Captured
By Eldrad's Pupil
The feeling of being dragged woke Lt. Ronald Thompson from unconscious. "Ugh, ambushed…. xenos ambushed us." It was this moment that Ronald felt the sharp pain slice through his body, emanating from his hip. As he strained through the haze to see who had saved him, he caught a glimpse of cloak swirling with the color of the jungle. "Hey, your not from the 8th Company!"
"Silence mon-keigh! You will be released when my mission is complete," the cloaked figure spoke in a silent tone. The figure stopped long enough to bring a shuriken pistol to the guardsman's face. It was this moment that Lt. Thompson saw his first eldar up close. The figure was thin and lithe, a long rifle slung over its shoulder. As the eldar pulled its hood back to get a better look at the prisoner, Ronald saw that his captor wasn't male but a female.
"Release me you damned alien and by the will of the Emperor, your death shall be swift," Ronald spouted in a vain attempt to intimidate his opponent. "Ha, you are in no position to cast veiled threats. The shot I put through your abdomen will kill you if not treated. I will heal you if you give me the information I desire," the eldar said with a hint of honey on its tongue. "I don't deal with xenos," Ronald replied.
"Then I shall leave you to your fate mon-keigh." The eldar holstered the pistol and began to move away. "Wait! You can't just leave me here!" Ronald realizing his current situation required a bit more finesse. "What kind of information do you want? But know this eldar, I will not betray my company or my Emperor." The eldar stopped and looked back at her prisoner for a moment, as if trying to decide if this human was worth the trouble. A few seconds later, the eldar returned to Ronald and propped him up against a tree.
"No games mon-keigh. Tell me about the excavation your guarding." The eldar kneeled before him and stared deep into Lt. Thompson's eyes. Ronald felt a slight bit of pressure coming from his head, almost like a headache was coming on. Perhaps its from the loss of blood, "I don't know anything about the excavation." The eldar stood up, "Your lying mon-keigh. I said no games." She drew her pistol from its holster and fired a round into the trunk above his head.
So it was true about the eldar being able to read minds "I really don't know anything. Some inquisitor came aboard my ship and ordered us to the god forsaken rock to recover some ancient weapon that is supposed to win the war for us on Cadia," he said hoping she would believe him. "Go on mon-keigh. My patience is waning," the pathfinder said with a serious tone.
"I don't know much about the object itself but the rumor is that the object that's been uncovered is more than a machine. It's alive somehow, and has ancient knowledge of a mechanical nature from before the Old Night. The inquisitor holed himself up in a tent studying and speaking to the machine. We all believe that he has become quite mad." The guardsman looked away hoping the information he has spoken is enough to satisfy the eldar enough to spare him. He knows that anything more than what he's spoken would be heresy and would deem him a traitor to Terra. He did not want to face the commissar, if he makes it back.
"You fool! You've unleashed the Undying lying dormant on this planet. You have doomed this sector of space. Your species is too ignorant of what is around you. Everything you see, you believe it's yours for the taking. There are things in this galaxy that would destroy your mind, body and soul more efficiently than any Eldar, Ork, or Chaos sorceror. The Undying have been around since before my race ventured into the stars, and they are unrelenting in their quest for destruction. There is no hope for you or your men." The eldar reached into her cloak and tossed a laspistol just out of reach from the guardsman. "Just enough power for one shot, I'm going to return to my craftworld and report this. I suggest you end your own life before they find you."
Ronald reached for the weapon just as her last words left her lips, but by the time he raised the laspistol to fire, she was gone. He sat for a moment thinking about her words when suddenly a green pillar of light lit the horizon from the direction of the Imperial camp. Then there were explosions and screaming that could be heard throughout the jungle. All Ronald Thompson did was listen to the screams and the sounds of battle coming from the camp. "Perhaps the eldar really did spare me." The lieutenant put the pistol to his head as he heard the sounds of metallic footsteps coming up the path. He just smiled and pulled the trigger.