Kegen knelt by the Chaos Marine's corpse and dedicated his death to both Khorne and Malal before whipping out a butterfly knife, which he used like an ice pick on the fallen warrior's spine, also pointing out that the man had "Neck muscles like fuckin' mating dolphins…"
In the end, he accepted a power sword, offered by the sorcerer, and sliced the dead warrior's head clean off before throwing it at the black man.
"Hey, Andy, you do me a favor and give it to the big guy's boss, will you?"
The man shrugged and left with the bloodied head tucked under one arm while the sorcerer and Kegen initiated a fiery yet friendly conversation about the pros and cons of worshipping Malal.
Meanwhile, Erina still sat in the car, looking around the camp. Her brain felt slightly less cogged with horror and she managed to perform an actual tactical analysis from within the giant steel sponge: Eight guard towers manned by snipers and heavy gunners alike, two armories, stacked full of salvaged and custom made gear, a public bath, located uphill an apparently outfitted with complex plumbing, despite the camp being set up in a desert, latrines located at the lowest point of the camp, just above the holding cells…
"Fuck it, hermano, they don't care about me, why would I care about them? You think they're better than me? Think being born powerful puts them above me? Fuck you, man! Fuck. You. I worked hard for what I got, I owe it to myself, my boys and no one else!" This rant got her attention for a second, for it spoke more about Kegen than anything he'd said before, it told her the man did not worship the ruinous powers, not fully, but instead saw them as a means to an end.
Going back to her scouting, Erina spotted some sort of smelter, set up between ground level and at least two additional floors, though in the metalwork maze of this camp, it could easily have been just a single level high.
The center of the camp itself was stuffed full of tents and makeshift quarters, kept sparkling clean and heavily guarded against all but select few members. She squinted and actually spotted two children chasing each other with wooden lasguns. One, a girl, tripped and fall face first in the sand, her cries instantly answered by a warrior in carapace armor, who promptly cleaned and checked the wound before tapping the child's back encouragingly.
This felt so alien, so out of place in this madness, that she found herself gawking far longer than she'd expected.
Kegen hopped back in the driver seat, laughing at something Erina hadn't heard.
He turned to the sniper and smiled, eyes figuratively sparkling as ideas passed through his mind. "So, you like my fuckin' castle?"
Trying to pull her shattered mind back together, the sniper leaned back in her own seat and released the tension building up in her shoulders and stomach. "You bring children on the battlefield?"
The car lurched forward and Robert giggled, "I don't bring children anywhere; sometimes, when you fuck too much, you end up with mini-mes all over the fucking place, most are adopted by a small nurglite cult, a bunch of pus bags I'm too lazy to scare off, but this is Chaos, honey, and even I..." He slammed the brakes, narrowly avoiding collision with a lone chicken as it hopped from a tent to a flimsy shack.
"Like I said, some of the parents decide to keep their brat around because they're just fuckin' crazy like that."
He accelerated past the cattle pens and carefully circled around the tent cluster, pulling over by a sheet metal structure that shook in rhythm with the bombastic music inside.
"C'mon, doll, let's get you a drink, then we'll talk." Announced the Chaos champion as he left the car and squeezed into the structure.
Erina did not follow, not right away, she instead took that time alone to scan every frequency on her combead, being met with only static for at least eight channels, until…
"Sergeant Schofield," A cavernous voice boomed, filling the Guardswoman's helmet and bouncing around her skull, "I am Akol Raerm of the Gray Knights, we are aware of your situation, please remain calm. Can you talk?"
A bundle of hopeful joy rose from Erina's stomach, almost painful in the surrounding numbness, "Yes." She choked, half squealing, half whispering.
"Good, the feed from your helmet is fuzzy, is the lens of your holo-receiver damaged?"
She took the helmet off, and checked the video equipment over the left ear. Caked blood covered the thing, though she failed to recall when she'd been sprayed with blood. A few seconds of rubbing took care of that quickly enough and she promptly strapped the head gear back on.
"Good, do not take this the wrong way, Sergeant, but you look horrible. Now, get in there and speak with their leader, we need information before assaulting their camp, then you will be rescued. Understood?"
The sergeant nodded once and dragged herself out of the car. She pushed a hinged plate of sheet metal out of the way and stepped into the Chaos version of a mess hall. An old tape record roared unintelligible lyrics through massive speakers, located in every corners of the crammed room. Scantily clad men, women and mixes of both squeezed and rubbed against each other on a makeshift dance floor.
This was not dance, not really, yet the sergeant found herself unable to tear her eyes off the fluid and erotic movements of the partakers. The way they looked at one another, touched each other, mere strokes, teasing and… She could not tell her partner's gender, nor did she care as she was pulled into the mass of shivering skin and inquisitive limbs. Hands tickled and rubbed every inches of her, foreign legs wrapped around her own, pulling her into an embrace so warm and soft, Erina thought she would faint.
Never, with any of her partners or by herself, had she felt such delight, such passion and desire. She needed to feel them on her skin, it was vital.
The Guardswoman's flack armor suddenly became her worst enemy, keeping the dexterous hands from reaching the warmth engulfing her nether region, of touching her fully and completely. She tried to tear it off, pulled at the straps, mind in a haze and whimpers escaping her lips as the hands gave up to find an easier partner to please.
"Sergeant!" The Gray Knight's voice finally filtered through the purple mist that flooded Erina's mind at the moment and she suddenly found herself crawling away from the dance floor, whimpering like an injured dog, "By the Primarchs, I thought you were lost for good…"
A part of the sniper's brain wished she had been, the warmth still filled her…
"Easy, Hermana, you're still new to this, you need a gentle touch and these guys are anything but…" Kegen. It was Kegen that had dragged the enthralled sniper out of there. She was unsure whether to love or hate him for it…"
He eased her into a wooden chair and pulled two beers from somewhere before seating himself as well. The purple mist still clogged Erina's vision and the man in front of her now seemed insanely attractive at the moment. "Can you… Do what they did?" Kegen smiled thinly, taking in the woman's emaciated yet soft face, her teary brown eyes, rounded but dry lips… Yes, Schofield was pretty fuckin' hot, especially with that half torn guard uniform, exposing a firm abdomen and milk white skin.
"Sorry, honey, but I'm not that easy to get!" he scoffed, displaying a thoughtful frown before adding, "Well, maybe I am, but no right now, try again later."
She was honestly considering to beg when Raerm's voice shook her out of it again, "Sergeant, his men carry unique projectile weapons, we must know more about these…"
Fittingly, Kegen then told her to just ask any question she might have, the predatory grin on his face replaced by a serene and business-like expression.
"The guns…" Erina's eyes wandered back to the dance floor, her hands slowly climbing along the inner side of her thigh…
"What about them? You point, you shoot," Robert clicked his tongue, "Something somewhere gets hurt… Unless your gun's shit or you're shooting a Tin Cunt…"
Erina looked back ahead, and set both hands on the table. The ache between her legs sent shivers in retaliation. "I mean… Yours seem special…"
Leaning back in his chair, boots propped up on the table and eyes on the ceiling so Erina could only see the underside of his beard, Kegen pointed an imaginary gun at the left wall. "They're meant to shoot meaner apples, those that go bang and set bitches on fire, so the boys can kill shit with them, you know?"
He pulled his pistol and pointed it at the same wall. "I got these bitches from the Tau, 'cause we're such great pals and all… Well, they gave me the blueprints, anyway, we make 'em ourselves…"
"Ask to take a closer look at the pistol."
Erina leaned forward, a shaky hand held outward, "May I?"
Kegen fixed her with a glare, his dark eyes scanning every inches of her once again, though the hunger he displayed the first time was now replaced with cold and calculating blood lust. "May I?" He whispered, testing the sentence's weight on his tone, as if trying to determine the thoughts behind it, "May. I…" He pointed the gun at her and smiled when she cringed, "Sure!" He flipped the weapon around expertly and offered it handle first, "I like how fuckin' polite you are, honey, it's plenty fuckin' rare to see people with actual manners these days."
She carefully took the weapon from him and tested its weight in the palm of her hand. The metal felt cold and rough, electric tape acted as a grip and protected her hand from imperfections in the stamped sheet metal.
"Primitive," whispered the voice in her ears, "gas operated… Pull the magazine." She did so, revealing two rows of finger-wide bullets, "Ah… Ceramite ammunition… Phosphorous tip… Most likely liquid propellant… Give the weapon back, you're staring."
Kegen took the gun back, "Thank you.", and pushed it into his thigh holster, "Now, how about we drop the whole James Bond shit, there's nothing I can tell you that will convince the Imperium you're worth keeping around," He pointed at her with joined hands, "You should think about yourself, 'cause right now, I'm the only one here who does and I'll get bored soon enough, so you need to make up your fucking mind soon enough, right?"
"Do not fall for it, dodge his question."
Erina thought about it for a moment, but found no way out, so she asked the only thing that came up in her slowly recovering mind, "Why would I want to join you?"
He spread his arm in an indifferent shrug, "Fun? Fuckin', druggin', guns, killin', whatever your meaning of fun is, we've got it…" He sat upright again, "Or maybe you want some philosophical crap? Fuckin' A, then!" His tone got professorial, almost religious, "You, your imperium, fight for order, whereas I fight for Chaos, though that a broad fuckin' statement. Order can never last, that's how it all fuckin' works, everything leans toward Chaos, change, because change is life, order is stagnation…"
"Sergeant, you must listen to me, no matter how…"
"Take the Imperium, for instance, it's fuckin' big and powerful, but it's stagnant, it hasn't evolved or adapted in a mouthful of millennia, and you know it's gonna go down in flames…"
"Sergeant, nod twice if you can hear me." She nodded twice and Kegen took it as an encouragement.
"But you see, there's more to Chaos than the four old fucks, not everything in there is fuckin' evil, though these are no fun if you ask me…" Robert took a long swig of beer before resuming the monologue, "Everything you think and feel influences the warp, it draws power off us, so I draw power off it, only fair if you ask me!"
"Erina," The Gray Knight's voice seemed irrelevant now, hollow, "we are launching the attack, try to stay with him so we…" she pulled the helmet off and set it on the table carefully so it faced her.
