into him.

Attelus bounded back, just out of reach from its tail, but the surge of air with it almost threw him off his feet.

The Thing recovered swiftly, slashing its claws Attelus managing to dive under them as they blurred out to decapitate him.

Quickly, he clambered to his feet, twisting to face the creature as it drew back to attack again.

It lunged, the massive jaws descending on him in a blur. But this time, Attelus was ready; he slid sidewards from the bite and, with all his strength, stabbed the knife deep into its neck.

The Thing snarled and squirmed in agony but was far from dead, Attelus barely managing to tear out his knife before It turned and swiped around its tail.

The teenager leapt backwards wildly, making it so far to prevent the impact from shattering every bone in his body, but the tail's tip still struck him a glancing blow.

Attelus cried out as pain erupted through his left arm, and he was flung face-first into the dirt.

With a groan, he began to slowly get back onto his feet, watching the creature as it writhed around in the undergrowth, and he reached over for his fallen knife.

The Xenos seemed to sense his recovery as it suddenly just slipped off its back and onto its feet, Its jaws opening, the drool visibly rolling down the rows of razor-sharp, curved teeth as it prepared to leap on him.

His heart lunging in his chest and gasping for breath, Attelus stared it down, his hand an inch from his fallen knife, ready to draw it the very moment the Thing lunged.

Then he heard the noise, the very brief sound of what could have been the cracking of crushing bone not far into the west. The Thing must have heard it, too, as its attention immediately fixated toward it.

Attelus saw his opportunity and didn't hesitate; in the blink of an eye, he snatched up his knife then plunged it straight into the creature's eye.

It convulsed and tried to turn, but with a snarl of his own, Attelus twisted the knife deeper into its eye socket, and it spasmed more. With a sharp tug, he tore out the blade and stabbed it into its skull; then, he plunged it down over and over again.

He only stopped when it was very, very dead. Utterly covered in blood, exhausted and gasping for air Attelus rolled back and sat amongst the undergrowth.

Sudden anger boiled to the surface, overtaking the fatigue. How could've he been such an idiot? While they were so close to the enemy's base camp, choosing then to argue with Estella? The arguing consequently led to those things sneaking on them. If it wasn't for the Xenos stinking of milk and crushed mint...

He snarled out a curse, and because of that idiocy, Estella may be dead.

His chest tightened, and he began to weep ragged sobs into his hands.

+Now isn't the time to cry, Attelus.+

The words suddenly echoed through his thoughts, making him blink and rock forward in surprise; it was Estella's voice.

"Estella?" he called out, "Estella, is that you?"

+Now Attelus now is the time to move! Move! Move now!+

Without further hesitation, he lunged, diving behind a thick, gnarled old tree a millisecond before the Las fire rained through the bush around where he had been sitting.

The figures came into view, three of them advancing confidently through the trees, Lasrifles sweeping professionally. They weren't the regular army soldiers; even in the dark, Attelus could make out the grotesquely daemonic images on their iron masks and the bloody crimson of their armour.

The ones who killed Estella's squad.

He leaned out from his tree, opening up with his laspistol, and two of the red armoured warriors buckled and collapsed; the third was flung back, winged.

Then the night suddenly became alight as the rest fought back, causing Attelus to flinch back into cover from the sheer intensity of the Las fire.

Attelus cursed and glanced over the terrain; on his right, it was completely overgrown with underbrush making it almost impossible for them to flank him from that direction, but he couldn't use it to fall back either; in fact,,, the bush had him surrounded virtually entirely.

He cursed again and savagely smashed the handle of his laspistol into his tree; he was pinned, boxed inside a veritable frigging death trap.

There was a sudden lull in their fire, and immediately he twisted out and almost emptied the Laspistol's clip in a wild, inaccurate flurry; none of the shots even came close but still sent the soldiers scurrying for cover, including the figures who were advancing to flank him.

Attelus barely made it back in time before it began to rain down las fire again.

He couldn't make out how many flankers there were but knew they would be on him very soon, and his eyes widened as an idea hit him, and he looked up.

The tree was old but still quite climbable, the many branches protruding straight from the primary trunk-like arms.

It was a risk, but at the moment, his only option, and with a grunt, he jumped, grabbing onto the lowest branch and hauled himself up, climbing quickly but carefully not to disturb the tree.

He made it up a few metres before they came around the tree, eight of them fanning outwards with smooth precision.

Attelus immediately opened fire, cutting down the farthest three with a brief blaze of las, and before the rest could even begin to react, Attelus holstered his pistol and jumped out of the tree.

He landed straight onto the first soldier, plunging the tip of his knife straight through the man's mask and skull, dropping so the collapsing corpse would absorb the full force of the fall.

Attelus finished into a kneel as the next warrior reeled back, the first falling soldier dealing him a glancing blow. With one swift movement, Attelus drew his sword, disembowelling the stunned attacker on the draw and got to his feet.

As the last doubled over in agony, the third reacted with respectable speed, swinging out skillfully with the butt of his Las gun to smash in Attelus' skull.

Attelus swayed under the rifle stock and slipped onto the soldier's right flank, simultaneously bringing up his blade, cutting cleanly through the man's arm at the elbow.

Before the man could scream, Attelus sliced back down and severed the soldier's spine at the base of the skull.

The fourth lunged at Attelus, thrusting at him with a bayonet.

Attelus sidestepped and smashed the stabbing rifle down into the dirt with an overhead arc of his sword, then brought the blade in a lightning-fast, horizontal cut across the attacker's jugular.

It was then he saw the fifth and last enemy had used the time to back away to bring his gun to bear more effectively.

With a massive sidekick, Attelus sent the bleeding out soldier sprawling straight at his comrade, the limp, flailing body knocking the lasgun's aim, of course. But the other red armoured soldier was disciplined, and in a split second, he recovered to cut Attelus down in a hail of point-blank las fire.

But that split second was long enough for Attelus to draw a throwing knife from his flak jacket and to send it flying straight toward the man's daemonic mask.

It connected with an audible clang! Not with enough power to kill the man but enough to send the soldier's skull smashing back with whiplash and throwing his full auto spray fly wild.

The shots kissed close to Attelus' ear, making him flinch in fright.

And he drew his pistol then shot the stunned soldier three times through the torso.

He hunkered down, retrieved his knife, tugged a Las gun from the grasp of the nearest twitching corpse and despite himself laughed out loud, finding it funny that despite all their supposed skill, they still fell for the old "jumping from on high" trick.

With a shake of his head, he spun out quickly and opened up with his newly acquired gun on full auto at the advancing enemies.

They wouldn't fall for it again, though; if they flanked again, they'd do so at a further range and in a broader arc to avoid him trying it another time.

Or- before Attelus could continue his thoughts, something substantial fell into the dirt right beside him, a grenade.

He didn't hesitate, snatching it up, with a grunt; Attelus threw it across the clearing.

The grenade was in mid-flight as it exploded. Revealing the surrounding bush in light and making the attackers sprawl for cover.

Attelus opened fire, cutting down two stuck out in the open, stunned from the grenade.

Slipping back into cover, he counted eight attackers remaining. Eight too many, he was dead. Fact.

Perhaps if he got lucky, he could kill three or four more, but they had him cornered, with no escape in sight. Attelus was sure this was his last fight, but he was all right with that. He'd given them one frig of a fight, a fight the survivors would never soon forget, and even though no one else would know about it, he was proud, proud that he was able to avenge much of Estella's squad, proud that he'd managed to kill that formidable Xenos creature. Still, most of all, Attelus was happy that he'd managed to live long enough to meet Estella.

He just hoped she was okay; he hoped that she'd managed to get away, and if so, he hoped she wouldn't go and needlessly sacrifice herself. He truly, truly did.

It was quite depressing, really, and with a sad smile, he started to slip out to shoot again when he heard one suddenly cry in their harsh barking language.

He couldn't understand what was said, but he could understand the shrill panic in the voice.

The scream cut short as something exploded; four of the Chaos soldiers went sprawling, limp and broken, the rest reeling, dazed and confused.

The full-auto las fire immediately followed, cutting down another two while they struggled to recover. Attelus saw the shots flashing from the west flank, but the thick bush obscured the shooter.

Was it Estella? Had she come to save him?

The last two soldiers attempted to fight back as they threw all discipline to the wind with full auto flurries in the general direction of their new attacker.

His heart singing with new joy, Attelus ejected the almost empty clip from his Lasgun, slammed a fresh one home and added his own salvo.

In one split second, the tide of the small skirmish had wholly turned, now the soldiers of Chaos were desperate and pinned.

As Attelus rained suppressing fire upon them, the darkened figure darted across the clearing and slaughtered the soldiers with two quick slashes of a long sword.

Estella Erith, bloody and beaten but very much alive, she sheathed her sword and turned to Attelus; her heart-shaped, splatted with blood face was grim, determined and for a second far more terrifying than the iron grotesks of the enemy.

"E-Estella?" he called out, unable to keep the fear from his voice.

Suddenly she smiled, and his fear was all but alleviated; even covered with blood, she was still appealing.

They both heard the half-track arrive, squealing to a halt on the road up the hill, and Estella turned to look.

Her attention snapped back to him. "We have to go, Attelus, now!" she snarled.

They turned east and began to sprint through the bush.

They ran for a long time dodging, ducking and continually weaving through the trees.

After what seemed forever, finally, Estella signalled a stop, and they both doubled over and struggled to regain their breath.

After a while, without further word, Estella turned and began back.

"Where are you going?" demanded Attelus making the PDF sergeant stop in her tracks.

"Now we have lost our pursuit, back to the enemy base," she answered haltingly and keeping her back to him, "I have made sure you are okay, Attelus, and now, if you head south, you might escape. But now, I must go back and complete my mission."

"The hell you do," he said, suddenly pulling himself to his feet.

"Yes, I do!" she snarled, wheeling on him, "You just cannot understand, can you-!"

"No," he interrupted, "it's you who can't understand."

His jaw set, and he shook as sudden rage threatened to overwhelm him, "Estella! You complicate everything!" he blurted out. "Before you suddenly came into my life, I never made so many stupid mistakes! I never almost walked off cliffs; I never had someone else to have to worry about beside myself!"

Estella opened her mouth to argue, but he frowned, shook his head and cut her short.

"But I wouldn't have it any other way," he said suddenly smiling, "because now I know Estella why I risked everything, why I had rushed out into the middle of the day to try help you. Because...because I knew, deep down, I knew that I wasn't surviving to live anymore, I was living to survive. That if I kept on going on the way I was, that if somehow I survived, I would've survived this hell without a shred of sanity, without a shred of humanity! You saved me from that horrific fate Estella, and for that, I thank you, I really truly do."

"So can't you see, I need you, when you disappeared before I-I," he trailed away as tears welled in his eyes, tears which he wiped with his filthy sleeve, smearing even more muck over his dirty face.

"So don't go, don't just go and throw your life away, don't leave me all alone again."

"Please."

Estella's attention turned downward, and she frowned deeply, "Attelus, I-I've lost everything, I've lost my home, my brother, my-my squad," she looked back up, her large blue eyes shining with tears of her own, "I miss them all, so so, much Attelus and maybe, maybe I needed something to focus on, something to make as my purpose, so I became obsessed with proving I am good enough to be a scout, to prove myself to General Tathe..."

She trailed off and shook her head.

"Estella," said Attelus, stepping forward, "I think you already have, even after suffering through the deaths of all your comrades, your city, your brother, you still continued on, you still came all the way to Varander, you still found the enemy base, as far as I'm concerned you've gone far past the call of duty, Estella."

Estella smiled and sniffed loudly, "but you found their base Attelus, not me."

He grinned, "Yeah, but you don't have to tell them that."

She laughed.

Attelus smiled and held out his hand to her.

"Come on, Estella," he said softly, "I think we've done all we can here, so let's go, let's now go south."

She took his hand in hers. "Yeah," she said, "let's go home."
My short story Of An Asur living in the land of Bretonnia:

[url]http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=35367&p=714658#p714658[/url]
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Adrassil
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Secret War: A Sanction for Sanity Epilogue

#43 Post by Adrassil »

They headed further east for a while before finally turning south.

The going was way harder; with the disturbance near their main base, the enemy had stepped up their patrols, Attelus and Estella had to hunker down eight times to avoid detection.

When they came into Varander's central business district, the sun began to rise and much to Attelus annoyance Estella just had to stop and admire it for a few minutes.

"Even in horrid times like this, Attelus," she said, seemingly sensing his rising choler, "we still need to take the time to admire what is beautiful."

That's exactly what I'm doing now, he thought as he looked at her, and immediately, her attention snapped to him.

"What?" she asked as he quickly looked away, blushing.

"Nothing, nothing! We should just get moving, that's all."

She smiled and raised an amused eyebrow. "Yeah, I guess we should," she said, and they moved on, sprinting silently through the deserted, desecrated streets.

They avoided the coast and the broad highway running alongside it, instead tramping through the high bushy hills further east of the lake.

It was slow going, so they didn't arrive on the south coast of the lake until midnight.

Despite himself, Attelus had to pause and look over his shoulder across the lake to the ruined Varander beyond. He smiled sadly, realising that he would never see the old city ever again.

"Attelus?" called Estella, turning once realising he wasn't walking with her anymore.

"Yeah, coming," he said, turned, carried on and never looked back.



It wasn't until they'd made many kilometres south that they deemed it safe enough to stop and camp out.

In silence, they set up their camp, ate their rations, didn't dare light a fire just in case, and it was Attelus who finally spoke.

"I think..." he trailed off, "I think Estella, that before the war I wanted to be a scholar, a scholar of history in particular. History has always fascinated me, whether it be Imperial, Elbyran or Velrosian."

Estella smiled, "well, Attelus, you could still be a historian after this."

He looked her straight in the eye and shook his head. "No, no, I can't."

She furrowed her brow, "why?"

He looked away and gazed up at the stars. "Even though you saved me from insanity, Estella, I can still never go back; after all, I've seen, after all I've done, I could never go back to my old life, never."

A sorrowful expression came across Estella's face, and she looked away, "I-I see... Attelus, but if you cannot go back you, could, always, join the guard; with your skills, you would easily make scout."

Again Attelus shook his head, "no, I could never be a soldier either..."

He wandered off his sentence and said.

"Before Estella, when I was in the bush after I managed to kill the Xenos-"

"Loxatl," interrupted Estella suddenly.

Attelus could only raise his eyebrows, bemused.

"That is what they are called," she said without a shadow of a doubt, "Loxatl."

It took a few seconds of silence for Attelus to gather his thoughts; the certainty in her voice scared him more than he cared to admit.

"Th-that's what I mean," he finally managed, "how do you know that? How did you know my middle name too? Because I swear-"

"You never told me your middle name Attelus," she said, "I just know things...sometimes I know names of things, of people before anyone tells me, ever since I was young I did, I used to scare my Mum with it. Usually, I can control it, but lately after, everything, not so much."

Attelus nodded, "and to be able to talk to people through their thoughts also?"

Estella shrugged and looked away. "Recently, yeah."

Attelus sighed. "While we're telling our secrets...You asked who my father is before, right?"

"Y-yes, I did," then her face suddenly livened up, " you said your father "is"? Is he still alive?"

He shook his head, "in all honesty, Estella, I've no idea; just a few months before the war, someone came to our door, and something he said to my father immediately made him leave off-world, and I have no idea why. He just left me on that very day to stay with my mother.

His jaw clenched as the anger at his father appeared back, and forcing it away, he said:

"You were right, Estella, my dad did teach me how to fight, and as I said earlier, I can never go back to being a normal person; I can never be a Guardsman, but..."

"But, but what?"

"I've decided I want to be like my father," he said, smiling evilly in the moonlight, "I want to be an assassin."

Estella frowned and glanced around, "And I cannot convince you otherwise, Attelus?"

"No, no, you can't."

She sighed. "all right, if I cannot, I want you to promise me something."

Attelus nodded. "Sure, fire away."

Estella attached her eyes to his, "Now this is no joke Attelus, I am dead serious about this, okay?"

"Okay, okay!" he said impatiently.

She stared at him for a very long time before she said anything, her face in the same hard set impassiveness of earlier.

"Attelus..." she finally said, "Attelus Kaltos, if you truly have your heart set on becoming an assassin, if you do, I want you to promise me. No, I need you to swear to me, that no matter what you do, no matter what hell you go through, no matter how many people you..." she grimaced in distaste, "...assassinate that you won't let it at all change you, that you will stay the kind, good-natured person I know today, you won't let it change you. Swear this to me, Attelus, and then we can move on from this."

Attelus didn't answer at first, his eyes wide with utter shock, Estella's concern touching him more than he could ever express.

"Swear it, frig you!" she snarled suddenly, losing her patience and causing Attelus to flinch in fright.

"Y-yes, I-I swear!" he cried, "I swear."

She stared for a while longer, studying him intensely as he desperately avoided her gaze.

Then she smiled and shook her head, seemingly appeased with his response.

"Thank you, Attelus."

He finally managed to exhale.

"Wow, anyone ever tells you that you can be really frigging scary, Estella," he sighed, "remind me to never get on your bad side."

Estella grinned and got to her feet, "well, it comes with the territory Attelus," she said, "Me being a sergeant in the military and all. Get some rest, Attelus. I will have the watch tonight."

As if on cue, he felt the fatigue almost overtake him, and without a word, he got up, walked to his sleeping bag and slipped inside, his eyes immediately slamming shut.

He smiled, he knew they had a hell of a journey ahead before they could reach the safety of the south, but for the first time in a long time, he was happy. With Estella with him, he knew they would make it.

Still smiling, he let sleep completely overtake him.
My short story Of An Asur living in the land of Bretonnia:

[url]http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=35367&p=714658#p714658[/url]
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