Interrogator (40k)

[Hiver]

Wind rushed up past me, the sound of the engines of the dropship screaming through my ears. For a second I was in freefall, then there was a sharp tug behind me and the harness to the backpack tightened around myself as the droppack started to hum loudly.

It wasn't a Grav-Chute. Not really and not as advanced. Same idea, but no control. It just counteracted gravity and fought to keep you going down at a survival speed until it's powercells burned out after about thirty seconds.

Called a 'slow pack'. Because of course a Grav-Chute was too expensive for mere SDF to have access to. And parachutes were apparently lost fucking tech, so here I was, hanging from nothing as I fell towards the enclave below,

Anti-air power reached through the air, lighting up the skies as I hugged my lasgun tighter to my chest, trying to keep my breathing under control while wishing I had taken Naria's advice and gotten the night vision mode for my eye.

I glanced back, seeing shapes behind me. The troopers had followed me out. The dropship was nowhere in sight, but I could see shells exploding towards the west.

She must have banked.

Might seem strange to spare time to look around upwards when falling into a hostile fortress hanging from a sparkling backpack, but what else could I do?

I couldn't change my path downwards. All I could hope was that the altitude Kim had chosen had been correct and I would land before the pack burned out and things came to a fast and very splatty end.

Turning my attention downwards anyway, I peered into the darkness. I could make out shapes, just about in the darkness. In the distance before me was the main spire of the enclave. The top was different from the plans, concentric circles glowing purple and spinning around each other.

This was definitely the right place.

Shapes coming up on me quickly.

I had done this kind of drop a total of once before. During training and that had been with an actual grav-chute.

No manually slowing down this time. But Teres taught me what to do.

Legs together, knees slightly bent, tense up and roll with the landing.

I hit hard, the ground reaching up to smash into me and I went down, stunned as it slapped the breath out of me.

My knees hurt. My legs hurt. My side fucking hurt.

But I was alive and everything seemed to be working.

I reached and hit the quick release on my chest before slipping out of the harness as I went onto my knee and raised my lasgun, scanning for targets.

Nobody in sight, but even if nobody saw me land, it was just a matter of time before somebody stumbled over us. I could hear an anti-aircraft gun firing not too far away and shouting in the distance.

Rounds reached into the skies and something very fast flashed past above. A T'Au flyer of some sort.

Troops hit the ground around me, most managing to land on the same courtyard and most with a lot more grace than me. Fair enough, this was what they did.

I motioned to them, getting them to gather around as I pulled out a dataslate, dialing the light on the screen up enough to see, if just as I brought up the latest map.

"We should be about here," I said and pointed, "And I'm not seeing anything yet to discount our landing spot so we have to assume it is somewhat accurate. Our best guess according to current data is that the target is in the main spire. So we will cross this bridge here and enter through here. Any questions?"

"That bridge smells like trouble, sir," one of the troopers said, "Perfect chokepoint."

"Yep," I agreed and turned the dataslate off, slipping back into my coat, "Which is why not getting spotted until we are past there is going to make things a lot easier. The longer we can last without getting detected, the better our odds are."

"You heard the Interrogator," Daniels said, "We go low and quiet. Nobody fires unless ordered to."

Standing up, I raised my lasgun and started to move.

I slowly started to move across the courtyard we had landed in. There were a couple of personal ground transports parked and I moved around behind one of them closer to the wall before heading towards the closest exit, the troopers fanning out to cover behind me.

Pressing my back against the cool rock wall, I peeked around the corner.

Nobody in sight. I motioned for the rest that it was clear and we moved on. Slowly and quietly.

But in all honesty, the distraction the T'Au had going was amazing, we likely could have been marching along the street with a full brass orchestra and nobody would have noticed. Everyone was busy returning fire at the long range troops outside the enclave and against the fliers above and around it.

I ducked down as an explosion rang through the air and I could see a fireball reaching for the skies further away. Somebody just hit something important.

That'll keep them busy.

I pushed on and rounded the corner, finding myself face first with a trooper running the other way carrying a box on his back and we both went to the ground, hitting heavily. I scrambled around, launching myself at him before he could realize he hadn't hit another heretic.

I punched him in the face and he jerked back, scrambling to fight back. I could feel more than see him take a breath to scream. I slammed him back hard against the ground.

The exoskeleton on my right hand whined as I put my hand around his throat and squeezed.

The result would give me brand new nightmares for quite a few years to come.

 

[Hiver]

The guard slowly turned, looking up towards the distance outside the enclave as red lasfire met the blue flashes of returning pulse fire from the T'Au troopers from the forest and farms.

They were following the plan so far. Just keeping enemy attention without actually moving in, just draw fire and shoot anyone they could.

I glanced up towards the top of the spire. I had seen it on the way in but without much time to spend on it. I'd bet my left kidney that that thing was what was making all the astropaths unhappy. Hell, it likely fucked up the Vox too.

As I watched, a T'Au flier flashed in from the left and a stream of blue weaponfire reached out towards the spinning rings. They hit and there was a flash of purple lightning, reaching out from the rings to the flier, blasting it from the skies.

The rings spun on unhindered.

Shit.

There went that plan of trying to take it with one of their AA guns. Well, that thing might be bulletproof, but I bet the tower beneath it wasn't. We'll kill the prophet and then find the main reactor of this place.

Daniels slowly crept up behind the guard as he cheered as the burning wreck of the flier drifted towards the ground. Daniels wrapped an arm around the guard's throat, stabbing a knife up through the back of his neck before carefully laying him down against the ground and motioning for us to follow.

Getting up, I kept low, following him towards the garden wall overlooking the bridge over to the main enclave spire.

Daniels peered over it before dropping back down, glancing at me before nodding towards the bridge. I moved up next to him and took a quick glance.

Four troopers we could see, two at each side of the bridge. A barricade with metal poles to stop vehicles. Actually not that locked down… why bother in the middle of their territory after all.

I dropped back down.

"I'm seeing four," I said quietly.

"Same, sir," Daniels answered, "Don't see a way to take them quietly."

"Neither do I," I admitted and frowned, "We have a fair overlook here, if we move around to the bridge, how many troops would we need to leave here to guarantee taking them in one shot?"

"Four," Daniels said with a nod, "I see what you are getting at sir. Kurk, Jeval, Ragen, Solee. You stay here, wait for our signal. Pick your targets, single shots."

"Don't worry, Lt, we'll deal with them."

"Then book it and rejoin us, we'll need you inside," Daniels continued and then looked to me, "Any idea what to expect inside?"

I shook my head, "Nothing specific," I said before I glanced upwards, "But expect heavy resistance and for things to get… weird. Expect psykers."

"Psykers?" Daniels asked, "I heard no reports about psykers."

"No," I agreed, "But this smells of warpcraft, this entire thing. Shoot to kill and keep your eyes open, but stay frosty."

With that, I readied my lasgun and headed along the walls towards the small iron gate continuing on onto the next street, leading around the block and down towards the access bridge.

I instantly ducked back, pressing my back against the wall, raising my hand and motioning for everyone to freeze. I breathed shallowly, trying to keep as quiet as I could as a group of soldiers double timed it past, lasguns held in their arms as they ran towards the edge of the enclave.

Reinforcements from the spire to repel the invaders.

On one hand, that was good. Less troops between us and our target. But on the other, the troopers inside of the spire were moving around.

Which meant we were much more likely to be stumbled on.

Waiting a couple of seconds for them to round the next corner, I then raised my hand and motioned people forward before continuing on, lasgun raised.

What the hell am I doing here, I'm an investigator at best, not a soldier. I told people where and why to kick the door down, not kick it down myself!

Pressing my back against the wall, I glanced around the corner and zoomed in. Still only four guards from this angle. A dozen meters away from us.

They were looking towards the sky as much as down the road they were meant to guard. Sadly they were in pretty good cover from the overlook, especially the ones close to the wall of the spire at the other edge of the bridge. All it would take would be for one of them to be missed and the alarm would be raised.

Hmmm.

I paused for a long moment before I slowly lowered my lasgun and handed it backwards, glancing back and giving Daniels a signal to hold.

I buttoned my coat, hiding my carapace armor, took my helmet off and handed it back before I turned around the corner and jogged towards the bridge, breathing hard.

"H-hey… guys.." I choked out before I stopped, breathing heavily, my hands against my thighs, "H-hail the Prophet."

"Hail the Prophet," the closest trooper said, "Who are you?"

"I… hold on.." I panted, "S-sorry, just ran all the way here," I said and put my hand against the side of the bridge, "N-not as… in shape… as I should be."

The two guards from the other end of the bridge were approaching now.

"Hey! I asked you, who are you!?" the first guard asked again, walking up to give my shoulder a push.

I turned around to him with a frown, "Hey, no need for that," I said and rubbed my shoulder, "I'm Tezzeret, I have an urgent message to deliver."

"What's the message?"

"The Emperor sends his regards."

The troopers overlooking the bridge fired and the heretics died before they could raise their weapons.

 

[Hiver]

"How did you do that, sir?"

I looked at the trooper as he handed me my helmet and lasgun, "Do what?"

"Know they wouldn't shoot you? Know they would come out of cover?"

"They may be heretic lunatics, but they're still human," I said and put my helmet on, "And if they are undisciplined enough to watch the lightshow rather than the road they were meant to guard, they are unlikely to just shoot somebody wandering up if they think they're friendly. Especially in the middle of friendly territory."

I headed towards the door inside and hit the button. It opened.

Not even locked… which made the back of my neck crawl. I raised my lasgun, scanning the corridor inside. Nobody in sight.

"Not locked?" Daniels asked as he moved up next to me, his own lasgun raised.

"Not locked," I confirmed, "Move out."

He nodded, "Yes, sir," he said and looked back at his men, "You heard the Interrogator. Let's go!"

He took the lead inside and we followed him. Not being locked makes me nervous. Of course, we picked this entrance because it was one of the smallest ones.

It smelled like ambush though not having it even be locked, even with the guards outside.

But what choice did we have?

We continued through the spire, not seeing anyone.

The lead trooper peeked around the corner and then quickly turned, motioning us back. We quickly and quietly retreated back to a cross corridor. It only took a couple of moments before I could hear the sound of running boots.

I pressed my back against the wall, aiming towards the main corridor, "Hold," I said quietly, "Do not fire. They may be reinforcements heading out of the spire."

Even so, I tightened my finger around the trigger as I aimed. If they were coming for us, we have very, very little in the way of cover.

Fuck, even if they weren't here for us, all it would take would be for one of them to turn his head as they ran past. There was nowhere to hide. No cover.

The footsteps got louder and louder.

Then soldiers started to run past, lasguns and other weapons in their hands. Nobody look, we're not here. Think quiet thoughts. We're not here, we're just shadows.

The last man ran past and the sound of footsteps slowly got quieter and I slowly let out a breath I hadn't realized I had been holding, slowly relaxing slightly.

Daniels reached into a pocket and pulled out a dataslate, bringing up the latest map we had of the spire before holding it where I could see it, pointing at the intersection and then at a section of the map, "We're here."

I nodded in agreement, "I make it that as well. Best way up is… this path. Bring us to the central space here where the merchants district used to be. Who knows what they have there now, but it's the most direct way up to the mobile estates."

"Open space…" Daniels said, shaking his head, "Don't like that, sir."

"Neither do I," I admitted, "But the distraction isn't going to work for much longer: the T'Au can only keep this up for so long, they only have the troops they used to defend their enclave. Sooner or later they have to pull back… and when that happens…"

"And the troops just going past are going to find the bridge unguarded," one of the troopers pointed out.

I nodded, "That too. Right now, time is our biggest enemy. We have to move. There may be a better path, we have no way of finding it… nor do we know if this map is even reliable anymore. So we take this route."

Daniels nodded, "Yes, sir. Kurk, you're on point."

We continued on without seeing anybody else. Strangely, no servitors either. This was kind of a back corridor, I would have expected to run into at least one or two so far.

We found the lift exactly where it had been expected to be, but then again that was a major structural part. They would hardly be moving the lift shafts around.

I hit the button and the doors opened, the lift already there and we slipped inside. One of the troopers hit the button beneath the small screen.

*Beep*

That didn't sound good so I moved over, looking at the access denied message on the screen with a pad to enter a numbered password beneath it.

"We'll see about that," I said quietly and pulled out my Interrogators rosette and plugged it in before I pushed the button again.

Click. Click. Click.

Bing.

The doors closed and the lift started to move. I pulled the plug back and moved back to raise my lasgun towards the cargo doors we had entered through. Amateurs. Didn't even purge the OS. Still had the hidden Inquisition overrides programmed.

"Get ready, so far we have been in the back corridors," I said quietly, "This will bring us to the main living areas. Soon we won't be able to go undiscovered for much longer. The moment we get seen, we go fast and we go hard."

"Remember to watch those corners," Daniels said firmly, "This is what we train for."

Then we waited.

Seriously, would it hurt the mechanicus to add some music to these things? Even Mass Effect had that for their loading screens.

I hate how my brain gets when stressed.

The lift creaked to a halt and the thick doors started to open. The scent of blood filled the air, thick enough for me to taste the iron.

"Throne on Terra..." one of the troopers, Kurk I think it was, said as he slowly stepped out of the lift, lasgun raised and sweeping left and right.

It was what had been the merchant district indeed, but the stalls and stores had been torn out for new infrastructure, the Imperial banners that should have hung from the ceiling replaced with heretical symbols and it seemed to have been used as some sort of troop center. There were hundreds of people there at least.

But it was difficult to say for sure as many were in… chunks. The bodies closest to us looked like somebody had attacked them with a helicopter sized blender in the middle of a firefight. There were weapons damage everywhere.

The smell was indescribable.

 

[Hiver]

You know what the worst thing was? Funnily enough wasn't the smell or the sights. It was the sounds.

The floor… squished as we walked.

"Interrogator," one of the men said, "I think this one is still alive," he said and poked something with his foot.

I moved over to him and despite the squishy floor, went down on one knee. The man was on the floor on his back, most of his insides were… no longer where they should be. His eyes were wide and he seemed to struggle for breath.

"Hey," I said, shaking his shoulder, "What happened here?"

His eyes were unfocused, just staring upwards, "T-the…"

"The…"

"The Proph-"

"Did the Prophet do this?" I asked him, "Tell me!"

"No…" his eyes shifted towards me, still unfocused, "Fast. They… they ca-"

He let his breath out and his head lolled to the side.

I took a deep breath and quickly regretted the fact, the smell was bad enough without sucking in more than necessary.

I stood back up and looked at the trooper, "We need to hurry, somebody else is here."

"This was no Ork," Daniels said as he looked around.

"And not the T'Au," I said as one of the troopers pulled the visor of his helmet up and threw up on the floor. I couldn't blame him for that even a little bit.

The carnage…

Necrons? I didn't see any sign of gauss weapon damage.

"Let's move," I said and started across the open space towards the other side and the path leading out and up towards the noble section of the spire. "Doubletime!"

For all I knew, there were Chaos Marines that did this. Trying to stop a rival cult. If it was Chaos Marines we were fucked, but maybe we could jostle their elbow enough that they didn't win either.

Because against whomever did this… we're not winning in a fight.

We ran for it, heading for the ramp and running up the curve towards the next level. The next level wasn't much better, dead all along the wide path.

Something had just carved it's way through these people and had done it fast.

We ran towards the next chamber and the sound of combat. Screaming, weapons fire and explosions.

I ducked behind a planter before peeking down into the room and my eyes went wide at what I saw.

What the fuck.

The heretics were clearly doing their best, but they were being cut down by fast and slender forms, whining weapons spitting slivers of metal from a dozen warriors in black and white as a pair of large giants in the same colors with smooth white and curved head strode through the lasfire to rip into the heretic lines with a pair of massive swords.

One of the Aeldari stepped out of cover, she was dressed in black and white and blue, her hair long and white as snow, carrying a sword in one hand but seemed otherwise unarmed, lasfire playing across a orblike forcefield around her and she raised her hand and a group of heretics just died, seemingly burning to death from the inside.

I ducked back into cover.

Aeldari.

Aeldari!? What the fucking hell were Aeldari doing here!? Who the fuck invited them!? What in the fucking fuckity fuck!?

I didn't even have words to describe the level of what the fuck.

What's more, they had a psyker along with them. One that had likely felt that we were here already!

"Sir?" Daniels said quietly, the sound of combat covering his voice, "What are those!?"

"Eldar," I answered, "...We're not going to attack the Eldar. We're going to follow them and see what they do. But we are very carefully not going to attack them."

"They are xenos!"

I nodded, "Yes, but they are xenos that can burn us alive with their minds," I told him reasonably, "And I don't know about you, Lieutenant, but I want to actually finish our mission. And they seem to not like the heretics."

I spared another glance over the planter just in time to see one of the large constructs spear a screaming heretic on it's massive sword and lift him into the air before throwing him aside with a dismissive sweep of it's blade.

The heretic pretty much went splat against the wall in two pieces.

I quickly ducked back down, "Besides, one thing you need to know about Eldar is that while they are untrustworthy pointy eared fucks, they hate getting into combat if they can at all avoid it so they consider this very important. And they are the one xenos race that can be trusted to hate chaos more than we do. So we let them and the heretics murder each other. If they want to do our mission for us, all power to them."

Daniels flinched as somebody screamed in agony before quickly getting cut off, possibly literally. He then nodded, "Yes, sir."

The sounds started to die down and I chanced another look just in time to see the last of the xenos leave the chamber through the entrance at the other side.

It was the Psyker and she paused as I looked out, glancing back towards me for a second before she turned back and walked out, her long white hair flowing behind her and her dark blue cloak doing a small dramatic billowing despite the fact that we were inside and without any wind.

She knew we were here.

She knew that we were here and wanted us to know that she knew.

She knew that we were here and wanted us to know that she knew and apparently didn't consider us a threat worth worrying about considering she was taking the time to be dramatic about it..

Considering what I seen so far, I couldn't exactly say I disagreed with her. I slipped a hand into my pocket before popping another stimtab into my mouth and swallowing.

Then I slowly stood up and looked at the troopers, "Come on, let's get going."

 

[Hiver]

We followed the Eldar assault force. At times we could barely keep up, but it didn't always seem to go completely their way.

Along the ramp up to the next level lay a dead warrior, his armor marred by lasbolts and it seemed one had punched through into his throat. Dead, his weapon laying next to him, some sort of smoothly curved rifle. No trigger I could see and who the hell could say what it actually fired.

I knelt down on one knee and checked him the best I could. No reaction from being poked and shook.

He was lighter than I would have expected, even without the armor.

Something looked like it was missing from his chest, a divot into the black material.

His... what did the Eldar call it... soul gem? Something like that anyway had been taken. Something that captured his soul on death rather than to allow it to be devoured by He Who Thirsts.

Capturing a soul like that felt... I don't know, it made me uneasy. It felt unholy somehow.

But considering the alternative, I could hardly blame them. If that was my fate, I'd rather be in a marble too.

"Come on," I stood and looked to the troopers, "We're almost at the top. We need to hurry up."

We ran towards the sound of the fighting.

The next chamber we entered wasn't as big as before, but here the path split into two. One leading up towards the roof, I could see it through part of the glass ceiling... and the glowing spinning wheels above it. The Eldar seemed to be belining straight for that ramp. Apparently the troopers here had gotten a warning somebody was coming as heavy weapons had been set up. One of the Eldari dreadnought constructs... ghost lords or whatever they were called were laying on the ground, most of its curved head missing.

But the other was tearing into the defenders and I could almost swear it looked angry about it's friends fate.

The other ramp also curved upwards around the chamber and the garden within, but this one went to a chamber that seemed made from glass hanging from the ceiling. Inside were people, it almost seemed like some sort of command post.

"This is where we part ways from the Eldar," I said and motioned for the men, "They are going for the rings, we'll take the command post. With some luck, the target is there."

"And if not?" Daniels said, his lasgun raised towards the closest soldiers in case anyone decided that shooting us was more important than the xenos cutting them to pieces.

"Then they are about to get a face full of Eldar witch and is no longer a problem," I said and started to run up the ramp, "With me!"

There were two guards outside the door of the chamber and a rain of lasbolts beat down at us as we came around the curve. I quickly ducked back, but one of the troopers took the full brunt of the fire and went down hard, rolling down the ramp behind us.

"Eyes!" Daniels yelled and pulled a grenade, tugging the pin and counting before throwing it around the corner.

The flashbang went off with a massive thump.

Two of the troopers, I think one was Kurk... they look identical in their helmets and uniforms... went around the corner firing.

When I checked again, the two guards were down.

I looked at Daniels, "Your man?"

He shook his head, "Gone."

I nodded and raised my lasgun as we approached the door. I tested it. Locked. And a mechanical lock, my rosette did absolutely nothing against that.

"Breach charge," I told Daniels.

He nodded and motioned a trooper up which quickly attached something to the middle of the door.

We backed away towards the walls.

He triggered the charge, the door exploding inwards and we moved in. Inside nobody was armed. Hell, it was almost empty, all that was inside was fancy furniture, a map table and three men. Two in uniforms and one wearing a purple robe and a small pointy hat. He was a small man, especially for a local. He was shorter than I was and his eyes were slightly bulging.

I took aim and my finger tightened around the trigger.

I didn't have time to fire when he spoke up.

No... not spoke up. What he did wasn't so much speak as Truth. A complete Truth.

"The Emperor is a false god."

That was what he said and I knew it to be True. The same way I knew which way was down or how to move my fingers. It was the universal Truth.

A complete certainty.

Daniels gasped next to me, dropping onto his knees as his lasgun clattered to the floor. I could hear guns and men dropping to the floor.

The Prophet of Truth smiled, showing several teeth missing, "Yes my friends, now w-"

Friend. Yes. The man was my friend. My best friend in fact.

Every nerve and instinct in my body screamed at me that it was wrong, that I was a traitor, that I was a murderer…

But I squeezed the trigger anyway and shot the man that was my best friend in the head.

 

[Hiver]

The lasbolts ripped into him, stitching burnt craters across his chest and the left side of his head exploded. I screamed as my best friend died, it felt like somebody had torn my heart from my chest as I remembered the seconds we knew each other.

Still, I held the trigger down, sweeping my lasgun across the chamber, cutting down the two other men there until the powercell ran out and I dropped to my knees, the weapon falling from my fingers.

The emperor was a false god. My bes- The prophet of truth was dead.

He wasn't my best friend. He wasn't.

I could almost feel the pressure lift from my mind, but it didn't do anything. It may have been a lie, but the emotions had been very real.

I threw up on the floor, coughing as I tried to not fall onto my face while doing it.

Or tried at least, didn't have much to throw up. Thinking about it, I couldn't even remember when I ate last.

He had been my best friend. Or made me think he had been. I still shot him. Looked him in the eyes and shot him.

What kind of perso-

There was the sound of a lasfire discharging behind me and I looked back, seeing one of the soldiers on the ground, most of his head missing. He had shot himself.

I wanted to curl up in a ball and cry.

Most of them were crying already, most had taken their helmets off and I could see their faces for the first time.

A couple were clutching aquilas, mumbling prayers as they sobbed.

Daniels was sitting with his back to the wall, his head against his knees. Visibly shuddering.

I closed my eyes, seeing the lasbolts rip through him again.

Then I gritted my teeth and struggled up, wiping my mouth as I picked up my lasgun and slapped a new powercell in, "On your feet, soldiers!"

Most didn't react.

"Oh your fucking feet in the name of the Golden Throne!" I yelled and reached down, grabbing Daniels by the collar of his armor with my exoskeleton covered arm and tugged him upwards onto his feet, "We have a planet to save!"

He looked at me, tears pouring down his cheeks, "I... I... Oh God-Emperor... oh..."

"It was a warp trick!" I said and slammed him back against the wall, "Get your shit together, trooper! We're not done yet, the Emperor isn't done with you yet! Your faith wavered, will your duty too!?"

He sucked in a slow breath, one gloved hand going up and rubbing across his face as he managed to shake his head, "I..." he started to say before I felt him take more of his own weight, "No. It was a lie. It was all a lie. I will do my duty to Him On Earth. I will repent!"

I nodded firmly and then let go, walking to the next trooper and tugging him up, "On your feet maggot! The Emperor needs you! Will you fail him again!?"

It wasn't easy. It took threats, promises, kicks and in one case, a hug, to get everybody back onto their feet and holding their lasguns again. Everybody was horribly shook and looking at them, I was far from certain they wouldn't just instantly fold the moment anything dangerous happened.

But they were what I had so I used them. Like tools.

The way somebody that would cut down their bes-

I shook my head, suppressing that thought as quickly as it had come. I could fall apart into a gibbering wreck later on my own time.

"What I need from you is easy!" I told them loudly, "What the Emperor needs from you is easy! You are to follow me and shoot what I tell you to shoot! You are elite SDF troopers, that is why you were picked for this mission! The Emperor relies on you for this mission!"

"You heard the Interrogator!" Daniels said loudly, hefting his lasgun and reloading it, "We still have a mission!"

His voice shook slightly, but he certainly had the right idea.

"If you seek redemption, follow me!" I said and headed down the ramp again, almost stumbling slightly as the path started to lead back down again.

My feet felt unsteady and I swallowed before popping another stimtab into my mouth, swallowing it.

It helped a little.

There was no resistance below, the Eldar had already moved on up along the other ramp and out of sight, but I could hear the sound of battle above. The whining of what I now recognized as Eldar weapons. Screaming and lasfire.

"On me," I yelled and started to run towards the second ramp, "Follow me and shoot everything that's not a xeno!"

Hitting the ramp, I had to slow down. I just didn't have the energy anymore to run up it. I wasn't the only one, I could hear the rest struggling behind me as well.

The sight that met us as we exited onto the roof was indescribable.

Above us the massive rings turned, whooshing past us. The large metal rings glowed purple as they twisted around themselves.

Each time one passed above, it felt like somebody had tightened firmly around my brain with an iron band. Beneath the rings was some sort of altar, also glowing purple and covered with… symbols. I think.

They hurt to look at and kept moving. The heretics seemed to be shooting each other as much as at the Eldar. But that didn't seem to be what was really the largest threat right now.

Even as I watched, the air above the altar crackled and sparked, sending bolts through the air, one of them hitting and sending one of the Eldar warriors flying through the air, dead. Or at least I really hope that killed him because a second later he turned inside out, armor and all.

Then something crawled out of him, multi jointed legs, covered in feathers and scales with a large beak filled with sharp teeth and too many eyes.

Some of those eyes had eyes.

Oh god that's a lot of eyes.

"Everyone, shoot the demon! Shoot the demon!" I yelled and followed my words with action.

 

[Hiver]

I never did find out what happened after we shot at the demon.

The first thing that came to mind was that I was thirsty. That was the first thought slowly slithering through my mind.

The next was that my chest hurt.

It took a while to even get that far, the loud pounding of the drum tightening around my head seemed to get louder and louder by the second before I finally woke up.

I quickly regretted having done that.

Beneath me was the enclave. I couldn't see any weapons fire anymore, but it was mostly on fire, thick smoke reaching towards the skies.

It took a couple of moments for me to realize that it was strange that I could see it. I just woke up, I should be looking at the sky, not the ground. Especially not the ground so far below.

Even as I watched, there was another explosion of flames below.

Wooosh.

Something passed by overhead and my headache intensified, the iron clamp around my head tightening for a second.

I realized my head hurt. Not only my head, but my face. I could only see through my artificial eye. My face hurt.

Slowly struggling to lift my head, I looked up. It was my arm, the numb one in the exoskeleton frame. It had saved my life.

I was hanging from a piece of rebar that had snagged on the frame when I went over the edge of the tower. Apparently when they lopped off the top couple of floors to build whatever it was, they didn't bother cleaning things up.

I could see blood dripping down my arm and soaking through my sleeve, so the rebar was likely in my arm as well, but I couldn't feel it. That was likely a good thing.

What I could feel was everything else. My face, my chest... it looked like something had slashed across my chest, straight through my coat and even the carapace armor.

I decided neither was very dangerous by the very fact that I woke up again.

Slowly I engaged the servos of the exoskeleton and they whined as they started to pull me upwards. Twisting carefully as not to make the rebar slip, I reached up with my good hand to grab for a second handhold. The smoke and darkness made it hard to see, but the purple glow of the spinning rings made the shadows move and shift.

Wooosh.

Another passed by above and I gritted my teeth as it felt like somebody dug claws into my brain for a second.

Then it was gone and allowed my headache to go back to only migraine levels.

Slowly, slowly, I worked myself up to grab hold on the edge. The piece of rebar was dark with blood as I moved my hurt arm off it, but the bleeding didn't increase much.

The exoskeleton moved and I gripped the edge. It was slower than before and I could see sparks through the hole in my jacket sleeve, but it worked.

Slowly, I dragged myself up, my feet scrambling for a foothold until I managed to pull myself fully onto the platform, rolling onto my back.

The scene that met me was one of horror.

The men that were with me were all dead. I didn't need to be a medical examiner to be able to tell that much. None of them were in anything approaching one piece.

Whatever happened, must have just mostly missed or sent me flying instead of cutting me in half.

And it must have happened just minutes ago at that as the Eldar were still somewhat alive. Even as I watched, the demon tore into the last of the Eldar warriors, ripping his arms off in a single motion while it's beak ripped into his chest. The large construct was still active, if missing one arm. It went after the demon, it's large sword raised.

The demon screamed as the blade took one of it's many arms off and turned towards the construct, it's remaining hands moving in a twisting motion and the construct buckled before twisting and starting to melt, collapsing onto the floor.

The Eldar witch was the only one still alive and she raised her sword, aiming it at the demon and yelling words I couldn't hear or understand. Energy crackled and a beam of energy lashed out towards the demon.

The energy pierced through it, blasting it back a couple of steps before it turned towards her, hands shifting and a shield formed, sending the energy off into the night.

I slowly rolled onto my knees, struggling up.

Whoosh.

A massive ring passed by above me and I almost fell.

I tasted blood.

Might just have been me, but I could have sworn the purple glow from the rings were getting brighter now.

The demon charged at the witch with a bone piercing shriek that caused the bodies closest to it to burst into explosions of blood. The witch cast some sort of shield between her and the demon, crackling with energy before meeting its charge with her sword, the blade glowing with eldritch blue light.

I'd have to give it to her, it almost worked.

The demon smashed into the energy shield and screamed and she moved to lop it's head off.

That's when everything went wrong.

Even as I watched, the demon twitched it's hands and the shield fell... and then it was upon the witch and her sword went flying through the air, spinning, tumbling before landing point down between me and the combatants.

The demon backhanded her with a clawed hand, hard enough to send her flying back and that I could hear the sound of bones breaking clear across the platform.

Whoosh.

I gritted my teeth, spitting out blood as I slowly forced myself back onto my feet. The blade. Had to get to the blade.

The demon laughed, a screeching sound that made my hair stand on end as it stalked towards the fallen witch, apparently taking its time.

The sadistic thing was having fun.

I reached the witches sword and gripped the handle before I started to run, the xenos blade both lighter and heavier than I would have expected, easily pulling free from the stone it had pierced, the energy around the blade glowing a solid blue. The demon reached down, grabbing the witch by her collar and lifted her high into the air, saying something in a guttural, twisting tongue that made my teeth hurt.

The witch answered something in the eldar language.

Then I threw myself forward, bringing the sword in and stabbed the warp spawned monstrocity through the back!

It screamed in agony and spun faster than anything I had ever seen. I was ready, already moving back and brought my exoskeleton covered arm up to block.

I still didn't make it, I heard the bones in my arm shatter and the twisting of metal as it's arm hit mine, sending me spinning to the floor.

But it had done it. The demon crackled and sparked before screaming as it dissolved and seemed to be sucked into the floor, leaving only the witch's sword behind.

 

[Hiver]

I just stared up at the whirling rings, struggling for breath.

At the moment, I was quite thankful I didn't have any feeling in that arm because bones were not meant to be bent that way.

"Hey... eldar..." I managed to croak out after several long moments, "You still alive?"

Woosh.

One of the rings passed above, digging its claws of pain into my head and I could swear I tasted green for a second.

"I am alive, Mon-Keigh," a voice answered. It was in gothic, but strangely accented and somewhat melodical.

Huh. She had a nice voice.

I slowly rolled, shifting onto my knees before struggling to my feet. Everything went a bit darker for a second and I wobbled before steadying myself. It hurt to do so, but then again everything hurt so what else was new.

Slowly, I walked over to the witch. If anything, she looked in worse shape than I... actually, that's a lie. She looked bad, bleeding heavily from claw marks on her side and cheek. But that was pretty much it.

I must look much worse.

Still, I reached down, offering her my left hand.

She stared at me in surprise for a split second before she took it, allowing me to pull her to her feet. She was lighter than I had expected. She may have looked relatively un-hurt, but when I pulled her up, she made a sound of pain and her leg folded beneath her and we both almost went down.

By some miracle, we both remained standing, wobbling slightly in place as I supported her, letting the alien witch lean against me, "Why are you here?" I finally asked.

"You could not possibly understand the paths of fa-"

"Because as I see it, there are basically two options," I said, interrupting her, "You're here to stop this, whatever it is, or because these crazy fuckers have something of yours. Am I getting close?"

The witch glared at me, "What happens here has serious effects upon the future of this sector," she finally said, "For both our people."

"Awesome. Can you still stop it?"

"...Yes..."

I nodded, "What do you need?"

She looked around, "My sword. And I need to be by the altar."

I nodded again and helped her limp over to pick her blade up, "So what's your name?"

"My name is Celkae," she said and flinched, but didn't let out a sound as she picked her fallen sword up, it's blade stained black by demon blood. As she touched the blade, the blood flaked and burned off, replaced by the same blue glow.

"I'm Tezzeret," I said and turned us towards the altar, moving slowly forward.

Wooosh.

The ring passed above us again and I gritted my teeth against the pain, "Just... we're likely to die here. Figured we should at least know that much."

She didn't say anything.

I helped her over to the altar, the energy just above it still crackling and sending out bolts of energy, but most seemed to be directed towards the rings now. They really were glowing brighter, moving faster.

"What does it do?" I asked her.

"It is too complicated for you to understand," she said quietly, "But... made very simple... overlay this system with The Warp. In effect, creating a permanent rift between the two realms."

I slowly nodded. I suspected something like that anyway. But that was even worse than I thought it would be.

That wouldn't just doom this system. It would create permanent warp rift. Almost like a second eye of terror.

"...Hey, before we get started..." I said, "Your people can see the future. Did you see any tyranids on this world?"

Celkae actually looked at me in surprise, "The great devourer? No, why do you ask?"

I managed a small smile and shrugged as I helped her lean against the altar, "It's just, everyone else seems to have been invited to the party. Was wondering if we have to worry about a bug infestation too."

She stared at me for a second before laughing softly, "No tyranids that we know of," she answered and then glanced up towards the crackling energy, growing serious again, "This may kill me."

"It may kill us all," I said, looking up at it next to her, "No... if allowed to pass, it will be worse."

"Yes."

I looked at her, "What do you need from me, witch?"

"Quiet and keep out of my way," she answered and steadied herself with one hand on the altar, the second she used and lifted her sword. I backed away just in time as she stabbed the sword up into the energy.

The effect was immediate. Energy lashed into her like a lightning rod and she was thrown backwards into me by an arc of almost solid looking purple lightning.

We went down hard, rolling across the ground and down the ramp. We hit the wall and bounced off it, bouncing and rolling all the way to the bottom of the ramp where I came to a halt, struggling for breath.

My vision sparkled, going snowy for a second before stabilizing again.

I barely even noticed. If my ribs had not been broken before, they definitely were after being hit by fifty kilos of flying eldar witch and falling a dozen meters down a ramp in a tumble.

I struggled to breath for several agonizing moments before I managed to roll over and struggle up on my knees.

Now Celkae really did look worse than me. Her entire right arm was burned straight to the bone and the burns seemed to had turned her entire right side into charcoal. She was bleeding from her mouth and her eyes were unfocused. She was still breathing, but that's all she seemed to be doing.

Slowly I managed to crawl over to her, "Did..." I started to ask before I coughed. It tasted like blood.

"Did it work?" I managed to choke out.

Her lips moved, but I couldn't hear.

I moved closer, my ear almost to her lips. She was saying a word. And Eldar word.

The Eldar word for Run.

I pulled back and looked at her as her head lolled to the side and she went limp, her last breath leaving her. The blue gem she wore in chest chest armor started to glow softly.

Dead.

Run.

I struggled to my feet, starting halting towards the next ramp down before I stopped and glanced back at her. If she had managed it, it would have saved this world, this people... maybe even this sector. She had given her life for it, maybe not specifically because she cared about humans, but for her people. Why she did it didn't matter. She had.

If I left her here, her soulstone would be destroyed or thrown into the warp or maybe both.

Her soul would be consumed forever in torment by Slaanesh.

No. No, too many had died today already. I couldn't let that happen.

Xenos or not, witch or not… she might have saved everyone and she deserved better.

I halted back to her, looking around before spotting her sword laying on the ground a couple of meters away.

It wasn't easy with one hand, not with something as unwieldy as her sword, but by digging the tip of it into the armor on her chest, I popped the stone out of it's holder. Dropping the sword, I picked the stone up.

It felt warm in the palm of my hand.

A rumble from above quickly reminded me of what I had to do and I slipped it into my pocket, making my way towards the bottom of the spire as quickly as I could.

 

[Hiver]

I'm honestly not sure what happened after that.

Next thing I remembered was laying on the street, my back propped up against the wall of a house. It was dark and raining, but that was alright, the house on fire across the street from me kept me from getting cold.

My vision kept going white with static, everything hurt and somebody kept screaming in my ear. Which did not help my apocalyptic headache.

"...go way..." I mumbled.

"Interrogator! Do you copy? Assault team! Can anyone read me!"

That was in my right ear. I wore my combead there.

Mostly out of habit to be honest as the vox was down, but also I could signal for pickup if the mission went well.

I should likely let her know that there was no use yelling, the vox was down.

I moved to reach up to tap my combead but my arm wouldn't move.

Looking down at my right arm explained why. The exoskeleton was still sparking, but less now. And my arm was bent quite heavily in a decidedly unnatural angle with a twist to it.

That explained that.

"Interrogator? Do you copy? Tezzeret, answer me, damn it!"

Reaching around with my left hand I did my best not to scream in pain at the effort, I tapped my combead, setting it to continuous transmission.

Relaxing back, I gasped for breath before I managed to answer, "T-tezzeret here."

"Oh thank the throne, I thought we lost you in the explosion!" Kim explained, "The vox started working afterwards. Where are you, I'll pick you up."

I looked around. My vision turned to snow for a moment and I had to wait it out before I answered.

"Street."

"Bottom of the spire? Can you be more specific?"

Cobblestone street, burning building. Spire. No street signs I could see.

"...Burning building."

"Doesn't narrow it down much," Kim answered, "You sound more than a little punchy to me. Are you hurt? Where is the rest of the team?"

I vinced and I pushed myself up to sit straighter, "...A bit," I admitted and then felt around in my pocket before popping a stimtab, "Just took a stim. But I don't remember how I got down here, I think I might have hit my head. Everyone else is dead."

"Don't worry, sir," Kim said, "I'll talk you through it. Do you see any landmarks?"

I slowly struggled onto my feet, the wall for support as I looked around, "...There is a temple towards the west. Who knows what they did to it, but the structure is still there, I can see the tower."

"Okay, I see it. There is enough ground to set down there. Do you think you can get there?"

At this point, I was honestly not sure I would remain standing if I let go of the wall, but that wouldn't exactly be a productive answer.

"I'll get there," I said, "Can you see anyone from the air?"

"Lasfire from time to time. Occasional explosions. I have no idea who they are fighting."

"Each other."

With that, I carefully let go of the wall and limped along the street towards the temple. I briefly considered pulling my laspistol, but quite frankly I wasn't confident I'd be able to lift it high enough to shoot it in any case.

Besides, I needed that hand to keep me from falling over.

I could hear lasfire from somewhere ahead and I stuck closer to the shadows if I could. Mostly the path was lit by burning buildings.

Reaching the end of the street, I could see the temple, or what remained of it.

Somebody had torn down the Aquilla on it, putting up an infinity sign instead. Now that sign was down too and somebody had holed up in the temple, exchanging lasfire with the administratum building across the street. In the darkness and playing light from the fires, nobody could see me from my current position, but that was clearly a no-go on using that as a landing zone.

A valkyrie was tough, but that many small arms would still bring one down eventually, especially if it landed.

"No go on the temple," I said into my combead, "Combatants occupying it."

"Frack that," Kim answered and I could hear the howl of engines as the dropship swooped in overhead, lascanons and heavy bolters blasting away. The anti tank weapons exploded the walls of the temple and she swung the ship around as the tower collapsed inwards, the heavy bolters playing across the facade of the building across the street.

The ship spun on a Crown and moved to set down in the garden, "Area cleansed, sir. I figure that temple was desecrated anyway."

I managed a small smile, "Right," I agreed and limped on towards the light of the opening ramp of the dropship.

I was almost there when I spotted Kim by the ramp, a lasgun in her hands as she scanned for targets.

"Put that down before you shoot me," I told her as I limped into sight. She was just horrible with guns, "Actually, on second thought, aim it at me. Best chance I have not to get hit."

She turned to me and gasped, "Emperor on Earth!" she exclaimed and dropped the lasgun onto one of the benches before rushing down and helping me up the ramp.

"That bad, huh?" I asked tiredly.

"Just sit down, okay? I'll get a medicea kit," she said, helping me onto one of the benches. Sitting hurt as much as standing.

"Fuck that, just get us out of here," I said and shifted to lay down, "...But maybe dope me up first."

I managed to stay awake just long enough for her to stab me with a needle and then I was out like a light.

 

[Hiver]

Beep.

Click.

Whirr.

Beep.

My head felt like it was stuffed with cotton. My mouth was bone dry, but nothing hurt. I just drifted in comfortable darkness.

Silent. Dark. Painless. Comfortable.

Peaceful.

No worries, no dangers. Just peaceful, timeless, silent and dark.

There was a slight glow somewhere to the right and I shifted my attention. It wasn't much, just a little blue star glowing in the darkness.

Pretty.

Beep.

Click.

Whirr.

Beep.

Sounds drifted through the darkness faintly, disrupting the peaceful calm.

What was that? It sounded almost… mechanical.

What wa-

Suddenly I was awake and I sucked in a breath. Everything was pitch black and I couldn't move. Text scrolled across my field of vision and then my vision activated, giving me a good look of a hospital ceiling. The image jumped slightly.

A shape moved above me and I saw Naria lean in above me, reaching into my field of vision and something whirred, my vision stabilizing and going clear.

"You are awake," she said in her usual monotone machine voice, "Try to move."

I raised my left hand, looking at it, "Why don't I hurt?"

"Large amounts of pharmaceuticals," Naria answered, her voice somehow dry despite her monotone tone, "You have taken significant damage. I have done repairs to your systems.."

I looked to the right, raising my right arm. It moved unsteadily, but it also wasn't my arm. It was a crude looking mechanical arm with three fingers and a thumb, thick and crude bare angular metal. It looked like something ripped off a servitor.

"What did you do?" I asked, more faintly surprised than alarmed. I felt like I should be upset or something, but I just couldn't summon the energy to really care.

Which was likely the drugs.

"Your limb had taken significant damage, the bones were shattered in multiple places and the energy surges in the exoskeleton caused the flesh to carbonize after it took damage. It could not be salvaged. These facilities are crude, it can be replaced for a model you find more aesthetically pleasing at a later time," Naria explained, "Raise it, open and close your hand."

I tried to do as she told me. The arm moved jerkily, jumping slightly and the fingers closed to quickly, slamming together.

"I am reading feedback from the limb," Naria said, looking at something outside my field of view, "You can feel it."

"Yes," I agreed and tried to move things smoother. It didn't help, "Should it be jumping like that?"

"Practice," Naria said.

I nodded and relaxed again, "What else?"

"I repaired and reinforced your ribs. Your kidneys had taken significant damage from stim overdose and were also replaced. I repaired the damage to your knee and lower leg. Several internal organs had to be replaced. Your eyes, both biological and machine, had taken too much damage to repair and were replaced with what optics I could procure. They can be replaced at a later time."

"Mirror."

A mechadendrite raised above me, holding a mirror up. I looked both worse and better than I had expected to be honest. The side of my face was still swollen, but the cut across it seemed to be mostly closed. My eyes stood out to me, replaced by something that I could have sworn I'd seen on a servitor in their place, clumsy whirring lenses that seemed to take up most of my eyesockets, shifting in and out and rotating as I focused.

"Hope they won't miss the servitor you disassembled for this stuff," I said dryly and tried closing my eyes. Which of course didn't work, instead the optics turned off and I could feel the lenses retract into my head into low power mode.

That was disturbing.

There was a knock on the door and I reactivated my eyes just in time to spot Kim walk in, still in her flight suit, "You're awake!" she said with a grin before raising her left augmetic hand, "Welcome to the club!"

I couldn't help but snort in amusement, "Thanks," I said dryly, "You have a report for me?"

"I do," she agreed and pulled out a dataslate from the inner pocket of her flightsuit, "You sure you want it? You really should be resting still."

"Summary please."

I needed to know what was going on.

"Okay," she agreed and shrugged before activating the dataslate, "Whatever happened, it completely fracked the heretics. Their lines collapsed and they started fighting each other more than our side. It's only been a couple of days and they have been pushed back so hard we had to slow down to allow our logistics trains to catch up. The PDF is about to announce victory," she said and switched page with a press of her finger, "The orbital bombardment on the mine site is still ongoing and is causing significant damage, dust clouds have started to cover most of the continent and so far no sign of the enemy," before she looked up from the dataslate, "Seriously, it's the middle of the day outside and it's dark like a heavy thunderstorm, but it's snowing ash. The only real light is from the bombardments that light up the clouds. It's hell on the engines of anything flying."

I nodded. Agriculture and the biosphere would be fucked for decades to come. But it was still better than the alternative.

Kim glanced back down at the dataslate, "When it comes to the Orks, we have lost most of the outer voidstations, they no longer respond to our hails. Several Ork ships have been spotted approaching low orbit, attacking orbital forts. Without the Heretics keeping the landed Ork forces at bay, they have expanded hard and started attacking PDF forces. They have already taken several formerly heretic enclaves."

I took a slow breath before moving to sit up.

Naria simply reached out and put an augmented hand on my chest, pressing me back down with apparent ease, "No."

"Give me a dataslate," I said instead, "I have a report to send to Aurelius. We should be able to get some reinforcements at least."

Kim handed over the dataslate to my real arm, "As I understand it, the PDF has already sent a message requesting help from the Imperial Guard."

"Let's see if we can't give them a hand with that, shall we?"