"Mila, we need a shield, now!"

"I got it!" she shouted, an a rippling purple barrier phased into being. A hail of shellfire crashed into it— and the barrier shattered like glass. Most of the bullets and rockets were deflected, but an even dozen rounds thumped against Nika's armor, making it ring like a bell.

"I-oh, crap!" Mila exclaimed. Muzzle flashes from the edge of the horizon signaled another incoming barrage. Nika rushed down the ramp, knowing that without Mila's shield there would be little to protect us from the incoming fire. The shells rattled us around anyway, but Nika weathered the assault with little more than showering of dirt on her lower plating. The Hellebores thumped, again and again, and I saw slow fire blossom among the Archenemy artillery.

The barrage ceased, and Nika backed up the ramp and squatted back in the churned dirt that made up the remains of her firing platform. I took a deep breath and rubbed my eyes. We'd been at this for days now, fending off probes by Archenemy skirmishers and smaller bands of Chaos war-leaders. With Colonel Shaw's assistance, bolstered by the reinforcements, we were all able to get some sleep, but it remained an exhausting, unending task. Mila, it would seem, was worse off than I had thought.

"You alright?" I asked.

"I'm afraid not." She said, sounding more shaken than I'd ever heard before. And we had fought an entire planet of Necrons together. She retreated into a back corner of the personnel tubes and reemerged with an empty box I didn't recognize.

"Commander, I-I'm losing my psychic abilities." She confessed.

I could see she was serious— and terrified. Like most normal humans, I wasn't jealous of psykers. Their closeness to the Warp always meant a depressingly short average lifespan. But I could imagine losing so integral to one's self could be a frightening thing. "I didn't know that was possible." I said, matching her tone.

"It normally isn't." She agreed. "But remember how Mahud gave me that spice tea to boost my abilities? The effects started to wear off after a few days. So I made some more for myself, I thought- I don't know, maybe my own abilities just needed time to enhance themselves or something. I thought I'd be able to ease myself off in time, but…" she trailed off.

"We will find a way." Nika's voice startled both of us. "If anyone can find a way back into another universe, it is us. After all, we've done it twice so far."

"She's right, Mila." I agreed. "Let's sit down and hash this out."

Mila and I returned to the command deck, where I could keep an eye on the pict-screens. We didn't expect another attack for an hour or so, but that was no reason to slack off.

"We already know that the teleporter can take us to that other universe." Nika continued. "The only issue is finding more of this substance which Mahud had brought."

"And we'll need a lot of it, or at least a way to re-produce it." Mila pointed out. "But once we're in the other universe, none of us will have any way to find any of these things."

"We'd need a guide." I agreed.

"He's long gone." Mila argued. "How would we ever find him now?"

"I'm not sure." I said. "He's probably still on Casila somewhere."

"The inquisition may know where Mahud is." Nika suggested. "They attempted to mount several surveillance devices inside my hull after the most recent refit. I have since shorted them out, but the act displays a lack of regard for the privacy of their citizens. Perhaps they have been tracking him."

"Fair point." I agreed.

"You disabled the cameras?" Mila asked, surprised.

"Yes. I assumed you would not want to live every moment in the view of a camera."

Mila shrugged. "I don't know. The hive I grew up in was always like that. It was for our own safety." She turned to me. "Surely it was the same for you?"

"I was born on an agri-world." I answered. "We only had electricity for a few hours each night to watch the government-approved channels."

Nika's vox-casters made a small choking sound, but she said nothing.

"Let's at least ask the inquisition." I decided.

"Track down Mahud?" Devera asked. "One moment." She moved away from the screen, only to return a moment later. "He's on Malthus Prime, on the outskirts of the Jallax wastes. Would you like an address?"

Mila and I, (and I suspected Nika as well) gaped at the screen. "How did you do that?" Mila asked.

"The Inquisition has eyes everywhere." Devera replied smugly. "Do you need us to bring him in? We have a spare Callidus somewhere we could send."

"No! Uh, why don't you let us go get him?"

"You seem a little busy holding off all those Archenemy troops." Devera commented.

"I can stay here." Nika suggested. "It would be unwise for me to see Mahud again in any case, given the circumstances of our parting."

"Hmm." Devera gave it a moment of thought, then nodded. "All right. I'll have a portable teleport beacon sent to you on the next supply run. Take a few hours to set up a new chain of command, and I'll assemble whatever materials you'll need for the trip."

The next supply run arrived with a small case the size of an ammo clip, with a small carry handle and a built-in control pad. I left Colonel Shaw in charge of overseeing the defenses, and he assured me that the forces available could hold off attack for as long as was needed. Teleporting without Nika's hull around me was much more unpleasant. I felt as though I was being turned inside out and backwards, cold fingers crawling all over my exposed skin. I was still shuddering when we arrived on Malthus Prime. It was a hot, dry planet, and the city of Jallax was no exception. The buildings were composed for the most part of adobe and brick rathe than wood, and the streets were half-coated with a thick dusting of sand. A huge concrete wall towered over the outer edges of the city, dotted with well-used gun turrets and stubber mounts. PDF troopers in tan uniforms scurried around on the wall.

The map Devera had given us showed Mahud outside the wall, so we walked around it until we spotted a gate. The PDF troopers saluted, looking a little nervous and Mia's robes. "Good mid-morning sir, ma'am." The lead trooper greeted us. "Is the rest of your party on the way?"

"We're it." I replied. "What's the wall for?"

He looked surprised. "There's always been trouble with Eldar corsairs in the area, sir. We generally don't let anyone out without a larger armed presence."

"I think we'll be all right." Mila replied.

"I've no doubt, ma'am." He replied neutrally. "The eldar generally attack at night, so it would be safest to get back here around nineteen hundred, Imperial standard."

"Got it." I agreed.

The gates ground open on sand-encrusted hinges, and Mila and I stepped out. The heat hit like a tom of bricks, and Mila actually staggered as it hit her. Out of the wall's shadow, the dun-colored planet stretched out for miles, the air rippling above the dunes.

I hitched up the lasrifle on my shoulder and sighed. "The faster we find him, the faster we can leave." Mila said, and I nodded in fervent agreement.

We set out trudging across the sand, taking care to take frequent compass readings and to drink water from our canteens. Shade was almost nonexistent, and two hours into the walk we were both breathing hard and sweating bullets. Mila gestured at a small rocky outcropping that had the most shade we'd seen so far. "Take a break?" she suggested.

The shade in question was an area the size of a flak jacket, and Mila and I bunched together to try and take the greatest use of it. It wasn't very comfortable. In my younger days I probably would have enjoyed being squashed next to an attractive woman in the middle of a desert, but the unromantic truth was that we were both hot, sticky, and smelled like an Ork's old boot.

So I was shifting about to find a more comfortable spot when the gleam of sunlight on metal caught my eye. I shoved Mila sideways, using her mass to propel myself in the opposite direction. We both rolled to opposite sides as a bone-white knife flashed into the rock we'd been sitting under. I rolled over and pulled out my lasrifle, firing a trio of shots in the general direction of the knife thrower, before Mila yelled, "Wait!"

She had pulled the knife out of the spot it had wedged itself into, and was holding it up for me to see. "It's Mahud!" she exclaimed. And sure enough, the blade was the same bone-white curve that Mahud always used.

Upon hearing his name, Mahud himself stood up slowly. He wore the same odd suit that he had worn the first time I saw him, and he carried a short sword at his side, and a Xeno rifle on his back. "Mila?" he asked. "Commander?"

"That's us." I said.

"And the machine?" he asked suspiciously.

"Not with us." I replied.

He nodded slowly. "Good. You must be tired. I'll take you to the sietch."

"The what?" Mila murmured as he set out.

I shrugged. "Let's stay on his good side."

We followed Mahud a short ways further, before he stopped at another pile of rock that stuck out of the sand. Without hesitating, he walked through the rock as if it were nothing but air. Hesitant, I followed, and found that the seemingly solid stone offered not the slightest bit of resistance as I slipped through it. I passed through a short passageway, then emerged into a sort of open, common space. I looked around, and immediately scrambled for my lasrifle.

Mahud was faster, and knocked it out of my hands before I could get my fingers around the trigger. "Calm down there, friend. They're my clan now."

I glared at the small knots of Eldar that milled about the cavern, going about their daily lives. A few had looked up when Mahud arrived, but most were ignoring us, their haughty faces looking unconcerned about the humans in their midst.

"What the Warp is this?" Mila hissed when she saw. "Consorting with the Xenos, Mahud?"

He seemed unconcerned by our reaction. "Come on. We'll go to my quarters."

In an unspoken agreement, Mila and eye kept a close watch of each other's backs as we followed Mahud down a corridor into a smaller cave, which had been decorated with a number of rugs, a small table and a bed in one corner. An Eldar woman was already in the room, sitting at the table and doing some strange activity involving a number of differently-colored crystals and rods.

"Elara, these are my guests." He introduced us.

She inclined her head. "Well met, Imperials."

"Mahud, what is this?" I asked. "I thought you were better than this."

"That's rich, coming from the servant of a machine intelligence." He retorted.

"Nika has always been loyal to humanity!" Mila retorted. "These monsters have fought us, burned our planets, since the beginning of the Imperium!"

"Not these ones." Mahud replied. "They haven't been off-planet in ten thousand years."

"They always lie." I insisted. "They'll tell you whatever you want to hear!"

"We are not the same as the Eldar you speak of." Elara cut in. "We are Exodites."

"Oh, yes of course, why didn't I think of that?" Mila asked sarcastically.

"It is the truth." Elara insisted. "Before the fall, my people left behind the decadence and arrogance of the Eldar race, and chose to live simpler lives on the fringes of the galaxy. Cut off from our technology and the depravity of our people, we survived the fall relatively intact."

"How very convenient." I replied. "Give me one reason I should believe you."

She shrugged, an odd movement for an Eldar. "Do you trust Mahud?"

I glanced at him sideways. "I thought I did. He's shown himself to have poor judgement in the past."

"Perhaps it is merely your perspective on another's life that makes them appear so." She suggested. I tried to dismiss it as more Xeno double-speak, but the thought stuck with me all the same. Mahud was from a different universe than Mila and I. The same way Nika sometimes seemed to have strange ideas about the way the world ought to be— could it be that Mahud was just used to a different order of things?

"While I'm certain we could bicker for days," Mahud said, "I suspect that's not why you're here."

"I suppose not." I admitted. "We need a guide to take us to get more spice."

Mahud gave a short, ironic laugh. "Ha! The second you run out you come back to ask for more, eh?"

"Maybe you don't care right now." Mila cut in, "but as it stands, the Archenemy is winning. So far, we've held them off at Cadia, but we're being pushed back everywhere else. It might not happen in your lifetime, but what happens to the galaxy if the Imperium of Man comes crashing down?"

Mahud shrugged, glancing at Elara. "Some might call it a good thing. I owe them nothing, that's for sure."

"You think the Eldar can hold off the Orks, the tyranids, and the Necrons?" Mila asked. "You might not like us, but you need us."

"I really doubt it." Mahud replied. "Even if all the Imperium falls— and I really don't think a few tonnes of spice will alter the balance one way or the other— I seriously doubt anyone's going to come here."

There was a colossal detonation outside.

"You know, if we weren't about to die, I would find the timing of that hilarious." I said, grabbing my lasgun and heading out to see what the hell was invading the planet this time.