This story is inspired by A Plague of Both Houses by Omega Queen, The Everqueen, and Another World One Last Chance, Hammerhand and The Mission Stays the Same. I really enjoy stories about Isha. Im not very good at creating OC's so Ill be grabbing some names from these stories from above, especially names I like. That is okay right?
Ill be continuing my first story later. This is my first time writing anything related to Warhammer 40K. I want to try it out and see how everyone sees it.
Chapter One
…
"This is all going so wrong," Ela Ashbel mutters to herself as she watches the endless tide of heretics trying to overwhelm the small chokepoint of PDF guardsman at the narrow vale.
Ela Ashbel is a seer of the crashed Craftworld of Bel-Tana. Unlike the rest of her Craftworld kin, her people have learned to survive and hide on that small jungle planet of unnamed origin. As a result, their people unless of the direst need does not send out war parties as the other Craftworlds tend to do, no. Instead they send out usually small infiltration teams if the need is really great. Even then it seldom happens.
Ela Ashbel herself is not a powerful seer. Before she took the Path of the Seer, her interests lie more in the Path of the Dancer performing alongside the elusive Harlequins whenever the servants of Cegorach visit their small planet alongside their troupes. However as she grows older, it became brazenly obvious that she had psychic talents beyond your average Eldar. Thus sacrificing herself for the greater need of her fallen Craftworld, Ela Ashbel takes the Path of the Seer. She's not really powerful per say as some of her cousins on other Craftworlds, but what Ela Ashbel lacks in power she makes up for it in talent. Few even among her brothers and sisters walking the same path can see clearly in the weaves of the future as she does. Thus in her century and a half of life, young in Eldar standards at least, Ela Ashbel stands near her position to take the title as a Farseer of Bleeding Tears. It is a moniker that she earned due to the fact that the first time she tried viewing the future, her eyes bled.
Personally Ela Ashbel could care less about the demands of the Path of the Seer if she has her way. She loves walking around and enjoying life on the trees and open fields of her home planet. There is also the small fact that due to her young age, older trainees and seers tend to scorn her out of jealousy her talents on the Path. Not that she's thankful for it to say the least due to her current situation.
It has been a vision that brought her here to this backward planet of Mon-Keigh. She had never suffered a far more powerful vision in her entire life. It's not exactly accurate but her eyes bore witness to a great change, a change that would benefit her people, and a change that might finally give them a chance to escape the clutches of She-Who-Thirsts. However the vision specifically specifies that only she and two others would need to be there for a possibility of her visions coming true.
Thus the only people she brought with her in her quest was her best friend Taenerya, a Howling Banshee to serve as her muscle and a pretty Outcast, Lilya to help her find her way throughout the galaxy. Everything seems to go smoothly until they arrived here on one of the Imperium's outer planets as her vision dictated. It was here that things went horribly down the drain.
The governor of the hive world of Galaminus Secundus apparently had his fair share of aliens visiting his world. Thus people here at his planet were more used to the usual Tau, Dark Eldar or anything more that might come for business. However like all governors, this one was corrupt, take what they want, when they want. It was only bad luck that during the time of their arrival, the governor had taken into wanting a pointy ear as his bed warmer. As a result, her small group who arrived in the open was seized at gunpoint by local security, their guide Lilya taken away from them and her alongside Taenerya imprisoned on cells for psykers with their masks taken away in case "they're needed for appetizers". Ela Ashbel can do nothing but sat forlornly at her own cell then as she did not need to cast her runes to know that Lilya would end up worse than dead on the grubby Mon-Keigh's hands.
Their bad luck apparently did not end only there. Barely a day since they arrived, an outbreak of Chaos worship spreads throughout the hive city of Galaminus prompting the governor to send an SOS for help into putting down the heretics. It did not take long for the Imperium to send aid though as Imperial Guard reinforcements soon arrived. As for Ela Ashbel and Taenerya, the two barely managed to escape. In fact they would not had managed it if their guards did not decide to become frisky with the prisoners before the Imperial Guard commissars on the planet get wind of them. Suffice it to say that even without her war mask, Taenerya was a force to reckon as she ripped those men to pieces to avoid suffering the same fate as Lilya.
They did manage to find the corpse of their guide though dumped to a random street with her soul stone cracked. They did manage to bring her body with them though Ela Ashbel had to cover it with one of the dirty bags of the Mon-Keigh as she alongside the Banshee was horrified by simply looking at what's been done.
Even on foot, they did managed to find the shrine then that Ela Ashbel had seen on her vision that will lead to great change on a crevice on the mountains outside Galaminus. Unfortunately the two of them was not the only ones making for that small crevice.A small group of three hundred guardsmen without warning also appeared trapping the two Eldar with hundreds of lasguns trained at them with. Of course their luck was really so bad that behind the small number of Imperial Guardsmen marched three thousand cultists raving about Blood for the Blood God.
Thus with an understanding based on survival, Ela Ashbel finds herself fighting alongside Mon-Keigh soldiers that were slowly getting overrun by cultists.
"We need to get out of here Ela," the bloodied but panting form of Taenerya falls in behind her. The Banshee's war mask was caked by blood and grime and her form shivering a bit.
"My vision says that something should have happened by now," Ela Ashbel grits her teeth as she watches the now dwindling number of Mon-Keigh soldiers being slowly hacked to pieces despite their valiant effort on stemming the tide.
"Forget about the vision Ela, we need to live and we need to get out!" snaps the Banshee whirling around just in time for her sword to cut through a cultist that manages to break through the lines of Imperial Guard soldiers.
"What are our options?"
Ela Ashbel clenches her fists as she looks back at the small shrine at the crevice and the secrets it holds. "The shrine, it's a webway gate, smaller than anything I've ever seen. Its design is also different as if its built to be that small, but powerful. I don't know where it leads but it can bring us out of this bloodbath that we are currently in,"
"Jumping into an unknown webway? That is hazardous!" the Banshee only exclaims before jumping back as she lets out a wail sending dozens of cultists shrieking in pain.
"Do you have any better suggestions?" Ela Ashbel only asks as she electrifies the first of the cultists finally overrunning the last of the Imperials.
The Banshee only sighs in defeat as she takes Ela Ashbel's hands on her own and making sure to bring Lilya's body bag alongside them as the two ran towards the hidden Webway.
…
"Fight men! Even if we die, we die for the Emperor and we take these accursed heretics with us," the roaring voice of the Lieutenant Ardan spurs the last of the Imperial Guard regiment to fight with whatever they have left. More than one las-gun are down to their last energy clip and the remaining three dozen or so of the Imperials are now simply using their guns as spears with their bayonets piercing the flesh of cultists attempting to bury get their hands on them.
Normally overrun such as this, Imperial Guard soldiers tend to run away already. Even with their beleaguered numbers though, none of this small group ran. Most would credit to the leadership of their commander and they would be right so. These men have the Lieutenant for less than a month as head of their platoon but already deep in their hearts they would follow the Lieutenant even to the bowels of hell itself. He has led them in victory after victory, his saber cutting through cultists like wheat on a threshing blade. Even in sure defeat such as today, no one fees fear even as they watch some of their number being pulled to death and torn to pieces.
"Liutenant!"the voice of the sergeant echoes on the din of the battle. "The witch Xenos are escaping and abandoning us!"
Lieutenant Ardan only turns his head after decapitating another cultist and scowls as indeed the two Eldar are making a run for it to the shrine carrying with them what it seems to be a body-bag. Of course he knows that the two would run. He has seen it in his visions of the Warp, the two making an escape on the hidden webway gate and causing a great change that would affect humanity greatly.
Now one would ask how a simple human Lieutenant like Ardan would know such things. It is quite simple actually.
You see the ruse that is Lieutenant Ardan is a ruse in all intents and purposes. There is no one named Lieutenant Ardan for it is a fabrication of a character meant to cover her identity; for she is no normal person, no. Not even the oldest of the Astartes is as old as she is.
Lieutenant Ardan's true identity is no one else but Arianne or as her full name is, Ariannelle as her father, the God Emperor of Mankind named her when he created her alongside her brother Primarchs. You see Arianne is a secret even among the gene specialists that aided her father in the creation of his progeny. Only two people know of her true identity, this one no other than Malcador the Sigillite and the Emperor himself. Only they know of her since her creation is an experimental test for the Emperor.
A test whether the Emperor's genes would be able to mix well with that of Eldar blood collected from scouts of the old Aeldari empire that visited Earth before.
The results suffice it to say is a perfect being; a being bearing the longevity and thirst of knowledge of the elder race, but having the restraint, ingenuity and control of mankind. Not to mention that out of her brothers, only she is the one to inherit the creativity and psychic might of their father. With her elder genes, it is not a surprise that Ariannelle's control is impeccable compared to even the best that the Eldar can throw in this current age.
She is the only female in gender out of all the Primarchs. In fact the second Legion belongs to her. The Emperor however in fear for her possible life and the hatred for Xenos by humankind hides her in Mars and covering her ancestry by illusion of loss like the rest of her brothers thrown in the Warp. There she has stayed with the most trusted of the Emperor's techpriests of Mars learning their trade till the events of the Horus Heresy where Horus laid the Emperor low.
From then on, Ariannelle has done her best aiding mankind in the shadows, utilizing her talents in Biomancy to change her appearance and body to hide her current appearance of nearly eight feet tall and lithe with angled features due to her half-Eldar genes. However her face retains a crude softness and none of that haughty look that most Eldar have. Her hair is golden as that of Sanguinis, her brother and her father plus wings. The Emperor it seems invested a lot in her appearance if the Psychic empowered wings are any sort of indication.
She appears as many different personas throughout the ten thousand years of the Imperium of Man trying to aid the beleaguered forces of Mankind against Chaos. Sometimes she might appear as a Saint on battlefields smiting down daemons and traitors. Sometimes she might appear as a leader, a commander or a general leading terrified regiments of guardsmen to brutal charges that would have made lesser men insane. Sometimes she can be nothing more than a doctor, a friend, a healer, a priestess or even a planetary governor or a ship captain. Her biomancy is certainly put into good use as wherever she goes victory goes for the forces of Man. Even dozens of times she aids the dying Eldar as a traveling Outcast skilled with her psychic powers against some of their more enigmatic foes. Saint Nike or Farseer Nike, the names she has been given mostly by the two races whenever she appears in either her Saint or Outcast forms.
However right now, the reason she is in this backward planet is only one reason alone, a vision. Normally even for her, it is a rare thing. However it comes and it comes strong and clear unlike the rest of her visions. Here it is shown that something great would change mankind and it desperately needs her help.
Thus with the help of her biomancy, Ariannelle disguised herself as Lieutenant Ardan, an officer of the 33rd Vendoland sent to answer the request for aid in this backwater planet. Imagine her surprise when she met these two Eldar in a crevice on an abandoned Imperial Shrine literally stinking with destiny. Before she could decide on anything though to save the two on being torn to pieces by hundreds of lasguns her small force was set upon by these waves of heretics making escape impossible as three hundred men was cut to pieces though they certainly paid the servants of Chaos thrice.
"I will go and try to stop them," Ariannelle, (cough2x) Ardan says with gritted teeth as he saw the two Eldar activating the shrine.
"Go, Lieutenant. We'll hold the line," answers the sergeant with a salute . "Ave Imperium Lieutenant," and just like that the Sergeant goes back to the last of her soldiers knowing very well that he will not survive.
As for Ardan, he moves in leaps and bounds that would have made an Eldar Autarch green with jealousy as he heads after the escaping Eldar. As he predicted, the Howling Banshee detaches herself from the Seer who's movements becomes erratic in hurry as she tries activating the hidden Webway Gate. Ardan simply smirks as she meets the blade of the Howling Banshee easily brushing aside the point black Psychic Scream that would have popped the head of a regular Imperial. For someone like her it might as well be that the Banshee says hi in the sweetest manner.
Sidestepping the follow up attacks of the Banshee in a casual manner, Ardan exchanged blades with her for a few seconds impressed actually at the skill being shown by the Eldar. Ardan has managed to spar and fight alongside Jain Zar himself twice in her long life, it is simply unfair for this one to beat her in a challenge of swords. The young one has talent however and would have a good future ahead of her as an Exarch if she stays on the Path of Khaine. As it is, Ardan disarms the Banshee the next time she overextends herself before a knee bash at the front of her mask sends the now dazed Eldar to the dust flat on her back groaning.
"NOO! Tanenerya," the agonized cry of her fellow Eldar echoes on the closed crevice of rock and Ariannelle for the first time in a long while is surprised as without warning the Psychic pull of the Seer grabs her and her fallen friend towards her alongside Ardan who finds herself being pulled towards the blazing Warp gate.
For some reason, the pull of the Seer seems to be overpowering and even Ardan's psychic might is unable to break himself free as he is pulled alongside the flying Banshee towards the now functioning Webway gate who then cracks at its side just as they are about to enter it. Ardan only groans and sighs as he is pulled into it feeling herself change back to his original form before a destabelized gateway explosion happens just a second only before the three of them and the dead body they are carrying are flung into the Warp into the unknown.
As she lands on something gooey and her senses immediately alerts her to every kind of disease unimaginable. Ariannelle only groans as she regains her feet and beholds the place around her.
"Sometimes I hate fate," she groans to herself as she draws her blade facing the trio of Nurglings snarling towards her.
…..
Taenerya groans as her vision once more clears. Despite the durability of the War Mask, that single blow on the knee from the Mon-Keigh soldier in her head have literally cracked her senses. Never in her entire career as a Banshee does Taenerya manage to fight a foe so skilled. She has killed her fair share of Mon-Keigh soldiers and even fought against their legendary Space Marines twice. Never has she been so outmatched. Every move of that Mon-Keigh is almost mocking as he easily dodges or parries her most complicated attacks with ease and what could almost be referred to as contempt.
"Taenerya get up! We need your aid! Taenerya please!" the panicked of Ela Ashbel brings the Banshee immediately to her senses and just in time too.
Five Nurglings are hovering over her lying form and are trying to get her armour off to reach the soft flesh underneath. Dread fills her entire being and Taenerya reacts instinctively due to her training. The howl that leaves her lips sends the Nurglings backpedalling away from her. The Shuriken Pistol at her hip finds itself immediately at her hands as thousands of shards turn the nearest two lesser daemons to chunks of goo making the other three ran away as the Aspect Warrior regains her feet. Before she could ran after and finish the deed off though, a hand immediately grabs her arm stopping her in her tracks just in time.
Turning at her grabber, Taenerya is just ready to throw a punch before freezing as the serious but terrified face of Ela Ashbel meets hers.
"Ela? What's going? Why are you-,"
"Shhhh!" the Eldar Seer replies in a panicked hushing tone pulling her down on some cover. "Crouch and turn around but make as little sound as you can," she orders.
Gulping, Tanerya turns slowly and found her heart leaping at her throat as her eyes beheld the monstrosity that towering over them, his foul stench obviously plain for everyone to see as green noxious gases leaves its body. She doesn't need Ela Ashbel to say its name even as one of the four Chaos gods moved in ignorance as it stirs its massive cauldron of death and decay.
Nurgle, the god of sickness, a titanic flesh monstrosity full of decay and pestilence. His massive form bloats with corruption and showing a green and yellow stench that seems to eat the minds of those that stares too long. The skin is green and scaly like goblins, full of leather lesions and necrotic to the core. Sores, burns, boils and lesions infests him like the plague god he is. Excrement ran over his pulsating organs spilling through the rips of his skin to hang like the gardens of Babylon itself. Swarms of flies and other unnamed insects swarms these innards trying to suck in rotting intestines and poisonous juices of the plague god himself.
"What are we doing here? Why does he not see us?" Taenerya's voice is almost a whisper as her eyes remain locked unto the giant monstrosity above her.
"We are here because your mysterious Webway gate brought us here," a rather sardonic whisper answers making the Banshee blink as she turns her attention to a golden robed and white figure wearing a silver breastplate with a pair of white wings lie crouched with them beside Ela Ashbel who is still supporting a terrified form even as she clutches has wrapped the body of Lilya that she wraps like a backpack on her bag.
She only blinks at the beautiful individual. Taenerya has never seen anyone like her. Golden haired, smooth skin shining like the purest ivory, her eyes emerald with a puppy gleam on them of mirth. Her ears are long and tapered like all Eldar but her face seems to have a cue of roundness on it that can only be found on Mon-Keigh. Even the best looking dancers back at her planet cannot compare to her beauty. Her mind connects the dots and before she notices it, she found her mouth speaking the words as her mind connected the dots.
"You're a half Eldar," whispers Taenerya both disgusted at the fact and amazed at the result of such a union between Mon-Keigh and her race.
The beautiful monstrosity only smiles at her making Taenerya blink. That simple act feels like a thousand suns seem to be gleaming in front of her. Taenerya has to admit grudgingly that the half-Eldar indeed does not look bad, far from it in fact.
"As to why Papa Nurgle there can't see us is because I've muted our souls," explains the half-Eldar. "I'm Ariannelle by the way. Just Arianne for short. As to why we're here it seems pretty obvious now actually. Look at what we have landed on. These Chaos gods are so arrogant that they leave valuables such as this simply lying around,"
Taenerya alongside Ela Ashbel only blinks as the half-Eldar holds up a dusty key in front of the three of them.
"A key? For what?" the Eldar Seer asks in confusion.
"For Papa Nurgle's greatest treasure," half-Eldar answered surprising Taenerya as she throws the key towards her without warning nearly making the Banshee drop it as it bounces on her hands. "Look up there and you'll see," she points besides the cauldron of Nurgle making Taenerya and Ela Ashbel jaws to drop as they saw a white figure in a small cage crying her eyes out. It does not take a genius for them to know who it is already.
"Our lady, Isha," the two breaths in tandem just in time to see the bloated god pour a spoonful contents inside Isha's cage bathing the goddess with boils, her piercing screams of pain echoing in the halls.
Taenerya almost bolted out of cover if not for the half-Eldar pulling her back.
"What are you doing?" she hisses making Taenerya growl as she flicks the offending hand holding her.
"I'm going to save her!"
"And we will," Arianne replies sternly. "But we are not doing it in an idiotic way. Our visions brought us here. That means we have a chance. Now listen. Only I can surprise that big glop of a god and I only have seconds before he swats me away. The plan is simple. I will distract him, you and the Seer rush over there and open Isha's cage. With her around, she can hopefully teleport us anywhere other than here,"
"Hopefully?" Ela Ashbel asks askance.
The half-Eldar only chuckles somberly as her white wings opened to the fullest. "Yes, we have no way of leaving here and freeing her is our best chance of escape. Whatever you do don't look at the light. So in the count of three yes? THREE!"
Taenerya is caught literally by surprise as the half-Eldar vanishes into thin air before it is followed with a resounding boom from above followed by an angry pained snarl of Nurgle. Golden light fills the massive cavernous hall following it.
"Come on Ela!" urges Taenerya to the Seer who then raises the two of them flying out of their hidey hole by her sheer psychic might alone to the edge of the table of Nurgle where he has placed Isha's cage. It is pretty obvious though that the single act cost the Seer a lot since beads of sweet cover her head and the gem at her forehead is dimming.
"G-go now," pants Ela Ashbel leaning on her spear. "I-I will catch up,"
Taenerya is just ready to protest such an action when another explosion sounds above sterning her resolve as she wastes no time gunning for the cage and doing her damnest not to look at whatever is going on between the battle of the half-Eldar and Nurgle. Normally Taenerya just won't trust anyone but this close of a chance to save her people's goddess and at the same time escape this realm. She's willing to trust anyone, even a spawn of a Mon-Keigh and whoever of her kin that loves bestiality.
"BOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!"
"YOU DAREEEE!"
The voice of Papa Nurgle is such a shockwave that Taenerya is almost thrown off the giant rotting desk if not for a slender hand suddenly grasping her left forearm preventing the Howling Banshee from falling to her death by Nurglings awaiting below.
"Tanerya," the gentle voice of the goddess Isha is like clear water of a spring to her soul as the goddess' through the bars of her cage hauls her up. "Hurry up, your friend will not last," she urges, a sense of urgency marring her voice as the golden light slowly falters behind Taenerya.
The Howling Banshee wastes no time unlocking the millennia long age of the goddess. She almost screams in terror as her armour and hands melt as it make contact with the bars of the cage. Power floods her veins though halting the process as the power of Isha denies the power of Papa Nurgle as it stops the corruption even as Taenerya finishes unlocking the doors of the cage and opening it immediately.
Imagine her surprise when the goddess in front of her smiles sadly once more before exploding in a symphony of flowers that dissolves into dust without warning. Terror and hopelessness fills Taenerya and she just manages to turn her head to warn Ela Ashbel who has finally caught up to her of their failure when the half-Eldar slams like a cannon at her side, armour rent and almost naked as her robes are in tatters and the golden spear she is holding missing its shaft. Crimson blood is also pooling the side of her head and her wings are missing chunks of feathers.
Taenerya alongside Ela Ashbel barely manages to haul the fallen half-Eldar angel back to her feet when the steps of Nurgle shake the very air as it approaches the three of them.
"I WILL DEVOUR YOU ALL! How dare you-," the plague god of disease stops, its face seems to be mixing of horror and disbelief as his eyes gaze at the empty cage of Isha.
"NOOOOO! ISHA! WHERE ARE YOU?!" Taenerya and the other two almost died by swatting if not for them ducking the hands of Nurgle that passed overhead. As it is, Taenerya screams in utter terror and pain as some of the acidic goo of Nurgle hits her face and the soft part of her armour in the neck making her rip the mask off of her face as her hands frantically claw the offending material covering her neck now oozing with worms and goo that bury itself on her pale skin.
Unfortunately her frantic attempts catch the eye of Nurgle as it then eyes them, his undivided attention locking the three females under his hated gaze.
"YOU! YOU TOOK MY ISHA AWAY FROM ME! TEN THOUSAND YEARS OF HORROR I WILL INFLICT ON YOUR BODIES AND YOUR SOULS!"
That would have been the ends of the three souls if not for the corpse of Lilya without warning burst open the dead bodybag on which it is contained and jumping between the three and the reaching hand of Nurgle.
"You shall not touch me or them anymore!" the voice of Lilya does not belong to her but that of Isha's as the body crackles in white energy that seems to condense inside of itself before exploding in one bright light that blinds everyone.
Taenerya knows nothing as she lost herself to unconsciousness.