I just started this one over my lunch break. I've no Idea where it's heading, but I'm deathly afraid that it may be a long one. Anyway, any critiques, suggestions, or constructive critisism, please feel free to post it. I look forward to the assistance. Well, I hope you enjoy, and I'll post updates.
Jaymz
No title yet, a work in progress
1)
"This human must be what?!" Y'narl asked incredulously.
"Protected at all costs", Farseer Ma'Talya said, "No harm must come to her, for she holds the salvation of Ulthwe on her very hands."
Y'narl's eyes were wide in disbelief. A Mon-Keigh, a degenerate savage human. This mewling slobbering human child-thing held their salvation? This was too much for his mind to grasp. "Surely this must be a mistake."
"Do you doubt the sight of Eldrad Uthran?" The farseer asked, glaring, "for it is his sight that has brought us this portent, 'If this human falls, so too shall the children of Isha on Ulthwe fall.'".
Y'narl took an involuntary step backwards. "Nnn-no", he stammered, "I would never question His sight!"
The Farseer's face softened, "My son, I understand that this is difficult to reconcile, especially for one so young, but for almost two thousand years Eldrad has guided us along the most dangerous of paths, and ever have we skirted the black maw of destruction. It is by his sight alone that Craftworld Ulthwe survives."
"Yes father Y'narl said quietly, "I do have much to learn."
The farseer smiled again, this time with pride. "Understanding your ignorance is the first step towards wisdom."
With that, the farseer layer his hands upon his son's shoulders and smiled at him.
"Now my son, you must undertake this task with the utmost urgency, and above all else, this human child must be kept safe."
Seeing the obvious look of dismay on his son's face, Farseer Ma'talya laughed. "Come now", he laughed, "It is not for so long, what is a hundred years? Merely the blink of an eye for one as young as you."
2)
Kayla McCraig inhaled, exhaled, inhaled again and held her breath. The crosshairs of her scope hovered over the primary heart of the Gorthak Hound. Her vision narrowed, her focus razor sharp. She became one with the rifle, and slowly she squeezed the trigger. The sound of he shot rang out in the forest, sending birds and animals fleeing. The beast roared with rage and pain. Turning to face her, the beast howled again, and began its charge. She knew this was the critical moment. The Gorthak Hound had two hearts, one in the back section of its torso, the other one encased in a bone casing. Since the only opening in the bone case was oriented towards the Hound's head, the only way to kill it and retain the trophy head was to shoot it's first heart, and wait for it's charge.
It was because of it's resilience and power that the Gorthak Hound was the symbol of Gorthak Prime's noble ruling family, of which Kayla was a princess of. Gorthak was what is commonly called a "Death World" in the Imperium of Man. As it had been for centuries, all the children of the noble ruling house has to stalk and kill the Gorthak Hound, and bring the head back as a gift to the people, a symbol of their determination, martial skill, courage and their devotion to the people. Only one who has done this is legally allowed to rule.
Again forcing herself to relax, she drew a bead on the creature's chest and fired. The beast continued to race towards her. She had missed! She raced to reload, the enraged monster bearing down on her when suddenly, the beast collapsed. Cautiously, Kayla walked towards the Hound, ready to open fire should it begin to rise, and head be damned. The beast made no movement, and didn't respond when she cautiously stabbed it in the flank. It was dead. Kayla knelt to look closely at the chest. There were the two holes, although the second one, the most important one was a bit off center.
"Must have only nicked the heart, took time to bleed out."
With that, she swung her blade, and gathered her right to rule.
Y'narl lowered his long rifle and activated his holo cloak. He waited for ten minutes, then rose to follow his "charge.". Kayla had grown up believing she had a guardian angel. In all honesty, Y'narl was no angel, and Kayla would probable flee from him and call the guards should she ever find out about him. He was her guardian though, and for the last 25 years he has protected her from the shadows. He had saved her from kidnappings, assassinations, accidents and injuries, and like today, animal attacks from a number of vicious beasts that resided on his death world. All his done from the shadows. Nobody on the entire planet knew of his existence, he had made sure of it. Several servants did disappear in the night, presumed elopements, and there was a noble or two. The only one Y'narl felt anything close to remorse for was the Razor Cat Kayla had as a pet when she was younger. She had loved the cat, but the animal would stare at the invisible Y'narl and hiss and spit. So one day the cat just up and disappeared. Her parents had explained that the cat was probably a victim of one of the many predatory birds that made their home in the crags of the palace. Kayla had long understood the cycle of predator and prey on Gorhak Prime. One did not live long I they didn't understand, and more importantly respect the many extremely dangerous creatures found out in the jungles beyond the city walls. Still Kayla had wept, when she thought no one was around.
Of course Y'narl was there, and he did feel remorse, for the cat, not the child. The animal was not an enemy, and Y'narl owed it no malice. Just the cat he told himself, not the Mon-kei.
The honest truth was that over the last quarter century, he had grown to feel somehow for this human child. It could not be called love, or even mild fondness, perhaps a small bit of respect? The child was unique amongst the barbaric and chaotic humans. In truth she was almost Eldar in her levels of concentration and determination. Y'narl had watched her spend days in the combat dojo, practicing a single strike to perfection. Never leaving, repeating the same strike over and over again, striving for perfection, not unlike an Eldar.
Y'narl shook his head, what was he thinking? This was a human, one of the chaotic, ignorant, irresponsible humans that had brought so much trouble to his people. Did he not leave on the path of the Outcast because of the humans? He had been away from his people for too long.
3)
He had been a very promising artist, a sculptor when his father had come to him and bid him to follow. "Where to father?" Ma'Tayla did not answer. Into the dome of the seers they walked, then into a crypt, then down stairs behind a false wall. He and his father walked into the darkness that must have been a secret unlit room. Frightened he asked,
"Father, what is going on, father I cannot see!"
"Look upon me and see young one, see that which sees eternity."
Y'narl spun towards the voice and found himself facing Eldrad Uthran, the legendary seer of Ulthwe. "My Lord..." he stammered, almost afraid to speak.
"Do not fear child, for your fate is not violence in this place. This is the hallowed hall of the Seer Kings." With a mental command, globes of light came into being, bathing the two Eldar in their soft light. "It is here that secrets are told, and secrets are held. Things which must be said, but must never be said. This is the hall of such things. Now stand child."
Y'narl rose from his knees. He looked around, eyes wide. Decorating the wall were statues of the Eldar gods, of heroes and the Phoenix Lords. There was a small table and two chairs in the middle of the room. On the southern wall there stood a huge door, seeming made of Iron, not wraithbone. It was pitted with age and rust. Powerful runes ran along the archway and in the center of the door, a single rune. Y'narl had not traveled along the warrior path yet. He had been a mime for a time, in a harlequin troupe, but he had been unable to truly travel the path of the harlequin, so he had returned home to be a sculptoer. If he had been a warrior, he would have recognized that rune immediately. "My lord, that door, where does it lead?" he asked, although deep within his consciousness, something sparked, something red with fury, something violent...
"My child, only the Young King can truly know." Eldrad said cryptically. "Please child, we must speak. The Craftworld must make a very costly request of you."
"Child, I have traveled the skeins of time, I have seen..." Eldrads voice had trailed off, and Y'narl waited patiently.
Slowly turning to face Y'narl once more, Eldrad spoke. "The infinite futures, the many universes. There is a reason child, why only the greatest of us dare penetrate the veil of the future. A lesser mind would be lost..." Again he trailed off. Y'narl did not understand, but he was young, and he knew that he had much to learn.
"Yes my lord, only those of the path of the Seer should dare cast the runes of fate." Was this to be a lesson; was he to be a seer?
His ancient eyes fixed on Y'narl and Eldrad rested his hands on Y'narl's shoulders. As Y'narl looked into the ancient seer's eyes he could see the consciousness behind them focus, almost gazing into his very soul, and he almost broke eye contact. Through he wanted to turn away, he remained looking into the old seer's eyes. At once the seer broke eye contact and sank back into his chair.
"Yes, the possibilities are there, the outcome, perhaps, many variables, yet very possible..." The seer spoke without looking at Y'narl, seemingly to himself. Then looking at Y'narl he motioned to the chair and bade him to sit. "Please Y'narl, son of Ma'Tayla, second seer of the council, sit with me, we must speak."
This was how it had begun, his journey along the path of the outcast. Eldrad had spoke to him of the humans and of their Inquisition. Humans, it was always the damned humans. These intergalactic infants had just enough knowledge to be dangerous, and not enough knowledge to be wise. Eldrad had spoke of two Inquisitors, each arrogant, each believing them to be right, the other to be wrong. Eldrad had traveled the paths that led to the futures. Should one Inquisitor be victorious over the other, then the great grandchild of this Inquisitor would become a member of the Ordo Hereticus. This grandchild would investigate a report of a cursed artifact on a planet yet to be colonized. This "cursed artifact" was in reality and ancient data crystal containing information about certain Chaos Daemon Princes, including names and binding runes.
"I have seen the future of this path, in her arrogance; this human will attempt to summon one of the handmaidens of the Great Devorer, and in failing to contain this beast will unleash a torrent of daemons against our craftworld. Child, this must not happen! The other Inquisitor, he must prevail in the conflict, and you must assist him, it is the only way, all other paths lead to damnation."
Y'narl had accepted and in the guise of a harlequin, he brokered a deal with the Inquisitor allowing him extremely restricted access to a document within the Black Library which detailed the ancestry of his opponent, and how an ancient ancestor had been convicted a heretic. This was all it took, but with this information the Eldar sanctioned Inquisitor was able to best his opponent, and this outcome led to safety for Ulthwe. As part of the deal Y'narl had been given certain training by a special instructor from the Inquisition temples, who rarely spoke and never spoke his name. When he had returned to the craftworld, he was a master of stealth and ranged killing.
This was the first of a great many of missions, each undertaken in the utmost secrecy, each given by Eldrad Uthran himself. He became a shadow instrument of the Seer Councel, a killing here, an explosion there, each mission critical to the survival of the Craftworld. And so he found himself here, the invisible "babysitter" for some Mon-Keigh girl child.
The beginnings of another Eldar story.
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• Page 1 of 3 • 1, 2, 3
The beginnings of another Eldar story.
by Kalimata » Tue Apr 12, 2011 9:35 pm
Last edited by Kalimata on Sun Apr 17, 2011 5:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- Kalimata
- Posts: 75
- Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2010 11:40 pm
Re: The beginnings of another Eldar story.
by Kalimata » Wed Apr 13, 2011 5:52 pm
Continued from the previous post. Heres another few chapters. Let me know what you think.
He slung his rifle over his shoulder and pulled the hood of his holo-cloak low over his face. There were no shells to pick up, but he did go about fixing the bent grasses and twigs that had marked his sniper nest. Taking a second look to make sure that there was nothing that would betray his passing, Y’narl set off to follow the girl child.
He did not notice the strange green fungus like stalk growing in the shade of some large leaves. He did not notice it when he brushed against it, and he did not notice when the top of the fungal growth burst forth and spewed a green cloud of spores into the wind.
4)
The central gathering hall of the Government complex of Gorthak Prime was a maelstrom of activity. The mighty hall was decorated from end to end, and servitors and family bondsmen moved to and from the hall carrying trays of drinks and huge steaming platters of roast beast, fish and fowl. At the head of the hall, at the table of honor, Kayla sat arguing with her father. This was not exactly an abnormal event, the argument. She had always been a headstrong young girl, more at home in the forests or training halls of the family dojo than at State affairs. Her father had persisted in grooming her for a position in the government of Gorthak Prime, but Kayla had wanted none of that.
“Damnit father! Either Denebal or Perceval can be your successor; they seem to love all this politicking!” Kayla spat out this last with obvious disgust. Her brothers were always getting involved with the machinations of the government, ingratiating themselves with the noble families, hobnobbing with the wealthy merchants. They were not corrupt young men, nor exactly were they power hungry. They were just better suited for the bureaucracy.
Kayla’s pursuits had always been for the more martial of arts. Battle, warfare, weapons, these were the things in which she immersed herself in. At 25 years of age she was widely accepted to be the best swordswoman in the hive. She knew her projectile weapons, and was quite proficient in their use. She had spent hours with the wrinkled old family librarian, pouring over data crystals containing reports of ancient battles, both human and xeno. This was how she found out about her great great grandmother, Gwaelinya, Sword of the Emperor. She had been a member of the ecclesiarchy, a great warrior for the Imperium. She had died fighting hordes of xenos on this very planet, almost 500 years ago. This was Kayla’s favorite argument for every time her father tried to make her attend state functions, or whenever he acquired a new bonded tutor in etiquette. It was starting to become heated.
“Childe, you are the eldest daughter of the ruling Governor of the Gorthak system! You will attend your own coming of age ritual; you will be dressed as befits a princess of the noble house, and you will act gracious towards your people!” Her father was red faced now. The sweat was beginning to bead on his forehead and his veins stood out like purple rivers. “I know what you want child, and there will be none of it! How would it look to the people, their ruler to be traipsing around in those horrific Imperial Guard uniforms? What would they have to say with you all covered in blood and guts huh? How would you ever attract a husband?”
The heart of the matter, the husband, again.
“Father, I will marry when and if I choose too. My great grandmother was a war hero of the Imperium! The people had no problems when she was defending them from certain death! Besides, if they hate the idea of a warrior queen so much, why did I have to go and kill this thing?” She pointed to the still bleeding head of the Gorthak Hound.
Her father sighed with exasperation. “Childe, I try and have patience with you, but on this matter, there will be no quarter given. You will be in attendance, you will be dressed as befits a noble, and you will be pleasant!” With this her father spun around and stormed off, pausing to give instructions about the giant painting of Kayla that was to be hung for the event.
Y’narl watched her stalk away, furious. He was grinning, thinking that in this small way, she was not so much different from Eldar youth. Had he not been rebellious? Had he not gone against his father’s wishes and joined a harlequin troupe? Did not hundreds of their young chafing under the heavy yolk of the Eldar Path not undertake the path of the Outcast? Ahhh yes, she was not so different. Headstrong and wild, and knew all the knowledge in the universe. Momentarily, just momentarily, Y’narl thought maybe that the human race had a small amount of potential. He watched a moment longer, and padded off down the hall of the hidden passage that would lead him to the family dojo where he knew she would be.
5)
As the tower sentry looked out over the jungle and mountains surrounding the hive, he could make out some movement, in and around the base of Mount Sacrifice. He radioed central command. The commander on the other end, having a rather boring day and being in a rather foul mood, informed him that if he had done his duty and studied the patrol routs for the day, he would know that there was a patrol operating in that area. He then proceeded to berate the sentry, his heredity, his family tree and give him three extra duty shifts. Grumbling to himself, the sentry ended the comms call, and looked back over the jungle.
If he had paid attention and used a sight augmenter, he may have noticed the green shapes moving in the distance, he could have made out the thin whisps of smoke rising from the sight. Even if he had seen them, he would not have heard the sound of pounding drums, or the deep guttural chanting.
6)
The house servitor stared at her blankly. It had no mind to speak of, just a rudimentary mental operating system. It had been a tall, well built man, heavily muscled. He might even have been handsome. The transformation into servitor had not been kind. His arms had been removed, and replaced with a chainsword on the left, and a power mallet on the right. Armor plates had been bolted to its chest, head, shins and neck. She had found this one laboring in the mines on day while being dragged along on an inspection trip by her father. As her father strolled off towards whatever, she had gone to the mine foreman and ordered him to deliver the servitor to her personal dojo. Here she had gotten one of the house Tech-Priests to wipe its primary work routines, and install a new set of instructions. Against the warnings of the Tech-Priests, she had them install a combat program, one of varying degrees of toughness and danger. For almost 4 hours every day, she trained with the servitor, practicing her close combat skills with fist, foot, blade, and bludgeon. Her weapons were training dummies, blunted and padded. What caused the Tech-Priests, and Y’narl for that matter, so much grief was that the servitor’s weapons were not dummies. Her father would have had a fit if he had known the levels of danger she was going to in her combat training, and it was only by the threats of Kayla, and witnessing her skills that kept the Tech-Priests quiet.
“Servitor, combat program activation, activate program Kayla 244, duration, 2 hours.” She wished she could train for the full period, but in this case, she really could not skip out on the ceremony.
“Program Kayla 244 activated, duration, 2 hours confirmed. In the Emperor’s name, guard yourself”
Kayla was using the sword/laspistol combination today. She adopted a combat stance, and waited. She had just replaced the servitor’s power mallet with an industrial mining laser, to mimic a range/bladed foe. The servitor was a very difficult opponent, its eyes never moved, it’s head never turned. Its attacks came from nowhere, without any indication of which side it would come. She watched and waited, breathing deep and even, muscles relaxed, balanced on the balls of her feet, hair tied back. Her blade was raised over her head, edge parallel to the ground, point aimed at her opponent. The las pistol, in front with the arm slightly bent, not too stiff.
Y’narl watched this stance with great interest. It was a new stance for her, but one very familiar one to Y’narl. In fact, he had seen it many times. What came next confirmed his suspicions.
Kayla let loose a high pitched scream of rage and began to race across the dojo at the servitor. It was an undulating scream, long and full of emotion. The servitor blankly watched her come, and at the last moment, raised the lasgun and fired. Kayla leapt straight into the air and executed a flip with a half twist that landed her facing the servitor’s back, within striking distance. She swung her sword in a downward arc, but it was met by the chainsword shot backwards over the servitor’s shoulder. With the speed granted by mechanical augmentation, the servitor spun to face her, arcing the chainsword across its body, and firing the lasgun at her left foot.
Y’narl watched with interest at this maneuver, fully expecting Kayla to leap to the right to avoid the laser, and into the downward swing of the sword. Y’narl knew the servitor was programmed to immediately stop if it landed a sufficient strike, and he was confident he could get to her in time to render medical aid.
Instead of leaping to the right, she merely raised the left leg, and kicked at the knee. Leaning backwards, far backwards, she pushed the servitor away, and avoided the swinging blade. The servitor stumbled to regain its footing, and going with the lean, Kayla performed a series of back handsprings, putting some distance between her and the combat servitor. Again she let out an undulating scream and ran at the servitor, laspistol firing as she went. Dodging and using it’s chainsword to parry the laser blasts, the servitor charged forward to meet his opponent, shooting as well. Kayla jigged side to side, avoiding the shots, and leaping into the air, spun her body like a bullet, using her motion to spin her blade like a rotary saw. She triggered her laspistol as she flew, and the servitor barely blocked this very unconventional acrobatic attack.
Blackened score marks appeared on its head plating, chest plating, and a long red line traced across its bicep. Responding to the programming, the servitor’s laser arm hung limply at its side, “wounded”. Kayla’s graceful spinning arc landed her on her outstretched palms, and she flipped forward, using the momentum again to create distance. She spun to face the servitor again.
With a final scream, she flung the laspistol aside, and drew her backup training blade. Running for the wounded servitor, her blades began to weave in a complex pattern, growing ever faster and faster. The pitch of her scream increased with the speed of her blades until Y’narl’s teeth began to hurt and he clamped his hands to his ears. She reached the servitor and began a series of attacks and dodges that appeared to be more of a dance than an attack. In and out her blades weaved, each movement producing a red line on the servitor. It parried some of the blows, but nine in ever ten blows hit their mark.
Spinning and jumping and screaming as she went, Kayla let her rage and anger guide her blows. Anger at her father, her station, being stuck in this damn hive, everything. This was the first time she had tried to use her anger, instead of sublimating it as the texts suggested. Almost all the texts. This latest historical battle account had proven to be extremely informative, and quite effective. She had practiced for days sequestered in her room, truly alone for Y’narl didn’t even go in her room. The dance, the blade work, and the battle screams all came naturally to her in a way she had never experienced in a combat style. Yes it was very effective.
With a final flurry of blows, she struck the servitor in a number of vital areas; each one would have produced an instant death. The servitor dropped it’s chainsword to its side and backed up.
“Duration five minutes and thirty-seven seconds until fatal wound sustained. Combat efficiency, ninety five percent strike accuracy sword and eighty two percent strike accuracy pistol. Estimated combat potential is upper one percent. In His blessed Name. Do you wish to continue?”
The servitor awaited her command, standing still and not blinking. “No, go and rest, or whatever it is you do. I don’t need you anymore.” With that, the servitor walked towards an alcove in the dojo and backed into it, powering down.
Kayla felt exhilarated and yet calm at the same time. She had been very impressed with this new style, and decided to pursue it further. And all that yelling, it was amazing! She no longer felt any anger or tension in her body. Letting that rage out and incorporating it into her style benefited both her fighting, and her peace of mind. Happily she toweled off her forehead, and at a quick trot, headed for her room to shower and get ready for the ceremony later on.
To Y’narl, this display was shocking and concerning. The moment Kayla had adopted the first battle stance he had suspected. As she attacked and as he watched the battle he grew more concerned and even more shocked. This was a new style of combat for Kayla, but it was actually a very old and ancient one to Y’narl. He had seen it used hundreds of times on hundreds of planets. Millions of souls had been sent into oblivion by its combination of speed, dance, acrobatics and sheer violence. Most telling of all was the use of the built up anger and rage, projected at the enemy by means of a battle scream. It was the combat style of the Howling Banshee Aspect Warrior.
This warranted some serious investigation.
He slung his rifle over his shoulder and pulled the hood of his holo-cloak low over his face. There were no shells to pick up, but he did go about fixing the bent grasses and twigs that had marked his sniper nest. Taking a second look to make sure that there was nothing that would betray his passing, Y’narl set off to follow the girl child.
He did not notice the strange green fungus like stalk growing in the shade of some large leaves. He did not notice it when he brushed against it, and he did not notice when the top of the fungal growth burst forth and spewed a green cloud of spores into the wind.
4)
The central gathering hall of the Government complex of Gorthak Prime was a maelstrom of activity. The mighty hall was decorated from end to end, and servitors and family bondsmen moved to and from the hall carrying trays of drinks and huge steaming platters of roast beast, fish and fowl. At the head of the hall, at the table of honor, Kayla sat arguing with her father. This was not exactly an abnormal event, the argument. She had always been a headstrong young girl, more at home in the forests or training halls of the family dojo than at State affairs. Her father had persisted in grooming her for a position in the government of Gorthak Prime, but Kayla had wanted none of that.
“Damnit father! Either Denebal or Perceval can be your successor; they seem to love all this politicking!” Kayla spat out this last with obvious disgust. Her brothers were always getting involved with the machinations of the government, ingratiating themselves with the noble families, hobnobbing with the wealthy merchants. They were not corrupt young men, nor exactly were they power hungry. They were just better suited for the bureaucracy.
Kayla’s pursuits had always been for the more martial of arts. Battle, warfare, weapons, these were the things in which she immersed herself in. At 25 years of age she was widely accepted to be the best swordswoman in the hive. She knew her projectile weapons, and was quite proficient in their use. She had spent hours with the wrinkled old family librarian, pouring over data crystals containing reports of ancient battles, both human and xeno. This was how she found out about her great great grandmother, Gwaelinya, Sword of the Emperor. She had been a member of the ecclesiarchy, a great warrior for the Imperium. She had died fighting hordes of xenos on this very planet, almost 500 years ago. This was Kayla’s favorite argument for every time her father tried to make her attend state functions, or whenever he acquired a new bonded tutor in etiquette. It was starting to become heated.
“Childe, you are the eldest daughter of the ruling Governor of the Gorthak system! You will attend your own coming of age ritual; you will be dressed as befits a princess of the noble house, and you will act gracious towards your people!” Her father was red faced now. The sweat was beginning to bead on his forehead and his veins stood out like purple rivers. “I know what you want child, and there will be none of it! How would it look to the people, their ruler to be traipsing around in those horrific Imperial Guard uniforms? What would they have to say with you all covered in blood and guts huh? How would you ever attract a husband?”
The heart of the matter, the husband, again.
“Father, I will marry when and if I choose too. My great grandmother was a war hero of the Imperium! The people had no problems when she was defending them from certain death! Besides, if they hate the idea of a warrior queen so much, why did I have to go and kill this thing?” She pointed to the still bleeding head of the Gorthak Hound.
Her father sighed with exasperation. “Childe, I try and have patience with you, but on this matter, there will be no quarter given. You will be in attendance, you will be dressed as befits a noble, and you will be pleasant!” With this her father spun around and stormed off, pausing to give instructions about the giant painting of Kayla that was to be hung for the event.
Y’narl watched her stalk away, furious. He was grinning, thinking that in this small way, she was not so much different from Eldar youth. Had he not been rebellious? Had he not gone against his father’s wishes and joined a harlequin troupe? Did not hundreds of their young chafing under the heavy yolk of the Eldar Path not undertake the path of the Outcast? Ahhh yes, she was not so different. Headstrong and wild, and knew all the knowledge in the universe. Momentarily, just momentarily, Y’narl thought maybe that the human race had a small amount of potential. He watched a moment longer, and padded off down the hall of the hidden passage that would lead him to the family dojo where he knew she would be.
5)
As the tower sentry looked out over the jungle and mountains surrounding the hive, he could make out some movement, in and around the base of Mount Sacrifice. He radioed central command. The commander on the other end, having a rather boring day and being in a rather foul mood, informed him that if he had done his duty and studied the patrol routs for the day, he would know that there was a patrol operating in that area. He then proceeded to berate the sentry, his heredity, his family tree and give him three extra duty shifts. Grumbling to himself, the sentry ended the comms call, and looked back over the jungle.
If he had paid attention and used a sight augmenter, he may have noticed the green shapes moving in the distance, he could have made out the thin whisps of smoke rising from the sight. Even if he had seen them, he would not have heard the sound of pounding drums, or the deep guttural chanting.
6)
The house servitor stared at her blankly. It had no mind to speak of, just a rudimentary mental operating system. It had been a tall, well built man, heavily muscled. He might even have been handsome. The transformation into servitor had not been kind. His arms had been removed, and replaced with a chainsword on the left, and a power mallet on the right. Armor plates had been bolted to its chest, head, shins and neck. She had found this one laboring in the mines on day while being dragged along on an inspection trip by her father. As her father strolled off towards whatever, she had gone to the mine foreman and ordered him to deliver the servitor to her personal dojo. Here she had gotten one of the house Tech-Priests to wipe its primary work routines, and install a new set of instructions. Against the warnings of the Tech-Priests, she had them install a combat program, one of varying degrees of toughness and danger. For almost 4 hours every day, she trained with the servitor, practicing her close combat skills with fist, foot, blade, and bludgeon. Her weapons were training dummies, blunted and padded. What caused the Tech-Priests, and Y’narl for that matter, so much grief was that the servitor’s weapons were not dummies. Her father would have had a fit if he had known the levels of danger she was going to in her combat training, and it was only by the threats of Kayla, and witnessing her skills that kept the Tech-Priests quiet.
“Servitor, combat program activation, activate program Kayla 244, duration, 2 hours.” She wished she could train for the full period, but in this case, she really could not skip out on the ceremony.
“Program Kayla 244 activated, duration, 2 hours confirmed. In the Emperor’s name, guard yourself”
Kayla was using the sword/laspistol combination today. She adopted a combat stance, and waited. She had just replaced the servitor’s power mallet with an industrial mining laser, to mimic a range/bladed foe. The servitor was a very difficult opponent, its eyes never moved, it’s head never turned. Its attacks came from nowhere, without any indication of which side it would come. She watched and waited, breathing deep and even, muscles relaxed, balanced on the balls of her feet, hair tied back. Her blade was raised over her head, edge parallel to the ground, point aimed at her opponent. The las pistol, in front with the arm slightly bent, not too stiff.
Y’narl watched this stance with great interest. It was a new stance for her, but one very familiar one to Y’narl. In fact, he had seen it many times. What came next confirmed his suspicions.
Kayla let loose a high pitched scream of rage and began to race across the dojo at the servitor. It was an undulating scream, long and full of emotion. The servitor blankly watched her come, and at the last moment, raised the lasgun and fired. Kayla leapt straight into the air and executed a flip with a half twist that landed her facing the servitor’s back, within striking distance. She swung her sword in a downward arc, but it was met by the chainsword shot backwards over the servitor’s shoulder. With the speed granted by mechanical augmentation, the servitor spun to face her, arcing the chainsword across its body, and firing the lasgun at her left foot.
Y’narl watched with interest at this maneuver, fully expecting Kayla to leap to the right to avoid the laser, and into the downward swing of the sword. Y’narl knew the servitor was programmed to immediately stop if it landed a sufficient strike, and he was confident he could get to her in time to render medical aid.
Instead of leaping to the right, she merely raised the left leg, and kicked at the knee. Leaning backwards, far backwards, she pushed the servitor away, and avoided the swinging blade. The servitor stumbled to regain its footing, and going with the lean, Kayla performed a series of back handsprings, putting some distance between her and the combat servitor. Again she let out an undulating scream and ran at the servitor, laspistol firing as she went. Dodging and using it’s chainsword to parry the laser blasts, the servitor charged forward to meet his opponent, shooting as well. Kayla jigged side to side, avoiding the shots, and leaping into the air, spun her body like a bullet, using her motion to spin her blade like a rotary saw. She triggered her laspistol as she flew, and the servitor barely blocked this very unconventional acrobatic attack.
Blackened score marks appeared on its head plating, chest plating, and a long red line traced across its bicep. Responding to the programming, the servitor’s laser arm hung limply at its side, “wounded”. Kayla’s graceful spinning arc landed her on her outstretched palms, and she flipped forward, using the momentum again to create distance. She spun to face the servitor again.
With a final scream, she flung the laspistol aside, and drew her backup training blade. Running for the wounded servitor, her blades began to weave in a complex pattern, growing ever faster and faster. The pitch of her scream increased with the speed of her blades until Y’narl’s teeth began to hurt and he clamped his hands to his ears. She reached the servitor and began a series of attacks and dodges that appeared to be more of a dance than an attack. In and out her blades weaved, each movement producing a red line on the servitor. It parried some of the blows, but nine in ever ten blows hit their mark.
Spinning and jumping and screaming as she went, Kayla let her rage and anger guide her blows. Anger at her father, her station, being stuck in this damn hive, everything. This was the first time she had tried to use her anger, instead of sublimating it as the texts suggested. Almost all the texts. This latest historical battle account had proven to be extremely informative, and quite effective. She had practiced for days sequestered in her room, truly alone for Y’narl didn’t even go in her room. The dance, the blade work, and the battle screams all came naturally to her in a way she had never experienced in a combat style. Yes it was very effective.
With a final flurry of blows, she struck the servitor in a number of vital areas; each one would have produced an instant death. The servitor dropped it’s chainsword to its side and backed up.
“Duration five minutes and thirty-seven seconds until fatal wound sustained. Combat efficiency, ninety five percent strike accuracy sword and eighty two percent strike accuracy pistol. Estimated combat potential is upper one percent. In His blessed Name. Do you wish to continue?”
The servitor awaited her command, standing still and not blinking. “No, go and rest, or whatever it is you do. I don’t need you anymore.” With that, the servitor walked towards an alcove in the dojo and backed into it, powering down.
Kayla felt exhilarated and yet calm at the same time. She had been very impressed with this new style, and decided to pursue it further. And all that yelling, it was amazing! She no longer felt any anger or tension in her body. Letting that rage out and incorporating it into her style benefited both her fighting, and her peace of mind. Happily she toweled off her forehead, and at a quick trot, headed for her room to shower and get ready for the ceremony later on.
To Y’narl, this display was shocking and concerning. The moment Kayla had adopted the first battle stance he had suspected. As she attacked and as he watched the battle he grew more concerned and even more shocked. This was a new style of combat for Kayla, but it was actually a very old and ancient one to Y’narl. He had seen it used hundreds of times on hundreds of planets. Millions of souls had been sent into oblivion by its combination of speed, dance, acrobatics and sheer violence. Most telling of all was the use of the built up anger and rage, projected at the enemy by means of a battle scream. It was the combat style of the Howling Banshee Aspect Warrior.
This warranted some serious investigation.
Last edited by Kalimata on Sun Apr 17, 2011 5:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- Kalimata
- Posts: 75
- Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2010 11:40 pm
Re: The beginnings of another Eldar story.
by Kalimata » Thu Apr 14, 2011 5:58 pm
Here's a few more chapters. I haven't really proof read it yet, so do forgive any spelling mistakes. Tell me about any other ones you find 
Jaymz
7)
“Are you sure about this location Sergeant?” the Lieutenant asked. They had been searching for a missing patrol for an hour now. A missing patrol was nothing out of the ordinary; this was a Death Planet after all. Sometimes they came back hours late, sometimes days, most times never. The Lieutenant was not very happy about the wild goose chase he was now on. He had an invitation to the Princesses Coming of Age ceremony, and had no desire to be late or Emperor forbid, miss it all together. Especially not for some damned missing guardsmen.
“Sir, two hours ago the patrol made communications contact. The communications officer Briggs triangulated their transmission to this area.”
“God damn it Sergeant, this is blasted Mount Sacrifice. There are over ten thousand miles in this quadrant alone, can you be more specific damn you!”
“Aye sir! A minute sir!” the Sergeant barked. He looked at his men, and they looked at him.
Were it not for the blasted Commissar, this LT. might have gone missing, a “victim” of the denizens of Gorthak Prime, Imperial Death World. As the Sergeant liked his brain where it was, thank you very much, he was not about to go getting holes put in it by fragging some pansy noble born LT. out here for his medal of service. This particular Commissar would make Ole Yarrik look like an Eldar doxxy, and he had fought alongside Yarrik, a story he told often. He was rather old for an Imperial Guard Sergeant, having survived much longer than many of his contemporaries.
The sergeant activated his com device and called in their position. In a minute a reply came back confirming the search area, and giving directions to another area.
"Sir, Briggs confirms, patrol alpha's last known position at base of Sacrifice, bearing north by north east, ten miles."
The Lieutenant sighed, which drew him a look of extreme scorn from the Commissar. The L.T. would do well to remember that the Commissar's authority for extrajudicial executions was not waived for the officer ranks.
The sergeant sighed, inwardly though, and wished he was back on Armageddon. Not many men in the Imperium would say that, but for the Sgt. It had been a better time. Contrary to what the men believed, he actually had served under Commissar Yarrik's command during the defense of Hive Armageddon. He remembered cowering in a trench with an army of orks bearing down on them. He had looked up in time to see an enormous Slugga Boy swinging his axe toward his head. He had closed his eyes and waited for the blow to come but it never did. Opening his eyes he looked up into the hardest, bluest eyes he had ever seen.
"Cower in your hole and wait for dishonorable death, or rise and in His glorious name deal righteous punishment against those who would defile your holy Emperor!"
With that, Commissar Yarrik turned and marched, not ran, but marched toward the ork lines, singing a battle hymn to the Emperor, firing with his bolt pistol. Following his lead, the guardsmen, to a man, rallied behind him and assaulted the Ork line. They had won that battle, and under Yarrik's had forced the Ork war host from the planet. Good times that.
He had forgotten where he was, lost in his daydream. On many of the civilized worlds, this wasn't a big deal. But this was a Death Planet, and daydreaming gets a man killed. He didn’t notice the local animals grow silent. He didn’t hear the quiet hiss of something moving against the leaves.. It came as a total and complete shock when the large and jagged dagger shot out the front of his chest. He didn't even scream as he was jerked backwards into the dense foliage of the jungle.
The rest of the patrol was totally oblivious to the danger.
8)
Y’narl silently made his way through the palace and down into the House achieves. He was quite concerned. It was not so much that Kayla had been able to perform the attack routine of the Banshees, but that she had been able to learn it from something. Sure many in the Imperium of Man had witnessed first hand the Banshees in combat, but the way she had used her rage, the psychic output of her scream. This could only have been learned by direct instruction, not by mimicry and immitation.
Moving slowly and silently, he moved into the library. Great towering stacks of shelves laden with books, scrolls, and data crystals lined the walls. It was not so big a room, but it was a daunting enough task, finding out the information he desperately hoped he did not find.
The ancient librarian was absent from the library, a rare event indeed. He was probably with the rest of the Noble Family, preparing for the coming celebration. No the librarian was not there, but the data input-output terminal was. He tapped the screen and read. The terminal was, of course, protected with codes and ciphers. Y’narl chuckled to himself. These Mon-keigh were so very infantile and so very simple. He easily broke through the protection algorithms and accessed the library’s catalog. He spent a few minutes referencing and cross referencing, trying to find out where Kayla could have found the information.
He was beginning to think that she must have found it elsewhere when he came to a highly protected category. Y’narl was a little confused because the category was listed as Xeno Archaeology. Not exactly high profile information he thought, but he set to work breaking the protection. In a mere minute he was in and looking at the sub headings in the listing. He wavered on his feet, his head spinning. This was not possible, not possible at all. The more he read, the more afraid he became. He ran his hand over his blanched face, he had to speak to Eldrad Uthran right away.
9)
The heels of his boots made parallel grooves in the soft loam of the jungle floor as he was dragged backwards into the jungle. The Sergeant flitted in and out of consciousness, his eyes were hazy and he could only make out fuzzy green shapes moving about his vision. He started to lose consciousness again, but was jolted awake by the pain of being lifted up. He screamed as huge green hands drove nails into his hands, nailing him to the wooden pole.
10)
“Sir”, Cpl Briggs asked, “could you come here? I’ve lost contact with search patrol Gamma.”
The Commander of Communications for the Guard garrison in hive Gorthak Prime looked up from the manual he was reading. “What was that Cpl.?”
“Sir, patrol Gamma was on a search vector for guard patrol Alpha, over by Sacrifice Mountain. Sir, their homing beacon just went dark and I can’t raise them on comms.”
“Well, it’s getting dark Cpl, and I’m not losing any more patrols today. Send out an automated drone to their last known position. I’m due to attend the ceremony tonight, so try not to interrupt me.” With that the Commander turned and walked off.
“Must be nice” Briggs muttered under his breath. He input the search vector and launched the drone.
11)
Y’narl raced at breakneck speed through the under hive. At this point he didn’t give much thought to leaving Kayla alone, or to being seen by the residents. There wasn’t really any danger if he was seen. The under hive was just as, if not deadlier than the jungle outside of the hive. Mutants, gangs, and even aliens were common place here.
A thought came to him that made him laugh in spite of his fear and anxiety, since Kayla really could fight like a Banshee, he wasn’t really needed anymore! She could just defend herself.
Running through a tunnel, he leapt over a seemingly bottomless gorge and landed on the other side a good 35 feet, in a roll. Springing to his feet he ran on, zigging and zagging down dark and slimy pipes that once held sewage but now served as hiding places for some of the more horrible of the underhives denizens. He came to a dead end in the pipe and continued, running right through the wall. Passing through the holo wall, he arrived at one of his many “safe houses” he kept throughout the hive.
He sat down in front of a device made of crystal and wraith bone. Placing an ornate headpiece on his brow, he closed his eyes and sent his mind adrift.
12)
“What the hell?” Briggs asked. “Jenkins, get over here, take a look at this.” Pte. Jenkins got up and went over to Briggs. “What the hell do you see here?”
Jenkins watched the view screen, it was the cam-feed from the drone. The camera showed treetops and jungle. The drone bobbed up and down, keeping with the tops of the tree line. Mount Sacrifice loomed in the background. “I don’t see nothing.”
“Keep watching idiot” Briggs exclaimed. On the screen, the drone had neared the search location and had dropped into the jungle. Suddenly, the picture began to spin. Sky and jungle, jungle and sky, all a blur as the drone spun out of control. It hit the ground on it’s side, still broadcasting. Something huge, like a thick green log slammed into the ground in front of the drone. Then the feed went black.
“Anything on the audio?” This came from another guardsman. Hicks was a veteran of many campaigns, all over the galaxy. He was a tall soldier and would have been handsome had it not been for the huge twisted scar tracing a thick white line across his neck. “Play the audio will you?”
“I dunno Hicks, why?” Briggs asked.
“Damnit! Just play the god damned thing!”
Briggs looked at Hicks and thought that he didn’t look so good. Hicks was staring at the frozen screen. The huge green thing was out of focus and fuzzy, it could have been anything. Hicks absently began to rub the scar across his neck. Briggs rewound the feed, and activated the sound.
There was the steady hum of the grav motor on the drone. There was the sound of the wind gusting, and that steady hum. As the drone descended into the jungle, things were quiet. Right before the drone began to tumble there was a deep guttural scream. Briggs figured it must have been damage to the audio recorder, an artifact, but the huge gasp from Hicks made him think otherwise. On the screen the green thing made a low thud as it sunk into the ground in front of the drone, and a low pitch chanting echoed in the background, and then everything went black.
Briggs turned around to ask Hicks what he thought, but the look on his face stopped him mid sentence. Hicks eyes were wide with fear. His hand was clamped to his scarred neck, and he had turned the color of grey snow.
“Call the Commander,” Hicks whispered, “Call the Commander, activate the guns, oh dear god, Emperor save us, activate all the defenses, mobilize the regiment, get the tanks, oh Emperor save us, call everyone OH MY GOD RED ALERT, RED ALERT!”
Hicks slammed his hand down on the “Alert” button, and fell to the ground, dead. Spontanious Cerebral Hemorage, the medic later told Briggs, but Briggs knew differently. Hicks had died of fright.
13)
Kayla was not very happy, not happy at all. This damned ceremony was one thing, but this took things too far. A blank faced service servitor stood in front of her. Hanging from it’s arms was a very frilly, very pink formal dress.
“He’s out of his mind, no, not now, never. By the Emperor’s grace, I will not wear that, get out!”
The servitor left the room and she slammed the door behind it. Her father was going to be furious, but she had her limits, and this was one of them. Kayla’s clothes were utilitarian. How could she kick in that dress, fight, shoot? Sitting down on her bed, she lay back, closed her eyes and let her mind wander.
14)
Y’narl opened his eyes and he stood in the Hall of the Seer Kings back on Ulthwe. He wasn’t really there, but the device back on Gorthak was a psychic projection device used for communication. Eldrad Uthran and Ma’Tayla his father stood before him.
“What news childe, why is it you summon us?” Eldrad Uthran asked.
“My lord, father, I bring the most distressing of news.”
“Go on child, what is this news?” Eldrad asked.
“My charge, Kayla, the Mon-Keigh, I watched her train in combat today, hand to hand.”
“Son”, Ma’Tayla said, “Please, you appear agitated, what is so terrible?”
“She fought using the style and skills of the Banshee, she knew everything, she could even perform the Keen of the Banshee!”
“Hmmm, strange, but not totally impossible. Some of the Mon-Keigh have the potential, even the psychic abilities. But this is not so terrible childe, is this what you disturbed my meditations for?” Eldrad’s voice had taken on a rather hard edge, and his father stared at him sternly.
Y’narl closed his eyes and took a number of deep breaths, steadying and calming his mind and body.
“No lord, by itself it is not. What I believe to be of worry is where this information came from. I accessed a file in the Mon-Keigh database under the heading of Xeno Archeology. It appears that some 30 years ago on the planet, Human scientists uncovered a number of incredably ancient artifacts on the planet. Hundreds of data crystals were recovered, most non functioning, but some containing sensitive information. Eldar information. The artifacts were ours. That is how Kayla was able to learn every detail of the Banshee path. It was in those data crystals.”
Eldrad listened to this without reaction. “This is disturbing news childe. The Mon-Keigh are like babes, they are too irresponsible to understand our ways, too arrogant to heed our warnings, unwilling to listen to our wisdom. You must retrieve our data crystals and prevent their knowledge from being used by any more of the humans.”
“My lord, that is not the extent of the danger. Found in the dig site was a large ornate structure, bearing runes described as being alien in nature. My lord, I have seen this object. It is one of the lost webway gates, a webway gate to Ulthwe.
Jaymz
7)
“Are you sure about this location Sergeant?” the Lieutenant asked. They had been searching for a missing patrol for an hour now. A missing patrol was nothing out of the ordinary; this was a Death Planet after all. Sometimes they came back hours late, sometimes days, most times never. The Lieutenant was not very happy about the wild goose chase he was now on. He had an invitation to the Princesses Coming of Age ceremony, and had no desire to be late or Emperor forbid, miss it all together. Especially not for some damned missing guardsmen.
“Sir, two hours ago the patrol made communications contact. The communications officer Briggs triangulated their transmission to this area.”
“God damn it Sergeant, this is blasted Mount Sacrifice. There are over ten thousand miles in this quadrant alone, can you be more specific damn you!”
“Aye sir! A minute sir!” the Sergeant barked. He looked at his men, and they looked at him.
Were it not for the blasted Commissar, this LT. might have gone missing, a “victim” of the denizens of Gorthak Prime, Imperial Death World. As the Sergeant liked his brain where it was, thank you very much, he was not about to go getting holes put in it by fragging some pansy noble born LT. out here for his medal of service. This particular Commissar would make Ole Yarrik look like an Eldar doxxy, and he had fought alongside Yarrik, a story he told often. He was rather old for an Imperial Guard Sergeant, having survived much longer than many of his contemporaries.
The sergeant activated his com device and called in their position. In a minute a reply came back confirming the search area, and giving directions to another area.
"Sir, Briggs confirms, patrol alpha's last known position at base of Sacrifice, bearing north by north east, ten miles."
The Lieutenant sighed, which drew him a look of extreme scorn from the Commissar. The L.T. would do well to remember that the Commissar's authority for extrajudicial executions was not waived for the officer ranks.
The sergeant sighed, inwardly though, and wished he was back on Armageddon. Not many men in the Imperium would say that, but for the Sgt. It had been a better time. Contrary to what the men believed, he actually had served under Commissar Yarrik's command during the defense of Hive Armageddon. He remembered cowering in a trench with an army of orks bearing down on them. He had looked up in time to see an enormous Slugga Boy swinging his axe toward his head. He had closed his eyes and waited for the blow to come but it never did. Opening his eyes he looked up into the hardest, bluest eyes he had ever seen.
"Cower in your hole and wait for dishonorable death, or rise and in His glorious name deal righteous punishment against those who would defile your holy Emperor!"
With that, Commissar Yarrik turned and marched, not ran, but marched toward the ork lines, singing a battle hymn to the Emperor, firing with his bolt pistol. Following his lead, the guardsmen, to a man, rallied behind him and assaulted the Ork line. They had won that battle, and under Yarrik's had forced the Ork war host from the planet. Good times that.
He had forgotten where he was, lost in his daydream. On many of the civilized worlds, this wasn't a big deal. But this was a Death Planet, and daydreaming gets a man killed. He didn’t notice the local animals grow silent. He didn’t hear the quiet hiss of something moving against the leaves.. It came as a total and complete shock when the large and jagged dagger shot out the front of his chest. He didn't even scream as he was jerked backwards into the dense foliage of the jungle.
The rest of the patrol was totally oblivious to the danger.
8)
Y’narl silently made his way through the palace and down into the House achieves. He was quite concerned. It was not so much that Kayla had been able to perform the attack routine of the Banshees, but that she had been able to learn it from something. Sure many in the Imperium of Man had witnessed first hand the Banshees in combat, but the way she had used her rage, the psychic output of her scream. This could only have been learned by direct instruction, not by mimicry and immitation.
Moving slowly and silently, he moved into the library. Great towering stacks of shelves laden with books, scrolls, and data crystals lined the walls. It was not so big a room, but it was a daunting enough task, finding out the information he desperately hoped he did not find.
The ancient librarian was absent from the library, a rare event indeed. He was probably with the rest of the Noble Family, preparing for the coming celebration. No the librarian was not there, but the data input-output terminal was. He tapped the screen and read. The terminal was, of course, protected with codes and ciphers. Y’narl chuckled to himself. These Mon-keigh were so very infantile and so very simple. He easily broke through the protection algorithms and accessed the library’s catalog. He spent a few minutes referencing and cross referencing, trying to find out where Kayla could have found the information.
He was beginning to think that she must have found it elsewhere when he came to a highly protected category. Y’narl was a little confused because the category was listed as Xeno Archaeology. Not exactly high profile information he thought, but he set to work breaking the protection. In a mere minute he was in and looking at the sub headings in the listing. He wavered on his feet, his head spinning. This was not possible, not possible at all. The more he read, the more afraid he became. He ran his hand over his blanched face, he had to speak to Eldrad Uthran right away.
9)
The heels of his boots made parallel grooves in the soft loam of the jungle floor as he was dragged backwards into the jungle. The Sergeant flitted in and out of consciousness, his eyes were hazy and he could only make out fuzzy green shapes moving about his vision. He started to lose consciousness again, but was jolted awake by the pain of being lifted up. He screamed as huge green hands drove nails into his hands, nailing him to the wooden pole.
10)
“Sir”, Cpl Briggs asked, “could you come here? I’ve lost contact with search patrol Gamma.”
The Commander of Communications for the Guard garrison in hive Gorthak Prime looked up from the manual he was reading. “What was that Cpl.?”
“Sir, patrol Gamma was on a search vector for guard patrol Alpha, over by Sacrifice Mountain. Sir, their homing beacon just went dark and I can’t raise them on comms.”
“Well, it’s getting dark Cpl, and I’m not losing any more patrols today. Send out an automated drone to their last known position. I’m due to attend the ceremony tonight, so try not to interrupt me.” With that the Commander turned and walked off.
“Must be nice” Briggs muttered under his breath. He input the search vector and launched the drone.
11)
Y’narl raced at breakneck speed through the under hive. At this point he didn’t give much thought to leaving Kayla alone, or to being seen by the residents. There wasn’t really any danger if he was seen. The under hive was just as, if not deadlier than the jungle outside of the hive. Mutants, gangs, and even aliens were common place here.
A thought came to him that made him laugh in spite of his fear and anxiety, since Kayla really could fight like a Banshee, he wasn’t really needed anymore! She could just defend herself.
Running through a tunnel, he leapt over a seemingly bottomless gorge and landed on the other side a good 35 feet, in a roll. Springing to his feet he ran on, zigging and zagging down dark and slimy pipes that once held sewage but now served as hiding places for some of the more horrible of the underhives denizens. He came to a dead end in the pipe and continued, running right through the wall. Passing through the holo wall, he arrived at one of his many “safe houses” he kept throughout the hive.
He sat down in front of a device made of crystal and wraith bone. Placing an ornate headpiece on his brow, he closed his eyes and sent his mind adrift.
12)
“What the hell?” Briggs asked. “Jenkins, get over here, take a look at this.” Pte. Jenkins got up and went over to Briggs. “What the hell do you see here?”
Jenkins watched the view screen, it was the cam-feed from the drone. The camera showed treetops and jungle. The drone bobbed up and down, keeping with the tops of the tree line. Mount Sacrifice loomed in the background. “I don’t see nothing.”
“Keep watching idiot” Briggs exclaimed. On the screen, the drone had neared the search location and had dropped into the jungle. Suddenly, the picture began to spin. Sky and jungle, jungle and sky, all a blur as the drone spun out of control. It hit the ground on it’s side, still broadcasting. Something huge, like a thick green log slammed into the ground in front of the drone. Then the feed went black.
“Anything on the audio?” This came from another guardsman. Hicks was a veteran of many campaigns, all over the galaxy. He was a tall soldier and would have been handsome had it not been for the huge twisted scar tracing a thick white line across his neck. “Play the audio will you?”
“I dunno Hicks, why?” Briggs asked.
“Damnit! Just play the god damned thing!”
Briggs looked at Hicks and thought that he didn’t look so good. Hicks was staring at the frozen screen. The huge green thing was out of focus and fuzzy, it could have been anything. Hicks absently began to rub the scar across his neck. Briggs rewound the feed, and activated the sound.
There was the steady hum of the grav motor on the drone. There was the sound of the wind gusting, and that steady hum. As the drone descended into the jungle, things were quiet. Right before the drone began to tumble there was a deep guttural scream. Briggs figured it must have been damage to the audio recorder, an artifact, but the huge gasp from Hicks made him think otherwise. On the screen the green thing made a low thud as it sunk into the ground in front of the drone, and a low pitch chanting echoed in the background, and then everything went black.
Briggs turned around to ask Hicks what he thought, but the look on his face stopped him mid sentence. Hicks eyes were wide with fear. His hand was clamped to his scarred neck, and he had turned the color of grey snow.
“Call the Commander,” Hicks whispered, “Call the Commander, activate the guns, oh dear god, Emperor save us, activate all the defenses, mobilize the regiment, get the tanks, oh Emperor save us, call everyone OH MY GOD RED ALERT, RED ALERT!”
Hicks slammed his hand down on the “Alert” button, and fell to the ground, dead. Spontanious Cerebral Hemorage, the medic later told Briggs, but Briggs knew differently. Hicks had died of fright.
13)
Kayla was not very happy, not happy at all. This damned ceremony was one thing, but this took things too far. A blank faced service servitor stood in front of her. Hanging from it’s arms was a very frilly, very pink formal dress.
“He’s out of his mind, no, not now, never. By the Emperor’s grace, I will not wear that, get out!”
The servitor left the room and she slammed the door behind it. Her father was going to be furious, but she had her limits, and this was one of them. Kayla’s clothes were utilitarian. How could she kick in that dress, fight, shoot? Sitting down on her bed, she lay back, closed her eyes and let her mind wander.
14)
Y’narl opened his eyes and he stood in the Hall of the Seer Kings back on Ulthwe. He wasn’t really there, but the device back on Gorthak was a psychic projection device used for communication. Eldrad Uthran and Ma’Tayla his father stood before him.
“What news childe, why is it you summon us?” Eldrad Uthran asked.
“My lord, father, I bring the most distressing of news.”
“Go on child, what is this news?” Eldrad asked.
“My charge, Kayla, the Mon-Keigh, I watched her train in combat today, hand to hand.”
“Son”, Ma’Tayla said, “Please, you appear agitated, what is so terrible?”
“She fought using the style and skills of the Banshee, she knew everything, she could even perform the Keen of the Banshee!”
“Hmmm, strange, but not totally impossible. Some of the Mon-Keigh have the potential, even the psychic abilities. But this is not so terrible childe, is this what you disturbed my meditations for?” Eldrad’s voice had taken on a rather hard edge, and his father stared at him sternly.
Y’narl closed his eyes and took a number of deep breaths, steadying and calming his mind and body.
“No lord, by itself it is not. What I believe to be of worry is where this information came from. I accessed a file in the Mon-Keigh database under the heading of Xeno Archeology. It appears that some 30 years ago on the planet, Human scientists uncovered a number of incredably ancient artifacts on the planet. Hundreds of data crystals were recovered, most non functioning, but some containing sensitive information. Eldar information. The artifacts were ours. That is how Kayla was able to learn every detail of the Banshee path. It was in those data crystals.”
Eldrad listened to this without reaction. “This is disturbing news childe. The Mon-Keigh are like babes, they are too irresponsible to understand our ways, too arrogant to heed our warnings, unwilling to listen to our wisdom. You must retrieve our data crystals and prevent their knowledge from being used by any more of the humans.”
“My lord, that is not the extent of the danger. Found in the dig site was a large ornate structure, bearing runes described as being alien in nature. My lord, I have seen this object. It is one of the lost webway gates, a webway gate to Ulthwe.
Last edited by Kalimata on Tue May 10, 2011 4:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- Kalimata
- Posts: 75
- Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2010 11:40 pm
Re: The beginnings of another Eldar story.
by Kalimata » Thu Apr 21, 2011 7:19 pm
15)
The blaring klaxon startled the commander of the guard and caused him to drop his ceremonial sword. He uttered a rather foul curse that would have surely earned him several lashes from the Ecclesiarchy had it been heard. He angrily put on his shirt, slipped on his boots and stormed out of his room, stomping towards the HQ building. As he walked, he went over in his mind exactly how he was going to punish the idiots under his command for causing such chaos. People were either running all over in the courtyard of the HQ building, or standing slack jawed staring at the blaring alarm. “Fools” he muttered and stormed inside.
16)
The sudden sound of the alarm had almost broke Y’narl’s concentration. Even so, he was aware that it was the alarm for the Mon-Keigh army. “My lord, father, something is happening here, I must go and find my charge”
“Go childe”, Eldrad said, “Remember she is vital to our survival, keep her unharmed!”
“Go with Isha my son”, his father whispered, “Be safe.”
Y’narl broke the psychic connection and looked around. Everywhere “things”, some human, some definitely not, emerged from their hovels, boxes, or whatever it was that they lived in. They were looking around as if dazed. It had been five hundred years since these alarms had blared their warning, and nobody knew exactly what to do.
Y’narl paid the denizens of the under-hive no heed as he raced out from his safe house. He ran like the wind, dodging left and right, even performing a graceful forward flip over one Ogryn like creature in his way. He did this without thought, his mind focused on the safety of his charge and what he may have to do. He didn’t like the direction his plans were forcing him to take.
When he came to the secret entrance to the palace complex he stopped. With his camelioline cloak and mask he was invisible for all intents and purposes. Still, for his plan this would not be enough. Opening a pouch in his belt, he drew forth a small metal case. Inside were six ampoules of liquid and an injecting device. He loaded the injection tool, held it to his neck and activated it. There was a quick flash of pain, and then a burning sensation beneath his skin as the drug began to diffuse into his blood. He doubled over in pain as muscle cramps struck him, and his bones felt as if they were breaking. It was always like this, every time he used it and he hated the drug for it, but it was the only way. If someone could see him, they surely would have screamed and ran for the nearest Purifier. As if made of clay, the skin on his hands and face began to bulge and undulate. His hair seemed to be retracting into his head, and his entire body began to grow. A few minutes later he deactivated his cloak and looked in a puddle on the ground at his reflection. The polymorphine had worked exactly as it had many times before. The face staring back at Y’narl was that of a palace guard, the identity he used when he couldn’t use his cloak, or when he had to interact with the palace dwellers. He had even spoken to Kayla on numerous times and so far nobody had seen through his disguise. It was a pity that the Callidus Assassin he had encountered in the webway hadn't had more.
17)
“What in the Emperor’s name is going on in here?” the Commander bellowed as he stormed into the comms center and then stopped. Paramedics were finishing up zipping Hicks’ body into the body bag, and the rest of the guardsmen were a flurry of activity moving about doing their tasks. “Briggs! Explain what the hell is going on in here!”
“Sir”, Briggs began, “We lost a probe over in the Mount Sacrifice area. We looked at the feed and then at Hicks’ order we played the audio. He got this horrified look on his face sir, and hit the alarm and dropped dead!”
“Let me see this recording”, the Commander ordered. Briggs complied and the watched the video. “This!” he screamed, face turning purple. “This is what you hit the alarm for! Some bloody green thing and some grunts. I’ll see you court marshalled for...”
“Sir, we’ve got something incoming on the radar, wait, there’s another, oh gods, there are hundreds of them.” The young guardsman turned to look at the commander and the commander could see that the youth was very frightened.
“What is it Private, come on speak up.”
“Sss..” he stuttered, “Sir, I think they are missiles.”
“Impossi...” began the commander when all of a sudden the world exploded.
18)
As he ran, Y’narl could feel the palace shake as huge explosions rocked the city walls and shook plaster dust from the ceeling of the palace. A feeling of dread grew in his belly. The planet was not at war with any alien civilizations, the Tau empire was far to the galactic north of here, and no hive fleet activity had been detected for. Even the most ancient and dreaded C'tan and their undead slaves were thousands of light years from the planet. That left three possibilities, and none of them were the least bit pleasant. The dark and twisted cousins of the Eldar preferred suprise strikes, yet they lacked the heavy artillary required to make explosions of this magnitude, so Y'narl doubted that it was the Cabals attacking. Early on in his stay as guardian of the Mon-Keigh girl, a great contingent of the Ordo Malleas had been stationed on planet. He believed there was only one real possibility. He staggered as a blast wave caused the palace floor to buckle. He had to move! Where it was coming from wasn’t really his concern, only that it was happening, and he had to get to Kayla.
The palace halls were filled with running screaming people. Y’narl had to push and shove his way through the spooked herd of Mon-Keigh. He was furious at the utter random and childlike behaviour of the humans. It took him far too long to finally make it to Kayla’s room. He burst into the chamber, too worried to wait and knock. He shouted her name and got no response. He ran to the water closet, throwing the door open but it was empty. Y’narl was getting a very strong sense of dread and foreboding. Kayla was gone, and Y’narl had no way of finding her.
The blaring klaxon startled the commander of the guard and caused him to drop his ceremonial sword. He uttered a rather foul curse that would have surely earned him several lashes from the Ecclesiarchy had it been heard. He angrily put on his shirt, slipped on his boots and stormed out of his room, stomping towards the HQ building. As he walked, he went over in his mind exactly how he was going to punish the idiots under his command for causing such chaos. People were either running all over in the courtyard of the HQ building, or standing slack jawed staring at the blaring alarm. “Fools” he muttered and stormed inside.
16)
The sudden sound of the alarm had almost broke Y’narl’s concentration. Even so, he was aware that it was the alarm for the Mon-Keigh army. “My lord, father, something is happening here, I must go and find my charge”
“Go childe”, Eldrad said, “Remember she is vital to our survival, keep her unharmed!”
“Go with Isha my son”, his father whispered, “Be safe.”
Y’narl broke the psychic connection and looked around. Everywhere “things”, some human, some definitely not, emerged from their hovels, boxes, or whatever it was that they lived in. They were looking around as if dazed. It had been five hundred years since these alarms had blared their warning, and nobody knew exactly what to do.
Y’narl paid the denizens of the under-hive no heed as he raced out from his safe house. He ran like the wind, dodging left and right, even performing a graceful forward flip over one Ogryn like creature in his way. He did this without thought, his mind focused on the safety of his charge and what he may have to do. He didn’t like the direction his plans were forcing him to take.
When he came to the secret entrance to the palace complex he stopped. With his camelioline cloak and mask he was invisible for all intents and purposes. Still, for his plan this would not be enough. Opening a pouch in his belt, he drew forth a small metal case. Inside were six ampoules of liquid and an injecting device. He loaded the injection tool, held it to his neck and activated it. There was a quick flash of pain, and then a burning sensation beneath his skin as the drug began to diffuse into his blood. He doubled over in pain as muscle cramps struck him, and his bones felt as if they were breaking. It was always like this, every time he used it and he hated the drug for it, but it was the only way. If someone could see him, they surely would have screamed and ran for the nearest Purifier. As if made of clay, the skin on his hands and face began to bulge and undulate. His hair seemed to be retracting into his head, and his entire body began to grow. A few minutes later he deactivated his cloak and looked in a puddle on the ground at his reflection. The polymorphine had worked exactly as it had many times before. The face staring back at Y’narl was that of a palace guard, the identity he used when he couldn’t use his cloak, or when he had to interact with the palace dwellers. He had even spoken to Kayla on numerous times and so far nobody had seen through his disguise. It was a pity that the Callidus Assassin he had encountered in the webway hadn't had more.
17)
“What in the Emperor’s name is going on in here?” the Commander bellowed as he stormed into the comms center and then stopped. Paramedics were finishing up zipping Hicks’ body into the body bag, and the rest of the guardsmen were a flurry of activity moving about doing their tasks. “Briggs! Explain what the hell is going on in here!”
“Sir”, Briggs began, “We lost a probe over in the Mount Sacrifice area. We looked at the feed and then at Hicks’ order we played the audio. He got this horrified look on his face sir, and hit the alarm and dropped dead!”
“Let me see this recording”, the Commander ordered. Briggs complied and the watched the video. “This!” he screamed, face turning purple. “This is what you hit the alarm for! Some bloody green thing and some grunts. I’ll see you court marshalled for...”
“Sir, we’ve got something incoming on the radar, wait, there’s another, oh gods, there are hundreds of them.” The young guardsman turned to look at the commander and the commander could see that the youth was very frightened.
“What is it Private, come on speak up.”
“Sss..” he stuttered, “Sir, I think they are missiles.”
“Impossi...” began the commander when all of a sudden the world exploded.
18)
As he ran, Y’narl could feel the palace shake as huge explosions rocked the city walls and shook plaster dust from the ceeling of the palace. A feeling of dread grew in his belly. The planet was not at war with any alien civilizations, the Tau empire was far to the galactic north of here, and no hive fleet activity had been detected for. Even the most ancient and dreaded C'tan and their undead slaves were thousands of light years from the planet. That left three possibilities, and none of them were the least bit pleasant. The dark and twisted cousins of the Eldar preferred suprise strikes, yet they lacked the heavy artillary required to make explosions of this magnitude, so Y'narl doubted that it was the Cabals attacking. Early on in his stay as guardian of the Mon-Keigh girl, a great contingent of the Ordo Malleas had been stationed on planet. He believed there was only one real possibility. He staggered as a blast wave caused the palace floor to buckle. He had to move! Where it was coming from wasn’t really his concern, only that it was happening, and he had to get to Kayla.
The palace halls were filled with running screaming people. Y’narl had to push and shove his way through the spooked herd of Mon-Keigh. He was furious at the utter random and childlike behaviour of the humans. It took him far too long to finally make it to Kayla’s room. He burst into the chamber, too worried to wait and knock. He shouted her name and got no response. He ran to the water closet, throwing the door open but it was empty. Y’narl was getting a very strong sense of dread and foreboding. Kayla was gone, and Y’narl had no way of finding her.
Last edited by Kalimata on Tue May 10, 2011 4:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- Kalimata
- Posts: 75
- Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2010 11:40 pm
Re: The beginnings of another Eldar story.
by Kalimata » Thu Apr 28, 2011 6:19 pm
19)
Kayla was strapping the sheath of her power sword to her back when the second series of explosions hit the palace. Screams echod down the halls and the dojo began to shake. Kneeling down to steady herself Kayla watched rack after rack of training weapons being shaken off the wall. The training servitor shook back and forth but remained standing. Guards ran past the door to her dojo and palace employees were running to and fro, almost mindless with fear. The alarm klaxxon was blaring and lights were flashing on and off as their wiring was shaken by the explosions. An automated voice announced that all house defence members were to assemble in their duty stations. Kayla almost grinned at the voice, it's calm computer generated tone completely at odds with the chaos that was going on all over the palace. Another explosion shook the room and snapped Kayla out of her thoughts. She turned and ran over to the projectile weapon cabinet. The scanner recognized her retenal pattern and the doors hissed open. She scanned the selection for a moment deciding. She holstered a "Hot Shot" las pistol in one holster on her waist, and then selected an archaeic and somewhat hazardous Plasma piston and slid it into the other holster. Finally she slung a Lasgun onto her back and closed the door. A commotion outside her door caught her attention and she turned in time to see a guard fall prone on the floor outside of the dojo.
20)
"I don't care what you think, find my daughter now and get her to the shelter!"
The Governor was extremely agitated. His beautiful afternoon gathering had been ruined, first by that damned hooting alarm, and then by the explosions that began to rock the city. As if this wasn't enough, the guard he had dispatched to gather his daughter hadn't reported back.
"Aye sir, I will but you need to come with me to the command bunker." The guardsman, a corporal, was not one of the house guards, but an actual Imperial Guardsman. "Your duty to the Emperor and this city is more important than your family affairs sir. You must come with me, now!"
"Wha... How dare you speak to me like that, why I'll...." He was cut off as a block of stone from the ceeling broke free and hit him squarly on the head, knocking him out.
"Thank the Emperor for small miracles" the guardsman muttered and waved two privates over. "Take him to the command bunker on the double. If he gives you trouble, turn him over to the commissar."
The privates grabbed the Governor's arms and legs and took off down a hallway. The corporal activated the com device in his ear and again tried to radio the princess' escort. Static was the only thing that answered him. He didn't have time to go babysit some pampered brat, not with what was going on. He turned and ran down the hall heading towards the barracks.
21)
Huge billowing trails of black smoke traced the trajectory the missiles were taking as they slammed into the city. They weren't all that straight, with some trails corkscrewing through the air, some flying erratically left and right. Some missiles even missed the city all together. Some were even exploding in mid air, far away from the city. The anti-aircraft gun batteries and the flak batteries were having trouble hitting the missils due to their erratic course, and many were making it through. A bewildered guardsman quickly ducked behind a barrier as a missile came hurtiling towards him, but it quickly changed course and flew over his head. He almost let fly with a cry of joy, but he stopped. He was familiar with the scream of artillary, he'd heard the hiss of incoming tank rounds, even the roar of rockets. This one was different, it had the roar of the rocket engins sure, but the guardsman could have sworn that the rocket was screaming "WWWAAAAAAAAAA" as it went by.
Kayla was strapping the sheath of her power sword to her back when the second series of explosions hit the palace. Screams echod down the halls and the dojo began to shake. Kneeling down to steady herself Kayla watched rack after rack of training weapons being shaken off the wall. The training servitor shook back and forth but remained standing. Guards ran past the door to her dojo and palace employees were running to and fro, almost mindless with fear. The alarm klaxxon was blaring and lights were flashing on and off as their wiring was shaken by the explosions. An automated voice announced that all house defence members were to assemble in their duty stations. Kayla almost grinned at the voice, it's calm computer generated tone completely at odds with the chaos that was going on all over the palace. Another explosion shook the room and snapped Kayla out of her thoughts. She turned and ran over to the projectile weapon cabinet. The scanner recognized her retenal pattern and the doors hissed open. She scanned the selection for a moment deciding. She holstered a "Hot Shot" las pistol in one holster on her waist, and then selected an archaeic and somewhat hazardous Plasma piston and slid it into the other holster. Finally she slung a Lasgun onto her back and closed the door. A commotion outside her door caught her attention and she turned in time to see a guard fall prone on the floor outside of the dojo.
20)
"I don't care what you think, find my daughter now and get her to the shelter!"
The Governor was extremely agitated. His beautiful afternoon gathering had been ruined, first by that damned hooting alarm, and then by the explosions that began to rock the city. As if this wasn't enough, the guard he had dispatched to gather his daughter hadn't reported back.
"Aye sir, I will but you need to come with me to the command bunker." The guardsman, a corporal, was not one of the house guards, but an actual Imperial Guardsman. "Your duty to the Emperor and this city is more important than your family affairs sir. You must come with me, now!"
"Wha... How dare you speak to me like that, why I'll...." He was cut off as a block of stone from the ceeling broke free and hit him squarly on the head, knocking him out.
"Thank the Emperor for small miracles" the guardsman muttered and waved two privates over. "Take him to the command bunker on the double. If he gives you trouble, turn him over to the commissar."
The privates grabbed the Governor's arms and legs and took off down a hallway. The corporal activated the com device in his ear and again tried to radio the princess' escort. Static was the only thing that answered him. He didn't have time to go babysit some pampered brat, not with what was going on. He turned and ran down the hall heading towards the barracks.
21)
Huge billowing trails of black smoke traced the trajectory the missiles were taking as they slammed into the city. They weren't all that straight, with some trails corkscrewing through the air, some flying erratically left and right. Some missiles even missed the city all together. Some were even exploding in mid air, far away from the city. The anti-aircraft gun batteries and the flak batteries were having trouble hitting the missils due to their erratic course, and many were making it through. A bewildered guardsman quickly ducked behind a barrier as a missile came hurtiling towards him, but it quickly changed course and flew over his head. He almost let fly with a cry of joy, but he stopped. He was familiar with the scream of artillary, he'd heard the hiss of incoming tank rounds, even the roar of rockets. This one was different, it had the roar of the rocket engins sure, but the guardsman could have sworn that the rocket was screaming "WWWAAAAAAAAAA" as it went by.
- Kalimata
- Posts: 75
- Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2010 11:40 pm
Re: The beginnings of another Eldar story.
by Kalimata » Tue May 10, 2011 5:43 pm
22)
Reaching back over her shoulder, Kayla grasped the hilt of the power sword and drew it from the scabbard. She unholstered the plasma pistol, and adopted the combat stance, which unknown to her, was that of the Howling Banshee. She waited, concentration focused on the doorway and the prone guard. Inside her mind, emotions of rage began to well up. Mentally she pictured this as a swirling vortex of red light. Compressing the light into a tiny ball of rage, she waited, prepared to unleash the psychic energy in a battle cry.
"Princess?" a voice outside the door called. "Lady Kayla, are you there?" A head peered cautiously around the corner of the door frame and she saw it was one of the palace guards.
"You there, guard. What happened to this man, why did you strike him?" Kayla watched the reaction on the Y'narls face. She remained in the action stance, finger tight against the trigger of the plasma pistol, ready to fight.
"Lady!" Ynarl cried, "Lady rebel factions attacking the city, this man was an assassin!" Y'narl reached down to the body and with a quick slight of hand trick, produced a wraithbone dagger, seemingly from the guards jacket. "We believe that Eldar Pirates may be behind it!"
Kayla lowered her sword. Good Y'narl thought, his ruse had worked. Holstering the plasma pistol, she took a quick look around the dojo and then jogged towards the door.
"I've seen you before guard. Many times. In fact, you always seem to be exactly where I am. Who are you?"
Y'narl was amused. The Mon-Keigh was smart, and sharp of wit. She had noticed him following her in this guise. Still he had prepared for many contingencies, one of them being exactly this.
Bowing low, Y'narl spoke; "Lady forgive me, you are correct. I have been following you for many years now. Your father assigned me to your care when you were very small. I have been your personal guard for many years. Your father instructed me that you were never to know of my existance, or of my duty. I was to be a watchful shadow, your guardian."
Kayla's face softened and she relaxed her body. "Just like father. Hmmmm, well, tell me guard, what the hell is going on, are we under attack?"
Still bowing, Y'narl smirked. His ruse had worked, the act believed. There were no better mimics and actors in the known universe than the children of the laughing god, of whom he had been, and studied. Rising he looked at the Mon-Keigh. He coulden't help but noticing at this time that she was actually very attractive. "For a human" he thought, but no, her features were delicate, almost like...
Mentally shaking his head, he spoke. "Your father has commanded me to gather you and we are to leave the city for a secret shelter location in the southern continent." A dark cloud crossed her face. "Lady please, they are my orders and your father and brothers are on rout there as we speak. We must go."
As if to accentuate the point, a particularily massive explosion rocked the palace, almost knocking them to the ground. "Fine" Kayla said, and together they left the dojo and ran down the hallway towards the palace hanger.
23) A hand grabbed him roughly by the hair and hauled him to his feet. The left half of the commander's vision was black, but with his right eye he looked into the scowling face of the Commissar. The air was choked with smoke, and bodies lay strewen across the floor of the command center.
"Asleep eh," the Commissair growled, "Care for some breakfast in bed commander?"
All around sparks shot into the air as electrical devices exploded and small fires guttered in the cases and wiring of the walls.
"Wha.." The commander grabbed his pounding head in both hands, "What the hell happened?"
"Well commander" the commassar spoke harshly, "It seems that your incompetance has reached terminal levels." The commander looked up, stunned. "Due to your negligance and stupidity over these long years, it seems that you completely missed the fact that a seemingly very large warparty of Greenskins has been living in the caves under Mount Sacrifice. Because you were too busy with pomp and furvor, these enemies of the Emperor, these foul xenos, have spent all these years building weapons and war machines."
The guardsmen in the room who were still alive stared, mouths gaping, at the exchange between the garrison commander, and the enraged Commissar. Oblivious to the smoke, explosions and the watchful eyes of the men, the commander tried to speak.
"Save your breath commander, there is no defence for negligence, direlection of duty, and gross acts of stupidity." With his powerfull arm, the Commissar forced the garrison commander to his knees.
With hands clasped in prayer, the commander turned his face up the the Commissar, his remaining eye wide and fearfull. "Please sir! No! There was no way to know, it's not my fault! Pleas in the Emperor's name, mercy!"
Taking a step back, the Commissar drew his pistol and leveled it at the commander's forehead. "You men!" he bellowed to the watching survivors of the command center, "Bear witness to the judgement of the Divine Emperor, and view the punishment for failing Him and His Grace!"
The commander began to sob and beg. He shuffled forward on his knees, pleading for mercy. The Commisar spat on the ground in front of him. "Disgusting, absolutely disgusting. Recieve your punishment like a proper servent of the Emperor, not a coward!"
Taking a step back, the Commisar spoke loudly with the tone of a judge, and executioner. "For actions contrary to the Honor and Discipline required for the rank of Commander in His Imperial Guard. For gross acts of negligence and stupidity resulting in the deaths of his men, and the staining of the Honor of the Regiment. For allowing, through his ineptitude, a warband of Greenskins to infultrate and subsequently attack, the capital city, and planet of Gorthak Prime. For these crimes, I do hereby sentence you to death. May the Emperor have mercy on your failed soul, for I shall not!"
The sound of the shot caused many of the men to jump. Looking at them, the Commissar spoke; "Witnesses, mark that on this day, in the glorious year of the Emperor, on His loyal Imperial city of Gorthak Prime, I have carried out the conviction, and summarary execution of the Garrison Commander of the Imperial Guard, Gorthak Prime Garrison. Let his name no longer sully our lips." Without looking back, the Commissar strode from the room, leaving the body of the commander lying in a growing pool of his own blood.
Reaching back over her shoulder, Kayla grasped the hilt of the power sword and drew it from the scabbard. She unholstered the plasma pistol, and adopted the combat stance, which unknown to her, was that of the Howling Banshee. She waited, concentration focused on the doorway and the prone guard. Inside her mind, emotions of rage began to well up. Mentally she pictured this as a swirling vortex of red light. Compressing the light into a tiny ball of rage, she waited, prepared to unleash the psychic energy in a battle cry.
"Princess?" a voice outside the door called. "Lady Kayla, are you there?" A head peered cautiously around the corner of the door frame and she saw it was one of the palace guards.
"You there, guard. What happened to this man, why did you strike him?" Kayla watched the reaction on the Y'narls face. She remained in the action stance, finger tight against the trigger of the plasma pistol, ready to fight.
"Lady!" Ynarl cried, "Lady rebel factions attacking the city, this man was an assassin!" Y'narl reached down to the body and with a quick slight of hand trick, produced a wraithbone dagger, seemingly from the guards jacket. "We believe that Eldar Pirates may be behind it!"
Kayla lowered her sword. Good Y'narl thought, his ruse had worked. Holstering the plasma pistol, she took a quick look around the dojo and then jogged towards the door.
"I've seen you before guard. Many times. In fact, you always seem to be exactly where I am. Who are you?"
Y'narl was amused. The Mon-Keigh was smart, and sharp of wit. She had noticed him following her in this guise. Still he had prepared for many contingencies, one of them being exactly this.
Bowing low, Y'narl spoke; "Lady forgive me, you are correct. I have been following you for many years now. Your father assigned me to your care when you were very small. I have been your personal guard for many years. Your father instructed me that you were never to know of my existance, or of my duty. I was to be a watchful shadow, your guardian."
Kayla's face softened and she relaxed her body. "Just like father. Hmmmm, well, tell me guard, what the hell is going on, are we under attack?"
Still bowing, Y'narl smirked. His ruse had worked, the act believed. There were no better mimics and actors in the known universe than the children of the laughing god, of whom he had been, and studied. Rising he looked at the Mon-Keigh. He coulden't help but noticing at this time that she was actually very attractive. "For a human" he thought, but no, her features were delicate, almost like...
Mentally shaking his head, he spoke. "Your father has commanded me to gather you and we are to leave the city for a secret shelter location in the southern continent." A dark cloud crossed her face. "Lady please, they are my orders and your father and brothers are on rout there as we speak. We must go."
As if to accentuate the point, a particularily massive explosion rocked the palace, almost knocking them to the ground. "Fine" Kayla said, and together they left the dojo and ran down the hallway towards the palace hanger.
23) A hand grabbed him roughly by the hair and hauled him to his feet. The left half of the commander's vision was black, but with his right eye he looked into the scowling face of the Commissar. The air was choked with smoke, and bodies lay strewen across the floor of the command center.
"Asleep eh," the Commissair growled, "Care for some breakfast in bed commander?"
All around sparks shot into the air as electrical devices exploded and small fires guttered in the cases and wiring of the walls.
"Wha.." The commander grabbed his pounding head in both hands, "What the hell happened?"
"Well commander" the commassar spoke harshly, "It seems that your incompetance has reached terminal levels." The commander looked up, stunned. "Due to your negligance and stupidity over these long years, it seems that you completely missed the fact that a seemingly very large warparty of Greenskins has been living in the caves under Mount Sacrifice. Because you were too busy with pomp and furvor, these enemies of the Emperor, these foul xenos, have spent all these years building weapons and war machines."
The guardsmen in the room who were still alive stared, mouths gaping, at the exchange between the garrison commander, and the enraged Commissar. Oblivious to the smoke, explosions and the watchful eyes of the men, the commander tried to speak.
"Save your breath commander, there is no defence for negligence, direlection of duty, and gross acts of stupidity." With his powerfull arm, the Commissar forced the garrison commander to his knees.
With hands clasped in prayer, the commander turned his face up the the Commissar, his remaining eye wide and fearfull. "Please sir! No! There was no way to know, it's not my fault! Pleas in the Emperor's name, mercy!"
Taking a step back, the Commissar drew his pistol and leveled it at the commander's forehead. "You men!" he bellowed to the watching survivors of the command center, "Bear witness to the judgement of the Divine Emperor, and view the punishment for failing Him and His Grace!"
The commander began to sob and beg. He shuffled forward on his knees, pleading for mercy. The Commisar spat on the ground in front of him. "Disgusting, absolutely disgusting. Recieve your punishment like a proper servent of the Emperor, not a coward!"
Taking a step back, the Commisar spoke loudly with the tone of a judge, and executioner. "For actions contrary to the Honor and Discipline required for the rank of Commander in His Imperial Guard. For gross acts of negligence and stupidity resulting in the deaths of his men, and the staining of the Honor of the Regiment. For allowing, through his ineptitude, a warband of Greenskins to infultrate and subsequently attack, the capital city, and planet of Gorthak Prime. For these crimes, I do hereby sentence you to death. May the Emperor have mercy on your failed soul, for I shall not!"
The sound of the shot caused many of the men to jump. Looking at them, the Commissar spoke; "Witnesses, mark that on this day, in the glorious year of the Emperor, on His loyal Imperial city of Gorthak Prime, I have carried out the conviction, and summarary execution of the Garrison Commander of the Imperial Guard, Gorthak Prime Garrison. Let his name no longer sully our lips." Without looking back, the Commissar strode from the room, leaving the body of the commander lying in a growing pool of his own blood.
- Kalimata
- Posts: 75
- Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2010 11:40 pm
Re: The beginnings of another Eldar story.
by Kalimata » Sun May 15, 2011 9:51 pm
24)
The hanger bay was utter entropy. Frightened people ran to and fro, screaming and crying out for help. Y'narl watched as a light transport vessel lifted off the ground and turn towards the open bay doors. In either haste, or sheer panic, the pilot activated the ship's after burners and incinerated several fleeing people. Over to the far side of the hanger bay Y'narl spotted what he was looking for. Gripping Kayla's hand tighter, he dragged her towards the small two seat hover car. "My God," she muttered, "all those people..." He didn't have time for this. Quickly ducking, Y'narl scooped Kayla up and swung her over his shoulder. "Hey, what the..." Kayla cried as Y'narl raced towards the skimmer. She pounded on his back and was swearing at him but he paid no attention. They were within ten feet of the skimmer when a huge fat nobleman ,by the looks of him, clambered into the skimmer and fired up it's grav engines. Without stopping his run, he dropped Kayla and leapt into the air, gracefully flipping and landing on the back of the skimmer. "Not today Mon-Keigh" Y'narl breathed and grabbing the nobleman by the hair, he hefted him up and out, throwing him to the floor. Kayla quickly jumped in the passenger seat as Y'narl made the final preparations for liftoff. Holding onto the steering column, Y'narl activated the jet engines and they rocketed out of the bay and into open sky.
25)
The Governor could only watch in horror as the view screen showed scores of Orks streaming out of the surrounding jungle and into the city. The defensive batteries were glowing red as the guns spat out thousands of rounds into the oncoming hordes of orks. Guardsmen lined the walls and bright red lasgun bolts streaked into the orks, killing scores, yet not stopping the oncoming onslaught. Inside the hardened bunker, guardsmen shouted out seemingly random numbers and names, each giving curt concice reports, troop numbers, company movements. All this meant nothing to the Governor, he was a politician and a royal. Sure he had seen some exercises, read a few history holos of battles throughout the imperium, but he wasn't a soldier. That was what the Imperial Guard was for.
"Quiet!" a hard cold voice thundered through the bunker, and for a moment everything ceased. "I am Commissar Von Pelt, Regimental Commissar of the 1020th Gorthak Regulars." The Commissar looked slowly from man to man, seeming oblivious to the chaos erupting on the viewers. "Your Regimental commander has been accused, tried, convicted, and executed for gross incompetance, failure to maintain proper safety and security, and negligence in preventing a xeno incursion on a planet of the glorious Imperium, and most foul, failure in his duty to His Holiness, The Emperor!"
The men looked at one another, seemingly shocked. "Here now! You can'..." The Governor was halted by an iron hard stare from Von Pelt. Von Pelt turned and strode towards the Governor until he was nose to nose with the man. Where the Governor was soft and fat, Von Pelt was hard and wirey. He was so close that the Governor could make out the hashwork of scars on Von Pelt's face, a tribute to a lifetime of war.
"You will not interupt me again." Von Pelt said quietly. "I have yet to decide whether you are to stand trial for your failures in allowing this attack to happen." The Governor began to sweat, and his adams apple bobbed up and down as he tried to swallow. "You sit over there in that chair, and as the figurehead that you are, you will be seen and not heard." Van Pelt's unwavering stare bore into the Governor, and he nodded weakly. "Good," Von Pelt said, "Now under the Articles of War as set out by the most Holy Emperor, and the High Lords of Terra, I do hereby assume command of the 1020th Gorthak regulars, and all assets on, or surrounding the imperial world of Gorthak!" Now, by the numbers, report!"
26)
The wind screamed by their unprotected ears and made any talking impossible. Every now and then a particularily big explosion could be heard over the rushing wind, and Kayla kept looking back over her shoulder at the embattled city. Y'narl had the hover car moving at full speed. It was an open topped skimmer type, not really made for high speed activities, but he welcomed the inability to talk, as he was to preoccupied with the ever worsening situation on the planet, and his recent shocking discoveries. He kept the vehicle low to the ground, jinking left and right to avoid trees, every so often making lightning quick turns to avoid exceptionally large rocks or deadfall. The speed and the danger awoke feelings and memories in him that he hadn't felt for quite some times. He was still very young for an Eldar, barely 300 years, yet in his life as an agent for the Seer Council, he had experienced many things, so many things. The frantic flight took him back many years, back to his days spent with a band of corsairs from the SamHain craftworld. The speed, the fury.
Lost in the memories, Y'narl failed to notice that Kayla was staring at him with a mixture of fright, and puzzlement on her face. She examined his face closely, of course seeing a human, not his true form. Still, deep within her mind, Kayla felt something, like a tiny itch. Something was off about this man. She couldn't quite nail it down, but something was definately off. His flying skills were almost inhuman. The first twenty minutes of the flight had been the single most terrifying event in her life. So many times she was sure they were crashing into a tree, only to jink to the left or right, barely escaping from a fiery death. She looked away for a moment, then looked back. His hands were a blur as they flew across the controls of the skimmer. Something was definetly nor right about this man. He moved too fast, he flew too well. And that acrobatic thing back at the hanger, he had leapt at least twenty feet, and at least ten in the air. She began to open her mouth to speak when the skimmer suddenly shot skyward. Gripping the shoulder restraints she actually screamed as the skimmer leveled out, then just as quickly dove back into the jungle. Whipping her head around she strained to see what they had just missed. They were going too fast, but it almost looked like a huge red can on legs. Turning back, she stared at Y'narl even harder, trying to breach the mystery that was growing ever larger in her mind.
27)
The air was heavy with smoke. So far they were holding off the ork assault, but only just. The orks had halted their advance just behind the treeline of the jungle surrounding the hive city. The young corporal looked left and right, trying to figure out who was still with him. The defensive walls of the hive provided great firing locations, but very little actual defense against the massive explosive rockets that the orks were lobbing at them from in the jungle. Huge gaping holes in the plascreet walls were everywhere, and the orks were, in a rather uncommon display of tactics, actually aiming their artillery at these weak spots in the wall. Looking across the "no mans land" the ground was green with ork bodies and ork blood. Here and there were the rockets that had failed to explode and had failed to make it to the wall. At least that was something to be thankful for, the corporal thought, the unreliability of ork technology. And how exactly did these orks get all this gear. As a private, he had spent many hours on jungle patrol. Never, not once, had they found any sign of ork presence.
Any of the wizened old librarians could have told him, even Kayla herself would have realized the truth. The great hords of xenos her great great grandmother, Gwaelinya, Sword of the Emperor, had died fighting on Gorthak, some 500 years ago, had been Orks. Unknown to them all was that the entire Gorthak system had been at the heart of a small empire carved out by an ork warlord, some two thousand years ago. It was in this system that the Ultramarines 2nd company had been dispatched to cleanse the orks, and where some of the earliest recorded appearances of the Legion of the Damned had been. This particular ork warboss had been from a tribe of Bloodaxes, known amongst the imperium as being the smartest, if you could use that word, of the ork clans. Being particularily cunning, the Warboss and his warhost had put up a particularily brutal defense against the Space Marines, using tactics unknown amongst the ork clans, even almost human in their effectiveness and deviousness. In the end, the Space Marines had triumphed, thanks in no small part to an intervention by the Legion of the Damned during the final assault against the Warboss' fortress. The Marines had killed the warboss, cleansed the system of the ork presence, and within 50 years, huge Imperial colony Arks had made landfall, and by the turn of the next century, the system was a booming human colony.
The system had held two final secrets for all those thousands of years. The first was that the orks were not gone. In a brilliant move never seen before in the history of the orks, the Warboss had actually excevated vast caves and tunnel systems under the huge mountain that became known as Mount Sacrifice. The tunnells housed hundreds, then thousands, and even tens of thousands of orks, living underneath the humans. Vast forges and war machines thundered miles below the burgening cities, generations of orks lived and died under the surface, emerging only once in 2000 years, to launch a failed Waaaagh, before returning underground until this attack. That was how they had escaped detection. This was how they were able to build a massive army within striking distance of an entire regement of Imperial Guards. This was how they were now succeeding in their Waaagh against the humans.
The Gorthak system had held one final secret, which had been lost in time and unknown to all except perhaps those beings of the Black Library, was that the planets of the Gorthak system were ancient Eldar Crone Worlds.
28)
The skimmer set down in front of a tall gracefull arch overgrown with centuries worth of plant growth. It was almost indiscernable as an archway. Y'narl stepped out of the skimmer and slowly walked towards the mass of plants and tree roots. The surrounding ground was dotted with signs of an ancient excavation, and here and there, mounds of rust remained where there had once perhaps stood excavation machines. His eyes were wide with wonder as he took in the entire sight. He was the first Eldar to set his eyes upon this scene since the time of the Fall. He didn't know this of course, but even under all the debris, he could still see the beauty and magesty of the relic. So simmilar, and yet so different from the thousands of other webway gates he had seen in his travels. Brushing and cutting away some vines, he ran his fingers over the delicate runes. He recognized the ancient representation of Isha, and the symbol for a cratworld, his craftworld Ulthwe.
Kayla watched him as he walked, and then slowly got out of the hovercar. As she did, she loosened the restraining straps on her pistols, and unclasped her power sword. The more she thought about it, and the more she saw of this House Guradian, the more she was becomming to realize that he wasn't what he appeared to be. Like an abacus, she kept adding things in her mind. His grace, his speed, his abilities. Even his slight accent, unknown to her, all things which told her that there was more to this man than what he let on. She stood a good twenty paces away and studied him further. He was handsome enough, pretty standard build, nothing out of the ordinary with his physical form, yet nobody could move as fast as he had piloting the skimmer. His reactions too fast, reflexes too sharp. Even she, who had spent countless hours training in combat, couldn't move that fast. Even under the influence of combat drugs, and endevor she had tried once and then never again, she wasn't that fast.
As she watched him run his fingers over the weird structure a horrible thought shot through her head, and a shudder of fear rocked her body. She remembered stories her nanny told her when she was very young. Her brothers had joked about them, but her nanny had been furious and scolded them not to make light of the dark. Once she had heard her parents whispering after a rather high ranking nobleman was found dead, cause unknown. These stories and whisperes told of a shadow killer, a thing which moved faster than any human, and quieter than the dead. Much feared bio engineered and trained agents of the much feared Inquisition. It was said that they knew your deepest darkest secrets, that they could look into your very soul and see heresy. If your crimes were great enough, your sins vile, the stories said, the Inquisition would send out a shadow who would find you no matter where you hid, and kill you, no matter what your defenses were. She had never read any accounts in the library, because there were no survivors to recount the tales. If you sinned against the Emperor, then his wrath made form would find you, and punish you. Involentarily, she whispered the name, assassin.
Recovering from his awe and reverence, Y'narl set to activating the webway gate. He knew it would lead to Ulthwe, but exactly where, he was unsure. On the craftworld there were many such unknown gates, gates that opened up into warpspace, or daemon planets. Some led to dead ends in the warpway, inhabited by warp spawned horrors, or to the nightmare that was Commaragh. Others were warded so heavily with runes that they were sealed forever, their destination too horrific for even the Eldar to comprehend. A few, a small few, had two paths leading to them, one usually well know, the other unknown, even hidden. Not even Eldrad Uthran, the most powerful seer the Eldar race had ever seen could know them all. Only the Greater Harliquins knew, and they only laughed when asked. The Webway was a labarinth fraught with danger, both mortal, and spiritual. Because of this, standing squads of Aspect Warriors guarded certain areas in the Craftworld, areas containing these dangerous gates. Y'narl hoped that they would wait to see who came out before shooting.
Keying in the final sequence, he activated the warpgate and turned. Kayla stood ten feet away, sword in hand, plasma pistol aimed at his face. He blinked, momentarily startled.
"What are you?" she asked.
He cocked his head in a quisical manner and said, "What? What do you mean?"
"I haven't sinned, I am a loyal servent of the Emperor, what are you and why are you here?"
He was actually confused, what was she talking about? "M'lady..." he said taking a step towards her. A ball of plasma shot past his face close enough to burn his cheek.
"Do not move!" she screamed, her voice tinged with fear and the beginnings of hysterics. "I said, who or what are you? Why are you here to kill me? Are you a rebel? Some enemy faction?" She blinked, "Tell me now!" she screamed, "Or I'll vaporize your head. Why are you here to kill me!"
It clicked in his head. The talk of killing, her referring to sin and loyalty. She thought he was an assassin! Not just any one, but a sanctioned Officio Assasinorium assassin. "M'lady, please." He spoke low and quietly, slowly inching towards her. "Please, Im not here to kill you. I'm not a rebel, I'm not from an enemy faction. I am a House guard charged with your safety. Please put the weapon down."
"No!" she screamed and fired the pistol again, this time over his head. "You can't be, I've seen you. You're too fast, you move too quickly. No guardsman can fly like you did, no human has reflexes like that, not even me! Who are you!" She was shaking with fear. She had practiced for combat all her life, but had never faced off against a potentially real opponant. Unknown to her, Y'narl was responsible for that, heading off any dangers to her.
"Kayla, listen to me. I'm not here to hurt you, I'm trying to protect you, but I need you to holster the gun, and talk." His eyes were locked with hers as he spoke. With muscles trained and honed over the centuries, he slowly, almost imperceptably moved forward. "I know you are afraid, but I'm not from the Inquisition, I'm not here to hurt you." His one hand was under his cloak, the other held in front of him in a warding gesture. He slowly pressed a button on a small device on his belt, and held still.
"No, I don't believe you..." she began, but a huge gust of wind blew dirt in her face. Momentarily distracted, she blinked and Y'narly sprung. He feinted left, then leapt right. It was a good thing too because Kayla fired the pistol, and the plasma ball cut through the pixelated outline of his shape where he had been. Faster than a human, Y'narl leapt over Kayla's head, and with a half twist landed facing her back. It was then that he got a true appreciation for her abilities and skill. Going with the momentum of the landing, he rolled backwards, narrowly missing the humming blade of the power sword. She had anticipated his movements, and struck. By Khane, he thought, she is fast! Fast as she was, no human could ever be a fast as an Eldar trained in movement and combat by Harliquins, reflexes honed by the very assassin schools she feared. Launching himself forward, he caght her mid spin with a shoulder, and using the momentum, carried her forward, and into the shimmering field that was the Warpgate.
The hanger bay was utter entropy. Frightened people ran to and fro, screaming and crying out for help. Y'narl watched as a light transport vessel lifted off the ground and turn towards the open bay doors. In either haste, or sheer panic, the pilot activated the ship's after burners and incinerated several fleeing people. Over to the far side of the hanger bay Y'narl spotted what he was looking for. Gripping Kayla's hand tighter, he dragged her towards the small two seat hover car. "My God," she muttered, "all those people..." He didn't have time for this. Quickly ducking, Y'narl scooped Kayla up and swung her over his shoulder. "Hey, what the..." Kayla cried as Y'narl raced towards the skimmer. She pounded on his back and was swearing at him but he paid no attention. They were within ten feet of the skimmer when a huge fat nobleman ,by the looks of him, clambered into the skimmer and fired up it's grav engines. Without stopping his run, he dropped Kayla and leapt into the air, gracefully flipping and landing on the back of the skimmer. "Not today Mon-Keigh" Y'narl breathed and grabbing the nobleman by the hair, he hefted him up and out, throwing him to the floor. Kayla quickly jumped in the passenger seat as Y'narl made the final preparations for liftoff. Holding onto the steering column, Y'narl activated the jet engines and they rocketed out of the bay and into open sky.
25)
The Governor could only watch in horror as the view screen showed scores of Orks streaming out of the surrounding jungle and into the city. The defensive batteries were glowing red as the guns spat out thousands of rounds into the oncoming hordes of orks. Guardsmen lined the walls and bright red lasgun bolts streaked into the orks, killing scores, yet not stopping the oncoming onslaught. Inside the hardened bunker, guardsmen shouted out seemingly random numbers and names, each giving curt concice reports, troop numbers, company movements. All this meant nothing to the Governor, he was a politician and a royal. Sure he had seen some exercises, read a few history holos of battles throughout the imperium, but he wasn't a soldier. That was what the Imperial Guard was for.
"Quiet!" a hard cold voice thundered through the bunker, and for a moment everything ceased. "I am Commissar Von Pelt, Regimental Commissar of the 1020th Gorthak Regulars." The Commissar looked slowly from man to man, seeming oblivious to the chaos erupting on the viewers. "Your Regimental commander has been accused, tried, convicted, and executed for gross incompetance, failure to maintain proper safety and security, and negligence in preventing a xeno incursion on a planet of the glorious Imperium, and most foul, failure in his duty to His Holiness, The Emperor!"
The men looked at one another, seemingly shocked. "Here now! You can'..." The Governor was halted by an iron hard stare from Von Pelt. Von Pelt turned and strode towards the Governor until he was nose to nose with the man. Where the Governor was soft and fat, Von Pelt was hard and wirey. He was so close that the Governor could make out the hashwork of scars on Von Pelt's face, a tribute to a lifetime of war.
"You will not interupt me again." Von Pelt said quietly. "I have yet to decide whether you are to stand trial for your failures in allowing this attack to happen." The Governor began to sweat, and his adams apple bobbed up and down as he tried to swallow. "You sit over there in that chair, and as the figurehead that you are, you will be seen and not heard." Van Pelt's unwavering stare bore into the Governor, and he nodded weakly. "Good," Von Pelt said, "Now under the Articles of War as set out by the most Holy Emperor, and the High Lords of Terra, I do hereby assume command of the 1020th Gorthak regulars, and all assets on, or surrounding the imperial world of Gorthak!" Now, by the numbers, report!"
26)
The wind screamed by their unprotected ears and made any talking impossible. Every now and then a particularily big explosion could be heard over the rushing wind, and Kayla kept looking back over her shoulder at the embattled city. Y'narl had the hover car moving at full speed. It was an open topped skimmer type, not really made for high speed activities, but he welcomed the inability to talk, as he was to preoccupied with the ever worsening situation on the planet, and his recent shocking discoveries. He kept the vehicle low to the ground, jinking left and right to avoid trees, every so often making lightning quick turns to avoid exceptionally large rocks or deadfall. The speed and the danger awoke feelings and memories in him that he hadn't felt for quite some times. He was still very young for an Eldar, barely 300 years, yet in his life as an agent for the Seer Council, he had experienced many things, so many things. The frantic flight took him back many years, back to his days spent with a band of corsairs from the SamHain craftworld. The speed, the fury.
Lost in the memories, Y'narl failed to notice that Kayla was staring at him with a mixture of fright, and puzzlement on her face. She examined his face closely, of course seeing a human, not his true form. Still, deep within her mind, Kayla felt something, like a tiny itch. Something was off about this man. She couldn't quite nail it down, but something was definately off. His flying skills were almost inhuman. The first twenty minutes of the flight had been the single most terrifying event in her life. So many times she was sure they were crashing into a tree, only to jink to the left or right, barely escaping from a fiery death. She looked away for a moment, then looked back. His hands were a blur as they flew across the controls of the skimmer. Something was definetly nor right about this man. He moved too fast, he flew too well. And that acrobatic thing back at the hanger, he had leapt at least twenty feet, and at least ten in the air. She began to open her mouth to speak when the skimmer suddenly shot skyward. Gripping the shoulder restraints she actually screamed as the skimmer leveled out, then just as quickly dove back into the jungle. Whipping her head around she strained to see what they had just missed. They were going too fast, but it almost looked like a huge red can on legs. Turning back, she stared at Y'narl even harder, trying to breach the mystery that was growing ever larger in her mind.
27)
The air was heavy with smoke. So far they were holding off the ork assault, but only just. The orks had halted their advance just behind the treeline of the jungle surrounding the hive city. The young corporal looked left and right, trying to figure out who was still with him. The defensive walls of the hive provided great firing locations, but very little actual defense against the massive explosive rockets that the orks were lobbing at them from in the jungle. Huge gaping holes in the plascreet walls were everywhere, and the orks were, in a rather uncommon display of tactics, actually aiming their artillery at these weak spots in the wall. Looking across the "no mans land" the ground was green with ork bodies and ork blood. Here and there were the rockets that had failed to explode and had failed to make it to the wall. At least that was something to be thankful for, the corporal thought, the unreliability of ork technology. And how exactly did these orks get all this gear. As a private, he had spent many hours on jungle patrol. Never, not once, had they found any sign of ork presence.
Any of the wizened old librarians could have told him, even Kayla herself would have realized the truth. The great hords of xenos her great great grandmother, Gwaelinya, Sword of the Emperor, had died fighting on Gorthak, some 500 years ago, had been Orks. Unknown to them all was that the entire Gorthak system had been at the heart of a small empire carved out by an ork warlord, some two thousand years ago. It was in this system that the Ultramarines 2nd company had been dispatched to cleanse the orks, and where some of the earliest recorded appearances of the Legion of the Damned had been. This particular ork warboss had been from a tribe of Bloodaxes, known amongst the imperium as being the smartest, if you could use that word, of the ork clans. Being particularily cunning, the Warboss and his warhost had put up a particularily brutal defense against the Space Marines, using tactics unknown amongst the ork clans, even almost human in their effectiveness and deviousness. In the end, the Space Marines had triumphed, thanks in no small part to an intervention by the Legion of the Damned during the final assault against the Warboss' fortress. The Marines had killed the warboss, cleansed the system of the ork presence, and within 50 years, huge Imperial colony Arks had made landfall, and by the turn of the next century, the system was a booming human colony.
The system had held two final secrets for all those thousands of years. The first was that the orks were not gone. In a brilliant move never seen before in the history of the orks, the Warboss had actually excevated vast caves and tunnel systems under the huge mountain that became known as Mount Sacrifice. The tunnells housed hundreds, then thousands, and even tens of thousands of orks, living underneath the humans. Vast forges and war machines thundered miles below the burgening cities, generations of orks lived and died under the surface, emerging only once in 2000 years, to launch a failed Waaaagh, before returning underground until this attack. That was how they had escaped detection. This was how they were able to build a massive army within striking distance of an entire regement of Imperial Guards. This was how they were now succeeding in their Waaagh against the humans.
The Gorthak system had held one final secret, which had been lost in time and unknown to all except perhaps those beings of the Black Library, was that the planets of the Gorthak system were ancient Eldar Crone Worlds.
28)
The skimmer set down in front of a tall gracefull arch overgrown with centuries worth of plant growth. It was almost indiscernable as an archway. Y'narl stepped out of the skimmer and slowly walked towards the mass of plants and tree roots. The surrounding ground was dotted with signs of an ancient excavation, and here and there, mounds of rust remained where there had once perhaps stood excavation machines. His eyes were wide with wonder as he took in the entire sight. He was the first Eldar to set his eyes upon this scene since the time of the Fall. He didn't know this of course, but even under all the debris, he could still see the beauty and magesty of the relic. So simmilar, and yet so different from the thousands of other webway gates he had seen in his travels. Brushing and cutting away some vines, he ran his fingers over the delicate runes. He recognized the ancient representation of Isha, and the symbol for a cratworld, his craftworld Ulthwe.
Kayla watched him as he walked, and then slowly got out of the hovercar. As she did, she loosened the restraining straps on her pistols, and unclasped her power sword. The more she thought about it, and the more she saw of this House Guradian, the more she was becomming to realize that he wasn't what he appeared to be. Like an abacus, she kept adding things in her mind. His grace, his speed, his abilities. Even his slight accent, unknown to her, all things which told her that there was more to this man than what he let on. She stood a good twenty paces away and studied him further. He was handsome enough, pretty standard build, nothing out of the ordinary with his physical form, yet nobody could move as fast as he had piloting the skimmer. His reactions too fast, reflexes too sharp. Even she, who had spent countless hours training in combat, couldn't move that fast. Even under the influence of combat drugs, and endevor she had tried once and then never again, she wasn't that fast.
As she watched him run his fingers over the weird structure a horrible thought shot through her head, and a shudder of fear rocked her body. She remembered stories her nanny told her when she was very young. Her brothers had joked about them, but her nanny had been furious and scolded them not to make light of the dark. Once she had heard her parents whispering after a rather high ranking nobleman was found dead, cause unknown. These stories and whisperes told of a shadow killer, a thing which moved faster than any human, and quieter than the dead. Much feared bio engineered and trained agents of the much feared Inquisition. It was said that they knew your deepest darkest secrets, that they could look into your very soul and see heresy. If your crimes were great enough, your sins vile, the stories said, the Inquisition would send out a shadow who would find you no matter where you hid, and kill you, no matter what your defenses were. She had never read any accounts in the library, because there were no survivors to recount the tales. If you sinned against the Emperor, then his wrath made form would find you, and punish you. Involentarily, she whispered the name, assassin.
Recovering from his awe and reverence, Y'narl set to activating the webway gate. He knew it would lead to Ulthwe, but exactly where, he was unsure. On the craftworld there were many such unknown gates, gates that opened up into warpspace, or daemon planets. Some led to dead ends in the warpway, inhabited by warp spawned horrors, or to the nightmare that was Commaragh. Others were warded so heavily with runes that they were sealed forever, their destination too horrific for even the Eldar to comprehend. A few, a small few, had two paths leading to them, one usually well know, the other unknown, even hidden. Not even Eldrad Uthran, the most powerful seer the Eldar race had ever seen could know them all. Only the Greater Harliquins knew, and they only laughed when asked. The Webway was a labarinth fraught with danger, both mortal, and spiritual. Because of this, standing squads of Aspect Warriors guarded certain areas in the Craftworld, areas containing these dangerous gates. Y'narl hoped that they would wait to see who came out before shooting.
Keying in the final sequence, he activated the warpgate and turned. Kayla stood ten feet away, sword in hand, plasma pistol aimed at his face. He blinked, momentarily startled.
"What are you?" she asked.
He cocked his head in a quisical manner and said, "What? What do you mean?"
"I haven't sinned, I am a loyal servent of the Emperor, what are you and why are you here?"
He was actually confused, what was she talking about? "M'lady..." he said taking a step towards her. A ball of plasma shot past his face close enough to burn his cheek.
"Do not move!" she screamed, her voice tinged with fear and the beginnings of hysterics. "I said, who or what are you? Why are you here to kill me? Are you a rebel? Some enemy faction?" She blinked, "Tell me now!" she screamed, "Or I'll vaporize your head. Why are you here to kill me!"
It clicked in his head. The talk of killing, her referring to sin and loyalty. She thought he was an assassin! Not just any one, but a sanctioned Officio Assasinorium assassin. "M'lady, please." He spoke low and quietly, slowly inching towards her. "Please, Im not here to kill you. I'm not a rebel, I'm not from an enemy faction. I am a House guard charged with your safety. Please put the weapon down."
"No!" she screamed and fired the pistol again, this time over his head. "You can't be, I've seen you. You're too fast, you move too quickly. No guardsman can fly like you did, no human has reflexes like that, not even me! Who are you!" She was shaking with fear. She had practiced for combat all her life, but had never faced off against a potentially real opponant. Unknown to her, Y'narl was responsible for that, heading off any dangers to her.
"Kayla, listen to me. I'm not here to hurt you, I'm trying to protect you, but I need you to holster the gun, and talk." His eyes were locked with hers as he spoke. With muscles trained and honed over the centuries, he slowly, almost imperceptably moved forward. "I know you are afraid, but I'm not from the Inquisition, I'm not here to hurt you." His one hand was under his cloak, the other held in front of him in a warding gesture. He slowly pressed a button on a small device on his belt, and held still.
"No, I don't believe you..." she began, but a huge gust of wind blew dirt in her face. Momentarily distracted, she blinked and Y'narly sprung. He feinted left, then leapt right. It was a good thing too because Kayla fired the pistol, and the plasma ball cut through the pixelated outline of his shape where he had been. Faster than a human, Y'narl leapt over Kayla's head, and with a half twist landed facing her back. It was then that he got a true appreciation for her abilities and skill. Going with the momentum of the landing, he rolled backwards, narrowly missing the humming blade of the power sword. She had anticipated his movements, and struck. By Khane, he thought, she is fast! Fast as she was, no human could ever be a fast as an Eldar trained in movement and combat by Harliquins, reflexes honed by the very assassin schools she feared. Launching himself forward, he caght her mid spin with a shoulder, and using the momentum, carried her forward, and into the shimmering field that was the Warpgate.
- Kalimata
- Posts: 75
- Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2010 11:40 pm
Re: The beginnings of another Eldar story.
by Kalimata » Fri May 20, 2011 6:10 pm
29)
For what seemed like an eternity her world was black. Kayla was conscious and aware, and yet she felt as though in a dream. On the fringes of her consciousness, she could almost feel the presence of something, something dark and evil, someting hungry. In an instant it was gone, and her world was once again filled with light.
30)
Commissar Von Pelt watched the view screen with an unblinking stare. Periodically, he would issue commands into the vox box he held in his right hand.
"Delta. Company, you will move your Baneblades to sector 14, and reinforce Echo Company. Golf company, Basilisk gun detachment 21 coming under fire, move Leman Russ assets to support.". A report came in from one of the infantry platoons. Von Pelt's face flushed with rage. "Captain," he shouted into the vox, "you WILL hold your position damn you! If you or any of your men retreat, I will personally execute you myself, and order a decimation of your company for cowardice. Do you understand me Captain?". He listened to the response, and ended the communication.
Of all the servants of the Emperor and the Imperium of Man, Commissars were among the most fanatically loyal, and confident in their belief in the manifest destiny of the human race. Mankind would prevail no matter the cost. Von Pelt held an unwavering faith in the supremacy of the Imperial Guard, yet he was no fool. The situation had become quite dire. Ork mobs and dreadnoughts had penetrated the hive walls, and there was heavy fighting in the streets. Crude yet effective ork artillary and rockets smashed into the hive, destroying buildings and crushing civillians. Now and then Ork Stormboyz would come flying over a building or wall, throw some grenades, and jump away. Hit and run tactics were not in the lexicon of normal ork tactics. Von Pelt began to see strategies and patterns develope in the method of the orks attacks. This was a very terrifying prospect, the sheer enthusiasm and brute strength of the orks, with the discipline and strategy of the Imperial Guard. Von Pelt was very perturbed, "who is this ork commander", he thought, "could there be something else behind them, perhaps traitor marines, the foul Eldar?" Any of the possibilities were bad, and Von Pelt made a quick dictation into the vox in a low voice, then turned back to the battle reports.
Overwhelmed by the sheer strenght and numbers of the Ork waaagh, Von Pelt's men were falling back further and further, losing precious territory to the oncoming hordes. His astropath had sent a call for help, unfortunately the nearest Imperial Guard reinforcements were a week away. Even the mighty Adeptus Astartes were too far away to get to Gorthak in time to save the planet. "Damn that useless commander, and this waste of a Governor," he thought to himself, carelessness was a cardinal sin in his books. Still, they would never surrender, and they would die a glorious death for their Emperor.
31)
Kayla looked up and screamed. She was kneeling on what felt to her like a floor made out of smooth white bone. Soft light bathed the room she was in with a pale glow. The walls at he'd gracefully towards a ceiling which appeared to be a huge crystal dome. Beyond the dome, stars shone out of the blackness of deep space. Glowing runes adorned the walls, and huge decorative jewels glowed softy from the pillars of the walls. In the brief moment before she screamed, one thing flashed through her mind, "how beautiful..." But then she had seen what awaited her in the portal room.
The cause of her sudden scream and subsequent terror stood before her, a tall and ornately clothed figure, a beautiful and terrifying helmet covering it's face. Behind this figure stood row upon row of lithe armored figures adorned with deadly, and yet strangely beautiful. Not all were alike, some clothed in blue armor, some with heavy black armor and helmets fashioned to look like skulls. Even in her fright, she found her her gaze drawn towards one group of warriors. Seemingly all women, by the shape of their beige colored armor, their tall conical helmets bore what looked like a vox speaker for a mouthpiece. Glowing from within, the mask had dark red eyes, and great waves of hair cascading from the back of their helms, and over their shoulders. On the waist of each was a sword scabbard, and a pistol holster. Although the stood deathly still, these warrior women seemed to almost quiver with pent up violence. In any other circumstance Kayla would have recognized the warrior women from the holo crystals she had studied, but the sudden shock of what had just happened was just too much for her.
Kayla tried to stand but her legs were numb. One fist was clamped to her mouth, the other fumbled uselessly with the catch on her pistol holster. The cloaked and helmer figure cocked his head slightly, questioning, and somehow rebuking at the same time. She started visibly when a hand came to rest on her shoulder.
"Peace young Kayla McCraig, princess of the royal family of Gorthak.". Y'narl's voice was calm and soft. "No harm shall befall you here in the halls of my ancestors. You are safe."
It was a common mistake of many races to believe the Eldar race to be cold and cruel, and heartless. This is not so. The Eldar heart is capable of compassion and love at levels infinately tgreater than that which a human mother has for her child. They love and live at levels unimaginable to a human. No they are not cold and cruel, they are a twice cursed people on the brink of annihilation.
The first curse of the Eldar is the curse of prescience. The Eldar psychic mind is so powerful that their Farseer's can look forward along the skeins of time. A Farseer can see how a small action now can have a devastating effect in the future. It is this double edged sword that has allowed the Eldar race to avoid total destruction, yet there is a price. Sometimes they must act to stop a far reaching future event, which leads them into conflict with other races. Many times the Eldar had been accused of being fickle, having fought on the side of one battle, and then turning on their "allies" aftewards.
The second, and worst curse is that they are a dying race. Millions of years ago their civilization spanned the galaxy. Their technological and societal power rivaled even that of the C'tan, the Star God masters of the necrons. Then came the "Fall", and in an instant, their civilization was almost wiped out. The Eldar must do everything they can to protect their race, even at the cost of relations with other races. Ten thousand human lives lost do not equal the loss of a single Eldar life.
At the sound of his voice, Kayla turned her head to look at Y'narl. "See me as I am, but do not fear". As she watched, Y'narl psychically banished the effects of the Polymorphine. She gasped as his facial features began to melt. His hight increased, and his nose and cheeks sharpened. Finally, his hair began to grow, and his eyes returned to their distinctive almond shape.
"You... who are you", Kayla whispered, "who are all of you, what do you want of me?".
It was the cloaked figure who spoke. "Childe, we hold no malice for you in our hearts.". Taking of his helmet, Kayla became one of the very small number of humans ever to see the face of Eldrad Uthran, Farseer and leader of the people of craftworld Ulthwe.
32)
Reaching out with his thoughts, Eldrad Uthran touched the mind of the young girl. His eyes widdened with suprise as he encountered the strenght of her will, and even more confusing, her latent psychic ability. Human psykers were mere babes compared to even the weakest Eldar psyker, yet this childe, her mind shone incredably bright in the timeline. She was a nexus, all the variable lines of the past converging in one place, in one person. Eldrad had encountered a nexus only once before, and even then, it was during one of his many resting periods in the Dome of the Crystal Seers, communing with the most ancient of the spirits in the Infiniuty circut. Only once before had this happened, where one being determined the fate of the entire Eldar race. Before the birth of the Great Enemy, one person, one Eldar Seer made the decision to leave the corrupted core of what was once the mighty and regal empire of the Eldar. It was because of his decision to construct the giant Craftworlds, and begin the mass exodus, that anything of the Eldar survived. And now here, in this Mon-Keigh, all the combined actions and inactions of the past met. This was most puzzling, and most horrifying. What chilled his mind to the core was not the fact that all the timelines met at this human child, it was the fact that the future, all potential outcomes, the good, and the bad, were gone. They didn't show the destruction of the Eldar, they didn't show triumph or defeat. They didn't show anything. For the first time in his thousands of years of life, Eldrad Uthran, Farseer and head of the Council of Seers was blind. The most powerful psycher the universe had ever seen could not see the future.
For what seemed like an eternity her world was black. Kayla was conscious and aware, and yet she felt as though in a dream. On the fringes of her consciousness, she could almost feel the presence of something, something dark and evil, someting hungry. In an instant it was gone, and her world was once again filled with light.
30)
Commissar Von Pelt watched the view screen with an unblinking stare. Periodically, he would issue commands into the vox box he held in his right hand.
"Delta. Company, you will move your Baneblades to sector 14, and reinforce Echo Company. Golf company, Basilisk gun detachment 21 coming under fire, move Leman Russ assets to support.". A report came in from one of the infantry platoons. Von Pelt's face flushed with rage. "Captain," he shouted into the vox, "you WILL hold your position damn you! If you or any of your men retreat, I will personally execute you myself, and order a decimation of your company for cowardice. Do you understand me Captain?". He listened to the response, and ended the communication.
Of all the servants of the Emperor and the Imperium of Man, Commissars were among the most fanatically loyal, and confident in their belief in the manifest destiny of the human race. Mankind would prevail no matter the cost. Von Pelt held an unwavering faith in the supremacy of the Imperial Guard, yet he was no fool. The situation had become quite dire. Ork mobs and dreadnoughts had penetrated the hive walls, and there was heavy fighting in the streets. Crude yet effective ork artillary and rockets smashed into the hive, destroying buildings and crushing civillians. Now and then Ork Stormboyz would come flying over a building or wall, throw some grenades, and jump away. Hit and run tactics were not in the lexicon of normal ork tactics. Von Pelt began to see strategies and patterns develope in the method of the orks attacks. This was a very terrifying prospect, the sheer enthusiasm and brute strength of the orks, with the discipline and strategy of the Imperial Guard. Von Pelt was very perturbed, "who is this ork commander", he thought, "could there be something else behind them, perhaps traitor marines, the foul Eldar?" Any of the possibilities were bad, and Von Pelt made a quick dictation into the vox in a low voice, then turned back to the battle reports.
Overwhelmed by the sheer strenght and numbers of the Ork waaagh, Von Pelt's men were falling back further and further, losing precious territory to the oncoming hordes. His astropath had sent a call for help, unfortunately the nearest Imperial Guard reinforcements were a week away. Even the mighty Adeptus Astartes were too far away to get to Gorthak in time to save the planet. "Damn that useless commander, and this waste of a Governor," he thought to himself, carelessness was a cardinal sin in his books. Still, they would never surrender, and they would die a glorious death for their Emperor.
31)
Kayla looked up and screamed. She was kneeling on what felt to her like a floor made out of smooth white bone. Soft light bathed the room she was in with a pale glow. The walls at he'd gracefully towards a ceiling which appeared to be a huge crystal dome. Beyond the dome, stars shone out of the blackness of deep space. Glowing runes adorned the walls, and huge decorative jewels glowed softy from the pillars of the walls. In the brief moment before she screamed, one thing flashed through her mind, "how beautiful..." But then she had seen what awaited her in the portal room.
The cause of her sudden scream and subsequent terror stood before her, a tall and ornately clothed figure, a beautiful and terrifying helmet covering it's face. Behind this figure stood row upon row of lithe armored figures adorned with deadly, and yet strangely beautiful. Not all were alike, some clothed in blue armor, some with heavy black armor and helmets fashioned to look like skulls. Even in her fright, she found her her gaze drawn towards one group of warriors. Seemingly all women, by the shape of their beige colored armor, their tall conical helmets bore what looked like a vox speaker for a mouthpiece. Glowing from within, the mask had dark red eyes, and great waves of hair cascading from the back of their helms, and over their shoulders. On the waist of each was a sword scabbard, and a pistol holster. Although the stood deathly still, these warrior women seemed to almost quiver with pent up violence. In any other circumstance Kayla would have recognized the warrior women from the holo crystals she had studied, but the sudden shock of what had just happened was just too much for her.
Kayla tried to stand but her legs were numb. One fist was clamped to her mouth, the other fumbled uselessly with the catch on her pistol holster. The cloaked and helmer figure cocked his head slightly, questioning, and somehow rebuking at the same time. She started visibly when a hand came to rest on her shoulder.
"Peace young Kayla McCraig, princess of the royal family of Gorthak.". Y'narl's voice was calm and soft. "No harm shall befall you here in the halls of my ancestors. You are safe."
It was a common mistake of many races to believe the Eldar race to be cold and cruel, and heartless. This is not so. The Eldar heart is capable of compassion and love at levels infinately tgreater than that which a human mother has for her child. They love and live at levels unimaginable to a human. No they are not cold and cruel, they are a twice cursed people on the brink of annihilation.
The first curse of the Eldar is the curse of prescience. The Eldar psychic mind is so powerful that their Farseer's can look forward along the skeins of time. A Farseer can see how a small action now can have a devastating effect in the future. It is this double edged sword that has allowed the Eldar race to avoid total destruction, yet there is a price. Sometimes they must act to stop a far reaching future event, which leads them into conflict with other races. Many times the Eldar had been accused of being fickle, having fought on the side of one battle, and then turning on their "allies" aftewards.
The second, and worst curse is that they are a dying race. Millions of years ago their civilization spanned the galaxy. Their technological and societal power rivaled even that of the C'tan, the Star God masters of the necrons. Then came the "Fall", and in an instant, their civilization was almost wiped out. The Eldar must do everything they can to protect their race, even at the cost of relations with other races. Ten thousand human lives lost do not equal the loss of a single Eldar life.
At the sound of his voice, Kayla turned her head to look at Y'narl. "See me as I am, but do not fear". As she watched, Y'narl psychically banished the effects of the Polymorphine. She gasped as his facial features began to melt. His hight increased, and his nose and cheeks sharpened. Finally, his hair began to grow, and his eyes returned to their distinctive almond shape.
"You... who are you", Kayla whispered, "who are all of you, what do you want of me?".
It was the cloaked figure who spoke. "Childe, we hold no malice for you in our hearts.". Taking of his helmet, Kayla became one of the very small number of humans ever to see the face of Eldrad Uthran, Farseer and leader of the people of craftworld Ulthwe.
32)
Reaching out with his thoughts, Eldrad Uthran touched the mind of the young girl. His eyes widdened with suprise as he encountered the strenght of her will, and even more confusing, her latent psychic ability. Human psykers were mere babes compared to even the weakest Eldar psyker, yet this childe, her mind shone incredably bright in the timeline. She was a nexus, all the variable lines of the past converging in one place, in one person. Eldrad had encountered a nexus only once before, and even then, it was during one of his many resting periods in the Dome of the Crystal Seers, communing with the most ancient of the spirits in the Infiniuty circut. Only once before had this happened, where one being determined the fate of the entire Eldar race. Before the birth of the Great Enemy, one person, one Eldar Seer made the decision to leave the corrupted core of what was once the mighty and regal empire of the Eldar. It was because of his decision to construct the giant Craftworlds, and begin the mass exodus, that anything of the Eldar survived. And now here, in this Mon-Keigh, all the combined actions and inactions of the past met. This was most puzzling, and most horrifying. What chilled his mind to the core was not the fact that all the timelines met at this human child, it was the fact that the future, all potential outcomes, the good, and the bad, were gone. They didn't show the destruction of the Eldar, they didn't show triumph or defeat. They didn't show anything. For the first time in his thousands of years of life, Eldrad Uthran, Farseer and head of the Council of Seers was blind. The most powerful psycher the universe had ever seen could not see the future.
- Kalimata
- Posts: 75
- Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2010 11:40 pm
Re: The beginnings of another Eldar story.
by Kalimata » Tue May 24, 2011 3:39 pm
33)
"My daughter! Where's my daughter? You! What have you done with her!"
The Governor suddenly broke out of the catatonic state he had been for the last hour or so. After being admonished and warned by Von Pelt, he had sat in a chair in the corner. Seemingly oblivious to the dire situation outside the command bunker, he had hung his head, and could not be roused. This was a good thing for him, for Von Pelt was in a very dangerous mood. The defense of the city was failing. Already he had ordered his forces to pull back behind the first of the inner defensive walls. Outside the walls it was bedlam. The civillian population of those areas were the lower classes, and did not have any resorces with which to defend themselves. Orks rampaged through the streets, killing with wild abandon. Most of the civillians had either fled to the keep, or had made for the under-hive. This, strangely, had been the salvation for thousands. Well known as one of the most dangerous places on a dangerous world, the underhive was rife with gangs, criminals, bounty hunters, and mutants. Because of the daily trials of life in the underhive, the population tended to be well experienced, hardened, and very well armed. The gangs, threatened with the loss of not only their territory, but their lives, banded together and had put up an impressive defence. Using knowlege of the vast labyrinth of tunnels, toxic lakes, and dangerous wildlife, they had kept the orks at bay, saving millions of people.
"Emperor's grace! She's out there, we have to do something!" The Governor bolted from his chair and lunged for Von Pelt. Quickly sidestepping, Von Pelt avoided the Governor and dealt him a swift blow to the back of his neck as he flew by. The men stopped and looked on, wide eyed. "Please sir! We must save her, she's my only daughter." The Governor was on his knees, begging and pulling on Von Pelt's cape, tears running down his cheeks, and rivers of snot mixing with blood ran out of his nose. A look of utter revulsion twisted Von Pelt's face and reaching down, he grabbed the Governor by the hair and dragged him over to a large viewscreen.
"Look here you disgusting thing!" Von Pelt roared, "Look upon your people. See what you have done? Out there, those are all your daughters, all your sons. Through your incompetence and sheer stupidity, the only sons and daughters of your planet are being slaughtered by the army of xenos you failed to stop!" The Governor was on his knees before the viewscreen, head hung low and weeping. This show of sorrow did not cause Von Pelt to soften. Von Pelt would mourn the planet's dead at a later time, but not now. "You disgusting piece of filth. Even now you weep not for your people, but for your own pitiful losses. You are a disgrace and you have failed your Emperor."
There was a soft click as Von Pelt undid the clasp holding his pistol in place. The room was silent, every man watched the scenereo playing out in front of them. Slowly, Von Pelt drew his bolt pistol and leveled it at the back of the Governor's head. The Governor merely wept, seeming oblivious to what was transpiring around him. Straightening up, Von Pelt looked around the room. "Bear witness!" he bellowed, "You Governor McCraige, High Governor of Gorthak Prime and outlying systems. I, Commissar Sigfried Von Pelt, Regimental Commissar of the 1035 Gorthak Regulars, do hereby find you guilty of the charges of criminal neglegence, gross incompetance, failure to prevent an attack on the Blessed Emperor's colony of Gorthak Prime, derelection of your duties to protect the people and equipment of Gorthak Prime, and failure in your duty to His Glorious Magesty, The Holy Emperor of Man!"
The Governor did not seem to hear, he seemed oblivious to everything surrounding him. He kept weeping, mumbling "Kayla" over and over.
Infuriated, Von Pelt drew back the hammer of his bolt pistol with his thumb. "By the powers vested in me by the Imperial Guard, The High Lords of Terra, and our most holy Emperor, I do hereby judge you guilty of all charges. Punishment for these crimes against the Emperor is death." Still, the Governor did not respond. "By His Grace! Will you not even accept your punishment as a man?" Von Pelt's face was scarlet with rage. "Turn and face your executioner!" Still the Governor did not respond. He quietly weeped into the viewscreen. Von Pelt violently jammed the bolt pistol into his holster. With a blur of movement, Von Pelt drew the power sword from the scabbard on his waist and swung it in a humming arc, decapitating the Governor. The governor's body remained kneeling for a moment and then slumped to the ground. Von Pelt grabbed the head by the hair and held it up, facing the men. Taking a moment to meet the horrified gaze of each of the guardsmen, Von Pelt spoke in an even, cold tone; "This man was a coward of the worst kind. He failed in every aspect of his duties to the Emperor and the people of this planet. He refused to aknowledge his crimes, and chose to meet his punishment on his knees as a coward. I will not waste the dignity of a bolt on this disgrace. You, Private! Remove this body and have it incenerated. It doesn't even warrant a proper burial." The guardsman leapt to his feet and ran to do the Commissair's bidding. Turning back to the viewscreen, Von Pelt took a moment to clean his blade on the Governor's corpse, and then focused on the defence of the city.
34)
A bright flash of pain and sorrow flashed through Eldrad Uthran's mind. He broke contact with the human's mind and took an involuntary step backwards. A look of shock and then grief came over Kayla's face. His retainers stepped forward to lend assistance and the shifting and cocking of weapons echoed through the ranks of the aspect warriors. Kayla had begun to silently weep. Y'narl stepped in font, facing her. "What is it Kayla?" "Father," she wept, "he's dead, oh father..." Forgetting for a moment where she was, and who she was with, she reached forward and burried her face in Y'narl's shoulder, weeping. Y'narl looked to Eldrad Uthran and his father with a shocked look. The masked faces of the aspect warriors stared on impassivly, yet Eldrad Uthran looked upon Kayla with a look of sympathy and grief. Y'narl was shocked and confused, what had he seen?
"Childe," Eldrad spoke, "I more than most understand the loss of the family, the passing of a loved one, for every Eldar life lost is as that of a passing child to me." To the shock of all the gathered Eldar, he stepped forward, and laid his hand upon Kayla's head. "I felt your loss, your sorrow, and I share this with you." Y'narl slowly stepped aside as Eldrad laid his hands upon Kayla's shoulders and looked into her face. "Childe, I am sorry. I have sensed something in you since before you were born. We must speak of many things, and I have many questions to ask, but I shall give you time to mourn for your father. We shall take you to a place of peace and rememberance, I hope this will ease your pain." Turning, Eldrad spoke to M'tayla, Y'narl's father, "My friend, please take this childe to the Dome of the Crystal Seers." This time a shocked murmor could be heard from the ranks, and Y'narl and M'tarl looked at Eldrad Uthran in open shock. This was unprecedented, a human, in the most sacred of places.
"My lord," Y'narl began, "are you..." Eldrad Uthran raised a hand to quiet the room. "My old friend, please carry out my wishes." "I shall defer to your wisdom my lord." With that M'tayla came forward and softly took the hand of the weeping human. He quietly led her out of the room. Eldrad looked to Y'narl, "my childe, we must speak, once your father returns. Please meet me in the same chamber in which we first met. We must discuss this development."
Y'narl nodded his head, very confused. He watched Eldrad slowly walk away. He turned to look at the gathered Aspect Warriors. The troops were looking to each other and speaking in low tones. The exarchs stood deadly still, not moving, hardly breathing. They didn't care about the startling developments, the human, or the un-precedented honor given to her by the High Seer. They only stood and stared, waiting for war. Y'narl sent a nod to the Autarch, and the Autarch dismissed the troups back to their garrisson positions. Shaking his head to himself, Y'narl walked out of the room and set off to find his father.
25)
"For centuries I have led our people along the skiens of time, avoiding destruction and striving ever onward. I have battled the Great Devourer and warred with the C'tan. Do you now question my judgements?" Eldrad Uthran did not speak above a low whisper but those who knew him recognized his anger. "I would expect this questioning from Y'narl, he is not of our path, but you, M'tarl, for three hundred years we have stood beside each other in peace and war. Is your faith in me so weak?" Both M'tayla and Y'narl looked guiltily at the ground, both too ashamed to meet the gaze of their leader, and friend. "Come now, the way between us has been clear for too long for this. I have been cryptic as of late, for I fear that I am to go to rest in the Dome soon." Eldrad chuckled softly. "It is time to let you know what I have seen."
He paused and sipped at his goblet of wine, savoring the flavor. He would miss these things he thought, the small physical pleasures. His time was coming. Towards the end of every seer's life, natural life, they begin to spend long periods of time in the Dome of the Crystal Seers, the place where the Infinity Circut meets the real world. They spend hours, sometimes days, sending their mind adrift within the Circut, speaking with the long dead, exploring the cosmos. Eventually their bodies crystalize and form beautiful crystal trees, their soul separated for good, to inhabit the Eldar afterlife. Eldrad's bones ached, his mind and soul were tired. In another time, another place, he may have already sought his reward for a life long lived. Not this time and place though. There was too much danger, too many pitfalls. Too many opportunities for the Eldar race to fade into oblivion, he could not leave now. Especially with this new developement.
"I have looked into her mind. I have seen her past, I have seen our past. Both of these skeins meet at the human childe. The future is unknown to me." This caused M'tayla and Y'narl to look at him with shocked expressions. "Yes, it is as un-nerving to me as it is to you, more so in fact. I do not see our destruction, I do not see our salvation. Everything stops at this girl. Only once before have I heard of such a nexus, before the Fall, but never has the future been completely obscured. This child is of the utmost importance to our people. I feel it is she, and not I who will lead us forth from darkness.
"My lord," Y'narl began, "the matter of her skill in the ways of the Banshee? How is this possible?"
"This you will find most shocking of all. I have seen into her mind, I have traced the past back many thousands of years. What the Mon-Keigh so horribly named Gorthak was once known to us as Yillanduale. Before the Fall, this was a paradise created by our ancestors, one of our Crone worlds. This one was lost to us during the Fall, but not completely. During the great exodus, many warpways were created to these worlds to link the Craftworlds, and the gateway to Ulthwe was one such path. Yillanduale was not completly stripped of all Eldar life. As I've said before, there was one who had the foresight to prepare. A single soulstone housing the souls of a small, yet psychically powerfull, group of Farseers, remained, burried for eons. The peace of the planet was disturbed by the Orks. They never knew what exactly they had found, but instead, went about their lives as orks are wont to do. Still, the effects of this spirit, this soulstone were not unfelt by the Orks. Some of it's psychic powers caused an unexpected mutation in these Orks. No longer simple violent beasts, they began to develope intelligence. They crafted new technologies, made actual discoveries. What may have happened was thankfully averted by the Mon-Keigh. They scoured the planet and it's systems of the Ork menace, and took up residence there themselves."
"My lord, smart orks? Is that possible, that the souls of the Eldar remaining on the planet interefered with the Orks development?"
Y'narl was stunned. He understood what happened when an Eldar died. Their soul was trapped in their soulstone, and therefore protected from being consumed by the Great Enemy in the warp. He knew they retained conciousness, in a way, and lived on in the infinity circut of the craftworld, or the exodite world.
"How can the souls interact with the living, especially such crude lifeforms such as the orks, or the Mon-Keigh?"
"Young one, it is precicely because of their simple minds that they were able to be affected by the enormous psychic emmenations from the soulstone."
Again, taking a draugh from his goblet, Eldrad Uthran closed his eyes and wandered the timelines. Following them backwards from Kayla's present had shown him all the events, all the changes and decisions which had brought them to this point. Yes, they were intertwined now, Eldar and the Humans Yillanduale, their fates linked. He sighed, he was so tired, his mind so weary.
"If you travel far enough back in our shared histories, you find that we are not so separate. Time holds many secrets, many horrifying truthes." He looked at the two. They stared back at him. "Because of certain similarities between our peoples, and the extremely strong talent our young Kayla possesses, some of the Mon-Keigh began to change. Slowly, over the centuries, the psychic emmenations of our spirit brothers changed them, especially those with strong psychic talents. Our young Kayla is the result of hundreds of years of inadvertant psychic surgery and is now something more than just a human. Her mind burns very bright in the warp, stronger than many of us." At that M'tarl gasped, drawing a smirk and a wink from Eldrad. "Yes my friend, you must have sensed it?"
"Yes Eldrad, I had. I was unsure, it was so wild, so undisciplined." M'tarl looked to his son, "Have you seen any of this?
Y'narl thought for a moment, and then nodded. "Nothing outright father, anything like that and she would have been shipped off to earth. No nothing openly, but the way she moves, she reacts far too fast for human reflexes. And her aim can be uncanny at times, with her rifle."
Shifting his body in the chair, Eldrad Uthran moved to look at Y'narl. "Indeed my young friend, and yet, her mind shines like a lantern in a dark room. This is no longer simply a Mon-Keigh, she is something more. Not quite Eldar, not quite Human, and yet both... Leave me I must ponder this."
With that, father and son rose and left the room. Neither of them spoke as they walked down the long hallway that led back to the craftworld surface. In each, questions and worries circled. What did this mean?
At last M'tarl spoke. "My son, you say this human showes potential for the path of the Banshee?" Y'narl nodded, "had I not seen it myself father, I woud have never believed it so." M'tayla nodded and then spoke. "Well then son, let us collect this young Mon-K..." he paused, "this young Human, and introduce her to the Shrine of the Banshee." Y'narl nodded and together they went off to collect the young visitor.
"My daughter! Where's my daughter? You! What have you done with her!"
The Governor suddenly broke out of the catatonic state he had been for the last hour or so. After being admonished and warned by Von Pelt, he had sat in a chair in the corner. Seemingly oblivious to the dire situation outside the command bunker, he had hung his head, and could not be roused. This was a good thing for him, for Von Pelt was in a very dangerous mood. The defense of the city was failing. Already he had ordered his forces to pull back behind the first of the inner defensive walls. Outside the walls it was bedlam. The civillian population of those areas were the lower classes, and did not have any resorces with which to defend themselves. Orks rampaged through the streets, killing with wild abandon. Most of the civillians had either fled to the keep, or had made for the under-hive. This, strangely, had been the salvation for thousands. Well known as one of the most dangerous places on a dangerous world, the underhive was rife with gangs, criminals, bounty hunters, and mutants. Because of the daily trials of life in the underhive, the population tended to be well experienced, hardened, and very well armed. The gangs, threatened with the loss of not only their territory, but their lives, banded together and had put up an impressive defence. Using knowlege of the vast labyrinth of tunnels, toxic lakes, and dangerous wildlife, they had kept the orks at bay, saving millions of people.
"Emperor's grace! She's out there, we have to do something!" The Governor bolted from his chair and lunged for Von Pelt. Quickly sidestepping, Von Pelt avoided the Governor and dealt him a swift blow to the back of his neck as he flew by. The men stopped and looked on, wide eyed. "Please sir! We must save her, she's my only daughter." The Governor was on his knees, begging and pulling on Von Pelt's cape, tears running down his cheeks, and rivers of snot mixing with blood ran out of his nose. A look of utter revulsion twisted Von Pelt's face and reaching down, he grabbed the Governor by the hair and dragged him over to a large viewscreen.
"Look here you disgusting thing!" Von Pelt roared, "Look upon your people. See what you have done? Out there, those are all your daughters, all your sons. Through your incompetence and sheer stupidity, the only sons and daughters of your planet are being slaughtered by the army of xenos you failed to stop!" The Governor was on his knees before the viewscreen, head hung low and weeping. This show of sorrow did not cause Von Pelt to soften. Von Pelt would mourn the planet's dead at a later time, but not now. "You disgusting piece of filth. Even now you weep not for your people, but for your own pitiful losses. You are a disgrace and you have failed your Emperor."
There was a soft click as Von Pelt undid the clasp holding his pistol in place. The room was silent, every man watched the scenereo playing out in front of them. Slowly, Von Pelt drew his bolt pistol and leveled it at the back of the Governor's head. The Governor merely wept, seeming oblivious to what was transpiring around him. Straightening up, Von Pelt looked around the room. "Bear witness!" he bellowed, "You Governor McCraige, High Governor of Gorthak Prime and outlying systems. I, Commissar Sigfried Von Pelt, Regimental Commissar of the 1035 Gorthak Regulars, do hereby find you guilty of the charges of criminal neglegence, gross incompetance, failure to prevent an attack on the Blessed Emperor's colony of Gorthak Prime, derelection of your duties to protect the people and equipment of Gorthak Prime, and failure in your duty to His Glorious Magesty, The Holy Emperor of Man!"
The Governor did not seem to hear, he seemed oblivious to everything surrounding him. He kept weeping, mumbling "Kayla" over and over.
Infuriated, Von Pelt drew back the hammer of his bolt pistol with his thumb. "By the powers vested in me by the Imperial Guard, The High Lords of Terra, and our most holy Emperor, I do hereby judge you guilty of all charges. Punishment for these crimes against the Emperor is death." Still, the Governor did not respond. "By His Grace! Will you not even accept your punishment as a man?" Von Pelt's face was scarlet with rage. "Turn and face your executioner!" Still the Governor did not respond. He quietly weeped into the viewscreen. Von Pelt violently jammed the bolt pistol into his holster. With a blur of movement, Von Pelt drew the power sword from the scabbard on his waist and swung it in a humming arc, decapitating the Governor. The governor's body remained kneeling for a moment and then slumped to the ground. Von Pelt grabbed the head by the hair and held it up, facing the men. Taking a moment to meet the horrified gaze of each of the guardsmen, Von Pelt spoke in an even, cold tone; "This man was a coward of the worst kind. He failed in every aspect of his duties to the Emperor and the people of this planet. He refused to aknowledge his crimes, and chose to meet his punishment on his knees as a coward. I will not waste the dignity of a bolt on this disgrace. You, Private! Remove this body and have it incenerated. It doesn't even warrant a proper burial." The guardsman leapt to his feet and ran to do the Commissair's bidding. Turning back to the viewscreen, Von Pelt took a moment to clean his blade on the Governor's corpse, and then focused on the defence of the city.
34)
A bright flash of pain and sorrow flashed through Eldrad Uthran's mind. He broke contact with the human's mind and took an involuntary step backwards. A look of shock and then grief came over Kayla's face. His retainers stepped forward to lend assistance and the shifting and cocking of weapons echoed through the ranks of the aspect warriors. Kayla had begun to silently weep. Y'narl stepped in font, facing her. "What is it Kayla?" "Father," she wept, "he's dead, oh father..." Forgetting for a moment where she was, and who she was with, she reached forward and burried her face in Y'narl's shoulder, weeping. Y'narl looked to Eldrad Uthran and his father with a shocked look. The masked faces of the aspect warriors stared on impassivly, yet Eldrad Uthran looked upon Kayla with a look of sympathy and grief. Y'narl was shocked and confused, what had he seen?
"Childe," Eldrad spoke, "I more than most understand the loss of the family, the passing of a loved one, for every Eldar life lost is as that of a passing child to me." To the shock of all the gathered Eldar, he stepped forward, and laid his hand upon Kayla's head. "I felt your loss, your sorrow, and I share this with you." Y'narl slowly stepped aside as Eldrad laid his hands upon Kayla's shoulders and looked into her face. "Childe, I am sorry. I have sensed something in you since before you were born. We must speak of many things, and I have many questions to ask, but I shall give you time to mourn for your father. We shall take you to a place of peace and rememberance, I hope this will ease your pain." Turning, Eldrad spoke to M'tayla, Y'narl's father, "My friend, please take this childe to the Dome of the Crystal Seers." This time a shocked murmor could be heard from the ranks, and Y'narl and M'tarl looked at Eldrad Uthran in open shock. This was unprecedented, a human, in the most sacred of places.
"My lord," Y'narl began, "are you..." Eldrad Uthran raised a hand to quiet the room. "My old friend, please carry out my wishes." "I shall defer to your wisdom my lord." With that M'tayla came forward and softly took the hand of the weeping human. He quietly led her out of the room. Eldrad looked to Y'narl, "my childe, we must speak, once your father returns. Please meet me in the same chamber in which we first met. We must discuss this development."
Y'narl nodded his head, very confused. He watched Eldrad slowly walk away. He turned to look at the gathered Aspect Warriors. The troops were looking to each other and speaking in low tones. The exarchs stood deadly still, not moving, hardly breathing. They didn't care about the startling developments, the human, or the un-precedented honor given to her by the High Seer. They only stood and stared, waiting for war. Y'narl sent a nod to the Autarch, and the Autarch dismissed the troups back to their garrisson positions. Shaking his head to himself, Y'narl walked out of the room and set off to find his father.
25)
"For centuries I have led our people along the skiens of time, avoiding destruction and striving ever onward. I have battled the Great Devourer and warred with the C'tan. Do you now question my judgements?" Eldrad Uthran did not speak above a low whisper but those who knew him recognized his anger. "I would expect this questioning from Y'narl, he is not of our path, but you, M'tarl, for three hundred years we have stood beside each other in peace and war. Is your faith in me so weak?" Both M'tayla and Y'narl looked guiltily at the ground, both too ashamed to meet the gaze of their leader, and friend. "Come now, the way between us has been clear for too long for this. I have been cryptic as of late, for I fear that I am to go to rest in the Dome soon." Eldrad chuckled softly. "It is time to let you know what I have seen."
He paused and sipped at his goblet of wine, savoring the flavor. He would miss these things he thought, the small physical pleasures. His time was coming. Towards the end of every seer's life, natural life, they begin to spend long periods of time in the Dome of the Crystal Seers, the place where the Infinity Circut meets the real world. They spend hours, sometimes days, sending their mind adrift within the Circut, speaking with the long dead, exploring the cosmos. Eventually their bodies crystalize and form beautiful crystal trees, their soul separated for good, to inhabit the Eldar afterlife. Eldrad's bones ached, his mind and soul were tired. In another time, another place, he may have already sought his reward for a life long lived. Not this time and place though. There was too much danger, too many pitfalls. Too many opportunities for the Eldar race to fade into oblivion, he could not leave now. Especially with this new developement.
"I have looked into her mind. I have seen her past, I have seen our past. Both of these skeins meet at the human childe. The future is unknown to me." This caused M'tayla and Y'narl to look at him with shocked expressions. "Yes, it is as un-nerving to me as it is to you, more so in fact. I do not see our destruction, I do not see our salvation. Everything stops at this girl. Only once before have I heard of such a nexus, before the Fall, but never has the future been completely obscured. This child is of the utmost importance to our people. I feel it is she, and not I who will lead us forth from darkness.
"My lord," Y'narl began, "the matter of her skill in the ways of the Banshee? How is this possible?"
"This you will find most shocking of all. I have seen into her mind, I have traced the past back many thousands of years. What the Mon-Keigh so horribly named Gorthak was once known to us as Yillanduale. Before the Fall, this was a paradise created by our ancestors, one of our Crone worlds. This one was lost to us during the Fall, but not completely. During the great exodus, many warpways were created to these worlds to link the Craftworlds, and the gateway to Ulthwe was one such path. Yillanduale was not completly stripped of all Eldar life. As I've said before, there was one who had the foresight to prepare. A single soulstone housing the souls of a small, yet psychically powerfull, group of Farseers, remained, burried for eons. The peace of the planet was disturbed by the Orks. They never knew what exactly they had found, but instead, went about their lives as orks are wont to do. Still, the effects of this spirit, this soulstone were not unfelt by the Orks. Some of it's psychic powers caused an unexpected mutation in these Orks. No longer simple violent beasts, they began to develope intelligence. They crafted new technologies, made actual discoveries. What may have happened was thankfully averted by the Mon-Keigh. They scoured the planet and it's systems of the Ork menace, and took up residence there themselves."
"My lord, smart orks? Is that possible, that the souls of the Eldar remaining on the planet interefered with the Orks development?"
Y'narl was stunned. He understood what happened when an Eldar died. Their soul was trapped in their soulstone, and therefore protected from being consumed by the Great Enemy in the warp. He knew they retained conciousness, in a way, and lived on in the infinity circut of the craftworld, or the exodite world.
"How can the souls interact with the living, especially such crude lifeforms such as the orks, or the Mon-Keigh?"
"Young one, it is precicely because of their simple minds that they were able to be affected by the enormous psychic emmenations from the soulstone."
Again, taking a draugh from his goblet, Eldrad Uthran closed his eyes and wandered the timelines. Following them backwards from Kayla's present had shown him all the events, all the changes and decisions which had brought them to this point. Yes, they were intertwined now, Eldar and the Humans Yillanduale, their fates linked. He sighed, he was so tired, his mind so weary.
"If you travel far enough back in our shared histories, you find that we are not so separate. Time holds many secrets, many horrifying truthes." He looked at the two. They stared back at him. "Because of certain similarities between our peoples, and the extremely strong talent our young Kayla possesses, some of the Mon-Keigh began to change. Slowly, over the centuries, the psychic emmenations of our spirit brothers changed them, especially those with strong psychic talents. Our young Kayla is the result of hundreds of years of inadvertant psychic surgery and is now something more than just a human. Her mind burns very bright in the warp, stronger than many of us." At that M'tarl gasped, drawing a smirk and a wink from Eldrad. "Yes my friend, you must have sensed it?"
"Yes Eldrad, I had. I was unsure, it was so wild, so undisciplined." M'tarl looked to his son, "Have you seen any of this?
Y'narl thought for a moment, and then nodded. "Nothing outright father, anything like that and she would have been shipped off to earth. No nothing openly, but the way she moves, she reacts far too fast for human reflexes. And her aim can be uncanny at times, with her rifle."
Shifting his body in the chair, Eldrad Uthran moved to look at Y'narl. "Indeed my young friend, and yet, her mind shines like a lantern in a dark room. This is no longer simply a Mon-Keigh, she is something more. Not quite Eldar, not quite Human, and yet both... Leave me I must ponder this."
With that, father and son rose and left the room. Neither of them spoke as they walked down the long hallway that led back to the craftworld surface. In each, questions and worries circled. What did this mean?
At last M'tarl spoke. "My son, you say this human showes potential for the path of the Banshee?" Y'narl nodded, "had I not seen it myself father, I woud have never believed it so." M'tayla nodded and then spoke. "Well then son, let us collect this young Mon-K..." he paused, "this young Human, and introduce her to the Shrine of the Banshee." Y'narl nodded and together they went off to collect the young visitor.
- Kalimata
- Posts: 75
- Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2010 11:40 pm
Re: The beginnings of another Eldar story.
by Kalimata » Wed May 25, 2011 12:54 am
35)
How the hell the orks had been able to build a gargant without the planetary garrisson knowing was beyond Lt. Ebelfien, yet here it came, farting smoke and belching flames from it's mouth, tailpipe, and quite a few other exhaust ports. It was bristling with cannons, and every so often, a port in it's "chest" area would open, and a large bore cannon would fire screaming green projectiles. It was only after his command Baneblade had taken a direct hit from this cannon did he realize that the green projectiles were gretchin wearing huge explosive vests. These beasts were mad! On it's left and right wartruks and other ork vehicles roared past, around, and even under the feet of the giant mechanoid, riders screaming and hollering, every so often letting fly with a barrage of weapons fire. Ebelfien could see to his left that Baneblade 255, "Holt's Fury" had taken significant damage and looked to be out of the battle. Two more Baneblades flanked by Leman Russ tanks moved to occupy the now gaping hole in the armored line. The Baneblade's main cannon fired again, the concussion slamming Ebelfien in the chest, knocking the wind out of him. His face was burnt and blackened by exposure to cannon fire, and his hair was an almost solid shell on his scalp, cemented to his head by dried blood, sweat, and Gretchin innards. The Gargant slogged forward at a steady pace, and Ebelfien did not know how they would stop it. He turned to yell a command to his driver to reverse but was cut off when a multi-melta beam vaporized everything from his waist up. His lower body hadn't even finished slumping to the ground when the next blast from the Gargant turned the Baneblade into a molten lump of slag.
36)
"Sacrilege!" The scream was very high pitched and filled with unbridled fury. "How dare you defile Khane's shrine, My shrine!"
All heads turned to look at this newcomer to the temple. Y'narl and M'tayla had brought Kayla to the shrine of the Howling Banshees to observe the Banshees in training. At first Kayla had been terrified, the walls of the shrine echoed the psych-amplified Banshee screams, and yet after a minute she forgot about her fear, and concentrated on the martial display in front of her. One of the shrine Exarchs was testing the new trainees, guaging their combat abilities for placement into the training cadre. Each trainee entered the combat ring with the Exarch. They knelt before the statue of Kheala Mensha Khaine, the Eldar war god. Reciting a ritual prayer, the trainee would then spar with the Exarch. They used real blades and pistols! This shocked Kayla, the danger was immense, yet she could not help but notice that not a single blow landed on the Exarch, and the Exarch's skill and control was so refined that her blade always stopped a hair's breadth from a killing blow. Kayla was too enthralled with the display that she did not notice the looks that M'tayla and Y'narl were exchanging. When the final trainee had been tested, M'tayla stepped into the ring and spoke quietly with the Exarch. Listening the Exarch's eyes widened in suprise, and then moved to look at Kayla. Suddenly realizing that they were speaking of her, Kayla began to get nervous. The Exarch nodded and M'tayla came striding back to his son and Kayla.
"Kayla of House Mccraige, you have been awarded a most rare and special honor. This is Panaara" he said gesturing towards the Exarch. "My son has told me of your unique combat style and your prowess. The Exarch Panaara has granted you the honor of displaying your skills. Kayla looked at him with a mixture of shock, and anticipation. "Panaara has been on the warrior path of the Howling Banshee for over four hundred years. She has seen countless battles, slew foes by the score. This is a great honor bestoed upon you, for these Exarchs are the priestesses of our war god Kaela Mensha Khain, the prodigal daughters who's cries herald death for the enemy." All eyes in the shrine were focused on Kayla when the scream had come from the very inner chamber of the temple.
Everyone turned to face the speaker. Kayla saw that both M'tayla and Y'narl had suddenly gone very pale, and even the Exarch looked apprehensive. The warrior was very tall, almost seven feet. She was clad in jet black armor with golden plating. Her face was masked in a beautiful porcelin colored material, sporting a very detailed and ornate voice speaker, similar and yet seemengly more ancient than that of even the Exarch. A huge mane of white hair trailed behind her as she stalked towards the human girl. In her right hand was a glaive that hummed and crackled with a black energy. In her left, some form of triple bladed throwing weapon. Her heavy breathing was amplified and the sound caused Kayla to tremble with shock and fear.
"Y'narl, who is that?" Kayla asked, her body shivering and covered in goose flesh. "That," Y'narl said, "Is the very first. It was she who created this temple, she trained under Asurian, one of our greatest warriors. She has lived forever, and legend says she will live until the final battle at the end of the universe." Y'narl turned to look Kayla in the eyes. "She is the matriarch of the Howling Banshee aspect warrior, the Storm of Silence. She is the Phoenix lord Jain-Xar!"
How the hell the orks had been able to build a gargant without the planetary garrisson knowing was beyond Lt. Ebelfien, yet here it came, farting smoke and belching flames from it's mouth, tailpipe, and quite a few other exhaust ports. It was bristling with cannons, and every so often, a port in it's "chest" area would open, and a large bore cannon would fire screaming green projectiles. It was only after his command Baneblade had taken a direct hit from this cannon did he realize that the green projectiles were gretchin wearing huge explosive vests. These beasts were mad! On it's left and right wartruks and other ork vehicles roared past, around, and even under the feet of the giant mechanoid, riders screaming and hollering, every so often letting fly with a barrage of weapons fire. Ebelfien could see to his left that Baneblade 255, "Holt's Fury" had taken significant damage and looked to be out of the battle. Two more Baneblades flanked by Leman Russ tanks moved to occupy the now gaping hole in the armored line. The Baneblade's main cannon fired again, the concussion slamming Ebelfien in the chest, knocking the wind out of him. His face was burnt and blackened by exposure to cannon fire, and his hair was an almost solid shell on his scalp, cemented to his head by dried blood, sweat, and Gretchin innards. The Gargant slogged forward at a steady pace, and Ebelfien did not know how they would stop it. He turned to yell a command to his driver to reverse but was cut off when a multi-melta beam vaporized everything from his waist up. His lower body hadn't even finished slumping to the ground when the next blast from the Gargant turned the Baneblade into a molten lump of slag.
36)
"Sacrilege!" The scream was very high pitched and filled with unbridled fury. "How dare you defile Khane's shrine, My shrine!"
All heads turned to look at this newcomer to the temple. Y'narl and M'tayla had brought Kayla to the shrine of the Howling Banshees to observe the Banshees in training. At first Kayla had been terrified, the walls of the shrine echoed the psych-amplified Banshee screams, and yet after a minute she forgot about her fear, and concentrated on the martial display in front of her. One of the shrine Exarchs was testing the new trainees, guaging their combat abilities for placement into the training cadre. Each trainee entered the combat ring with the Exarch. They knelt before the statue of Kheala Mensha Khaine, the Eldar war god. Reciting a ritual prayer, the trainee would then spar with the Exarch. They used real blades and pistols! This shocked Kayla, the danger was immense, yet she could not help but notice that not a single blow landed on the Exarch, and the Exarch's skill and control was so refined that her blade always stopped a hair's breadth from a killing blow. Kayla was too enthralled with the display that she did not notice the looks that M'tayla and Y'narl were exchanging. When the final trainee had been tested, M'tayla stepped into the ring and spoke quietly with the Exarch. Listening the Exarch's eyes widened in suprise, and then moved to look at Kayla. Suddenly realizing that they were speaking of her, Kayla began to get nervous. The Exarch nodded and M'tayla came striding back to his son and Kayla.
"Kayla of House Mccraige, you have been awarded a most rare and special honor. This is Panaara" he said gesturing towards the Exarch. "My son has told me of your unique combat style and your prowess. The Exarch Panaara has granted you the honor of displaying your skills. Kayla looked at him with a mixture of shock, and anticipation. "Panaara has been on the warrior path of the Howling Banshee for over four hundred years. She has seen countless battles, slew foes by the score. This is a great honor bestoed upon you, for these Exarchs are the priestesses of our war god Kaela Mensha Khain, the prodigal daughters who's cries herald death for the enemy." All eyes in the shrine were focused on Kayla when the scream had come from the very inner chamber of the temple.
Everyone turned to face the speaker. Kayla saw that both M'tayla and Y'narl had suddenly gone very pale, and even the Exarch looked apprehensive. The warrior was very tall, almost seven feet. She was clad in jet black armor with golden plating. Her face was masked in a beautiful porcelin colored material, sporting a very detailed and ornate voice speaker, similar and yet seemengly more ancient than that of even the Exarch. A huge mane of white hair trailed behind her as she stalked towards the human girl. In her right hand was a glaive that hummed and crackled with a black energy. In her left, some form of triple bladed throwing weapon. Her heavy breathing was amplified and the sound caused Kayla to tremble with shock and fear.
"Y'narl, who is that?" Kayla asked, her body shivering and covered in goose flesh. "That," Y'narl said, "Is the very first. It was she who created this temple, she trained under Asurian, one of our greatest warriors. She has lived forever, and legend says she will live until the final battle at the end of the universe." Y'narl turned to look Kayla in the eyes. "She is the matriarch of the Howling Banshee aspect warrior, the Storm of Silence. She is the Phoenix lord Jain-Xar!"
- Kalimata
- Posts: 75
- Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2010 11:40 pm
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