Part II
True night seemed to be coming now. Mikael could tell from the way the planet seemed to just get quieter.
Beta had moved out of the Tau city and were now walking along a dirt path flanked by a dense forest to one side and a vast lake to another. They had been lucky since their last firefight with the Tau and had managed to avoid two patrols thanks to Fel's master senses. He had been key in Beta's survival.
As they drew to yet another fork, Mikael held his hand up. The squad came to a halt, he signalled to Fel,
"What do you think, left or right?" He asked, indicating the two roads. The scout stood for a moment, he took a deep breath and let it out, as if clearing out his senses.
"In all honesty sir, neither. Both are too far along to make much headway into and it's better to make camp and rest early so we can get a head start at dawn." He said. Mikael thought this over for a second,
"Alright. Find us a suitable spot. Lead the way." Fel nodded and moved into the thick underbrush. Mikael signaled and the rest of Beta followed suit. He would resign his leadership role for the moment, handing it to Fel who Mikael knew was clearly in his area of expertise. Though Mikael was a born leader, having been brought up by a family who had a deep military tradition back on Selvia, Fel was a born warrior. Nobody knew what he had been back on their homeworld but Mikael always figured he was part of the Eulatii. The highly secretive cult that bred the best warriors on the entire planet. Few in number and big on secrecy, only the highest nobility even knew of their knowledge. Mikael himself had only heard stories from his father who had once served with a Eulatii during his time with the Selvian PDF.
The story went that when the Great Crusade had found Selvia in the Mordant Zone, there had been no sign of civilization. The only humans even found had been nomad tribes of warriors that called themselves the Eulatii. They were small men by Army standards. Most had short cut hair and elongated ears that seemed to twitch with life of their own. They carried primitive tools along with wooden Yari's as they called them. The Yari's shaft measured almost six feet in length and had a detachable metal tip called a Faya which added another foot or so. Along with this, they carried a small dagger hidden in leg straps with the women carrying a longer version called a Sief. Their armour was like the ancient Dragon's scales, with separate plates covering the arms, chest, and the legs. Under this they wore a thin but extremely resistant tabard made up of tightly woven cloths.
The planet was brought into compliance without firing a single shot. As the decades passed, settlers took over. Soon cities started sprouting up and natural resources were exploited. Little by little, the Eulatii's way of life was pushed aside. Rich men had beautiful native women taken to serve in their mansions and the Eulatii's warrior caste slowly dwindled as their territory grew smaller and smaller. It seemed the end was in sight for the noble warriors.
But then came the Horus Heresy. The infamous civil war that broke the Imperium in half. During the Heresy, the planetary governor and the ruling caste turned to the Dark Powers. Civil war reigned between loyalist and traitor forces. The few Imperial forces left behind remained loyal but the traitors had a small army of their own. Fighting for their lives, the loyalists retreat to the mountains of Selvia. There they fought a war of attrition using guerilla tactics. The traitors soon turned to fire as a means of rooting out the loyalists. As the war destroyed their planet and the beautiful forests where they had lived for so long, the Eulatii were enraged.
The few warriors that were left banded together and marched to High Ridge where the last of the loyalists were holding out in the deep valley. They were close to breaking and it was clear that the battle was nothing but a last act of defiance. As the traitors attacked, they were led by the governor himself. The Eulatii knew it was their only chance to attack, having been pushed out and oppressed for so long, their rage was like that of the Fenix. They stormed the rear of the massive army and brought their fury down upon their enemy. Rallied by their newfound allies, the men holding out redoubled their efforts and the enemy was routed. As the last survivors were annihilated, peace and order was restored. But as the newly installed governor searched the land for sight of the Eulatii, they were nowhere to be found. the warriors had disappeared, believing their work to be done. Having left nothing but a Yari with the words, "We make war that we may live in peace."
A voice brought Mikael back to the present,
"Are you sure you're alright sir?" Ami was saying. She looked sincerely worried that Mikael might actually be going crazy. He paused, she looked rather pleasant from an angle. Or at least more than usual, her brown eyes matching her pony tail'd hair. She laid her hand on his cheek, as if checking for a fever. It was soft and he felt his face go red. She smiled sweetly. He knew the real reason but life in the 82nd didn't allow it, and he was purely professional. Though she never seemed to give up hope.
"I'll be fine Ami" he said and turned to follow Corrick, the team's communications expert. He could hear Ami sigh behind him. He ignored it, he was a Sky Captain, he had no time for romance. Instead choosing to concentrate on what he was gonna do to get the team out of the hellhole they'd gotten stuck in. His team had been in tough spots before like on Ko-Ria where they had been attacked by mobs of mutated PDF or by the Orks during their raid on Warboss' MadDawk's Waaagh. But they always held and fought on.
He looked for this strength now as the darkness set in. As he walked deeper into the forest, he came into a small clearing. It looked to him like something had just walked into the middle of nowhere and hacked at all the nearby trees. Fallen logs formed a semi perimeter, with only one or two still standing. Fel stood from he had been busy wiping some brown filth from his combat knife and came over to Mikael,
"Best spot in the whole damn lot sir, got a perfect position up in", he motioned with his hand to a tall slender tree , "that tree. Very fast to get back down in case of emergency. And I got good enough cover." Mikael saw how there were almost no branches low enough for Fel to reach but also noticed the holes that had been clearly made by a standard Selvian combat knife. He recognized what Fel had been busy wiping off his.
"Good job, take first watch. I'll take second. Be up early and get me some recon of the surrounding area." Fel nodded and went back to scaling the massive tree. It was amazing to Mikael how he moved, almost like a spider crawling on its web. He heard someone curse and turned to see Wino busy chewing on a B.A.R or Bastardized Army Rations. Which was basically the typical Army rations but instead of tasting terrible, they were just tasteless.
Palas was sitting on a log, probably praying to the Emperor as he always did. Mikael wondered what he would do without his second. Although he was the captain, Palas was the spiritual leader. Devout, quiet, stern. He was perhaps too rigid and therefore not fit for command but he was a good man none the less. Then there was Corrick, perhaps the exact opposite. Loud, obnoxious and a troublemaker. He and Ami shared the same unhealthy enthusiasm about big explosions which led to their natural friendship. He was built perfectly for the Skyborne. Standing at 5'11 he was slim with hard muscle, hair cut short and dyed red coupled with his multiple tattoos. Notably the long snake that curved around his neck and the Fenix on his left shoulder.
Mikael himself sported the numbers 82 and the letter B on his right shoulder and the initials M.A. on his left. Although not many knew about the left one, most having passed away now, there was one or two who still knew. The darkness was getting closer, and he knew it would be his shift soon. He laid his hellgun on his pack and rested his head next to the barrel. Dangerous some would say, but he was a Sky Captain, and danger was his order of business.