That could have gone worse.
Aurelius, Stormcaller, during the Battle of the Sigma Ridgeline, Excelon, prior to human counterattack.
The demonic entity threw the remaining half of the Raven at the Battlemaster, before it let out a distorted screech, and thundered down the Omen at the Guardsman.
Aurelius side stepped the throw, disgust forcing him to avoid the remains of his fallen brother, before the infected creature was upon him.
'Hostile contact!' he bellowed down the comms, as he turned about, goading the beast to follow him.
Straight into the guns of the 23rd.
Even as he leapt from the main deployment hatch, thunder lit up around Aurelius as hellfire rounds ripped into flesh at his back. Kicking his feet over the last of the metal surface, the Battlemaster turned about in mid flight, drawing his own rifle to end the fight.
Only to come face to face with the furious, breathing, Infected.
It slammed into him with a force to match a cannon ball, sending him sprawling onto the concrete in a daze.
In that moment, the rest of the Guard threw themselves at the beast, tearing at it with blade and Talon, keeping it from the vulnerable Battlemaster.
Screaming in frustration, it lumbered out of the vicious circle, trampling Octavius and Caius under it's heavy feet as it did so, before it turned it's non existent eyes upon the two humans; positioned just behind the Battlemaster, who had managed to recover his weapon.
The monster snarled in hatred, and like a bull seeing red, it thundered toward the small knot of 'living' creatures.
Half lying on his back, there was no chance in a living hell the Battlemaster could evade the maddened man again. Aurelius had enough time to squeeze off two more rounds before the familiar force smashed him aside again, before two more impacts, and the subsequent crashes of soft bodies landing hard on a solid ground, told him enough that the same fate had cursed the two humans. It might have finished the gruesome job right then, had a familiar shape not tore apart the Infected's legs; namely the Achilles tendons that kept the creature standing.
Bellowing out in pain, the thing collapsed to the ground under the Blademaster's assault, before Aurelius threw himself back into the melee.
'This is for Decius, you bastard!' He unleashed the Talons across his right hand as he screamed the words. Then, he brought the lethal fist down on the bloater's head in a series of brutal strikes that reduced even the armored head of the creature to a bloody mess of digested brain-matter.
Finally, long after it's screams had died away into the night, he retracted the gore-stricken blades, and tentatively pried open the human's closed hand.
There was a piece of a Guard's helmet there; most of it crushed beyond recognition. Fishing through the debris though, the Battlemaster's fingers closed about the only quarry to survive the new creature's brutal assault.
Linus Decius; Raven.
With a grim acceptance, he popped open the small, constant pouch at his side, and dropped the identification chip into the mass of similar metallic sheets.
One more name to avenge.
'Now would someone care to tell me; what the hell was that thing?' demanded Korventhor, as he marched back out of the ruined Omen.
'A bloater,' Joel managed, drawing in deep breaths, after being winded heavily in the fall, 'the fourth stage of infection. Heavily armored.'
'Any weaknesses for next time?' Asked Aurelius. Joel sighed as he answered, recalling the only real weakness of the monstrosities.
'Fire, and thats about it. They're blind, like Clickers though.'
'I'll remember that for next time,' replied Aurelius, though he still remembered his brother in the ruin of the Omen.
Decius was long dead, he knew. The second he'd not picked up the Raven's biosignature, he should have known something was wrong. However, his thoughts were interrupted by the girl.
'Aurelius, you were saying something earlier. About, whatever you found downstairs.'
He just gave her a grim glance, though it was lost once more through the stony gaze of the blackened armor.
'A new threat.'
'Do you think you can extract it?' Aurelius asked. After recycling team's grappling lines, and a harrowing high altitude glide over a street of infected without any real secure safety harness in the case of the two humans, the mauled squad had returned to the first Firefly outpost they'd hit in the ruins of the office structure across the road, where they'd managed to reunite with Castor and Titus, though the greeting was greatly overshadowed by the recent death of another brother.
Now, with Aurelius having dispatched his team on either picket duty, or salvage and recovery of whatever had survived within the bowels of the deceased Omen, only he and Caius remained; seated on what should have been a human's work desk, had it not been for the apocalypse. Meanwhile, Ellie and Joel sat over on the far side of the somewhat desolate office, quiet. Silent. They'd been that way since their hard landing, and a quick briefing by the Battlemaster on the capabilities of the new strain.
'Certainly.' replied Caius, 'I've had enough practice, and we have the research from the lab. And I think there may even be a means to keep her alive through out the process. If we were to...'
'Save it, Caius,' the Battlemaster cut in, heading off another science lesson. 'I just need to know if one; it can be extracted, and two; can she be kept alive?' As the words left his mouth, he gazed up, eyes wary of any possible acknowledgement from the humans. There was a reason he'd instructed Caius to keep all further communications to internalized comms only, but there was that nervous gut feeling of a secret being exposed.
'We can't give them false hope,' continued Aurelius carefully, 'but if we can't, and he knows, he may well try to pull the same stunt that killed whatshername?'
'Marlene.'
'Yes, and we can't have that. So, can you guarantee it or not?'
Caius gave it a few more moments of thought before he took the leap of faith in theorized science.
'I have the means; we just need to drag her out of this hell hole.'
Aurelius simply nodded, confident in his friend's apparent confidence, before he eyed the two hunched figures ahead of him once more. Something, somewhere, he felt a twinge of guilt, that they'd have to drag an innocent into the fire once more for the good of all.
He shook himself, and tore that bloody feeling apart once more. No human was innocent, he heard Corinthus echo in his mind. After what they'd done to his race, the pair was lucky that they hadn't been torn asunder by the 23rd's arrival. They were a means to an end, nothing more, he told himself. Besides, the 23rd had pulled off worse odds in the past.
Yet, for once in his life, that voice of pity remained where it shouldn't have; in a Battlemaster of the Shadow Guard.
'You think they'll be okay?' Caius asked him absentmindedly, and Aurelius couldn't help but notice the genuine concern there.
I'm not the only one getting attached, he thought, and he made a mental note to try to distance himself and the squad from the two humans, to prevent distractions. He answered the question truthfully though, and had to be grateful that the helm's voice distortion erased any sign of concern on his part.
'Considering the fact that she's just found out that he either killed or turned against every person that she held most dear, including the fact one was a near mother to her, and the additional fact that he's lied to her for the past year on the matter, I'd say highly unlikely.'
'You think we could help?'
There it was again, Aurelius noted. He slanted his head sideways to study his old friend. Like the Battlemaster, Caius was also encased in the unyielding carapace, and outwardly, he looked as if he were another of the steadfast praetorians on guard duty before the council's chambers; nearly motionless, a statue of iron and flesh. But Aurelius had known his friend for too long. A slightly bent neck, the Guardsman's remaining organic hand twitching in the shadow of his cloak; thumb pressing against the index finger, told Aurelius enough. He did care for them, and right now, attachment outside of their brothers was the last thing he needed in a combat situation.
'Why would that be Caius?' he asked, turning back to the pair in question, 'we'll probably never understand human emotions and motivations; we're just here to get them out of this hell hole, and then we can synthesize a damn cure for this plague. Nothing more.'
'Agreed, Battlemaster,' the Guardsman replied, although Aurelius noted a slight shift in his friend's position, as he corrected the body language that had alerted the Battlemaster too late. 'But don't you think that, well, it would be far easier to get them out of here if they weren't at each other's necks, don't you think? She's far from a Saint you know. Forget about 'forgive and forget' without some intervention.'
Aurelius had to acknowledge that point. Humans had little focus on the larger picture; arguments and distractions occurred regularly in the field with them, something the 23rd had used in the past to their advantage, and the redhead was another prime example. But now that they were allied with the humans, that tendency made them a liability.
For what it was, it was an excellent recovery on Caius' part. But aside from the hidden efforts of concealing his feelings from the Battlemaster, there was another implied, far blunter message there.
You can go kick down the hornet's nest.
'Fine,' Aurelius groaned, before he raised himself to his feet and moved to settle the matter of the two humans.
If one were to tune out every noise of the city; the croaks of nocturnal wildlife, and the infected, and left only those produced by the two humans, the silence would have driven most mad. They simply sat, rock solid, staring ahead, a ominous gap between the two. If they hadn't been sitting up, Aurelius might have assumed they both decided to give up on life, since they didn't even seem to dare take a breath in the other's presence. The Battlemaster sighed once more, acknowledging the flare of care in his breast for the two, and knowing they were no longer father and daughter. Searching about in vain for Korventhor, in the hopes he'd be able to spark the whole conversation, albeit bluntly and uncaringly, Aurelius finally stopped procrastinating. He'd thought enough about he'd phrase the whole damn thing anyway. Besides, Korventhor was, along with Octavius, atop the hospital right now, unloading whatever the bloater hadn't destroyed in it's rampage of the once-mighty ship, and he certainly wasn't going to return on the matter of 'fixing some human's shit.'
No, Aurelius decided, he'd have to mend the tear himself.
'I'm not sure if any remnant of his words were shared by human thought,' he opened, startling both Joel and Ellie at his sudden arrival from the back of the open room, 'but Battlemaster Julius Fornus of the famed 1st Shadow Guard once stated 'Everything happens for a reason.''
'What?' The tone of the girl's question surprised him. It was shrill at first, but then it developed into a warning growl. She was probably more disturbed by the revelations than he'd realized earlier, and he decided to elaborate. At the same time though, Joel straightened up at the words, caution and fear buried in his eyes. Why that was so was beyond the Battlemaster.
'He thought there was a reason behind every choice and happening in life, and that...'
Aurelius got no further, before a sharp crack of iron punching through wood cut him off. The speed at which she'd pinned the switchblade into the makeshift bench, and the hatred behind the act actually made Aurelius take a pair of quick steps away from Ellie's silhouette. He noted with some cautious awe that Joel had also jumped up, and quickly retreated some distance, though it was understandable, that given her current feelings toward the elder man, and her sudden outburst, he was now a potential victim of that deadly blade.
'Don't...mention him.' Her voice was broken, and her entire body shook, from both fear and hatred, and Aurelius quickly sensed, albeit too late, that he'd just stepped on an emotional landline for the girl and, instead of repairing matters, he'd only succeeded in taking a demo-charge to what ruins were left.
Peaking back over his shoulder to his previous spot with the Master of Shadows, Aurelius realized with some dismay that Caius hadn't decided to remain in the room, undoubtedly heading off for another one of his bloody strolls that just conveniently occurred whenever the Battlemaster hit the deepest shit.
Bastard.
He circled with the sharp blade twice, keeping his distance from the short weapon. Joel tried to add his own voice to try to diffuse the situation, but the advice of lowering the blade fell on deaf ears. Risking a quick peek at the man behind him, Aurelius gave him a quick shrug, and nodded toward the armed girl.
What the hell is the problem? He didn't dare voice the unspoken question, fearing it might provoke her into an actual attack. The man's response was frustratingly inadequate though.
'Something that shouldn't have happened.' he whispered.
Turning back, Aurelius could see his situation had not improved by a long way. Time was not the solution here; he had to address the source of the problem.
And the humans, though understandably for the situation, were being remarkably tight-lipped.
There was only one way to figure things out. Thankfully, Caius chose that moment to return.
'What the hell did you do?' he hissed over the comms. Aurelius just waved off the question with a single shake of the head.
'I need to do something you're not going to like Caius.' The Battlemaster whispered cryptically, 'I need you to act as the fail safe.'
'Now wait a moment Aurelius...'
There was more than that in Caius' message, though it never reached the Battlemaster due to the severed link. He needed to concentrate after all.
It had been a long time since using the powers of the Storm, Aurelius knew. Using his gift was not without it's risks. But curiosity, and a need to diffuse the situation peacefully, got the better of him. Besides, entering one's memories was fairly straightforward, according to the late Master of the Storm, though the current Battlemaster had never tried it before.
All it takes is a leap of faith. Her words of advice came back to him, and he took the plunge.
Leaving the confines of his own body, the Stormcaller dove into Ellie' mind, and memory.
White, crisp snowfall. Not a blizzard like Lementus III; more like a drizzle of cold flakes to create an undisrupted blanket across the landscape.
Save for the broken trail of blood and the torn up track ahead of them.
Like an ethereal wraith, Aurelius flittered over the clean landscape, never leaving a single footprint in the soft second layer of cold soil.
After all, it was a memory he'd never played no part in.
He could see Ellie plain as day, as she crept down the broken trail, after her quarry; the same bow that Leandros had nearly met his end at held loosely in her hands. In all honesty, he had to admit she was fairly adept at keeping silent as she traversed the flattened wastes.
It was just that he'd spent far too long finding concealed threats, and becoming them.
He walked his mind further along the trail, where Ellie had come to a stop, by a dead four legged creature that somewhat resembled a turndark on Lementus III, minus the patterns of camouflage that lined a turndark's hide, and the rows of heavily jagged teeth to supplement it's predatory diet.
In it's chest, another of the sharpened projectiles lay embedded in blood.
Before she could recover the arrow again though, a careless foot crushed a dry leaf, sending Ellie hurtling about, facing the general direction of the sound.
'Who's there?' she called out.
No answer.
'Come out!' she ordered again, keeping the bowstring taut. Slowly, hand outstreched in a sign of peace, a man emerged from his hiding place, followed in short order by another younger compatriot, though the younger man certainly didn't share his senior's confidence, as he kept his own trigger hand to his side, in easy access of the concealed pistol at his back.
'We just want to talk.'
'Any sudden moves, and I put one right between your eyes.' Ellie shot back, keeping her own weapon riveted on the two, keeping the hidden pistol in the bodyguard's holster. 'What do you want?'
After another tense moment, the older man addressed her once more; without fear, with the total calm that was any Guardsman's goal when under heavy combat.
'Name's David.'
Pain coursed through his mind, as an inquisitive specter got too near in the Storm's realm, and Aurelius cursed his lack of focus on both worlds. If it happened again, a possession might well mark the end of the Guard's Battlemaster.
How pathetic would that be? Dying on the world he hated most, clawing at his own mind in a provoked insanity by a fallen spirit.
Aurelius wouldn't have it.
He sent the unfriendly spirit soaring back into the Storm's vast wastes with a thought, before he reset his mental barriers, and dove back in once more.
'We got lucky'
She was just answered by a scoff, before the man Aurelius had last identified as David spoke up once more. From the many carcases strewn about the area since the last memory, some deep shit had gone down, and David's compatriot was no where to be seen.
Dead in a ditch, probably, Aurelius decided. Heading off to get a bottle of antibiotics for a wounded man he didn't even know in the middle of an infected assault?
He'd meet his fate at the hands of the Infected for certain.
'No such thing as luck,' David muttered, before he recited words all too familiar to the Battlemaster. 'Nah, I believe everything happens for a reason.'
The memory's walls fell down once more like a house of cards, although this time, it didn't fall on Aurelius's will.
No, rather he'd been cast out by a stubborn mind hell-bent on forgetting a scarring memory.
He stumbled back and grasped at a convenient desk for support, trying to collect his mind for another assault into the past. But hell, she'd fought like a demon to stop his presence drawing up those pasts to the forefront of her mind.
But as always, in a battle of mind and will, none were schooled to the level Aurelius found himself at, and he drove on once more, seeking the bitter truth that might peacefully end the whole affair.
The once calm and controlled David Aurelius had seen previously had degenerated into something that further resembled the spitting lunatic Corinthus became when some idiot was mad enough to get him started on his ancient foes. He hacked at shadows about him as he rambled and raved out into the burning air of the town steakhouse.
Or rather, at the hidden Ellie he searched the flickering corridors for.
After what he'd seen, or rather, what Ellie had seen, Aurelius wasn't surprised to find a madman underneath the stoic farce. A cannibal, and with an unhealthy interest in someone under half his age, it wasn't any wonder he was also the host of a broken mind.
Or maybe it was something to do with the fresh bite in David's hand.
It didn't matter; only getting the bloody keys for the chained door mattered now.
Aurelius watched on as the girl leapt at the madman a final time; already her cloths were bathed in blood that wasn't her own. The blade hit home, but for a third time, the bloodied survivor refused to fall without a struggle. They tore at each other for a few brief moments before they both crashed to the ground, unconscious as a result of their combined efforts.
Every single bloody rib in her chest felt like it was on fire as she dragged herself onward, despite the pain. David's honed blade lay tantalizingly close; only a few more feet away.
If only the bastard had stayed down for a few more moments.
The hard boot tore into her ribs once more, and Ellie gasped for breath, half to continue onward, and perhaps to draw a curse for the fucker at her back.
'You can try beggin',' the madman muttered darkly. As the words reached her ears, Ellie felt a cold hand plant her head to the ground, and knew it was over. There was only one more thing she could do.
Spit in the sick prick's face one last time before she met her mother.
'Fuck you.'
At that, David rolled her about to face his furious, blood stained face, as his hands wrapped around her neck. Her breaths grew shallower, and she grabbed at his arms, trying to give herself some more time.
'Let me tell you something. You have no idea what I'm capable of.'
Just as she was about to finally give up though, Ellie's hand hit something hard. A handle.
She forgot her earlier acceptance of death.
The machete tore into the madman's arm, before the scarred girl threw herself at him as he screamed for mercy. She didn't care or even registered if she was hitting her mark or not. She just brought the bloody blade down on his head for a long time until a familiar face delivered her from hell.
Aurelius slumped back, still registering the hundreds of emotions, thoughts and feelings that had coursed through the girl ahead of him over that dark winter, along with the fear and turmoil that followed the harrowing encounter with the cannibal.
He was still contemplating Ellie's experience when he recalled Caius still had his pistol aimed at him.
'Still here,' he muttered light heartedly down the link, before he added, 'in spirit.'
Letting out a pent up breath, the Master of Shadows lowered the aimed hellfire. Ever since he'd lost control of the Storm rift on Exelon, and ended up momentarily possessed by a vengeful spirit, Aurelius had introduced the failsafe system for himself whenever he employed the Storm, though because of his lack of trust in himself to accomplish the full feats his mind was capable of, he'd rarely had much time to come up with better alternatives to having a fellow Guardsman prepared to shoot him in a non vital area to break his mental concentration on the Storm, and a possessing spirit.
However, a choked sob snapped him out of his own thankful thoughts, and he gazed up into shattered emerald eyes. The constant switchblade falling from her clenched hands, Ellie's legs collapsed under her as the tears ran freely from her weeping eyes, as her mind and memories tore at her, having been forced to relive every horror the Battlemaster had just witnessed in a few short moments.
Aurelius rose from his support as soon as he saw the results of his handiwork, but one beat him to it comforting the broken mind once more.
Forgetting his fears of the sharpened knife that lay by the girl's feet, Joel rushed in, trying to comfort Ellie, who'd fallen into a foetal position against a broken desk.
'Don't fucking touch me!' Ellie screamed suddenly, backing away from Joel's embrace.
'I'm sorry, baby,' Joel cried, 'I'm sorry.'
Slowly, the haze of winter's haunting memories cleared from Ellie's eyes, as she realized it was only another hellish dream. It was far from the first, and each time, he'd been there to comfort her in the wake of her trials.
She couldn't forgive him for what he'd done. But she could accept it as something she too, if their roles were reversed, would have done for him.
Finally, she returned the gesture, as her own arms clung about the older man, her reddened eyes streaming tears all the while.
'For what it's worth,' a distorted voice muttered, 'I'm sorry for putting you through that.'
No reply met the Battlemaster but a series of sobs, so he ploughed on.
'We can't run from the past.' Aurelius continued, his own bloodied memories searing into his mind with same words that echoed from beneath his dark helm. 'What's done is done. We can't change that. All we can do is forge our futures, and find some redemption for our sins.'
Tentatively, considering if it was at all treasonous to his Fallen brethren before he took the plunge, he held out a hand. A strong grip seized the offered gauntlet, and Aurelius found himself face to face with the grizzled man.
'Thank you.'
For the Guardsman, it was enough.
'You really could have done that differently; that's all I'm trying to say,' Leandros finished, before he sat up, and strode off to aid Korventhor on the storey above with unloading the Omen's burdens.
Another soft thump sounded across the ceiling, as another crate completed it's sail across the drop lines to the new defense site, and Aurelius leant back into the shadows, drawing up the cowl of his cloak to complete his shroud of darkness.
He had to admit that, despite the fact the thoughts were shared by human madmen, the 1st's Battlemaster had been right. After all, what were the Firefly's chances of cutting up the girl's brain accurately to find a vaccine, with their fugitive status and barely functional equipment? The bestial Makar of his own homeworld would have a better chance. Perhaps it was meant to be that she'd be saved to be delivered into the Guard's hands to synthesize the end of the apocalypse.
Under the darkened helm, Aurelius' face broke into a grin.
Everything happened for a reason.
The loud crunch of rusting hinges being forced open cut into his thoughts, and the Battlemaster rolled up from his comfortable refuge, to greet the three Guardsmen that had just entered the room. Shortly afterwards, the others also filtered in from differing entrances, though none of them held any of the optimism the Battlemaster had just found in fate.
'This is everything,' Korventhor uttered without a trace of his usual light hearted speach, 'this is all the bastard left intact.'
Considering the fact only a pitiful three crates of varying munitions lay before him, Aurelius didn't question the downcast Guardsman, who was usually more adapted to spending hundreds of rounds on his hungry Executioner in battle. Now, he was left with just over two hundred to share between six gun-totting Guardsmen deep in enemy territory, along with another half dozen fragmentation grenades.
Hardly an ideal kit for what he had in mind.
'Alright,' Aurelius mumbled, trying to figure out how they could split the munitions, 'we'll take...'
He got no further before a small shower of dust filtered down from the ceiling once more.
But unlike before, unless a phantom was moving ammo boxes, no Guardsman existed topside to initiate the transfer operation. That left only one real possibility.
'Unless we're one man short,' Aurelius muttered darkly, 'we have a hostile target.'
'All present,' replied Korventhor without a care, swinging about the Executioner onto the nearby staircase. The heavy cannon purred once more, ready to shred apart the target when it presented itself.
With Leandros at his side, whilst Octavius and Titus moved to cover the second stairwell on the other side of the floor, the two hulking figures advanced on the door, like prey marching into a predator's open mouth.
'Come on, you bastard,' Leandros taunted, blades at the ready, 'don't be shy. Once I take your stuck up head, it'll all be over...'
He didn't manage to finish the goad, before a dark shape plunged out of the stairwell maw, it's head snapping at the Guardsman with the desperation of starvation.
Acting on instinct, the Blademaster rammed one blade into the figure's gut, whilst the other honed in on the beast's neck. Combined together, the weapons held back the monster in a brutal death grip, while Leandros studied his foe and gave the rest of the team time to aim their weapons on the infected man.
It was only then that, in the moon's light that flickered through the open windows of the office, that Leandros realized half of the man's head was missing, fresh blood coating it's wounds.
While he had seen many infected clickers have most of their flesh covered by the parasite, this one appeared to actually be missing flesh, namely the better part of it's upper left section of the head, along with it's chest, replaced by fungal armor. It was as if it had grown rapidly to accommodate the injury, much like how Guard augmentics were fixed onto Guardsmen after battles to replace missing limbs and the like.
What's more, this thing had a wiry strength he hadn't seen before.
The monster gripped his wrists with it's own hands and in a single motion, drove them inward and over one another, flipping the blademaster over, onto his back, exposed to the creature, who hovered over him now, ready to sink it's teeth into it's next meal.
A thunder of fire stopped it's downward movement though, as the remaining Guardsmen opened up on the infected, driving it away from their fallen brother. Aurelius noted though, with grim realization, that not one hellfire had struck the fiend. It moved fast; almost as fast as a xeno, but certainly with greater grace and agility then the blood soaked horrors from beyond the stars. It was certainly far faster than any ordinary human should physically be able to.
Ordinarily, full automatic fire would be the protocol to fight such an enemy, but supplies were already taxed after the battle in the hospital. With the Omen out of commision, and no end of the mission in sight, they just couldn't afford to waste more rounds.
Then he recalled the brief inventory that had been recovered from the ruined vessel. Whilst six only gave him a single chance to get things right, a multitude of high explosive grenades could well hold the answer to the stubborn Sentient.
'Korventhor!' he cried to the Master of Ordnance, 'drop your grenades; short fuse. Everyone else, get clear right...'
That was until a heavy weight crashed into his side, and sent him sprawling into the dust, as he fought back against the creature. It clawed at him with determined resolve, it's brain functioning despite it's missing sections. Only then did his discovery in the heart of lab come back to him.
... And the subject also demonstrates high resilience to pain and damage, as it exhibits a near regenerative strain of the Cordyceps, and it seen to be able to still access cogent thought in achieving it's goals.
'Too bloody right,' the Battlemaster managed to mutter, before he was able to lock his arms about the Sentient's neck, arresting it's thrashing movements to deliver the parasite into his bloodstream.
Cut off the head of the serpent, and the body dies with it. Corinthus' many teachings returned to the Battlemaster once more, and he kicked out at human that had once been known as Daniel, even as it clawed at him in another renewed effort to end the small company's leadership.
Just then, a pair of hellfires crashed into the monster's side, throwing it off of Aurelius' chest.
'Get out of here, Guardsman!' he cried out at Octavius, before he gestured violently at the edge of the roof. 'Drop lines, now!'
The Guardsman simply nodded in acknowledgement, just halting to unleash another burst of fire onto the unique infected beast.
Dragging himself backwards, Aurelius managed back away from the enraged Sentient, angling his approach to intersect with Ellie and Joel, who had yet to land a single hit on the erratic monster, due in no small part to it's crazed motions. Then, the Battlemaster recalled the whole purpose of the damn mission, and realized baiting the madman into the general area of the person the company was meant to protect at all costs was far from a logical option.
He was about to change course once more when Leandros threw himself at the spitting creature, Talons crashing against the hardened carapace of the new Infected. Breathing a thanks that would never reach the Blademaster's ears, Aurelius stumbled up to his feet, before he arrested a hold on Ellie's left arm. At his side, Caius did the same to Joel, and the pair let the sturdy drop lines at their belts unravel for use once more.
'Get clear!'
Leandros' sudden warning gave Aurelius enough time to sidestep the off balance Sentient, as it tumbled past him under the Blademaster's repeated assaults, nearly driving it to the edge of the structure, though it's crude mind still gave it an even chance.
Throwing it's arms out as expendable shields, the Infected let the two blades in the Guardsman's hands sink deep into flesh, before they came to a sickening halt, devoid of any sufficient energy to break the reinforced bone beneath Daniel's forearms. It might have ended the Blademaster right then and there, if it hadn't registered the small pack of explosives Korventhor had placed at the heart of the level, it's timer nearly exhausted.
'See you in hell, you piece of shit.' Cursing once more at the beast for depriving the Blademaster of two weapons, Leandros let go, leaving two of his fine blades embedded in the Sentient's arms, before he sprinted for the unoccupied drop line left by the Master of Ordnance. At the same time, Caius stepped back, into empty space, dragging a hapless Joel with him as gravity took over.
'Joel!' Ellie managed, before the Battlemaster at her own side followed in suit, the only warning given being the crack of a drop line's deployment end securing itself into the concrete ground, whilst the magnetized wire locked into the Guardsman's belt. Then, the pair were hurling downward, straight for the hard ground below.
'You are fucking crazy!' Ellie half shouted, half screamed at Aurelius in fear, as they plummeted downwards.
'Don't worry,' Aurelius managed, gritting his teeth in concentration, 'We've done this enough times.' As he said the words, he aligned himself parallel to the rapidly approaching ground, before his feet made contact with the wall of the hospital. At the same time, his armored gauntlet tightened its grip about the wire, slowing their descent and allowing him to run down the wall, all the keeping an iron grip on her arm.
Then there was a sudden loss of tension in the wire, and Aurelius recalled too late once more of the Sentient's intelligence in achieving it's goals.
This time, it had done so by tearing out the drop line and letting go.
The two of them dropped away from the wall like falling debris from an explosion on the top floor of a structure, as the beast atop of them howled it's triumph.
In time for the explosive package to self destruct.
Managing to position himself below the flailing girl to take the brunt of the impact, Aurelius was also gifted with a final satisfying image of the sudden explosion that engulfed the silhouetted figure in fire, before he hit the ground, and everything went to black.
'Aurelius!'
Trying to blink the lapse of unconsciousness away, Aurelius vaguely managed to make out his surroundings.
Most of it was just a haze, but he could see the tell tale red shirt worn by the girl.
Then he also realized there were figures as well. Dozens.
And their builds left no margin for mistaking them as Guardsmen.
'Aurelius!' she screamed again, as the infected stumbled after her. She fired into one figure's head, spraying the Battlemaster with gore. Annoyed, Aurelius tried to rise, but then quickly realized that, to his horror, he couldn't move anything.
He couldn't even feel anything below his neck, which throbbed with pain.
He didn't need to consolidate the suit's interface to know that his spine was fractured, nor did he need to ask it for suggested options. There were none without any of his limbs functioning, apart from praying to the Great Father, in the hopes Caius and the others could reach him and the girl in time. He tried the comms, but all that replied him was static. Damn spores. They were all about him, and with some dread, he realized that they had fallen into a covered greenhouse, filled with corpses secreting the foul particles.
Then a dark figure leapt into the clearing. But it bore no black armor; it was only singed black through being at the heart of a heavy detonation, and Aurelius gaped in nervous awe at the Sentient's continued existence. What the hell it would take to kill the monster, he didn't know.
The creature that was once Daniel let out another a half scream, half chitter as it charged at Ellie, knocking her from her feet and straight into the ruined wall at her back.
It was only as the beast lunged it's fangs at the girl, that Aurelius realized he did have a solution after all. It was the last thing he wanted to do, without another to act as his fail safe, but desperate times called for desperate measures.
Planting both hands firmly on the empty pistol in her hands, and using it as a bite guard against the Sentient, Ellie rammed the firearm into the thrashing creature's mouth, desperate to keep it away from her. It was nearly a new feeling; fearing the bite of the infected. She'd only felt it once before; in that darkened mall two years ago. Now the feeling was back.
The Sentient gagged on the iron bar for a split second, before it's crude logic kicked in, and it seized her right hand, only for Ellie to remember too late of the capabilities of this new foe. She kicked out at the Infected, trying to free her trapped hand, the other still locked in a vice grip around the pistol's barrel. Once that fell away from the Sentient's maw, she was already dead. The Sentient refused to yield, and nearly looked to be grinning.
You should have died long ago, its seemed to say.
Arresting its grip on her wrist; one mutated hand above the joint and one below it, Daniel gave her a warning growl, before the Sentient rolled its own hands in opposite directions, snapping bone.
The act was so sudden and unexpected that it took a full second for the pain to register. Then it hit her, as the Sentient pressed its advantage, pushing her hand back, beyond the wrist's normal arc.
She screamed as her hand was broken backwards, and instinctively, let go of the pistol to nurse her wounded arm.
Spitting the metal from its mouth, the Sentient howled it's triumph, and loomed high over Ellie, ready to feed on its next meal. Fighting through the tears of pain, and managing a final glimpse at her killer, she still fought.
'Go fuck yourself,' she whispered hoarsely at the Infected. The words seemed to register to the Sentient, judging from its slight recoil from the defiant form at its feet. Then it screamed its victory once more before it sank its teeth into soft flesh. Then the whole world went black.
It was an unnatural black, she realized. She couldn't be dying; it didn't make any sense. It was like the light had just been sapped from the Earth. And behind the Sentient, an ominous blue glow seemed to emanate from the prone form of the Battlemaster. Or rather, from his helmet's sunken eyes.
'The Fallen take you, bastard!'
Then Hell was unleashed.
Like a portal into the Abyss had just been opened, a solid rip in the air materialized beside Aurelius. Only partly conscious from her wounds, Ellie was spared the full horror of the Storm, but even with her blurred vision, there were things in there that would replace her nightmares of that burning steakhouse, and the man that had hunted her in there. She didn't think he could come back in death to haunt her once more as a ghost. She screamed, begging God and every other deity across the globe to banish him back to Hell.
But the gate did not close, and it's occupants poured forth into the mortal realm; ghosts, specters and demons, all tinged a sinister blue hue; similar to the portal at their backs, and they crashed into the horde, setting whatever they touched alight in an ethereal blaze.
A dozen of the ghostly forms surrounded her attacker, and in one concerted mass, phased through the Sentient. In an instant, the creature once known as Daniel burst into flame, flesh and bone turning to ash.
Strangely, despite the heat that radiated from the Sentient, Ellie felt nothing, if only a ghostly chill, throughout the course of the ethereal inferno. Finally, the spirits departed from the Sentient, and it tumbled to the ground in a pile of sickly ash.
Then they turned their blood shot eyes on her. Especially him; cold eyes blazing at her like they did during that damnable winter. She wondered briefly if he remembered his death, and her responsibility.
Judging from the way his face split into a savage grin; the one a feral hunter so often finds itself wearing when it's prey is cornered, he did.
Throughout her eventful life, Ellie had experienced fear plenty of times, no incident more so than her escape from David and his cannibals. But nothing could have prepared her for this. She cried at the unfairness of it. Why of all people was it him that got a second chance for revenge?
Cradling her broken hand against her chest, she lay against the wall, unable to scream for aid any more, as the Fallen reached out for her, whispering for her to join them in death.
No.
Gritting his teeth in the effort, Aurelius dragged back the Lost with what little mental strength he had left. He was at the end of his reserves now; having exhausted most of his fortitude in opening the rift in the first place.
Now he had to banish them once more, before the frail leash that was his concentration over the spirits broke, and they were able to run amok, laying waste to all. Particularly the one that reached for Ellie now. He recognized him from her memories, and had seen what he'd done, and knew what he could do now as one of the Fallen. It was immense misfortune that of the countless souls that could have been pulled from the Storm to do his work, David had been one of them. Or perhaps he'd never left her; following her in the other realm, waiting for a chance at vengeance, as most of the dead did to their killers.
It had happened in the past, to others that now marched as the Fallen, and Aurelius had sworn before to never let it happen on his accord.
With nothing other than brute mental force, he wrestled with the baying spirits, dragging them back from the terrified girl, and back toward the portal. They screamed and cursed him for denying their carnage; all but one.
Standing tall above the rest, seemingly hovering over a carpet of mist, one figure; a familiar one at that, guided the others back to their home. One that still donned the hallowed armor of the 23rd, and wore a single eagle, it's wings outstretched to the sky, across it's chest.
She was without her helm, the way she died, but still she aided him in death. Soothing the hatred of the Lost, she was the last one through the gate.
Aurelius lost consciousness from the effort of holding the portal open long enough for the Fallen to make their way back, but before the darkness had completely claimed him, he saw her give him a single graceful bow, just as she had at their every parting, save her passing. And in that moment, Aurelius knew she too had never left his side. Her vengeance had already been found. He'd seen to that.
'Thank you, Serena...' he managed, before the darkness fully clouded his sight, and the portal snapped shut once more, leaving no trace but the charred remains of the Fallen's victims.
Ducking under the charging runner, Caius lifted the once-human off it's feet and let it crash into the broken road behind him, before snapping off another hellfire to end its pitiful life. Around him, the Guard fought off the horde, using hellfire and blade. Joel, who had been taken down by Caius himself, added his own contributions, ensuring a steady rain of improvised weaponry on the enemy. Whilst they were crude, Caius had to admit their effectiveness, and ingenuity of humans when threatened.
To think that all one needed to stop a horde was a bottle of spirits wrapped in cloth and set alight?
Humans were dangerous to their enemies, and a bloody gift to their allies.
But the projectiles were running out, and Joel's aim had begun to falter somewhat, and Caius couldn't help but consider it was to do with the fact Aurelius and Ellie had yet to arrive. Originally, he'd trusted his friend to make it on his own, but so far, nothing had reached him.
'We're going to need to break contact soon, Caius,' Korventhor told him over the blaze of the Executioner, 'I'm not seeing an end to them.'
'And don't forget Aurelius,' put in the Blademaster over the comms, his words jolted from his mouth as his blade crashed against another thickened carapace of fungal parasites across the forehead of a clicker.
'Agreed,' Caius replied. It was then though that he saw something that chilled his blood. The light draining from the battlefield, and a ghostly blue lighting up the sky; not too far off to their right. If he'd still been undecided, that would have been the final push.
'Break contact now!' he broadcasted the message across the short range comms. He didn't need to tell them where to go; the boiling Storm had been seen by all, and there was only one Guardsman alive that could still use it.
As they went, Octavius grabbed Joel; as the message had been restricted to the comm helms, he'd stood his ground against the onrushing enemy.
'They're over there!' he told the man. That was enough to set Joel sprinting through the ruins, to find his constant companion and hope.
Only halting to drop another demolition charge at the base of the door into the next structure, Octavius sprinted for next doorway, before his back was signed by the inferno of the shortly delayed charge. The crumbling building, already on it's last legs, finally relented to death, and collapsed upon itself, burying or blocking off the Infected that tried to follow. As he finally picked his way through the debris to the other side, he was rewarded with an icy glare from the Master of Ordnance.
'You're taking my job, Guardsman,' he grunted darkly, before he snickered at the Guardsman's guilty face. After all this time, people still took him too seriously. Probably because he knew how end them the most painful way possible. Just then, he let a trail of fire errupt from the Executioner in his hands, tearing apart a desperate runner that had managed to make it through the maze like ruin. His need for bloodshed sated though, his mood softened, and he lowered the heavy rifle in his hands, allowing the guilty Guardsman to scuttle on quickly, before he changed his mind. Grinning under the helm, Korventhor unlocked the exhausted chain of ammunition from the cannon, and replaced it with all haste, as movement began to intensify once more behind the barricade created by Octavius.
He was going to have his combat, one way or another.
The belt clicked in place, and the rifle was raised once more, daring anyone to wander into it's sights with its tell tale whine, as it spooled up to fire.
There were no end of volunteers, though the ruins blocked any attempt to follow the tempting sound of life, and another meal.
Caius led the way, followed closely by the Blademaster, and then Joel. They kept to the shadows of the houses as they followed the ominous cracking of the Storm. Moving at a steady jog, with Caius and Leandros keeping their eyes forward for frontal threats alongside Joel, whilst Titus and Castor checked over every angle at the left and right of the formation respectively, the team traversed across through the twisting, crumbling masonry with speed. Meanwhile, Octavius raised his rifle to the ruined floorboards of the upstairs level, in the event a threat were to drop from the rafters above, whilst Korvethor moved backwards, covering their rear as he did so.
It was then that they heard the screaming. Not an Infected's distorted one, but one of sheer terror. A human's. A girl's.
Instantly, the formation cracked, as Joel sprinted forward, throwing caution to the winds. Stunned for a split second at the reckless act, Caius nearly didn't see the stalker crouched in the shadow of the decaying couch until it was too late, as it reared it's mutilated head to strike.
His hellfire round severed it's sickening head from it's body at the jawline, and Caius began to muttered a curse at the human for his madness, before understanding stopped him.
The scream had been Ellie's. Soon, he took off in pursuit as well, rapidly motioning for the rest of the Guard to cover his exposed flanks as he burst from the building.
Rapidly rotating to cover every angle of possible attack as he emerged from the structure, Caius soon found the street to be clear, the only contact being Joel, as he plunged into another side alley, guiding them to the far side of the hospital, where Aurelius had dropped, following the screams.
'Ellie!' His own voice cracked in his desperation, and Joel pelted as fast as he could, ignoring any threat to his own being. He heard rapid strikes on gravel as feet impacted against the ground at his back; the snarls of the infected; followed by two cracks of Caius' Judgement, and two corpses falling to the ground.
He never turned around.
Reaching the end of the alley, he saw the greenhouse. The unnatural storm above it had abated now, but the street beyond him was a slaughterhouse unlike any he'd seen before. Carbon statues of infected forms stood where they'd died, as if some immensely hot inferno had consumed them all. And the air was thick; not with spores, but with flesh and bone turned to ash. It was almost as if it was snowing; a blizzard from Hell.
'Great Father,' Caius breathed, as he reached Joel. There were no more contacts, at least any that lived. He'd only seen this kind of massacre once before, when he and the full might of the 23rd had dropped onto Excelon to recover Aurelius from Hell.
The last Stormcaller had unleashed that Hell.
And now he had done it again.
Inserting his long rifle past the shattered door, Caius tested for any infected presence with the bait of movement, before he advanced carefully inside. There was nothing waiting immediately behind the doorway, apart from another carbonized corpse that disintegrated into a pile of sickening ash when the Judgement came too close.
But it wasn't the Infected he was fearing.
After so long without it, fear had him cold once again, as memories of the Fallen staring at him from the Abyss came back to haunt him.
If they burst forth, nothing save Aurelius could deliver them.
But there was nothing.
Oblivious to the threat of the spectres, Joel entered first. There was another moment of agonizing silence before he unexpectedly reholstered the revolver in his hand. Moving forward, he came to another of the ash statues; one slumped against the wall, one arm cradling the other.
Then Caius noticed it; a whimper.
He moved inside, now slightly more confident with the survival of someone indicating the lack of Fallen in the area, to see Joel brush away the ash that coated the face of the figure, revealing intact flesh underneath, and green eyes.
Tears aided the effort, as they streaked from her eyes, washing the vile ash away in thin lines down her face.
'Oh, baby girl,' he whispered, before he cradled her in his arms, rocking back and forth minutely, hoping to sooth the terrified girl. Despite all their pasts, Caius couldn't help yet another twinge of empathy for them, and this time, he couldn't bring himself to tear it asunder.
This is what they really are, he realized. Not born killers. Families. Just like us once.
He started toward them, before his right foot hit something hard. Another figure of ash. But this one didn't disintegrate on impact.
And this one was large; far more so than any normal human, covered in armor from head to toe.
And if it wasn't enough, the stylized eagle head insignia told him everything there was to know.
Discarding the Judgement to one side, he grasped his old friend with both hands, and dragged him to his feet, only for the Battlemaster to then collapse back into a heap at Caius' feet.
'Are you done yet?'
Caius just sneaked a grin over at his impatient friend, although in his current position, anyone would be eager to get it over with quickly. He was currently lying face down in two inches of ash, with Castor sitting on top of his paralysed form with a cutting set in hand, as the Hunter worked to cut open his suit's direct control panel, so that they could crack open his back to repair the damaged spine. Ordinarily, a quick thought would be enough to send a neural impulse to the necessary part of the suit to unlock it for repair, but the spine injury rendered that function useless.
'Almost,' murmured the Hunter, 'just keep still, and I'll be done in no time.'
'I am still, you bloody dimwit!' The Battlemaster nearly exploded in mock anger as he bellowed the words, prompting a grin on many faces, and a snigger from Caius and Korventhor. 'I'm paralysed from the neck down! How the hell can I move?' If I could, you'd already be...'
'...marching out the airlock when we got back, we know.' Caius interrupted rather loudly, drowning out the rest of the darkly humored threat before he turned back to his own patient. Applying another syringe filled with numbing agents and antibiotics to her arm, Caius returned his gaze to the incision he'd made in Ellie's wrist.
It was an ugly sight, having a dozen or so bone fragments implanted into one's flesh. The Sentient, and it's cruel intelligence, had seen to that, and Caius shuddered at the thought of fighting such a beast without the adaptations of the Shadow Guard. It was quite a feat that she still breathed, although she was doing so shallowly, as she screwed her eyes shut throughout his work.
He sighed at that. While he carried sedatives and the like to induce sleep or even a coma for the duration of an operation, they were far too strong to be used on a human being. They'd more than likely kill her within a few minutes. Any that could have been compatible with a human, well, they had either been used up when he'd tried to save those wounded in the sniper attack on the Jackson command center, or they were still aboard the Armageddon. Thus, he had to content himself with using the weaker, smaller scale anesthesias that prevented the majority of the pain being read by her brain. Hopefully.
'Not much more,' he tried to sooth her, but the helmet's impassive broadcast systems defeated the attempt. She didn't really respond to his words, apart from screwing her eyes all the more tighter as the blade went back to work. All the while, Joel held her good hand, whispering to her throughout the whole procedure.
For a man who killed everyone she loved, he thought grimly, he didn't do too bad for a father.
His own had been impassive; even more so than the helmet made them all sound. He'd neglected his duties as a father, teaching his sons that their father was the Great Father beyond the mortal realm, and that he, like all parents, were only means to bring them into the world of the living. Hence there was no real connection; only service in his name.
Bastard, Caius had told himself, and he had promised himself that if he had ever had kids, he'd do better.
The human invasion of Lementus III had put an end to those dreams. It had also taken his genetic father, and for that, Caius could be proud of him. He made up for his shortcomings as a father by being a great soldier. But even that didn't protect him when the human Titans leveled Ajax Temptemptus, and buried it's defenders under it's own ruins.
He finished removing the final bone fragment, before he applied a sizable drop of suspension fluid into the wound. Without any armor to act as a cast, Caius had elected to use the Guard's temporary first aid methods to keep the shattered bone from causing extensive damage, since it did, in effect, fill any organic space it was applied to, all the while acting to cushion it, and prevent exertion in combat damaging the wound further. Quickly, he sealed the incision once more by laser, setting the cavity to fill for the suspension fluid, lest it multiply rapidly until it 'leaked' from the wound.
'It's done,' he whispered, as he tore a piece of binding from the medical kit to use as a sling, 'It's done.'
He finished tying the knot, before he rose back to his feet. As he did so, Joel raised his head to mutter his thanks, but those green eyes did not open to even acknowledge his presence. Only tears.
Caius didn't comment on it. He knew that she'd seen something not meant for the eyes of living.
'So ... you saw her again?'
'For the last time, yes. It was her. Full eagle insignia, wings outstretched to the heavens. No doubt; it was her.'
Leandros leaned back against the one intact desk of the greenhouse, careful to not put too much weight on it. Humans and their bloody flawed designs. It was a wonder the whole place hadn't already come crashing to the ground. All it took was a little nudge, usually in the form of Korventhor and his extensive knowledge of demolitions.
'Sounds like she's become a guardian angel,' he muttered, remembering the face of the Stormcaller he once, and still, loved. Perfect memory was indeed both a gift and curse. Every moment shared, up until the moment he'd touched down planetside on Exelon, and seen her dying in Aurelius' arms. The two had stayed there until her passing, defending both their ground and their Fallen with their lives.
'Sounds like it indeed,' Aurelius replied, before he bit off the last word mid sentence, as he winced in pain at Caius' tinkering with his metal spine. The feeling of his body was returning to him now, and along with it came the pain of falling from the top of a building without any working device capable of slowing that downfall.
Plus there was also the added weight of Caius on his back.
'What do you make of it, Caius?' Leandros voiced the question, prompting Caius to look up from his work, and be rewarded with a sidelong glare from the Battlemaster. He'd been waiting long enough.
'I don't know enough about the Storm, or the late Master of the Storm for that matter,' he replied carefully as he bent back over to finish his repairs, 'to know if she's following us wherever we go in our battles. But what I do know, is that you should never do that again. Possession is a real threat, particularly without someone to act as your failsafe.'
He directed the last accusation at the Battlemaster, and Aurelius simply rolled his eyes, although under the helmet, no one saw the act, and even if it had been removed, they would still be buried in two inches of ash.
'Not quite sure if I like the concept of someone standing by to shoot me where it wouln't kill me to stop a pissed of spirit having some down time. Anyway, there wasn't any other choice.' Aurelius muttered, though he said it loud enough for Caius to be able to hear it. 'He'd already gotten to her.'
'What?' asked Caius abruptly, stopping his work on the spine again. While he was annoyed once more at Caius' vulnerability to distractions, Aurelius was suddenly worried by his own words. He hadn't actually seen if Daniel had delivered the Sentient's unique strain of the Cordyceps into the girl's bloodstream, or not.
'He got close to her; close enough to break her hand,' he elaborated, before he asked the glaring question. 'What? Was she bitten?'
Just then, across the room, as he wiped away the ash that still covered the girl in his arms, Joel uncovered the sunken, bloody wound upon his girl's shoulder.
A bite.