Series V - The Fall
Episode VII - Hell Hath No Fury
The last thing Sergeant Tiris Eran of the Ulian 21st knew, she was fighting alongside Curatio Lonnar against Commander Shi'lo of the Tau Empire. On his orders, she has left the battlefield and set out on her own. This mission is personal: she still seeks the Tau with the red helmet, her daughter's murderer. Equipped with Lonnar's instruction and her own desire for revenge, she will see justice served.
The distant gunfire that had erupted in the meat-packing plant soon faded into the distance as Sergeant Tiris Eran, Corporal Verrel and Arin Sarox hurried away from the battle. Before long they heard the building explode and knew the fight was over. By that point, they were scrambling over piles of debris and through the remains of empty buildings. It took them some time to reach their destination: a collapsed hab-block near the edge of the level, directly to the south of the plant. The massive building had come down on its side and was still burning. Flames licked hungrily into the air and they could all feel the heat from a distance.
Tiris slung her las-rifle over her shoulder by its strap. She began picking her way through the wreckage. There were bodies around her, innocent civilians all. Most of them burned to the point of being unrecognisable. Finally, she vaulted over a fallen pillar to look out over a small clearing.
An Imperial Guardsman knelt before her, his gun missing and his hands on his head. He was praying as quickly and fervently as he could.
Standing over him was the Tau warrior that had killed Tiris' daughter, the one with the distinctive red stripe on its helmet. Lonnar's directions had been correct. It was aiming its pulse rifle directly at the Guardsman.
"Get away from him, you coward!" Tiris shouted.
It looked up and pulled the trigger.
The guardsman jolted and slumped to the ground.
By the time Tiris had unslung her las-rifle and taken aim, the alien had disappeared into the twisted remains of the building. She fired a few red needles after it in anger and then dropped down into the clearing.
"Sergeant," Arin said, scrambling down behind her, "We need to leave this place. You know how quickly one enemy can turn into ten."
"Arin . . ." Tiris muttered, and dropped to her knees beside the body. She unclipped the dead Guardsman's breastplate and looked inside.
"We don't have time for this," he urged. "Come on."
Tiris looked up at him. Tears were running down the ash streaking across her face.
"I couldn't save her," she said, her voice shaking and cracking. "My daughter. My little Fienna. And I couldn't save Trooper Quinlok either. What use am I to the world?"
"Hey," Arin said.
"It's okay," Verrel added, as helpfully as he could.
Tiris defiantly wiped her tears away.
"I'm going to get that Tau, you hear me?" she said, through gritted teeth. "The one with the red stripe on its helmet. It's mine."
Arin looked at Verrel, who nodded.
"Okay," he said. "Let's go."
Tiris throw the breastplate away with a snarl and climbed to her feet. She made for the edge of the clearing, in the direction the Tau had gone. Beyond the burning wreckage of the hab-block was the empty street it had once overlooked, strewn about with abandoned cars and trucks. More bodies dotted the pavements.
They crossed it and stepped into the building on the other side.
It had presumably once been an office. There was a reception desk in the centre of the lobby with a rusted chandelier hanging over it. None of them could help imagining it as it had once been, before the war between the Tau and the Imperium had ripped it apart.
"Sergeant," crackled Tiris' radio, as they made for the other side of the lobby, "Do you read me? This is General Bannur."
"I read you, sir," Tiris returned.
"What's going on out there?" Banner asked. "We've had reports of an engagement in a meat-packing plant near your last known location, not too far from HQ."
"We were involved in a firefight there," Tiris reported. "But we disengaged and we do not know the resolution. We're currently headed south."
"And why's that?" Bannur said, doubtfully.
Tiris bit her lip.
"As it happened, we crossed paths with Curatio Lonnar," she said, knowing it wasn't entirely a lie. "And he gave us a lead on the location of the Tau commander."
From the sound of his explanation, it had looked as though news of Shi'lo's death had not yet reached him. She was gambling on that much. The silence before he replied was excruciating.
"Fine work, Sergeant," Bannur sent. "Proceed as you will."
"Thank you, sir," Tiris said, and ended the call.
They left the building through the back door and continued along the deserted streets beyond. Flames licked from shell craters. A blanket of smoke had gathered above their heads, obscuring the bottom of the level above from view.
"You know," Arin said, as they walked on through the ruined city, "You couldn't have asked for a worse commanding officer."
Tiris and Verrel laughed.
"He's not very understanding," Verrel said, as timidly as ever.
"I don't like lying to him," Tiris admitted. "And I'm as keen as the rest of them to follow orders, but Fienna's murderer is out there somewhere and I know what I plan to do when I find it."
"You called it a coward," Arin reminded her. "Why was that?"
"I've been tracking it for some time," Tiris said, "And listening in on the radio reports too. They say a Tau with a red stripe on its helmet has been spotted at the sites of several battles across the hive. It always preys on stragglers and the injured, so . . ."
"So it's a coward," Arin nodded. "I get it."
"Maybe it's just scared," Verrel said.
Tiris glanced back at him.
"What do you mean?" she said.
He shrugged.
"Sometimes," he ventured, "After what happened at the hospital, I . . ."
"Go on," Arin said, encouragingly.
Verrel cleared his throat and blinked back tears.
"I wouldn't fight," he continued. "I'd aim my rifle like the rest of them and look like I was trying, but my heart wasn't in it. And when I did fire, it'd only be at targets I was sure to hit. I wanted it to seem like I was doing something good, but I wasn't strong enough to actually do it."
"Had you considered that, Sergeant?" Arin said. "That this Tau is scared?"
Tiris shook her head.
"I don't care if it's running around with piss in its boots," she growled. "My daughter's dead and it's alive. That's got to change."
She was so absorbed in her planning that she almost missed the flash of orange amidst the wreckage of a bus. Rifle up, she dropped into a crouch and led the others towards it.
The alien was skulking behind one of the benches in the bus, picking up discarded ration packs and checking to see if their contents were still edible.
Tiris' eyes widened as it straightened up, showing the distinctive red stripe on its helmet.
"Hands up!" she shouted, aiming the las-rifle at it.
To her surprise, it obeyed her.
"Leave your gun where you are and come out where I can see you!" she barked.
It descended the steps from the bus' open doors and dropped onto the cracked ferrocrete of the roadway. Slowly and steadily it walked towards her.
She kept her sights trained on the two glowing bulbs set into its helmet.
"Please," it said, "Let me go."
A thick accent made its Gothic hard to understand.
"There was a girl," Tiris said, through gritted teeth. "Remember? A little girl!"
"I remember," it blurted out.
"And you shot her!" she shouted.
"Yes," it admitted.
She swung the las-rifle like a club, hitting the side of its helmet with the stock.
It reeled away, clutching at its head.
Arin strode across to them and kicked its legs out from under it.
Tiris placed a boot on its chest and pointed her rifle at its head.
"Did it make you feel good?" she spat. "Huh? Taking someone's daughter away? Did it make you feel strong? She was a little girl!"
"I'm so . . . scared . . ." it stammered, as it fumbled with the clasp around its neck.
The helmet fell away.
Tiris couldn't believe what she saw. The alien was young, no more than fourteen years old by her reckoning. Tears were running down its face.
"Please," it begged. "Don't kill me."
"And why shouldn't I?" she demanded. "I want revenge!"
"Will it make you feel strong?" it asked, quietly.
The anger faded from Tiris' bones. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and slung her las-rifle back over her shoulder.
"You're right," she panted. "I can't do this."
In a second it had wriggled out from beneath her and run.
She went after it but it was faster.
"Come on!" she shouted to the others.
They picked up the pace and followed her.
The sound of its cries echoed through the empty city as they tracked it on and on. After what must have been fifteen minutes the scenery around them began to look familiar. It took them a moment to realise that they had come full circle, and that their route had brought them back to the meat-packing plant where they had parted ways with Curatio Lonnar.
"Kid!" Tiris shouted, stumbling into the wreckage. "Where are you?"
Now the bodies of Tau warriors were all around her.
A noise came from nearby.
She looked up to see the alien standing next to a large crated blaster into the floor of the level.
"Listen," she said, gently. "Come here."
"No," it said. "You are here to hurt me."
"Trust me, I'm not," she promised. "Please."
"What's wrong?" Verrel asked.
It turned its attention to him. He had sounded as if he was uncertain of the words even as he spoke them, which was normal for him, but the Tau seemed to sense something in him. It walked over to him and fixed its alien eyes on his.
"Why are you following me?" it said.
"This is Tiris," Verrel said, indicating her to it. "She wanted to say sorry for scaring you. You don't have anything to be afraid of."
"I shot the little girl," it said to Tiris. "Was she . . . was she your daughter?"
"Yeah," Tiris nodded.
"All I wanted was to kill things," it explained. "I wanted to be strong, to impress my father. He was going to be so proud of me. Aren't you angry at me?"
"To be honest, I have no idea how I feel at the moment," Tiris admitted. "It hasn't quite sunk in yet. I didn't expect to be helping you, though. Where's your dad?"
The Tau pointed at the smouldering crater in front of them.
"There," it said.
Tiris frowned.
"I see," she said. "That's . . . pretty hard. You okay?"
"It hasn't quite sunk in yet," it said, knowingly.
She chuckled to herself.
"Tell me about it," she said. "Do you, uh . . . I know this is strange, but I don't know much about your kind . . . do you have a mother as well?"
It looked up at her.
"Yes," it said. "But not here, on Ulis. I need to leave the planet, I suppose."
"Well, that's not going to happen unless you get back to your lines," she remarked, and reached down to her belt to unclip her transponder. "Here. I'm really not supposed to do this, but if you keep this with you, it'll mark you out as a friend of ours and you won't get shot at. Alright?"
"Alright," it said, and took it from her.
"Now go on," she said, "Get back to your friends."
It quickly turned and hurried away.
"And kid!" she called.
It glanced back over its shoulder.
"Yes?" it asked.
"I'm sorry," she said, simply. "About your father."
"And I am sorry about your daughter," it returned. "For a Gue'la, you are better than expected."
"You're not all bad yourself," she said.
She watched the alien go, shook her head slowly and turned back to Arin and Verrel. She'd had enough of Fastunhive.
