Walking away
Chapter 1
Finding compassion
this is an updated version from the original first chapter
It is the 41st millennium, Corporal Titus Arcega of the 85th Vendoland regiment, was deployed to a world called Lileathanir on a scouting mission aboard a frigate of only 200 gaurdsmen. The mission is to prospect the uncharted world for any chaos incursions on the local inhabitants whoever they may be so that the world may be deemed a possible agriworld for settlement. A peaceful mission, one may believe, but the horrors of the galaxy are always deceiving. Titus was only 21 years of age, slightly older than most of the corporals in the regiment. At 6'3 and 260 pounds, the corporal made a very imposing figure on the battlefield let alone the frigate. Known for his large stature and brute strength, Titus had earned himself a reputation that demanded respect, but at the same time it was honest-earned respect from the other soldiers due to his cool-headed demeanor and tendency to "take the rooks under the wing" attitude. Overall the man was a very respectable NCO. Little did he know that his deeper inner qualities were to be exposed for all who looked up to him, let alone in the face of his superiors, and that it would change the course of his life forever.
forward operating base camp 1000 hours (unknown location)
"Titus my man!" barked Pvt. Gommeringer from the tent across from Titus', "kind of a late start don't ya think man?" the private was the only lower level NCO to earn a close friendship with the corporal, this was all possible because the 18 year old private had once taken a bolt round from a chaos marine to defend the second in command of the squad. Titus was only just exiting his tent and adjusting to the humid air and the hot sun that plagued his vision when he quickly remembered to respond to his friend
"Goms! Gak, with a wakeup call like that you're going to wake up the chaos faction on this planet!" Titus fired back.
"nah that's just a bunch of hog wash; all that chaos presence bull" countered Goms.
"theres a reason we were sent here private",
"yeah your probably right…tits",
"call me that again Goms, and im gonna have you cleaning the staging area with your tongue until we get attacked by chaos!"
joked The older superior one.
"yessssir!" goms threw his friend a sloppy backwards salute.
"grab your gear Goms, were rollin out in 10 mikes to take our rotation on patrol,
"hah says the guy who woke up an hour late!" Goms said with a smartass attitude, by the time he could finish, Titus was already walking to the mess tent to grab a few breakfast and dinner rations before marching out.
Initially the patrols were to scout the 20 KM radius from the base camp for any threats or for any local inhabitants to contact with, or to engage as hostiles with, Titus was hoping the former.
"CPL, your on point" ordered sergeant hawthorn. Hawthorn was the highest ranking soldier among the troop of 50 guardsmen.
Titus always loved being on point, it meant he could clear his head and have time to himself to regain sanity or to just enjoy silence, it was his own therapy more like. As the guardsman sprinted ahead the squad by about a click, he slowed down, realizing he had probably ran well beyond the standard distance of his squad, he decided it was time to have his skipped breakfast, and enjoy the scenery. Lileathanir was a beautiful planet, lush with vegetation, trees that masked most of the landscape, rivers and lakes that covered the surface leaving the dry land separated in miniature islands. He always was a soldier to appreciate nature, he could hear the song birds in the distance sing together in unison and harmony, it was private times like this where only he would let out his more "gentle" and peaceful side to his personality.
It was only minutes until he decided it was time to move on and scout ahead another click, his advance around the 20 click radius ahead of the squad continued on for 5 hours, but the march didnt faze him. It was soon dusk, and he was nearing the tail end of his squads patrol route on map. Suddenly he could hear cracks of lasfire behind him, and immediately his SGT barked over his vox "Arcega! Rendezvous back on our position! We've made contact with…(static)…dark…hostiles…(static)…HURRY!" was all that came out of the vox when Titus turned around, set his Lasgun to full auto and attached his bayonet on its lug and sprinted as fast as he could back to his squad which took only 2 minutes. As he neared his friendly soldiers, the sounds of battle became even louder, the enemy fire that masked the cracks of human screams and lasbolts was distinguishable to any free race of the galaxy. Titus felt a wave of sheer horror and fear come over him as he entered the skirmish, the fact that it was becoming darker out by nature did not help his case nor his squads. It had appeared that his squad had been ambushed by the Dark eldar, and were engaged in melee combat.
"what?! Them? Here?" thought Titus as he ran into the frey.
The only reason the dark eldar were anywhere outside of commoraggh was to take slaves and inflict horrors on whoever got in their way. The platoon of 50 men were losing numbers quickly, and the melee was brutal, Titus thrusted his bayonet into a wych that was overtaking Gommeringer, he then went into full alert and looked around unloading his magazine into whoever he saw that had spikes or stood taller than him. A warrior shot poisonous blades from his catapult landing one on Titus' flak armor, good thing he inserted carapace plates into the slots before the patrol because it just saved his life. This only served to anger the hulk of a man, he lunged forwards with his empty Lasrifle and thrusted and slashed and peried the attacks of the alien and eventually both were knocked aside by a Krak grenade explosion. Titus was the first to get up and shake off the minor concussion effect and took this advantage to overpower the alien with brute strength, even though normal humans on average were weaker and slower than the dark eldar, Titus was an exception. He roared as he charged forward and tackled the alien to the ground and like a wrestler, picked him up and threw him across the battle field and then proceeded to jump at him and choke him to death, the alien dodged out of the way and came down on Titus with a speed kick to the helmet, this left the trooper dazed, the Dark eldar warrior was impressed by the ability of the human before him, but decided it was time to end their little dance, he drew his blade, and leaped at the guardsman with unhuman speed, Titus thought he was done for, but he found the courage to make one last stand against impossible odds, he charged the eldar open fisted to close the distance, He suprisingly managed to grab hold of the warriors wrists just in time for him to deliver a menacing blow to his face with his open palm, this nearly broke the neck of the dark one, with a yell of pain he clawed at the human, leaving a gash across his arm before dropping the blade. Titus seized the opportunity to finish off the alien with a rock nearby to crush his skull.
Titus continued to use whatever weapons he found lying around to join the rest of his squad in fighting for their lives. Soon after his tangle with the alien, the lesser alien warriors who took sight of their Kin being brutally killed avoided the corporal and were fleeing to engage other targets away from the hulk of a human. The battle only lasted 2 minutes, and the small band of Dark eldar attackers of only about 10 had all perished leaving the remaining guardsman squad down to 10 men. Only the sgt, Gommeringer, 7 privates and Titus had survived the onslaught.
"check for survivors!, wounded go with Private Roberts back to base, the rest with me and Titus, we need to continue to scout ahead" ordered hawthorn
As the 5 able bodied men continued on, hawthorn reported back to HQ about the presence of dark eldar on the planet, HQ had informed the SGT that this only meant one thing, that there was a population on the planet that they were after to enslave. Now it was the imperials priority to investigate who the population was incase they were imperials. Their main orders were changed to holding out and digging in at the base until the rest of the regiment was deployed to fight the dark eldar, meanwhile Titus' squad was to recon and fall back once they had found any intel on the enemy staging area or ships.
"Titus, your on point again, 5 clicks, go" "yes sergeant". as Titus reached the 5 click mark, he came to the end of the tree line, he looked out into the vast plains of the province, he could see a village near by about a kilometer away (click), it was 1900 hours now, he looked through his binocs with night vision and from what he could tell, they were not human, they were similar to the dark eldar, yet..lighter? more peaceful looking, and certainly not imposing or hostile appearing at all. They seemed like harmless farmers. He could see a male and a female, almost human looking working a farmland with children running into the grains having fun with the farm animals. Titus felt a slight hint of peace when he looked upon the settlement, it was only a small village, probably of about 100. he looked into the sky when he heard the familiar hum of a dark eldar space craft flying through the sky above the farm, suddenly the ground shook slightly as he could see one of the dark eldar's shuttle-like space crafts circling the settlement awaiting to touch down, it probably only held a small squad of warriors he thought, enough to enslave the helpless village indeed, he looked back to the settlement, he could see the inhabitants fleeing from the sight and into the dwellings, Titus knew that what he did at that moment would remain on his conscience for a millennia. Imperial doctrine drilled into him for 2 years would have him ignore the farm, retreat and warn his squad of more eldar to only have orbital command bombard the coordinates of the new discovered settlement where the dark eldar were located, along with the other xenos. But his conscience shot at his heart, and he felt the urge to vox Hawthorn, and have them double time it to his positon to fight the invaders and protect the colony. Yes, he would choose the path of compassion now, whether he be court marshalled later or possibly even executed for aiding xenos, he did not care, he only saw that there were innocents in harms way, and it would be his responsibility to defend innocent blood, even at the cost of his own.
"we've always got a choice" said Titus to himself as he closed his eyes, pushed his Vox to relay coms to his Sgt.
"SGT, on me double time!, ive located more dark eldar and am engaging"
"ten four" acknowledged Hawthorn
Titus began running towards the settlement as fast as he could to slow the enemy down to allow the eldar exodites to seek refuge and for his squad to repel the invaders. He ran to the edge of the farm where he last saw the 2 children running around, the frigate was touching down and one by one, vicious looking foe exited the crude looking space craft to claim new slaves and do horrors to many. By the Good of all innocents in this universe, he would not let that happen while he held his rifle in hand. The advancing enemy was only 100 meters away when he began to open fire on them with short concentrated bursts, this surprised the dark eldar, they returned fire to the general direction, away from the refuge of the inhabitants, he was drawing their focus on him as planned, there were only 3 who exited the craft.
A risky move, but it allowed his squad time to back him up and for the inhabitants to flee. he was soon taking heavy fire and his squad was seconds away from joining him in battle, Titus thought for a moment he was done for (for the second time in one day) as he was quickly being overrun and the enemy was closing the distance at a fast pace. Suddenly he could hear and see lasbolts fly over his head and hit their targets closing in on him before it was too late.
"we need to flank!" yelled Hawthorn.
"Goms with me! Rest of you lay down a base of fire!" ordered Titus.
The corporal and his comrade moved into the settlement fearful of engaging any enemies they encountered at close quarters, they climbed a grain tower that overlooked the farmland and set up a flanking position to pin down the enemy at their frigate to prevent them from advancing. It was working, no one in the squad had been hit yet, and Titus climbed down the ladder to continue tactically advancing on the frigate to push them back. Hawthorn and the base of fire team had moved only 30 yards from the frigate and were taking out any resistance from exiting the craft with heavily concentrated las fire which was enough to kill even the mighty alien warriors. With Goms providing overwatch and the base of fire team supressing the frigate, Titus was the first to enter the shuttle with the rest of his squad minus goms in tow. By now most of the raiding party had been wiped out, and Titus was guessing that only the pilots remained as the squad had eliminated the 6 warriors who exited the shuttle, As the squad cleared out the corridors of the ship, it seemed that no one had remained, they cautiously made their way to the bridge. "looks like nobodies home" said one of the privates while letting his guard down. Moments later, his chest imploded with a blade sticking right out of it and the man dropped dead and an alien soldier stood over his body with a menacing grimace across his face and a nasty looking blade at hand, "the kabal of white flames will claim your pathetic kind among these feeble eldar outcasts monkeigh!" screeched the alien in disgust. The squad made no hesitation and lit up the room with lasfire, this particular xeno must have been the landing party leader, as he dodged the las bolts with incredible speed and sliced open the chest of a nearby private, he gurgled in pain and soon fell to the floor lifeless.
one private managed to squeeze off a bust into the aliens back, this stunned him but he turned and thrusted his blade into the guardsman and lifted him off the floor, the only look the private gave was one of complete terror before the life left his eyes. the rest of the squad, down to 8 men unloaded on the xeno, and obliterated him in seconds.
"clear" huffed Hawthorne.
"now who are the people in this settlement?" asked one of the privates
"Eldar" said the sgt with disgust
"hmm, imperial doctrine says we are to eliminate all xenos on sight" added one of the other privates in monotone
"Sergent, please, enough lives have been lost today, why do we need to shed the blood of innocents?" inquired Titus
"Corporal are you sympathizing with xenos? if I order you to purge them then you will purge, or you are a heretic" stated the sgt
titus remained silent as the squad exited the ship and detonated charges to blow it up.
ten minutes ago, POV switch
Lithuwen, one of the children who was playing in the field of only 10 years of age in relativity to human years had just ran inside the farmhouse with her family. Her and the rest of the family were huddled by the window and absolutely terrified of what would happen to them once the dark ones took them. All they could do was hide, and pray to Isha for comfort.
as soon as the shuttle doors opened, the first slaver stepped out. this was enough for Lithuwen to gasp and let her tears fall down in fear of the inevitable.
suddenly, she hear a distinct sound of laser fire which was foreign to her, but not of the dark ones. soon she saw beams of red laser impact the area of the shuttle, and that horrible monster of an alien. she felt her heart jump for hope as she and her family searched over the horizon in the dusk for the unknown soldier firing at the dark eldar. soon her eyes landed on a humanoid wielding a rifle, he looked primitive, with a primitive weapon, but he was a large man, almost as tall as the dark monster he was firing at. it was at this moment that she knew that she and her family had a chance of survival once this hero came into save her from the monsters.
soon more of the primitive soldiers appeared and were actually killing off the invaders. Shortly after, the large one followed by his fellow soldiers entered the shuttle, presumably to destroy it Lithuwen thought. minutes later, only 8 of them exited the ship, having 10 entered originally. she felt a hint of sadness when she knew that 2 of them had died. they were walking towards her home, when suddenly she ran to the door and opened it to run out and hug her thought to be "saviors".
"Isha's sake! Lithi, do not go out there! those are Imperials and they will muder us all! we need to hide!" yelled her mother.
before she could hear her mother, the little girl ran out to greet the guardsmen, with her father and mother in tow to stop her before it was too late...
POV switch, present time
Eldar could be seen tentatively exposing themselves from the confines of their homes and structures, unsure of the human's intentions, were they to welcome their saviors? Or to fear being slaughtered?
As Hawthorn was walking towards the village, it was clear that he meant to do what the rest of the squad had imagined, he was going to purge the xenos from the settlement. This would be muder, and Titus would not allow it, the rest of the men hesitated on following their sergeant in committing the atrocity. "Hawthorn stand down!" roared Titus, the sergeant ignored him and cocked his lasgun in determination, without emotion. One of the naïve eldar children ran up to the armed human with hopes to thank her liberator, when she saw that hawthorn had taken aim with his rifle at her, her look of thankfulness turned to fear, and then tears knowing what her fate was going to be. "I WILL SHOOT IF YOU TOUCH THAT CHILD HAWTHORN!" this time Titus was enraged at what he was about to see.
"Corporal stand down, if you stop me, you are commit heresy, punishable by death in the imperium!" Yelled Hawthorn
"And if you shoot this child you commit murder" countered Titus
"Are you gonna shoot me, trooper?" said hawthorn disbelievingly
he turned around and was about to commit the act, when suddenly a hole in his chest appeared as vaporized flesh and superheated blood splatted out the man as he dropped like a stone. The child opened her eyes to see the man drop, she then turned to the large one who saved her life, soon her parents had caught up to her and were drawing her away from the soldiers to a safe distance of the confused situation
The men turned their guns on Titus out of reaction and yelled at him in unison questioning why he killed Hawthorn, just as Gommeringer made the choice to defend his friend and aimed his rifle at the squad while yelling and defending his friend with his own voice. While the standoff continued, Titus Arcega, corporal of the 85st Vendoland, servant of the emperor, had just killed his superior in defense of a xeno. Forfeit, heretic, traitor were all the words that came to his head as he stood there, dropped his las rifle and dropped to his knees out of shock.
Gommeringer stood his ground with his hands shaking on his lasrifle yelling at the top of his lungs, quivering in fear of being executed by his squad. One of the privates kicked Titus on his back and held his bayonet to his face.
"TITUS WHY! FOR A XENO? I OUGHTA SHOOT YOU MYSELF YOU TRAITOR, YOU KILLED SARGE!" yelled the private
Gomeringer took this chance to unload his rifle into the man before he could harm his friend.
the other men did not have the balls to fight back and challenge him. In an instant, they all dropped their rifles and froze.
suddenly, the men all dropped one by one as super heated chunks of flesh began exploding out of their chests and skulls. Only Titus and Gommeringer had survived, they look across the field to see an eldar man with Hawthorns lasrifle in hands.
instantly, Titus stood up and gommeringer aimed his rifle at the alien in fear of his own life and his friends. Titus smacked the rifle out of his friends hands
"what are you doing!" yelled the private
"if he sees we mean no harm to him we may have a chance" said Titus
"your crazy, and really crazy after what you did and made me do to save your ass!" yelled Goms
"were dunfor you know that mate?, because of your act were now enemies of the imperium and can never go back" he continued
"Silence monkeigh!" ordered the eldar male "how do I know I can trust you wont murder me and my family if I let you live?" he demanded in low gothic
"We just saved your lives!" yelled Gommeringer
"let them live daddy!, dont hurt our heros!" the little girl seen before ran and pleaded to her father in her native tongue.
"young one, back to your mother!" yelled her father.
unexpectedly, the little girl ran into titus' chest, he froze.
"thank you, whoever you are, hero of my village" whispered the girl with tears coming down her eyes.
Titus' heart sank immediately, any thought of hatred to this xeno race had been washed away in an instant. he returned the hug and then told the very trusting girl in the most soothing voice he could muster which he thought impossible considering being a soldier "I will always protect the lives of innocents, no matter who they are, or what race they may be young one"
"By Isha!" gasped her mother who was behind her father.
suddenly, her father lowered the weapon and approached the two still in embrace.
"you have earned the trust of my daughter, and now my family, human, It has been centuries since I have ever seen one of your kind, and You are the only one I have ever seen to show us mercy and defend our people, you have my thanks human" said the father.
"what the hell just happened..." asked Goms out loud.
X
authors note: now I know that my genre says romance, and that part is still yet to come in the upcoming chapter, i am not going to spoil how it happens, but at least now you know when that plot twist is coming in. and obviously it is going to be between one of the Eldar and the protagonist you have all figured out by now after reading the genre.
Please dont judge too harshly, this is my first attempt at a 40k story chapter. All the the characters are O/C
please leave constructive criticism and try not to be too harsh. C
my next update will be soon.