"How fragile and worthless, the souls of mere humans. But how insatiable have they made me." – Tra'inal, Fell Witch Kabal.
Thanatos of the Soul Drinkers Chapter raised his bolter and fired at the Dark Eldar warrior running across the shattered ground of a natural bridge across the Fyonda River of Viloris IV. Bolter rounds tore the xenos into shreds, eviscerating what little flesh there was beneath the slim armor it wore. The warrior fell to the ground in a mess of entrails and broken limbs. Its weapon fell into the river below. Thanatos nodded to his brothers, Icarus and Theron, and then moved through the trees that housed them. They were currently trying to retrieve their librarian, Brasidas, from the clutches of the Dark Eldar. They had been assembled for a reason, the three of them.
They were all blanks, beings invisible to any form of psychic detection known to the Imperium. Sarpedon had sent them with Brasidas to this world to find an artifact that would benefit the chapter. All they had to go by was that it was called the Helm of Storms, and that it was colored white with purple streaks of lightning painted across its surface. Now, instead of searching for a lost artifact, the remaining three Soul Drinkers were searching for their lost librarian. Down the edge of the river they lurked, watching for more Dark Eldar warriors and incubi of there were any.
Thanatos rechecked his weapon and then gripped the hilt of his force spear, liberated from the dead hands of a Thousand Son sorcerer lord. The Soul Drinker let a slight smile settle itself upon his face. The spear was more of a halberd really, a long shaft with a curved blade on one side and faintly glowing orb of light at the top. Brasidas had one much more ornate and complicated and most definitely more powerful. But it might not even be in the librarian's possession at the moment. If the Dark Eldar could feel his presence from their headquarters here, then he was most likely going to be tortured for weeks before having his soul stripped away.
Looking around, Thanatos scanned the immediate area for more enemies. Dark Eldar could be lurking anywhere around here, and the first wrong move would be his last if he wasn't careful. Though liberating their comrade was nigh-impossible, Thanatos and the others had agreed that they wouldn't rest until their brother was found and returned to their ranks, one way or another.
'Brother, what do you see?' asked Icarus, peering into the forest on the other side of the river. Thanatos shrugged.
'I see nothing. But it is more likely that they are simply waiting for us out there, rather than simply absent,' he replied.
'Something is out there. I can feel their presence as a whole, something like a hole-ridden corpse. It is…unsettling to feel such distress from one's soul. Can you feel it brother, the decay upon their souls?' Theron asked. Before Thanatos could answer, however, he spun around and a shrill, agonized cry rang out as his bolter smashed the unarmed head of a Dark Eldar wytch. Thanator turned about and ran his force spear through the neck of his own foe, this one a well-armored incubus with a weapon that looked akin to his own clutched in its hands. Thanatos kicked the dying body off his spear and raised his bolter. He maimed entirely the foe trying to get a fix on him from behind a tree. Meanwhile, Icarus ripped and hacked through four warriors with his power sword. Every one of his attacks dropped a limb from a foe.
Thanatos raised his spear and halted the claw of an enormous red beast. It snapped at him with a canine-like snout filled with misshapen teeth and fangs and bone. His "acquired" rosarius flared to life and flickered with strain. The space marine forced the muzzle of his bolter against the beast's exposed belly and fired. Bones and flesh fountained out its back and the red beast let out a miserable wail. Thanatos forced it back and then slashed its neck with his spear, ending its life.
'Warp beasts, be wary brothers,' Thanatos warned. Another warp beat lunged at him from the flora, and Thanatos lowered his spear. The beast impaled itself upon his weapon's blade and even still, tried to claw and snarl at him as he blew its body apart with his bolter. The three space marines quickly dispatched the beasts' master and the hungry hounds went wild. They slashed and tore at anyone they could find with a ravenous hunger for flesh. The Dark Eldar retreated back into the forest with their own hounds snapping at their heels.
Icarus growled with annoyance as he patched a gash along his forehead with syntheflesh. Thanatos could find no wounds upon his own body, and he felt very lucky. Warp beasts were known for their ability to shear through most armor like it was nothing more than tin foil. Theron quickly checked for any more hidden ambush parties, but found none. He gave the signal that the three could continue without hindrance.
Thanatos resumed sneaking through the edge of the forest toward the bridge. He knew that Brasidas was somewhere on the other side. But getting there was going to be a problem. The only way across the river, which was almost thirty paces across and deeper than Thanatos cared to try his luck with, was a natural bridge of solid rock that was only wide enough to compliment one space marine. Crossing it would be trouble if the Dark Eldar were waiting on the other side of the river for them to make the mistake. Thanatos turned to his comrades and heaved a frustrated sigh.
'We have two choices. We can continue the search for the Helm of Storms without Librarian Brasidas, or we can risk going over the bridge to find him. I'd like to know who's going with me once I leave cover to cross the bridge,' he said.
'Icarus, I'm afraid you'll have to search for the helm alone,' Theron said.
'You two would have more holes in you than Eumenes' plan to usurp the chapter if you didn't have me watching your backs,' the young marine snorted. Thanatos let himself smile.
'Then we cross the bridge. Prepare your krak grenades. We're going to throw them across the river when we make a run for it,' he said. He pulled two grenades from his pouch and put his force staff on his back. He clipped his bolter to his belt and took a grenade in each hand. Nodding to his brothers, he leapt from cover and sprinted across the ten feet of open ground to the bridge. Immediately, his rosarius flared to life and he tossed a grenade into the forest ahead. He tossed the second one underhandedly off toward a silver and yellow stain in the green vegetation. He drew his force staff and thundered across the bridge.
His grenades exploded with mighty force, sending leaves and vines and dirt in all directions. Cries in terror and pain reached his ears and the Soul Drinker grinned. He bounded forward the last few steps to the forest's edge and then let out a war cry. He swung his weapon and decapitated an incubus' head. He planted his foot on its chest and pushed the xenos to the ground, smashing its ribcage with his heavy boot. Icarus joined the charge with his power sword and bolt pistol, horribly slaying anyone within his reach. He clubbed more foes down with his gun than shot them with it.
Calmly, Theron had his bolter shouldered and blew apart slender limbs and armor like they were targets to practice with. His steady advance broke the charge of three wytches as they thought better of getting filled with Imperial fury. Icarus quickly remedied their retreat with death and destruction. Thanatos cut a swathe of destruction through a small group of warriors before the Dark Eldar began a retreat. The Soul Drinkers gave chase, shooting anyone that was in sight. Though the forest was thick, the Dark Eldar hadn't been a stealthy as they first thought. Their silver bodies and yellow shoulders and helms were easy to spot in the deep green and brown forest.
Thanatos quickly found that he was being overconfident and arrogant when a Dark Eldar, which eh hadn't seen, fell upon his body and raised a hand that looked like it had been transformed into a living blade. Its head promptly exploded into bone and brains. Thanatos threw the corpse aside and it struck a shadowy figure crouching nearby. Theron called out, but his warning was drowned out by a bestial snarl and then a roar. Thanatos threw himself aside as a warp beast jumped for him. He mashed its skull into pudding with the cartridge of his bolter. It yelped and then fell to the ground, legs sprawled out beneath it.
'Is there no end to these monsters?' Icarus shouted, cutting down a warp beast as he dodged its claws and spiked tail.
'Don't stop! Push forward!' Thanatos bellowed, lancing forward with his spear to take a nigh-invisible Dark Eldar through the chest. It was much like the other one, with its arms morphed into blades towards the ends. It might have just been their strange skin or a stealth field, but they looked corrupted beyond recognition. For all Thanatos knew, those could be their bones.
Still, the three space marines battled their way through what turned into a hit and run retreat. They encountered three small groups of the shadowy-skinned Dark Eldar that Theron had identified as mandrakes. A few warp beasts ran rampant amongst the confused Dark Eldar. Warriors fought to keep the space marines back, but failed as they were overtaken with sheer force from the determined Soul Drinkers. And after a short while, the space marines had found their librarian. Things did not look good for him, nor for the three trying to rescue him.
Librarian Brasidas was on the ground, his entire body in the spasms of a massive seizure. His eyes blazed with bright blue light and lightning formed webbing between his fingertips. His force staff was in the hands of a Dark Eldar that looked nothing like the others of its race. It barely looked like it was a child of the materium.
The Dark Eldar's body was mostly unarmored, and only its lower body had any covering. It wore a torn scrap of what looked to be an Imperial manuscript. It was torn in a way that one of the thing's legs was entirely covered and the other was bare. The Dark Eldar wore greaves and bladed boots of steel, encrusted with eldritch runes and markings of every kind. From the back of its right hand to its elbow ran a spiked carapace, black in color and purple in aura. Its left hand was clawed with the same material, though its forearm was simply tattooed.
Its chest cavity was torn open in the middle from its navel up. Where organs, flesh, and bone should have been; there was purple warp fire. The same black carapace that resided on its hands lined the skin that had been split, ending at its shoulders. Where its head would be, there was only a six-eyed helmet inlaid with odd symbols and geometric patterns. The helmet floated within the purple fire erupting from its pale, gaunt body. From the xenos' back erupted six long bones that split half way. Between the halves of the split bones was torn and pockmarked with holes.
'What is that thing?' Icarus asked aloud. The warped Dark Eldar knelt down beside Brasidas' spasm-wracked body and let out a piercing laugh.
'You thought that you could stand up to me? The Hierarch of the Fell Witch Kabal, Tra'inal? Human, you have no idea what you have condemned yourself to,' it said, voice like shattering glass and howling wind. Thanatos shook his head slowly and took aim at the thing with his bolter. Suffer not the mutant, the space marine thought. Mutants of other races counted too, especially so.
'Brasidas! Hear me and rise up!' roared Theron as he fired into the crowd of Dark Eldar around the spectral leader. Suddenly, a large hovercraft vehicle darted out of the forest behind the crowd, loaded with warriors. Thanatos traced a bead on the fiery leader and shot its helmet from its body. The thing turned toward him and its six small wings fanned out. Purple fire gathered at the two tips of each one.
'Brasidas!' shouted Icarus as he rushed from cover, bolt pistol spitting death at the scattering Dark Eldar. Thanatos decided that his best chance at getting the librarian back was to charge as well and use his own fledgling psyker skills. Thanatos called upon his force staff for all of its power and raised his bolt pistol. Using his gun as a substitute for his fingers, he unleashed his powers upon the Dark Eldar warriors and the new craft that was turning so that all of its passengers could fire at them.
Lightning erupted from the barrel of his bolter, arcing forward and incinerating all of the Dark Eldar standing on the deck of their hovercraft. Dark Eldar burst into flames and screamed in terror. Their hovercraft returned fire with a violet beam of shimmering light and missed Thanatos' head by a hair's breadth. Theron began shooting at its forward gun while Icarus ploughed his way through a squad of warriors towards the machine. Thanatos ignored the immediate threat and charged towards the Dark Eldar leader, Tra'inal.
'I will show you the power of the Dark Eldar! The Kabals are not to be trifled with, human!' it shouted. Thanatos leveled his bolter with its head and recited a litany of faith before firing. Much to his surprise, his weapon's heavy rounds simply diverted their courses away from the Dark Eldar for no apparent reason. Sorcery, the Soul Drinker thought bitterly as he clipped his bolter to his belt and gripped his force spear with both hands.
'Be purged! Emperor's wrath be upon you!'
'And your own upon you!' the thing snarled in return, raising Librarian Brasidas' staff high over its head. Beams of purple light from its wings focused on the end of the staff and it glowed a dark, eerie hue. Thanatos knew that his only chance was to have Brasidas join him against this foe.
'Brasidas! Wake! We are in dire need of your assistance! Brasidas!' he roared. The Librarian's spasm's continued, but his hand raised from the ground. Lightning from his fingertips crackled as they etched zigzagging patters through the air. The smell of ozone was trong as the lightning arcs reached the Dark Eldar and its entire body erupted in a shower of blue flames. It dropped Brasidas' force staff and stumbled backwards, clutching its sides.
'Back! Back to Commorragh! This battle is not ours!' it shouted hoarsely, grabbing Brasidas by his wrist and dragging the librarian backward.
Suddenly, a large crescent structure shimmered into existence behind the Dark Eldar and what was left of their pitiful resistance retreated towards it. Their leader picked up its dented helm and refitted it within the flames of its open body, moving back toward the structure. Theron was busily trying to disable the vehicle while Icarus chased an incubus back towards the gathering Dark Eldar. Thanatos watched with horror as two of them disappeared in a pink flash, then three, then a warp beast and its handler. The crescent structure emitted a small wave of energy whenever one of the Dark Eldar disappeared. It was a portal, an Eldar webway portal.
They were running away! And they were stealing Brasidas too!
'Icarus, don't kill him! Capture him! Hurry!' Thanatos roared at the top of his lungs. Icarus leapt upon the incubus and tacked it to the ground, grabbing its hands and rolling around to restrain it. Theron finished with the vehicle by blowing its command console to pieces and jumping to the ground, moving to help Icarus. Thanatos glared at the retreating aliens, rushing towards the Hierarch He discharged a bolter round towards the Hierarch. It snapped its fingers, and then disappeared with Brasidas in tow. His bolter round flew through thin air.
'You cannot make me speak! I have endured a thousand years of pain and pleasure! You cannot force me to reveal our purpose!' the incubus chattered insanely as he was hauled to his feet and bound with metal rods, bending them around his slender limbs. Theron tore off its mask to reveal a scarred face with a smirk. Its eyes were red with deep blue pupils, a glare present within them.
'Take us through that gate and lead us to your comrades,' Thanatos ordered. The incubus only laughed.
'You think that I will submit to you? You are indeed fools then! Kill me and save yourselves the trouble of trying to torture me! Laughable!' it spat. Icarus drew something from his pouch and then a needle from his medical kit. He revealed that it was a vial of light blue liquid in his hand, and the Dark Eldar narrowed its eyes. Thanatos stepped back and let Icarus work unhindered. This might be their only chance to rescue Brasidas.
'This will be more than enough to make you scream for death. I know all about your sick pleasures, Eldar, and that you are being eaten alive by…hmmm, what is the thing's name again? She Who Thirsts,' Icarus taunted, drawing a bit of liquid from the capped vial. He eyed the amount carefully. The incubus ceased it struggles and then looked Icarus in the eyes.
'She will devour you as well!' it shouted. Icaruse lowered the needle to the Dark Eldar's eye.
'Would you do as we ask before I begin to torture you?' he asked. The incubus smirked again.
'I have willingly been subject to more poisons that you will ever imagine, fool. You cannot try to compare to even one!' it shouted at him. Icarus pushed the needle into the incubus' eye and then pushed his thumb down to inject the liquid. The alien's eye swelled to the bursting point, but didn't pop. It looked like a bloated fruit. The Dark Eldar couldn't blink it was so engorged and misshapen. It grinned.
'Oh, do not take me for a fool. This is not poison. It won't even hurt. In fact…' he trailed off, putting the needle away again and letting the Dark Eldar focus entirely on him. 'It will do the exact opposite,' he finished.
'And then what?' asked the incubus, wary. Its eye began to leak puss and blood, the organ releasing liquid to reduce swelling.
'And then I will throw you over my shoulder and take you back to my home as a trophy. You will look very nice perched upon a wall, completely numb to even the most basic senses and feelings. You will feel nothing, not even emotions. You will still think and act accordingly, but you will be cut from all manner of pain and pleasure. I could even remove the right half of your brain and replace it with mechanical parts, and make you into a servitor? Wouldn't that be fun, a servant that feels nothing when I kick it, or when I do…other things to it?' he said, reaching under the Dark Eldar's back. He lifted the incubus and gently put it over his shoulder. It squirmed, but to no avail. Icarus turned around and began walking back toward the forest and out of the clearing.
'Wait!' the incubus wailed with anguish and desperation. Icarus held it aloft before him, hands under its arms.
'Yes?' he asked, a smug smile upon his face.
'I will open the portal if you kill me afterward,' it said barely above a murmur.
'But we will need safe passage through the webway, to wherever you were going to arrive at. The webway is a mysterious place to us inferiors,' Icarus mocked. The incubus whimpered and then said something. Icarus leaned in and tilted his head to the side.
'What was that?'
'I will lead you through to Commorragh if you let me go afterward,' it said. Icarus nodded, and then carried the Dark Eldar over to the webway portal. The structure was silent. Thanatos grabbed Brasidas' discarded staff and raised it toward the webway gate. It lit up and the Dark Eldar looked toward the sky. He recited something almost inaudibly and then Thanatos felt the raw essence of his being stripped away from his body, which was thrown into the webway an instant later. Thanatos felt his mind screaming at him to turn back, but it was too late. He was already being dragged through the webway, towards the dark city of Commorragh.