A/N: Sorry for the delay. Had one of those moments where I hit a point in the story I had envisioned a hundred times, but couldn't put it into words. Not entirely happy with this chapter, but I thought it best to get it out of the way and keep going. I might go back and fix it up a bit later on.
To my reviewers: I greatly appreciate your feedback. I made the jokes up as I went and was nervous about whether or not they'd fly. As I've said before, feel free to take a guess at the identity of Seeker. PM me if you have a guess. You may have to think outside the box a bit.
Iora, Present Day
"It must have been a great relief, to finally be rescued by your Inquisitor."
"I never said we were rescued" Louk shot back, an amused grin on his face. He held it for a few moments before his throat tightened and he fell into a coughing fit. The mug of caf that Jaycel had brought him eased the soreness, but it did nothing for the underlying ailment. Old age had no cure, not unless one had millions of credits and a good rejuvenator on hand.
"You did not need to" Seeker replied, her tone carrying a hint of schoolteacher's scolding. "Outnumbered, outgunned, with no real allies to count on. I cannot think of a more desperate situation."
"I can think of many. It is true, of course, that my survival is largely due to Inquisitor Helsing's timely arrival. The man had an old saying that I fondly remember. 'An Inquisitor is never late, nor is he early; he arrives precisely when he means to.' Good quote. Wish I had thought of it."
"So are you saying that he planned to arrive at that particular moment? You told me that he contacted you multiple times telepathically."
"No, he was as surprised as we were. Though I must say, he had a rather inspired assault on the under-city by all accounts. The selfish part of me wants to think that was because he did not want to see a valuable resource like myself wasted."
"A valuable resource?"
She clearly did not like the sound of that. From their brief conversations Louk had gathered that she was a staunch believer in the sacredness of life. That struck him as an odd and naïve view for a human, especially a remembrancer. Surely she understood that statistics were the backbone of the Imperium. Throw enough of a resource at the problem and a solution will present itself. That was the way of humanity in a nutshell. He meant no self-depreciation in his statement. He was merely stating a well-acknowledged fact that his life was insignificant compared to the grandeur of the total Imperium. Irreplaceably valuable in the system, possible even the sector, but his survival here meant nothing to the Astartes legions battling the Tyranid threat on the far side of the galaxy.
"If it sounds better in the tale, you may refer to me as the dashing and under-appreciated hero."
There, he recognized the subtle slump of her shoulders and the tilting back of her head as exasperation. As if she were rolling her eyes and muttering a soft oath for patience. That was what she was doing in his imagination, at least.
"I never believed the rumors of your endless jokes. Your wit is as unfailing as the Crystal Sea of Biel- sorry, Crystal Sea of Bablonia."
"That was an interesting image" Louk said, eyes narrowing with suspicion. He recognized the word she had begun to say. Her accent gave it away. Biel-tan. An Eldar craftworld. In his many hours spent poring over the limited information regarding the slippery race he had come upon its name several times. "And how would you know anything about such a place?"
"I… spent some time among Eldar" she answered, her words hesitant and carefully laid out. "Those that deigned to speak with me mentioned it as a place of great sereneness and beauty. They claimed that even an or-"
"Spent time with some Eldar, did you?" Louk sifted through the myriad of feelings that rose within him. The Inquisitor inside him wanted details, places, times, descriptions. Anything that could pinpoint where the xenos were making themselves known in Imperial space. The… man, if that was the right word, part of him wanted to know if those Eldar had passed on anything that might give him a clue to the question he had sought ever since that time...
"I assure you I betrayed nothing" she was quick to insist. "Merely asked for their records of you."
"Records of me? Why would they have that?" He arched an eyebrow and stared hard at the remembrancer. "Who did you speak to?"
She did not reply. Before she had a chance to, one of the legs of his chair-stand buckled and gave way with a resigned crack of ripping wood. The table tipped, the mug of caf slid towards the ground. Seeker leaned forward hurriedly, using the sweep of her arms to draw attention away from her foot as she tucked it back under her chair. Her gloved hands plucked the mug away just as it went off the edge. Balancing the mug with incredible dexterity, she held it for a moment and waited for the liquid to cease sloshing around the edges. When it did she handed the mug back to Louk, who accepted it with a sly smile.
"That was close" Seeker said, making effort to appear surprised.
"Was indeed." Louk lifted the mug in salute and sipped. He cast the broken stand a dubious look. "Quite convenient how that just happened to break. I take it we should continue this conversation another time? I would hate for my chair to suffer a similar extraneous breakage."
"Yes… quite." She drew her notepad from her sleeve with alacrity, eager to press forward before he could go back to his previous line of questioning. The topic disturbed her, and that made Louk very curious. She was hiding something from him. Oh, she was clever alright, but Louk had infinite reserves of patience. He continued to sip at his caf for a little while, studying her shapeless robes with practiced nonchalance. Secrets had a way of spilling themselves to him, one way or another. And if someone she had spoken to knew anything at all about the witch, he swore by the God-Emperor's blood that he would find out.
Under the Mountain
Louk took a hesitant step towards Angry Eyes, shoving his hand out and grasping the barrel of the pistol to make sure she did not try and raise it. Keeping a wary eye on the twitching Eldar, he nodded respectfully to his Inquisitor.
"'bout time you showed up. Natives were getting restless."
"And armed, I see." Helsing stepped further into the room, his gaze taking in the Eldar with little reaction. Almost as if he had expected it. He shook his arm loose, letting the storm bolter loom menacingly in front of the assemblage. Louk let his eyes stray to it only for a moment. A fearsome weapon, that. Not the kind of thing he wanted pointed in his direction. "I pray that you have a damn good explanation for why you were standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Eldar, Reaper."
"Mutual survival" he replied, not missing a beat. Turning back to Angry Eyes, he pulled the pistol out of her hand. "Battle's over. Tell your people to stand down."
She glared at him, her thoughts not needing any translation. After giving Helsing a hard stare she turned to her kin and barked out a sharp, aggressive order. They set their weapons down and stood, eyeing the newcomer with undisguised mistrust. The Inquisitor sighed heavily behind Louk.
"Feck all, Reaper. Now you're giving orders to them too. I turn my back for one blamed minute…" He motioned for Louk to lead him further inside. The sounds of battle had settled somewhat outside. Occasionally he heard the crack of an autogun, but it the majority of combat seemed further away. Choosing to concentrate on figuring out a way to explain this whole mess, Louk gestured for Helsing to follow him. The Inquisitor did, shaking his head in wonder. He looked over each of the Eldar as he passed them, showing no fear or trepidation. He paused in front of Angry Eyes, gazing into her cold sneer with something open curiosity.
"Boss." Louk stood by the door, his attention shifting between the Eldar and the hallway. The two by the barricade had broken the table legs and shoved it to the side, opening the way. Satisfied with his inspection, Helsing eased past the Eldar warrior-woman and fell in step behind Louk. The Inquisitor drank in everything as they moved into the cell room. His head swiveled to the right to inspect the false-mirror that hid the side room. His hand brushed against the table to test its weight. Louk had thought he would burst into the cell room full of questions and set right to putting his hand on things, but to the rogue's surprise the Inquisitor stopped dead in the doorway, staring not at the xenos milling around in hesitation, but at the bloody and beaten hunk of flesh that was Inquisitor Jadus.
"Son of a bitch." Helsing dropped his power fist, very carefully, on Louk's shoulder. Louk still flinched at its touch. "That… requires a bit of explaining."
Helsing was one of those gifted individuals to simplify some of the galaxy's worst problems into a single sentence. He uttered a single grunt that sounded more like a bear's growl than a noise a man should have made, then approached the cell. The Eldar all stared at him, but he ignored them. Getta scrambled up from the floor of the cell and made as if to approach him, hope blossoming on her dirtied face, but he silenced her with a sharp wave of his hand. Perhaps it was the fact that there was a storm bolter in his hand, or maybe it was the sheer amount of stress she had been under for the past few days, but she nearly leapt out of her skin and went scurrying for cover. She sat down without a word.
Stopping at the cell door, Helsing stared down at the battered form on the floor of the cell with an impassive expression. That was his judgment face; Louk had learned to recognize it over the years. Knowing better than to interrupt the Inquisitor's thoughts, he stood to the side and made eye contact with the Eldar. Angry Eyes had followed them in, and she fumed silently at the turn of events. It was bound to happen, she must have known that. But knowing shit would hit the fan and watching shit hit the fan were two entirely different things. The sight of her settled the nerves of her compatriots. She kept them quiet, kept them under control. At least she did not believe in death before surrender.
After an uncomfortably long pause in which Louk found himself wondering whether he or not he should check the front to see if anyone else was coming in, his Inquisitor spoke. It was a simple, quiet observation that wrapped up a hundred thoughts and emotions in one fell swoop.
"A lot of good men are dead because of you" he said, directing his words to Jadus. The solemnity with which he spoke hinted at much darker emotions roiling beneath his calm façade. He shattered the door of the cell with a single punch. The servos of his power fist wheezed and coughed, voicing its protest. It had been damaged in the battle, Louk guessed. For a moment he wondered if Helsing would kill the man, but Helsing was made of better stuff than that. Instead of crossing over and crushing the man, he stepped back and looked over to Getta. Helsing gestured for Getta to get out. She nearly tripped over herself in her haste. "Name?"
"Getta, my lord. I serve Inquisitor Farragut."
Something unfamiliar passed through the Inquisitor's eyes. Regret. That was an emotion Louk had rarely seen on the man's face. "I am sorry, then. Inquisitor Farragut was killed in the assault, along with most of his retinue."
"No!" Her face drained of all color. Getta backed up against the cells for support, and her body seemed to shrink. Her mouth worked frantically to try and find words, but she didn't seem to have any. Too exhausted and unnerved by the past days, she let out a heart wrenching sob and buried her face in her hands. Helsing did not help ease her down to the floor. His hardened grimace showed that he might have liked to lend her comfort, but he had far more important things to worry about.
Specifically, his attention went to the Eldar wounded. Walking slowly and with purpose, he approached the Eldar witch and stood over her, knowing instinctively who she was without having to ask. The Eldar exchanged muttered words, eyes growing sharp and wary. Then he said something in a language that sounded suspiciously like the Eldar tongue. Louk had no idea what the Inquisitor said, but it set the Eldar back on their heels. Even Angry Eyes showed surprise and wonder, though she squashed the expression quickly.
"And here I was thin-" Louk began, but Helsing silenced him with a click of his tongue. The man wanted silence. He stood over the witch, hardly moving. Inspecting her with a surgeon's care, he made his assessment.
"Full report" Helsing demanded, not looking up from the witch. Louk knew he would pay attention. The Inquisitor was a competent multitasker. So he reported everything, from the time he slipped through the front line to the point where Helsing came in the front door. Well, almost everything. He left out the Eldar gems. That could come later. For now, with the Eldar content to wait for their verdict, he wanted to keep things as smooth as possible. When he finished, the Inquisitor looked up and glanced over at the Eldar child. Three of the adult xenos had crowded around it, their only show of defiance before him. He made no attempt to advance on them, merely studied the child from a distance. "Fascinating."
"Sir?"
"Reaper, I have a thousand questions in my mind right now, and believe me I would like nothing more than to pull up a chair and get them all answerd one at a time. But damn me that we don't have time to do that. So shut the hell up for three minutes and let me figure out what I need to know!"
Giving a subtle shake of his head, Helsing slid his storm bolter into the mag-clamp over his shoulder. A faint ripple of relief filtered through the Eldar. Angry Eyes stepped forward and addressed him. She remained unafraid, almost challenging, even. And she did not engage him in her own tongue, though she now knew he had some understanding of it.
"You are… Inquisitor?"
"I am." His grimace faded, replaced with a calculating frown. "And you are?"
She replied quietly, dropping her voice so that Louk could not hear. A sound from the hallway drew his attention. The highbrow curses of his favorite Praetorian officer fell flat on his ears. Ordinarily he would have found some tingle of pleasure at her approach, but not today. Today he felt nothing but the overwhelming desire to grab a bedroll and pass out. But he knew the day was far from over.
"In here, Lieutenant."
He strode over to the entrance and waved her in. Two Praetorians entered, Eulogy and Jekel. Both had carried the unpleasant aroma of death and filth. Their uniforms were splattered with more grime and unmentionable things than he wanted to know about, and this was coming from a hiver. Jekel's left bicep had been bandaged up, and Eulogy favored her right foot more than her left. Neither had lost the sharp, piercing alertness. Their weapons remained down as they entered but their heads were on swivels, taking in the sights with that suppressed amazement that just barely cracked their professionalism.
"Welcome to my humble abode" he said in greeting, sweeping low in a terrible impersonation of a stately bow.
"You're still alive" the lieutenant muttered, neither surprised nor encouraged by that fact. Her gaze switched from the dozen Eldar staring back at her, to the bloody wreck of a human being that was Inquisitor Jadus, to the crying Getta, then to Inquisitor Helsing in deep conversation with Eldar warriors, then finally to Louk. "Throne, you just have to make things complicated, don't you?" She pointed at Getta. "Who is that?"
"She worked for Farragut" Louk said, feeling his hackles rise. "An ally."
"Why am I not surprised to find you with a girl crying her heart out" Eulogy murmured. She bit her lip, eyes widening just enough to show her own surprise at the venom in her tone. No apology was necessary. They had all been through a rough few days. Shrugging the comment aside, Louk gestured towards Helsing.
"Boss's there."
The Praetorians exchanged a serious look. "We don't have the time to wait. The battle is coming back towards us. Tell him…" Eulogy hesitated. Her eyes flicked over the Helsing and she looked as if she might go forward. Then she shook her head. "Tell him we are securing the perimeter. But we will need orders soon."
"What do you mean" Louk asked, confused. "Isn't the Guard with you?"
"We redeployed with the Elysians" Jekel said, interjecting for her. It was a sign of their confidence in each other that she took no offense. "Teneans were stuck, but the Airborne had established a sizable beachhead and were driving. Lord Helsing sent us back in with them. We punched through, but the main Imperial forces are still battling through the tunnels."
"What, so the battle isn't over?" Louk groaned. That was not what he had wanted to hear.
"It is as good as" Eulogy assured him. "We have a battalion of Elysian shock troopers surrounding us, and we have their headquarters in our grasp. It is just a matter of time, now."
"I hate those words" he grumbled. "How is everyone? Any casualties?"
"A few" she answered, glancing back in the direction of the front room. It was clear her thoughts lay back out there with her men. And being in the presence of xenos upset her too. Louk nodded and let them go. They hurried back out, slinking past the bewildered Eldar as if afraid of infection. After the Praetorians left, Ulain and Rhaeger gathered up their weapons and retreated to the cell room. They did not hold them ready for battle, but deposited them on one of the tables as a sign of goodwill. They were watching him as much as Helsing, he realized. All of the Eldar. As if they were judging how he would behave now that the tables had turned.
"Getta." Louk crouched down beside the woman and wrapped his good arm around her shoulders. She sank against him, her tears fading to mere sniffles. A hand clutched at his sleeve.
"Gone…" she whispered, her voice cracked and sore. "I can't believe it."
"I'm sorry." He squeezed her gently and looked up at Helsing. He had stepped back from Angry Eyes and stood waiting for Louk. "Boss?"
"The battle rages on" Helsing said. He gestured for Louk to arm himself. "And while the situation is not ideal, I have convinced the Eldar that we are their best option. She seemed to have some inclination of that already, no doubt thanks to you. And while this whole show that you have going here is quite intriguing, there are still plenty of bastards outside that want us dead. This fine lady" he gestured to Angry Eyes, who glared at Louk with all the warmth of a rabid ursa, "has given me her word that she will not cause trouble. I will leave a token guard to ensure their good behavior, but I need you to accompany me. Your aim is still good" he asked, directing his attention to the bandage on Louk's shoulder.
"Good enough" Louk answered, rising. The Scintillan scrambled to her feet after him, tugging on his hand to help herself up. She took a moment to steady herself, then nodded to Helsing. Rising fury simmered in her grimace.
"I have knowledge of the area as well" she told the Inquisitor. "You'll want me out there with you."
Helsing's expression showed his approval better than if he had slapped a medal on her chest. Motioning to the door, he told them to lead on. The Inquisitor gave one final look around before he shook his head and let out a loud and very ungentlemanly curse. That was his entire summation of the situation.
When Louk stepped out of the building for the first time in Throne-only-knew how long, he was struck immediately by how much it had changed. Thick coils of smoke rose across the city, pooling in the vast ceiling like a blanket of death that dimmed the artificial lighting. Flashes of gunfire at the mouth of the main city entrance revealed the battle at a distance. Closer to home, Louk counted the green-clad Praetorians scuttling from house corner to house corner, firing precise shots at unseen enemies. The Thracian Guard were clearing buildings alongside foreign soldiers in sandy fatigues with black armored plates. They carried bullpup variants of the lasgun, and put it to good use as they dropped any targets that popped into the open with floods of laser fire.
The hulking form of Dunker exploded out of one of the neighboring buildings. He waved the broken corpse of a Penal Legionnaire in the air before hurling it away. Dried blood marked dozens of wounds on the hardy brute, but he did not seem to notice them. The Ogryn wore a look of intense concentration as he scanned the area for more targets. On seeing Louk, his face split into a garrulous smile. "Ey Rippah, ya back!"
Before Louk could reply, the heavily armored form of Penance came stalking out of the hole in the wall. Gutterball slunk about behind her, keeping to the shadows as the two much more heavily armed figures drew enemy fire. When none came their way, the enemies in the nearby area had all been slain, he straightened and began strutting about with his head held high. Anna was nowhere to be seen.
Satisfied that they had all survived, Louk began searching for the next objective. Lieutenant Eulogy was speaking to a cluster of three Elysian officers. At Helsing's approach she saluted and the soldiers did likewise.
"This arc is secure, my lord" the highest-ranking Elysian reported. His only sign of rank was a silver double-bar on his collar. "Shall we begin the breach of the Senate Tower?"
"Yes" the Inquisitor ordered. "A moment, however."
Turning to Lieutenant Eulogy, he gave her orders to take two of her fairest-minded men and send them back into the cell structure they had just come out of. She showed her disapproval, but did not resist. At her command, two of her scouts hustled back over. To her credit, they obeyed without so much as a raised eyebrow in wonder. Once they moved in, Helsing spoke again.
"I want one company of your men to remain here, securing the arc. Lieutenant, task the remainder of your men and Sergeant Nicolai's boys to help hold fast. Pick yourself and two others to come with us. Major Charren and his two companies will comprise the spearhead. Questions?"
None were voiced. Eulogy went to disseminate the orders to Helsing's crew members while the Elysians did likewise with their own. At the Inquisitor's beckoning, Louk and Getta began to point out the locations of note. Once they secured the Senate Tower, those buildings would be raided and destroyed. Helsing seemed more than pleased with their information, and he took a moment out of his work to slap Louk on his uninjured shoulder.
"Damn fine job so far, Reaper. Only have a little more to do before you can rest up."
"Home stretch is always the worst part" Louk grumbled. His side was stiff, his shoulder sore, every other part of his body wanted him to find a bath of gelatin and just lie limp for a while. No one here would sympathize. They had all been fighting hard. "So you've figured out that the Eldar aren't in charge anymore."
"No, this appears to be the work of the Dark Eldar" Helsing mused. A chorus of shouting rose to the west. They all turned towards the noise, weapons rising. Spilling out of the alleys and buildings several blocks down came a horde of screaming Legionnaires. They carried no weapons but what they had scrounged up. Broken bottles, chair legs, rocks. That in and of itself would have rendered them a minimal threat, but each man wore a stim-collar and were frothing at the mouth, the sure sign that battle cocktails had been junked into their systems. Every gun in view turned on the crowd. Several oaths and cries erupted from the Imperial soldiers.
"Feck those bastards" Louk coughed, holding down the trigger as he sprayed his entire magazine into the oncoming mob. Dozens of Legionnaires were knocked off their feet in the opening volleys. Most got right back up, even as their limbs were blown off and holes were punched in their torsos. An Elysian soldier with a flamer rushed forward and squirted a jet of promethium into their path. Several died instantly, but more charged through the flames even as their flesh melted from their bodies. Those hit by the flames began to burst like fiery fruit; their drugs did not mix well with fire.
Laser fire had little effect on them, but solid slugs had the stopping power to put them down for good. Throne bless the Elysians for favoring shotguns. A firing line of five shotgun-armed troopers took position at the mouth of the street, pouring coordinated volleys of slugs into the frontrunners. Three more soldiers came up behind them and hurled grenades into the Legionnaires' midst, blasting the survivors off their feet. Only one made it to close combat, his right leg shattered and his left arm missing below the elbow. He did not look any worse for wear.
Penance charged forward to greet him, taking one hand off of her shotgun to draw a crackling power maul. Set to full charge, the maul struck the Legionnaire over the head and sent such a surge of force through him that his entire body above the waist exploded in a sickening red paste. His legs carried on another three steps before tripping and falling to the ground. Soaked in blood, Penance swung her maul against the building, knocking a chunk of the plaster out but clearing the gore from her weapon. The entire firefight had lasted fifteen seconds.
"Clear" she called out, giving the alley a dismissive nod. A carpet of forty or more bodies littered the alley, some still moving despite the horrific injuries they had received. No one volunteered to go out and finish them off. If they got closer they could be finished off, but there was no telling if more of them were just down the road a ways, waiting to ambush the idiot who stepped outside the perimeter.
"And now I'm suddenly wishing I was back inside the building" Louk said with a shake of his head. He switched magazines and cast about for the bodies of the dead. "Hey, there were two Druchii out here and a psyker. You seen them?"
"Druchii?"
He realized his mistake and hurried to correct it. "Dark Eldar, sorry. There were two of them leading the drill team, and they had some kind of egg-head hanging on their coattails."
"I don't see them" Helsing said, waving his hand to encompass the corpses that littered the area outside the cell building.
The Legionnaires had been taken more or less by surprise. Louk counted two dozen that had fallen more or less in neat rows, all shot in the upper chest or back of the head. The rest must have died as they scattered. But no Eldar bodies out here. Those must have retreated to the Senate Tower.
"You are sure they have a psyker though?" Helsing frowned. "This may be a bit more interesting than I hoped for."
"Should have seen the two Eldar we killed" he countered. "For what it's worth, Jadus thought they were important."
"This could not have been more than a raiding party" Helsing assured him. He started for the Senate Tower, where they joined the assembling Elysians and the rest of the team. "Thirty at the most, probably less. I heard that several had been encountered directing the defenses as we have closed in on them. Perhaps twenty are accounted for."
"That still leaves about ten more than I'd care to face."
"And that is why we have the Elysians." The Inquisitor signaled for the drop troopers to open the door. A demo charge was slapped on and everyone moved to the sides to clear the way. "This unit has plenty of experience fighting Eldar. They know how to root them out."
The charge went off with a surprisingly quiet crack and the doors fell inwards. Concussion grenades went in. Chasing on the heels of the explosions went a squad of Elysians. Louk watched how crisply they moved and felt a surge of relief. These boys were good. Gunfire erupted inside, out of his sight, but it was closed by the thunder of shotguns. More Elysians filtered in, rushing in by squads. Eager to see what lay in store for them, Helsing gestured for his crew to join the assault. An Inquisitor, two spies, an Ogryn, three Guardsmen, and a mutant charged into the Senate Tower. Louk made sure to hang in the back.
