"Few really believe. The most only believe that they believe or even make believe."- John Lancaster Spalding


7.562.456.M41. (Imperial_Calander)/

Ultima_Segmentum, Clayde_System

Princips, Capitol City Briem

Resea Arana_Master Sergeant

Experience, ideology, training, and many other reasons instilled in her from the moment she could first comprehend the world around her told her not to trust the xeno, this Eldar. Even with the return of the reassuring weight of her weapons, she was on guard, just waiting for the moment she and her squad could get away, or even better kill them.

Unfortunately experience, and training also told her that the chances of either were nil, she wasn't stupid. The xenos for all their myriad faults were not stupid. Especially one that was tainted by the warp, precognition being only one of the powers she may well possess. Resea also knew of their superior reflexes, as did her comrades, one errant twitch that suggested they'd act on their blatant thoughts and they'd all be dead before anyone got off a shot. They were back in the Eldars sights the moment the mutual threat of orks and Dark Eldar had been repelled.

So, instead they went along with the Eldar witch's wishes, they followed, under scrutinizing eyes. The Tau likewise followed with them, equally prisoner to the far more enigmatic Eldar, and equally helpless despite their advanced technology. Where they were going and what the Witch's ultimate plan was held her interest, lies within lies was not an inaccurate description of Eldar alliance with humans, but there was always some vestige of truth. There could very well be a Chaos threat behind the curtain of this war, an enemy she knew all too well.

An enemy that even the slightest insinuation of would have her considering something as vile as actually allying their xenos captors.

"Fuenel needs to be picked up, Caltar will be able to treat him properly on the ship," She heard one of the xenos say, it was female, Orelimo she thought was its name. She'd yet to deduce why the xenos seemed to speak low gothic in their presence, though she was thankful for it, learning about ones enemy was important. Some considered the notion heretical, and it could be if taken to extremes, but information was valuable, even the mundane could be useful.

"For once I agree with the sword-princess, we'd better get him some medical attention, more than we can give him here anyway." Another, Baharryss spoke, care for his fallen comrade in his tone. Orelimo she noticed seemed to turn her nose up at him for his remark on her, but otherwise didn't say a word.

Looking past their guard of two more Eldar Resea watched as consideration passed on the Eldar Witch's features, well what she thought of as consideration anyway, the Witch was hard to read via expression.

"I believe you are right, but not here, the Tau dropships are not far now, and the area is not safe with our dark kin so close by. We fall back to the predesignated landing zone." Taerosa spoke, her tone full of authority, though Resea sensed a bit of trepidation.

"How are we supposed to move him and your little pets at the same time Farseer! Lomon, we have to either dump the lower lifeforms, or call Caltar to this location for the damn pick-up. For Isha's sake make the right call, we shouldn't be babysitting these monkeigh and tau!" Another Eldar spat out, one of the one's with his weapon pointed at them, Argliem Resea heard him called. His large imposing weapon pointing at her and the squad had her very concerned, she'd seen what death-spinners could do, here and on other battlefields.

"Get your head out of your arse Argliem, and that goes for everyone else too," Lomon the leader of the group after the Witch said firmly, pausing to rub his face. "But, I have to say Farseer, he's right, we can't do both, this is your show, so what are your orders?"

"Have Telsho, Kayakas, and Asherosa take Fuenel ahead to the pick up zone. Contact Caltar to inform him on the situation, the rest of us will re-group there with our allies as soon as we can. I believe the remaining five of us can take care of our charges, the skeins are in our favor after all." Taerosa spoke with clear authority on the issue, Lomon nodding along with her plan, his manner speaking on his conviction to follow through with her wishes.

"You heard the Farseer ladies and gentlemen. Telsho, Kayakas, Asherosa get Fuenel back ship-side, and go with him while you're at it. We'll make the call when we're ready for pick-up too, secondary location so we're not fouled up by another ambush," the lead ranger gave his orders rapid-fire.

The Kasrkin watched, her eyes taking in the elegant precision with which the xenos moved, as they seemingly spirited away their fallen comrade. The group of four was out of sight, gone before they knew it, leaving them with just five Eldar to deal with. Still bad odds at such close range, but better than they had been, Resea figured she could try and glean what information she could while they were in the presence of the xenos. However, she was keen on taking any moment of opportunity that could present itself.

She reckoned the Tau would want to escape as well, and follow their lead when she and her squad made a move. It was a bit of a gamble, but it would be their best bet, with the addition of the Tau firepower they just might be able to make a break from their Eldar captors. That possibility would be a narrow window if ever it came up though.

The Eldar witch, the Farseer had approached them again. The rangers guarding them, Argliem and Baharryss backing away as she did, some unspoken word from her Resea assumed. She seemed to eye all of them, taking note of each one, perhaps using her magiks to peer into their futures. Resea noticed that her gaze lingered a bit longer on one of the Tau than the other, and finally came to a stop directly on her specifically.

"I already know what you're thinking Master Sergeant, you're like any experienced soldier, just waiting for your chance at escape. I implore you to take what I have said into consideration, and think better of what your actions will be when the time comes. As I said, soon the reason for my being here, and your aid will become apparent." She spoke calmly, and Resea could detect no malevolence, or treachery in her tone. Though experience told her otherwise, her gut was telling her to actually give the Farseer the benefit of the doubt. The thought that the feeling could simply be psyker trickery didn't leave her guarded mind though.

"Oh, and the reason we've been speaking your language this entire time?" The Farseer paused, actually smirking, perhaps in bemusement at Resea's thoughts. "Well, consider it a gesture of goodwill, same as your returned weapons."

Resea gave no voice to her thoughts, deciding not to respond, already knowing the Farseer knew what she was thinking.

"Well then, it would be time to move, we shouldn't keep our companions waiting for too long," Taerosa voiced, motioning for the rangers to get everyone moving in the proper direction. Resea nodded and allowed herself to be led, her squad following her automatically, the Tau a little more hesitant, though prompting from the rangers helped them along. They seemed to be retracing their steps through the offices, Resea noticing all of the dead Tau bodies they passed.

It was a wonder there wasn't any Tau forces left, they may very well have retreated from the position, or died to the last firewarrior once the orks had breached the building. Her squads own body count surely helped things along if the latter was the case. Although her experience with Tau and their fighting doctrine suggested the former was the case, they tended to retreat if they couldn't hold ground. Which meant, that there could be small cadres roaming the area, along with orks, and possibly the Dark Eldar.

Coming to the same back entrance she and her squad had used to enter the building she was grudgingly impressed by the Eldar. They communicated with each other both smoothly, subtly, and unspoken in a way a human never could. Each knew precisely what the other wanted them to know, she would have chalked it down strictly to their psyker potential, if it wasn't for the very subtle twitches of ears, nods, and facial motions they seemed to aim at one another before making a move.

They extracted themselves from the area smoother than Resea had ever done in the past on a mission. And that was saying something, she and hers weren't considered the best of Cadia for no reason, and yet these xenos made them appear amateur. They kept a fast pace, she noted the Eldar around her almost grimacing at every slight noise she and her squad would make. Even more so at the Tau, who had a harder time keeping up, their armor and slighter frames detracting from their mobility.

They kept to the side streets and back-alleys as much as possible, went through buildings to avoid patrols, or roving mobs. There were still a lot of orks in the sector, the Eldar kept them under strict compliance, Resea never felt a good time to try and run off. She still felt they had time though, these Eldar were good, which meant their secondary extraction zone would be far off from the first. That gave her more time for an opportunity to arise.

Approaching a crossroads up ahead the Eldar began to actually slow. They spoke in their own language this time, probably so they wouldn't tip their prisoners off about something. If they were kept blind so to speak, then they would be easier to hold onto, but Resea saw through it. Glancing around at her squad she knew they did too. Up ahead, not too far past the crossroads there was a battle underway, not the ever present deceiving echos of battle as could be heard through all of the city.

No this was something tangible, close, and quite varied if her ears didn't deceive her. Imperial weapons she knew the sound of by heart, the whine-crack of lasguns, heavy rocket propelled booms of bolts, and the chatter of autoguns and stubbers. The big obnoxious chak-BOOM of ork shootas, and their gleeful warcries, even Tau pulse-weapons, whose sound she'd become familiar with by now too. It was a free-for-all up ahead, and a big one too, judging by the sound of it.

She was willing to bet the Eldar knew this too, and they didn't want to go through that. Possibility of coming into contact with one of the three enemy forces would be great. Add to that any firefight they had to engage in would limit their ability to keep their eyes on their captives. It was a sure recipe for something to go wrong. The lead ranger seemed to be arguing this over with the Farseer, and though Resea didn't understand what they were saying, she got the gist. It was a matter of one peril over the other.

The immediate danger of running into enemy forces, and losing their prisoners, or the danger of giving their far deadlier and cunning foe the Dark Eldar time to re-group and make another attempt to capture them. An attempt that would surely be more likely to succeed than the first. Their smaller numbers, as well as the Dark Eldar no doubt bringing more to bear of their own forces would assure that. It was obvious which was preferable, putting herself in their shoes—a dangerous notion for an Imperial faithful—Resea knew what her decision would be.

Discussing it further the Eldar came to a decision, and then they were moving toward the sounds of battle. As before using back-alleys and buildings to avoid contact as much as they could. To Resea's consternation they were doing a damn good job of it too. Between the Eldars experience, higher senses, and no doubt the Farseer's psyker gifts they seemed to be slipping right through, past, and around any engagements they came across.

None dared to try and call out to allies either, her and her squad, or the Tau. It would be all too possible such an action would just get them shot to pieces before their allies realized their error. Such was the chaos of war. Gritting her teeth Resea thought they'd be losing out on this, and her only recourse would be to order a futile escape attempt, they wouldn't make it ten paces.

Stopping again the Eldar motioned for all of them too as well. Hiding behind the shelves of some storefront Resea watched as the battle outside raged, unaware of them, it almost felt wrong. Beyond the broken glass front were hundreds of her Cadian comrades, Princip PDF supplementing them with hundreds more, tanks and Chimeras providing them moving cover as they tried to take positions from Tau defenders. Ork mobs adding to the chaos of it all, pouring in from side roads, in some cases forcing the Tau and human combatants to cease killing each other and turn their attention to the murderous greenskins.

They had been here for quite a bit, minutes in fact, and that meant something was wrong. Obviously at this interval there seemed to be nowhere to go, and no other option than to wait out the battle, and hope that no one stumbled upon them. Looking to Taerosa, Resea could see her conversing with Lomon yet again, using only Eldar body language, a bit overly cautious. With all the fighting happening any potential enemies wouldn't so much hear them as simply stumble upon them by blind chance.

She heard shuttering, clanking, rumbles from the outside. Roughly six-o-clock of their position, they were loud, the sound of overworked diesel engines and hydraulics. Whatever it was it was making the ground shake, and caused everyone to be on edge at its approach, the Eldar especially. Resea saw a look pass over Taerosa's face, the Farseer glanced directly in her direction too, simply shaking her head, almost in a plea, 'Don't do it,' the look seemed to beg

It was then that the back wall behind them seemed to blow inwards, making the sound louder, and sending them all scrambling in different directions. A massive mechanical foot coming down to break through the ceiling a second later. They all stuck with their own kind, blind animal instinct dictating their actions as everyone avoided getting crushed.

Resea her squad right behind, immediately took the opportunity to separate themselves from their Eldar captors, putting distance between them as the ork stompa broke through. Only the ramshackle orkoid bastardization of an Imperial titan's legs visible as they crashed through the building.

With the ceiling collapsing down Resea felt confident they could get away from the Eldar. Last she had seen the rangers were attempting to re-group around the Farseer. Looking back toward them through the wreckage she saw the surly Argliem seemed to have sustained an injury. His left arm was gone, along with the deathspinner, maybe lost to crushing debris, or even the stompa's mechanical foot as it had come down on them. The other ranger Baharryss also seemed to have a limp, Orelimo had a minor wound to her head, and still supported the injured Baharryss. Leaving only Lomon and Taerosa unharmed, both of which seemed to be arguing animatedly about something.

In any case the Eldar now seemed much more preoccupied with saving their own skin than worrying about them. But, Resea's thoughts nagged at her, even as Starkrage—ever dutiful—pulled at her arm and voiced thoroughly that they ought to get going. Friendly forces were close by, they could re-group with them, and relay the Eldar situation to command. The intelligence would surely be valuable and appreciated. Now they were out of the building, the debris of its collapse obscuring any vision of their former captors.

Still, one thing was going through Resea's mind, the archenemy… chaos, that was what the Farseer had warned them about. If it was true, then she wouldn't forgive herself if she had the opportunity to save this world from the dark gods, and didn't take it.

"Corporal Starkrage, get back in touch with command, tell them about the situation. Have them mobilize the specialist units." She ordered him in a tone that brook no argument.

"What! Master Sergeant, what are you saying!" His reply was rushed, uncharacteristic of his nature, though the nigh deafening sound of the ork stompa unleashing hell behind them may have had something to do with it.

"That Farseer may have been lying, but if she isn't then Princip is about to be hit by a chaos incursion. We can't let that happen, I'm going ahead with the xenos, you're my back-up plan. If I'm wrong than at least you and the squad will get intel about this to command. At worst I'm a xenos prisoner, in which case all they have is a lowly N.C.O, hardly valuable for information regarding our overall operations here, or anywhere else." Resea spoke back, her voice firm. Starkrage looked at her, she could see his disbelief, and then his realization and acceptance.

She looked past him to the rest of them, her squad, her troopers. They all looked unbelieving, but they'd served together for years, they trusted her to a fault. She nodded to each of them, Hanne, Riren, and Jar. Looking back to Starkrage she clapped his shoulder. "Keep everyone safe for me Corporal, I expect you all to be alive when I get back. Now get the warp out of here!"

Resea Arana, guardswoman, Imperial Master Sergeant… Kasrkin, charged back into the wreckage of the building, intent on helping a xenos. She shook her head as she went back. She worked her way through the collapsed building, back to where she'd last remembered seeing the Eldar. Eventually she found her way into the small area they'd been, only seeing the Farseer still present, she approached cautiously.

The Farseer was sitting on a chair that seemed to have miraculously stayed out of the way of falling debris. She sat calmly despite the raging battle outside, her gaze focused directly on Resea as she entered the small bubble that had escaped destruction. She expected the rangers to come out any moment and restrain her, fearing she'd made the wrong call. But that didn't happen, instead it was just her and the Farseer, surrounded by the sounds of the titanic battle just outside.

"I sent the rangers ahead of me, they'd taken too many losses, and don't worry we'll be quite safe here. The battle outside won't encroach again." She sighed out, turning her slitted eyes away from Resea's gaze, and toward another part of the wrecked building.

"Why didn't you go with them?" It was the obvious question, though Resea felt the need to ask it anyway. She was, and always has been a direct person after all, growing up on Cadia will do that to you too.

The Farseer looked back to her, tilting her head slightly. "I already told you, I need your help to stop this, not theirs. At least not at this moment, you play a consistent part in the skeins, besides they need time to rest and recuperate, and for now their path is separate from our own." She saw Resea's incredulous look. "Believe me it took quite a bit of convincing, but Lomon is a true believer, he trusts my visions."

"So where does that leave us, you obviously know I'm willing to help you now, what exactly are we doing, and where do we have to go to stop this Chaos threat." She kept her tone firm, as though she were addressing one of her squad. She noted the Farseer seemed to be peeved by this, though she could be wrong, xenos expressions were hardly her specialty. No, killing them was more like it...

"It's a good thing I've been spending time with rangers..." she barely heard Taerosa mutter under her breath. "I'm glad you're trusting of me now-"

"I don't trust you," Resea cut in tersely.

"-In any case, your cooperation will be saving lives. Billions of them, your people and mine, but we're still short, we'll need the Tau." Taerosa voiced quickly after, not allowing Resea to interject again. She watched as a grimace came over the human's face. To be expected, it was hard enough to get her to trust her, and now she was asking her to ally with another alien. Taerosa had to hold back the smirk, it would be especially funny later, she was sure of that.

"I don't think they stuck around," Resea made a show of looking around her, at all of the destruction. "My bet is they ran off like I had my squad, and you your rangers."

Taerosa stood up, walking over to an open area leading out of their bubble, and into another open space. "You're partly right about that, certainly one of them did. Luckily the one we need couldn't." She called over her shoulder as she went out of sight.


Minutes earlier…

The young firewarrior couldn't believe what was happening, fighting gue'la elite, captured by Eldar, and now scrambling like an insect to avoid getting crushed by the giant ork warmachine. He was being pulled along by Viro, she had clearly figured now was their chance to get away, with friendly hunter cadre's so close by they were sure to find refuge. Though from the sound of the battle outside, and the arrival of the ork stompa, he was having doubts they would really be any better off.

Thoughtful as he was Irah was keeping aware of his surroundings, which happened to save them, looking up he had a split-second decision to push Viro forward. She made a startled yelp as the momentum carried her beyond the chunk of support beam falling down. Irah wasn't so lucky, the beam fell right across his chest, pinning him to the floor. He thanked the greater good his nanocrystaline breastplate saved his chest from being crushed.

Unfortunately the weight was too much for him to lift, and the building was falling apart, the discord outside of the ork titan opening up with rockets and heavy machine guns creating more chaos. Irah swore he felt the inside of his head pulse, even through the noise dampening effects of his helmet's systems.

"Irah!" Viro's voice is loud in his ears, courtesy of their internal comm-link. "Hold on, I'll get this off you." They began trying to budge the beam, him pushing, Viro pulling. But, it was too heavy, the higher gravity of Princip, combined with their slighter forms working against them. Irah knew it was hopeless, even if Viro seemed determined, but he couldn't let her waste her life here. The building was coming down, and he had no idea how long before the Eldar possibly rounded them up again. Or if the battle outside would again incur on the building.

Irah had made his decision, for the greater good, or at least for the benefit of his comrade. "Viro, forget it, get out of here the building's coming down, and the Eldar could be coming for us. The Cadres need to know about the Eldar, one of us has to survive this, for the greater good." He spoke as clearly as he could, but he knew she heard the fear in his voice, he didn't want to die. But he was doing the right thing.

"You know I have an issue with the greater good damn it! I'm not leaving you here because of that excuse!" She argued back.

"Then leave me to save yourself! Both of us don't have to die here, you could save more with this information." Irah threw back, he'd stopped trying to push the beam off by now, just to get his point across.

He heard her growl in aggravation, giving it one final try, heaving with all her might. Fate wasn't having it though, the beam stayed put, Viro let loose a string of curses, banging her hand against the post in impotent rage. She gave him one final look, Irah couldn't see her features, their helmets obscured everything, but he felt her eyes boring into his own.

"Damn it! Fine, but don't you die, I'm coming back for you, I'll get help from the Cadre, I will be back for you Irah! Don't die, not even for the greater good!" He voice was filled with anger fueled passion, and Irah felt it would be unwise to argue the point. If it would get her out of here and to safety, then he would go along with it.

"Don't worry I'm not going anywhere," he said, somewhat sarcastically. Where had he gotten that kind of brave attitude? Anyway, he decided it didn't matter, better to go off on a good note, right? Viro nodded to him, before turning and getting out of the area, she disappeared through the fallen debris. Irah breathed easy despite his situation, the rumbling of titanic footsteps outside was growing farther away as the ork stompa advanced. The building seemed to have stopped crumbling anymore than it was.

Overall he'd take the small mercy's, looking around he wondered what would happen to him now. Would the Eldar find him and recapture him? Would the Imperials put a hole in his head? Would he be savaged by orks? Or would Viro actually come through on her promise?

It was all quite a lot to take in, the din of battle outside didn't help, yet the whole situation felt almost surreal to him. Almost as though he still had a part to play in everything…

"Well I was half right, one of them did run for it." He heard a voice say, it was close by, somewhere behind him. It sounded instantly familiar too, the gue'la, their commanding officer if he was right.

"I am seldom wrong, though the skeins do change quite often." He heard another voice, this one bearing the lyrical note of the Eldar.

What in the greater good was going on? He craned his head as far as his helmet allowed, which was not very, and managed to glimpse the sight in his peripheral. Two figures, one taller than the other, slender and almost elegantly built, the other shorter with telltale battle-scarred gue'la armor. He watched as the Eldar raised her hand, the weight of the beam eased from his chest, Irah watched as it floated away and was placed down gently beside him.

He shot to his feet instantly, and instantly the gue'la had her weapon aimed square at his head.

"Give me a reason xeno," she spoke evenly. Irah put his hands up, he hadn't been thinking right, it didn't really matter though, his pulse-rifle was lying on the ground out of reach anyway. He watched as the Eldar gently placed her hand on the gue'la's weapon, lowering it slowly, speaking as she did.

"Please Master Sergeant, a little restraint, I'd prefer it if you didn't shoot our ally." The Eldar spoke low gothic, the translators in his helmet still set to the language picked it up perfectly. He looked back and forth between the two, both curious about what they meant, and still frightened that he'd be killed. Despite the Eldar's words.

"Don't think I'll have to, it looks like it'll die of fright if I so much as sneeze at it." Irah had the pride to be somewhat offended at the gue'la's words. But, he didn't give her the satisfaction of knowing it.

"He is unfortunately a newblood to combat amongst his people. Wouldn't that be correct Shas'La T'olku Irah?" The Eldar spoke.

"Y-yes, but h-how did you know that?" Irah found the question leaving his mouth before he could stop it.

"Other than her being a witch, I'd say it was from the way you looked like a frightened little whiteshield on their first tour, not even armor can hide that vibe." The gue'la spoke, her weapon now mercifully pointed away from him. He did puff up indignantly at that, though the gue'la looked more amused than intimidated at the display, the fact he didn't have his weapon probably didn't help.

"What is a witch?" He confused tone—tau translators are great—drew a confused look from the gue'la while the Eldar merely stated through him with a knowing look.

"You've never seen a psyker before, well then, count yourself lucky." The gue'la muttered out, Irah didn't miss the look the Eldar threw her way, it was peculiar.

"I prefer the term Farseer, but that isn't so important right now. I believe I've already explained, but seeing that today has been trying for you I'll repeat it. I need your help, the lives of billions depend on our success, even the Tau will feel this if the archenemy's plans are realized here." She paused, Irah noted his pulse rifle floating into her outstretched hand, she held it out to him. "If it helps this is most certainly in the interest of the greater good."

The young firewarrior stared at the being before him for a moment, registering the information, and processing what he'd just seen. How had she made his rifle float through the air? Some kind of gravitic technology? He found himself wondering just how advanced the Eldar really were.

Slowly he took his pulse rifle, careful to keep it pointed away from the two beings in front of him, so as not to appear threatening. Another thought struck him a moment later, she knew about the greater good, and more than that hadn't killed him yet. In fact, other than taking him prisoner these Eldar had gone through great lengths to assure him of their trust. Plus, if the xenophobic gue'la was willing to trust her then Irah felt he ought to give her the benefit of the doubt. After all, his people were always open to cooperation with other races if it was possible.

"Who, or what exactly is it that you're trying to stop?" His voice sounded meek even to his own hearing. The young firewarrior hoped it wasn't picked up by the two beings before him, though he was sure it was.

"An evil your people have been lucky to have rarely faced. According to the skeins you are to help me vanquish its foothold on this world before it can become a threat to others. Right now that means we must head down into the sewers beneath, though we are a little far off from where it would be optimal to enter." Irah noted the almost caring way the Eldar spoke. As though she knew exactly what his fears were.

With all of this information swirling around in his head he was quite unsure what to do. Should he help this Farseer out? Was it really in the interest of the greater good? If what she was saying was true than surely it was, but he'd never heard of chaos, the archenemy, was it some kind of alien?

"Hey whiteshield! Time to make a decision, you go with us, or we leave you behind." The gue'la's stern tone snapped Irah out of his pondering, and he was embarrassed that he snapped to attention as though she were a Shas'Ui.

"I-I'll go, just lead the way Farseer." He found himself agreeing, despite his concerns.

"Good, now that you two are on board all we have to do is wait for the forth member of our party." The Farseer replied, Irah noted the slight smirk on her lips. "He should be here shortly, I ask that both of you refrain from shooting him, he will be quite compliant, if a little raucous, you'll know him once you see him. As a matter of fact I believe you and he have already met Shas'La."

Already met? Irah could hardly fathom who she meant, his Shas'Ui maybe? Viro had gone off, maybe she'd find him alive and well, and bring him and the cadre back to this building. He'd heard that Shas'Ui Shiung was quite wild during his off time.

"Now we're waiting for a fourth member for this blasphemous party? You're trying my patience here Farseer, this position is untenable at best, and liable to get us killed," the gue'la spoke, her tone even, though Irah detected the underlying concern.

"I already told you we'll be quite safe here. In case you hadn't noticed the battle has been slowly moving away from us, both of your forces have had to give ground." The Farseer told the truth, Irah had noticed the sounds of battle getting farther away, the din caused by the orks the most prominent to be absent. "Besides, we need not be staying for much longer, it would appear our final member has finally found us." The Farseer looked in a direction behind Irah pointedly.

It was only then Irah heard, and even felt the presence of this final member. He wasn't blind to the way the gue'la's eyes widened, and how she sharply brought her weapon to bear on something behind him. The young firewarrior turned slowly, coming face to chest with a wall of green muscle and piecemeal armor. He had to crane his neck to look up at the tusk filled maw that seemed to smile down at him.

He found himself thinking that it couldn't possibly be the same ork, at the same time he was almost wetting himself, his eyes falling on his oath blade, still buried into the ork's side.

"Hey thar little blu, did ya miss ol' Wilddaggha?"


A/N: Well, glad I got this out. Gonna be switching back to 'Our Masks' for my next update. But, I hope you my lovely readers are enjoying this, especially you Mr. War. I know what you're al saying, 'oh my an ork working with other races! Blasphemy!' well that really only applies based on what lore you ascribe to I suppose. I'm going by the lore found in black library publications, specifically Gav Thrope and his 'Last Chancers' series.

Orks are kill happy nut cases, essentially, but they are willing to bargain with you if you've got the bigger stick... err choppa, or are a tough bugger (or ya know at least put off fighting you for a bit, so you get nice and ripe). Plus what ork would pass up a good fight? Even if they've gotta put up with a humie, tau, and elder? Meh, its for the good of the narrative, hope you all understand. Thought about going with Watgrad taking the sneaky, stalky route and shadowing the trio, but that didn't seem to want to play out in the story.

ChaotixController- Glad you like ol' Wilddaggha, I do too, orks are too fun to write. Hope you like the way I'm gonna be taking him, more on that next chapter if you're wondering how and why he showed up. Also glad you enjoyed the fight scene, it was difficult to pull off, and I'm still not quite sure I did it justice. There'll be more of that awesomeness coming though, you can be sure of that.

BIBOTOT- Thanks for the review, insightful and appreciated as always. I've gone back and reviewed your concerns with the last chapter, hopefully it's fixed up a bit better than before. Grammar has never been a strong suit of mine. As for your offer I apologize for not being able to take you up on it. Most of my mistakes are issues on my end that I'd like to rectify on my own. Besides that I've had a lot of issues with betas in the past, nothing on you I'm sure you're great, I just have problems with scheduling and such. So really it's on me, but I appreciate the offer. And I hope you're still enjoying the story, I'd recommend 'The Mad Game' by phantomblooper45 if you want a good story to read too. Not sure if you've stumbled across it, but I must say it's quite good. I'm a bit biased toward it though, as it's a continuation of '15 Hours' the first story set in the 40k verse I ever read. So take my endorsement with a grain of salt lol.

Well that wraps this atrociously long A/N up folks, hope you're enjoying yourselves. Sorry to you if you've read this far into it...

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