Her parents reached over the rails of the platform elevator beckoning to take their hands. Twocaste's legs felt as if they wouldn't obey her. Every ounce of her being wanted to run to them, to pull them onto the elevator with her. Every time she tried to move her legs her hooves seemed to move by a mere tor'il; a measurement equal to a human centimetre.
There was a loud bang; and Twocaste found herself shifting between being on the bridge of a ship, and free floating in deep space. In the darkness of the shifting void she found a group of Kroot. The Kroot were fighting a group of aliens. The Kroot showed her a cold light that was within her. The she couldn't quite see who the Kroot's enemies were, their appearance seeming to shift every time she tried to look at them. The Kroot showed her that her cold light could turn threats into ash. The Kroot honed this light and taught her to use it.
From the darkness a group of Tau emerged. The Tau called to her begging her to use her cold light. As soon as their enemies were turned to ash, the Tau changed their tone. No longer needing her help caused them to now act as if they didn't need her help after all. "I guess you did the best a d'va can do" they told her. Being called d'va; or in human terms twocaste had an odd effect on her. It had been years since being called a d'va had bothered her, by the Tau pseudo religious concept of the Greater Good she had changed her name to D'Va! A part of her felt like a child again being teased by the other Tau children.
She now felt as if she was in two time periods at once. She felt as if she was a child, being taunted for being a d'va wishing the other children could be her friends. At the same time she was also an adult who resented the open hostility of the children from her past, and the patronizing condescension from the Tau in the present.
The conflict of her dream trying to make her feel as a child crying from being called d'va, and her adult self who no longer felt that being d'va was something to be ashamed of woke her. Twocaste opened her eyes in the darkness of the room. "Lights" she called as she sat up, the lights illuminating her room.
She rubbed her temples, thinking about her dream. She had been having dreams about her parents for months now. Twocaste had not seen her parents since she was ten, when she was sent off with a group of Kroot mercenaries. At that time the Tau empire was in the process of retaking the system. The asteroid colony she was raised on, was the Tau's next target. As a young woman she had not known why her parents had stayed behind on the asteroid colony. Now she understood that her parents had stayed behind in an attempt to convince the Tau authorities to leave her alone.
She got up and grabbed the pulse rifle lying next to her bed. Holding the weapon reminded her of her mother, Shas'Vre Mol, a Fire caste warrior. Tau society was divided into five caste's. The Fire caste were the warriors. The Earth caste were the builders and scientists. The Water caste were the diplomats and traders. The Air caste were the pilots and spies. The Ethereal caste were the leaders of all Tau. She took the weapon apart and began cleaning it. She remembered her mother teaching her how to shoot, and move on the battlefield. Twocaste also learned about Tau tactics and how to command an army. Twocaste and her mother spent much of their time running combat drills and playing war games. Twocaste reassembled the weapon and set it down on her bed.
She walked over to a table where her drone was sitting. She ran her hand over the circular top of the drone and pressed the button that manually started the drone. The drone floated up to Twocaste's head height and made a cheerful beeping sound. Twocaste smiled at the drone. "Good morning La'Vesa." La'Vesa floated around the room testing it's targeting system by sighting in on various items in the room. Twocaste looked over all the machines; she had built, or was in the process of building.
Her machines reminded her of her father, Fio'Vre Nok, a member of the Earth caste, who taught her everything he knew about Tau technology. Later in life Twocaste had learned that her parents had actually fought over which of their skill sets to teach her. In the end her parents had seen Twocaste's proclivity to absorb knowledge like a sponge, and realized that she would need a broader education than normal Tau child as a d'va. They decided to give as wide a breadth of education as they could. Not just the skills of their individual castes but whatever knowledge they could.
When the Tau Empire had pulled back from Pol'La, the asteroid colony where Twocaste was born, the Tau empire left behind a few of it's citizens. The Tau who were left behind were; mostly Fire, Water, and Air Caste, and a single Earth Caste, Twocaste's father. There were no Ethereal caste left behind. The Tau who remained with the colony managed to lure a few small mercenary bands to come defend the colony with promises to trade Tau technology.
Eventually keeping the colonies' mercenary protectors around meant getting more Tau technology. Luckily the colony had a number of factories for making Tau tech. There were only enough beings on the colony to run one factory. As the only Earth caste member Fio'Vre Nok took charge of running the factory. With no Ethereal caste members, Twocaste's mother Shas'Vre Mol; the highest ranking Fire Caste became leader of the colony.
Because her parents were so prominent in the colony, Twocaste received as good and varied an education as was available on the colony. Twocaste learned about diplomacy, and trade from Water caste diplomats, she learned how to pilot a number of Tau transports, and spy-craft from Air caste members. She learned a whole world of different ideas, and languages from a variety of different races who came to the colony as mercenaries. Later when her parents sent her off with the Kroot mercenaries she learned more about mercenary life.
In a corner of her room was there was a bathroom sink with a mirror, and an enclosed shower. She walked over to the mirror. Twocaste made what she felt was the best pose to accentuate her hips and breasts. She admired her short, voluptuous, and muscular body. She felt her skin was a healthy deep blue. Her eyes were what she felt was pleasing bright red. She ran her fingers through her short spiky black hair. She did not wear her hair partially bald like most Tau. Pleased by the image she gave her reflection a satisfied nod.
She looked down at her breasts. They weren't an unusual trait for Tau females on the Pol'La colony. Tau she had encountered off the colony reacted as if they were strange. No Tau would ever comment openly to her but she heard whispers when they thought she wasn't listening.
After admiring herself Twocaste let out an exasperated sigh. Despite her satisfaction with her appearance, she had not had much luck with romance. She had trouble forming bonds with other Tau, as their tendency to be condescending to her due to her status as a two-caste annoyed her deeply. As far as the other races, she encountered, she simply hadn't had enough interactions with them to form a relationship. Humans were more bigoted than Tau making them for the most part the worst option. Despite having a deep affection for the Kroot she had reached adulthood around she had no interest in romance with their race. It wasn't just that she found Avian Kroot unattractive, they mated by the male secreting semen through their palms, which was then rubbed onto the female's back. The idea of a slightly sticky back rub seemed unappealing.
She washed her face and brushed her teeth and then pulled off the bikini briefs she had slept in and the stepped into the shower. The door sealed shut behind her to keep the moisture from the shower. She washed herself and then turned off the water, a vacuum in the drain pulled the excess steam out of the shower. She pulled a towel out of it's sealed container, and dried herself off.
She got out of the shower put on a pair of black pants, a grey crop top, and an olive green long coat. The bottom edge of her coat was decorated with embroidered Tau script.
The script was a pattern of two names repeated over and over across the hem of the coat. The first name was Tau'Vesa Kais which meant Skilled Helper of the Greater Good, the second name was her current name, D'Va.
After that she put on some armour, equipment, and grabbed her pulse rifle. She called "come on La'Vesa" La'Vesa beeped happily to itself and floating after her in a bobbing pattern. She left her room, and made her way through the corridors to the exit.
She stepped out into the common area of the space station known as Precipice, taking a deep breath. She absorbed all the sights and sounds of the space station and all the myriad races that inhabited it. Twocaste stared at one of the large viewing ports on Precipice. the Blackstone fortress's bulk dwarfed Precipice, seeming to call to her. Of all the known blackstone fortresses in the galaxy, this one was the only one not controlled by savage traitors to the human Imperium. She grabbed her pulse rifle by its neck and balanced the rifle over her shoulder. She headed out to meet Falchion, and Dahyak Grekh.
La'Mea sullenly ate his morning meal, eyeing La'Goa between mouthfuls. La'Goa had been testing the other Fire Warriors patience for several days now. They had come to this Blackstone in search of another team of fire warriors who had disappeared while investigating the fortress. After being separated from the rest of their team La'Mae and La'Goa had picked up signal from one of the drones belonging to the lost fire team. When they reunited with their team they found that the Ethereal leading their team had been severely wounded. They had returned to Precipice to treat their leader's wounds. When the Ethereal woke it had been La'Mae who excitedly told her they found the location of a drone. La'Goa felt that La'Mae had not given him proper credit for his role in finding the signal.
Before heading back into the Blackstone, the team decided to go eat at one of the many impromptu eatery. The eatery was in truth nothing more than a food stall with a group of crates, and large spools in front serving as chairs, and tables.
As the team finished their meal, La'Mae helped clean up. La'Shear another warrior, had gathered a stack of dishes. La'Mae signalled to La'Shear to add his stack to his. La'Goa growled "careful La'Shear this one doesn't like to acknowledge the efforts of others" La'Mae scowled at him. La'Mae barked back with "d'va!" Ha' Shear placed his hand on La'Mae's shoulder "the Tau with the with the.." La'Shear's voice caught in his throat a moment "name" he finished. La'Mae followed where La'Shear was pointing to the Tau who seemed to introduce herself as D'Va. As D'Va worked with humans on Precipice she went by Twocaste. Twocaste seemed to be passing by on her way somewhere but she had clearly heard La'Mae's outburst. La'Mae groaned a little under his breath at the sight of her. D'Va seemed to swagger around Precipice with a permanent smirk on her face carrying her pulse rifle with a casual air. For someone who plied a trade using the skills of a fire caste La'Mae felt she carried herself too casually for a Tau warrior.
Twocaste went on her way not caring about the use of the word she took as her name. She understood that d'va was used differently in the main Tau Empire. Actual d'va were rare in the Empire proper. In the Tau Empire when one Tau called another Tau d'va, it didn't mean that the Tau believed the other was a product of interbreeding between castes. More often the meaning was that the individual was so offensive that their very birth was an affront to the Tau core philosophy called the Greater Good.
"Excuse me," the Tau who had just shouted D'Va called to her from behind. Twocaste turned around to find him standing behind her. Twocaste gave him a quizzical look "you want something?" The other Tau gestured at the crates serving as chairs in front of the food stall "I'm sorry about what I said, and I wish to speak with you about something" Twocaste plopped onto one of the crates and leaned forwards resting her head on the palms of her hands in a mock appearance of wrapped attention. La' Mae sat across from her "First I would like to apologize." He continued "I don't think it is appropriate for me to use the word d'va as an insult." "That said, I don't think you understand the nature of the term." Twocaste raised a brow to this "I don't know, I think I understand what d'va means pretty well." La'Mae sighed "if you understood you wouldn't have made it your name." La' Mae continued "you must understand the caste system of the Tau race serves a very real purpose." "We as a race are able to serve the Greater Good so well because we are born knowing our purpose." "As a d'va you do not have this knowledge of your purpose."
Twocaste slapped herself on the forehead as if she had a sudden epiphany "You know I wish someone had told me that sooner" she said in a sarcastic tone. "As a d'va, the first time I was hired by Tau to serve the Greater Good I died." "Then all those later missions didn't happen because I was dead." "Now I'm not here because I'm dead. If only someone had told me sooner I wouldn't be dead now."
La'Mae sputtered trying to find a good response. Twocaste stood "thank you, this was fun." With that she continued on her way, La'Mae stopped attempting to answer and sat in silence for a while.
This was typical of the Tau attitude towards Tau who were hybrids of two castes. The d'va were seen as poor unfortunates who needed guidance to find a place in Tau society. This caused them to be treated as second class citizens. In all truth her life as a mercenary was probably much harder than her life would have been in the Tau empire. Twocaste had enjoyed one thing above all else amongst the Kroot mercenaries; freedom. She could never afford to be too rude to Tau when they hired her, but she could afford a certain amount of sarcasm. There was something very clear she meant to communicate with her sarcasm and why she had changed her name to D'Va. She felt she had nothing to be ashamed of as a two-caste. It was also why the hem of her coat repeated her birth name Tau'Vesa Kais and her new name D'Va. Twocaste, and Skilled Servant of the Greater Good were not in conflict with each other.
She continued through the station to where she was meeting Grekh and Falchion. She found them with a ragged group of humans. As she approached she recognized the ragged humans carrying symbols of a Diasporan clan. Twocaste had encountered Diasporans many times throughout her life. Sub sector Tegmen; the area of space she had spent her early adulthood plying the trade of a mercenary in, was full of Diasporans. The Diasporans crouched in a semi circle waiting for the briefing to begin. They wore armour that was a miss matched collection of brown leather pieces. Their hair was a mixture of styles that even the most barbaric humans considered savage. Their appearance however seemed to be designed to be different than the traitor humans Twocaste had encountered in this Blackstone. The many wars humans fought with aliens, and humans who betrayed their Imperium created many refugees. These refugee groups fled to the relative safety of space. Sometimes these groups adapted to life in space, walking a sometimes thin line between mercenary and pirate. These people referred to themselves as Diasporans. Diasporan clans incorporate the Aquila of the Imperium of Man into their clan symbol. To show they still held to the Imperial religion.
She smiled and gave a small wave to Grekh and Falchion. Grekh was a Kroot mercenary she had followed to Precipice, Falchion was an assassin trained by an Imperial cult. His cult gave all their assassins new names based on weapons. Each name based on an ancient weapon quite different from power swords they all carried. Falchion wore a black bodysuit with red outlining the armour plates. He carried three swords; two over his right shoulder, and a short sword below the two straight across his back over his hip. He was just a little short for a human, lean and had short dark brown hair. His skin was a light pinkish, and his frame was thin and muscular.
Twocaste, Grekh, and Falchion had all gone into the Blackstone fortress together before. She felt odd about Falchion, she normally teased every human she worked with. Falchion was no exception, but despite his xenophobia over the course of their adventures Falchion had begun to give her a grudging respect. Her own feelings towards Falchion had softened. There was a sadness in his eyes that he tried to hide. Her teasing toward him had become less biting and more playful.
Falchion nodded to her as she joined the group, he began. "Thank you all for agreeing to join me on this expedition." "We will be heading into the Maw of Shards, the Imperial Guard traitors in that section are lead by one commissar" One of the Diasporans interrupted him "'ey boss 'ow you gonna find this spacker, the Blackstone changes its insides all da time." Spacker was a word Diasporans used in a literal sense, to describe build up that formed on the inside of any machine. In a more figurative sense spacker was used as a generic expletive. Falchion nodded "we have a guide, the Kroot tracker, Dahyak Grekh knows the movements of the Blackstone." "If you find this commissar before me, I ask you not kill him, leave him to me." Falchion finished with "are there any more questions?" The same Diasporan piped up "you're paying us a lot for this, why's it so important to you to off this spacker." Falchion sighed "if you must know he killed some people who were important to the boy I was before I became Falchion." The Diasporan looked at him quizzically "your order wants you to kill someone due to a personal vendetta?" Falchion responded "No, this is a mission that I must complete to be inducted as a full assassin in my order." Falchion continued "My hatred for this man would cause problems with the final battery of hypno conditioning my order requires." The Diasporan seemed more confused "I thought you lot were all about hatred?" "Hate is indeed the lifeblood of most death cults and the order of the Carrion Wing is no exception" Falchion answered. "However that hate needs to be generalized towards whatever target I am set against." "I am too obsessed with this man to be an effective assassin."
"If that is all, Clan Void Talon" the Diasporans tipped their heads at the mention of their clan name, "has offered to allow us to take their ship to the Maw of Shards." The group made their way to one of Precipice's many docking spars. Twocaste was not surprised at the sight of the Diasporan shuttle. It was a motley thing, patched together from a mixture of human and a variety of other race's tech. Despite the mismatched technology, the ship seemed to be solidly built.
The group entered the ship through its belly. The belly of the shuttle was lit only by red lights designed to allow humans to see what they were doing while maintaining their night vision. It made Twocaste feel like she was flying into hell. The ceiling of the drop ship's interior was festooned with dolls hanging from bits of twine. The small dolls had strange shapes some had large red eyes made of yarn others had a dome of bristles emerging from their back. Twocaste turned toward one of the Diasporans "what's with the dolls?" The Diasporan seemed to regard the dolls as if they were an after thought "They are fetishes dedicated to Imperial saints." "They don't look human I thought all your saints were human" Twocaste responded. The Diasporan shrugged "capturin' the true blessin of a saint requires that your fetish capture their spirit, not necessarily their shape."
The sides of the hold were lined with seats with a walkway in between. Twocaste strapped herself in next to Falchion. The pilots made their way towards the cockpit. There was a loud clunk as the drop ship decoupled from the mooring spar.
The movements of the ship and the roughly maintained artificial gravity on the ship caused the dolls to move strangely. Twocaste could see into the cockpit from where she was sitting. Through the cockpit windows the Blackstone swallowed the whole view as they drew nearer. Despite heading into the Blackstone many times, watching the ship dodge past the spars of the fortress still caused her stomach to drop toward her hooves.
There was something Falchion said during his briefing that bothered Twocaste. Twocaste turned to Falchion "I want to know more about this boy you were before you became Falchion." Falchion narrowed his eyes at Twocaste "I do not like this subject." Twocaste continued "It's just," she paused "are you sure those people the Commissar killed were only important to someone you used to be?" Falchion tightened his jaw "that boy was weak, unlike him I have the strength to kill the rot that eats at the heart of the Imperium." Twocaste shrugged "I just think that if someone killed me I wouldn't want the people I love to centre their lives on hate" Falchion pretended to find the drop ramp at the rear of the drop ship incredibly interesting "Naive Xeno" he grumbled quietly to himself.
The drop ship banked into a giant tube like structure filled with pointed structures. The Maw of Shards was as terrifying as its name. If Twocaste found it hard to look out the cockpit armour glass before, it became much harder now. The drop ship banked and spiralled past every point. The black spikes hard to see against the rest of the black of the Blackstone. A platform ringed in glowing lights emerged from the darkness. Even inside the ship they could hear the landing gear hissing as the ship settled on the platform. The back of the drop ship opened to the Blackstone. Everyone unbuckled themselves from their seats and shuffled out of the back of the drop ship. Twocaste shined a light attached to the end of her pulse rifle over the edge of the platform, the space far below was filled with a black liquid. Shinning her light over the rest of the space between the spikes, she traced her light over the curve of the tube, finding that the liquid covered the walls and the roof. She assumed a gravity field close to the walls of the tube pulled everything towards the wall. There were a network of bridges connecting the platform and the spikes to passages that passed through each spike.
The Diasporans produced a number of weapons, some of them of non human make. Falchion made a disapproving scowl towards the alien tech. Catching his glance, Twocaste nudged him "come now gue'la you don't complain about my weapons." Falchion responded in monotone annoyed by the use of the Tau label for humans "you and Grekh are yourselves xenos." "These Diasporans at least mean to play at still holding to the imperial creed." Falchion pulled out a human scanning device called an auspex looking at the device he oriented himself in a direction "my prey is this way five kilometres" he said pointing in front of him. Falchion looked towards Grekh who motioned towards a bridge that was slightly to the left of Falchion's position. Falchion pulled out a technological mask. He put the mask over his head and then pulled his hood up.
The group headed across the bridge towards the giant spike that the bridge tunnelled through. As they neared the spike Twocaste realized the spike was much larger than it appeared from a distance. From where she was, Twocaste estimated the interior of the spike was the size of a large building.
A clacking sound behind them caused the group to spin around. Behind them a group of small spider like machines moved like a surging tide. The spider bots had already completely cut off their path back to the shuttle. The group fled firing wildly behind them. More spider bots joined the tide from beneath the bridge. They made their way inside the spire. As they made their way inside the spike more spider bots fell from the ceiling. The group split with Falchion and Twocaste on one side and the rest of the group on the other side. The inside of the spike seemed to be filled with twisting corridors.
Everyone except Grekh was checking corridors trying to figure out where to go. Grekh calmly pointed to the corridor behind Falchion and Twocaste "the Blackstone wants you to go that way." Looking around the group realized that the spider bots had stopped moving. The bots stood still separating the group. Twocaste realized that if she tried to cross the river of machines they would attack again. There was a time Twocaste would have mocked Grekh for his superstitious belief that the Blackstone had a will of its own. But by this time she had dealt with Grekh and the Blackstone enough to know that his portents were best heeded.
"What kind of xenos spack is this" one of the Diasporans exclaimed. Falchion responded "please, just listen to the Kroot." With some reluctance the Diasporans allowed Grekh to lead them down a corridor. Twocaste and Falchion headed down the corridor Grekh pointed them to.
The corridor led them to a staircase leading down. As they left the staircase bottom landing the walls of the fortress rearranged themselves shutting off their exit. Falchion mildly turned towards the new wall blocking their way back "It matters not I had no intention of going any way but forward." Falchion headed down the corridor without another word. Twocaste shrugged and headed after him.
They emerged into a large oblong room with many circular antechambers. Suddenly it became freezing cold Twocaste and Falchion's breath steamed in front of them. The darkness moved in close and the two of them were swallowed by the abyss. A croaking voice echoed from the darkness around them "I need you to kill the nightmare that has captured me, but first Syra you must confront the nightmares within yourself." Both of them spun wildly with their weapons out trying to find the source of the voice. When they couldn't find the source of the voice they continued blindly moving through the inky void. Twocaste whispered towards the shape of Falchion "who's Syra?" "That
name doesn't matter" Falchion responded dismissively without looking back at her.
After a while of walking Twocaste realized that Falchion was no longer with her, she looked around and found him standing in a beam of light. Their was something at his feet. She ran over to him to discover that the thing at his feet was a teenage girl. The girl was barely recognizable as human.