15

Twocaste stared at the "Indefatigable" she saw the ship as a symbol of the force she was building. The ship was a mismatched collection of technology taken from different races. Just as the mercenary band she was building was a motley collection of many alien races.

Humans, Abhumans, Demiurg, Kroot, and Vespid were all represented in her band. There were also the rat-like race, the Norvens, as well as the humanoid shark race, the Pisceans.

From what she understood, at some point in the history of Humans and Norvens, Humans had misidentified the Norvens as Hrud. Like the Hrud, Norvens preferred living underground. In the early days of the Imperium's contact with the two races Norven mercenaries worked with the Hrud. These days it seemed many didn't even know the Norvens existed.

The Norvens were known for being uncooperative, still Twocaste managed to make them fit in with others. Due to in no small part to her skill, the force and the ship held together and functioned as well as they did.

While the "Indefatigable" was still docked at Precipice. Twocaste hoped to add a few more fighters for her force. Syra stood nearby, she cast a sidelong glance at her human lover. She had always intended to return to the feral backwater that was sub sector Tegmen. But now that she and Syra were a couple, sub sector Tegmen was now only place for her.

She was nervous for him. Syra insisted his best role was as the leader of a kill team of former assassins. She didn't like the idea of her lover acting behind enemy lines. However his skill set meant she had to acknowledge this was the best use of those skills.

She was interrupted in her musings by a group of Tarellian warriors suddenly approaching her. They were lead by a Tarellian who was easily over two meters tall. Tarellians were usually shorter than Humans this one was massive for a member of their race. His face was split by a scar, starting from in between his eyes and ending at the bottom of his snout.

The leader of the group dropped to a kneeling position in front of her. "D'Va of the sept of Fu we pledge our service to you" the massive Tarellian said in their growling speech. Twocaste was taken aback "I appreciate the help, it's just" she glanced at Syra who stood near one of his team members, Agniya. She gestured towards the two humans "I should tell you I have humans in my army." The canine Tarellians were known for their hatred of humans.

The Tarellian shifted his eyes towards the humans boring into them with a venomous glare. Without taking his eyes off of Syra and Agniya he spoke "I am aware there are humans in your force. However your actions in the incident on Adrand's Citadel saved my clan from death. If it is your intention to form your own army, we are honour bound to your service."

Twocaste looked back at Syra, she looked at him as if questioning what to tell the Tarellians. Syra shrugged back at her. She turned back to the Tarellians "If you're all right with the human presence, and won't cause trouble, you are welcome."

Twocaste thought for a moment and then waved the Tarellians to follow her. She lead them to where the Piscean squad were helping load cargo onto the Indefatigable. Stopping in front of the Piscean squad's leader. "This is Fred, she is the leader of the Piscean squad, your clan will be supporting them." Twocaste turned to Fred asking Fred "Could you get them settled with the team? Later we will run some training drills with them so they'll be prepared for our operations."

Fred enthusiastically greeted the big Tarellian and his team. "How are you doing let's get you settled in." Fred wanted to do her best to serve Twocaste. Twocaste had been nothing but welcoming to her.

Fred had already felt positive about the Tau mutant upon meeting Twocaste. But it had been later that Fred had learned just how much of a positive effect Twocaste had on everyone. To Piscean eyes Fred had a very androgynous appearance. Fred felt no attachment to either gender and used sex pronouns interchangeably.

Currently Fred felt more comfortable dressing as a female. Before meeting Twocaste Fred had often dressed in a more male manner often when he didn't want to. She did this to avoid awkwardness.

Twocaste in talking to Fred's lover, Bob, Twocaste had learned of Fred's preference for female dress. Twocaste had gone out of her way to convince everyone to accept Fred's choice of dress.

The real thing that showed Fred Twocaste's positive effect on everyone had been Fred's interactions with Twocaste's human lover. Syra had clearly been raised somewhere with conservative views on gender norms. The Human had done his best to make Fred comfortable with who she wanted to be. As awkward as Syra's attempts at this were, Fred could tell the Human was doing his best. This was clearly due to Twocaste's effect on Syra. It was this infectiousness of Twocaste's willingness to stand for what she felt was right that made Fred enthusiastic about fighting for her. Fred was not alone in this everyone in the force had felt this in Twocaste.

Days later Syra was training with his team. No longer working with the Imperium, he couldn't expect to recruit death cult assassins. The only other death cult assassin on his team was Agniya. He knew the only reason she was there was because she was the Inquisition's creature.

The rest of his team were Abhumans and aliens, and were all contract killers. His team was divided into three separate squads. The first squad were melee focused skirmishers. This squad was lead by himself and comprised of Agniya, a Felinid, a Kroot, and a Norven.

The second squad, a sniper team, included two Ratlings, another Norven, a Piscean, and a Vespid. The third and last team were a heavy shield melee unit. He only had three in this team a Demiurg, and two Ogryn's.

The teams were resting after training. Lost in thought he didn't notice the Felinid woman until her arms were draped over him. Syra tried to move her arms off him "I will only betray Twocaste so much." The Felinid gave a playful purr like sound and whispered in his ear "Twocaste said I could have the occasional touch if I wanted."

Syra blushed, the Felinid, Mikya de Montaal, had somehow talked Twocaste into sharing their bed occasionally. He had mixed feelings about the whole thing. On one hand he felt he was betraying Twocaste. On the other hand Twocaste did agree to the whole situation. Emperor forgive him, Syra could also not help himself from being excited at the prospect of having two women in his bed.

He couldn't help but let himself be uncomfortable about this situation. Both women seemed to take a perverse pleasure in him being flustered. Yet when it came down to it, the two women did not publicly talk about their tryst, as he wished.

On signing on, Mikya had insisted that she would not be asked to sleep with her targets. The digging he had done into her background told him the Felinid woman had a hard life. Much like Twocaste, Mikya was an exotic rarity. He had never seen a Felinid before meeting her, but from what he understood she had more feline traits than most Felinids.

Felinids were not typically allowed off their world. She had been taken through illegitimate means by a Rogue Trader. This had ended badly, she had murdered her master. She then used a combination of stealth and more murder to make her way off her former master's ship.

Wanted, lost, and alone, she had a difficult task in surviving and hiding from local enforcers. Impressed by her escape, a firm of contract killers had rescued her and trained her as an assassin.

There were conflicting reports on how she left the firm. Some said she waged a small shadow war against the firm. Other information stated she simply bought her way out of their service. Syra suspected the truth was a mixture of both.

They were standing in an alleyway separate from the rest of the team. Syra whispered to Mikya "Someone will see us." She took her arms from around him and winked at him as she slinked away. He followed her back to the team. The Piscean, the Norvens, the Ratlings, and the Kroot were playing a Human dice game.

The Kroot was named Ahkah he had been a scout for a group of Kroot mercenaries. During a mission his group had needed to assassinate a target. Taking the job he had found he was adept at the work. Finding Ahkah on Precipice, Syra had managed to convince Ahkah to join his team as one of his skirmishers.

He knew little about the Piscean sniper who called himself "Bob." He had asked why he adopted a human name. The Piscean had shrugged saying "We're used to working with humans, we use human names." The Piscean Bob was the lover of the leader of the Piscean group in Twocaste's force. Bob's lover, also adopted a Human name, calling himself "Fred."

Syra did not know the customs of male and female dress among Pisceans. It had only been after he had met Fred, that Syra had found that Fred dressed as a Piscean female and carried himself as a female. He had spent the period before then referring to Fred as male. When he tried to apologize to Fred, Fred waved the apology away saying "Its fine, I'm not really bothered whatever you refer to me as." Syra had since learned that Fred embraced his androgyny. Fred referred to himself using male or female pronouns interchangeably as he had no attachment to either gender.

In training with Bob, Syra had learned he liked to use a battle cry he assumed was of Piscean origin. The battle cry went "Eim ah scerk suge mah diiich!" Syra could only assume it was Piscean in origin because Bob would never say where it came from. Every time Syra asked Bob about the battle cry Bob only playfully dodged the question. Bob always acted as if he was amused by the questions.

The Norven twins, Ieklaw Itch, and Syeklaw Itch often could be seen in the company of the two Ratlings Gyler Mosler, and Ordon Dunster. The Xenos and the Abhumans actually hated each other. However all four of them shared a tendency towards sneaky, conniving behaviour, and theft. This shared tendency caused them to make common cause for their schemes.

Ieklaw was a sniper while his sister was a melee skirmisher. The small group of Norvens in Twocaste's forces, including Ieklaw and his sister, had left their clan in mysterious circumstances. None of them, including the twins, were willing to talk about those circumstances. Syra assumed the groups willingness to work with other aliens was rooted in what caused them to leave their clan.

Norvens were known to sometimes worship the gods of Chaos. The frog alien Cuixtli had assured them there was no sign of Chaos taint among the Norven group. Twocaste chose to trust Cuixtli's judgement, and psychic gifts.

Agniya stood apart watching the scene with barely held back cold contempt. Syra knew she was the inquisition's creature. She did not like associating with the mixed group of Xenos. She barely tolerated the Abhumans. She gave Syra a cool nod more of acknowledgement than a truly friendly gesture.

For Agniya, Syra's relationship with Twocaste was beyond heretical. As Agniya was Death Cult Assassin in service to the Inquisition she would never approve of Syra. Still, if for no other reason than being a fellow Death Cult Assassin he could not help but desire her approval.

The Vespid, Sisrin, also was apart from the group silently maintaining his weapon. Sisrin had been a strain leader in service to the Tau empire. At some point an incident that had resulted in his translator helmet being damaged, lead to him leaving the Empire. Sisrin was notoriously taciturn and suspicious.

Gyler, and Dunster had both been brought out to deep space in the employ of a Rogue Trader. Their master had died mysteriously to a sniper. Many suspected the Ratlings. As duplicitous as the Ratlings were, Syra's checking into their story suggested they were not responsible. Their master had angered his own family, the assassin was likely someone sent by his house.

The Ratlings contract was through the Rogue Trader they worked for. The Ratlings believed their master's house had no desire to retain their services. With nowhere to go they wandered until ending up on Precipice. Some believed their master was possibly the Rogue Trader who took Mikya. However; the time frame of this was not possible. Mikya had murdered her master long before Gyler, and Dunster's master had met his end.

Near the group, but not taking place in the dice game was the Demiurg woman Lon, and the two Ogryns, Ord, and Dol. Lon was telling the two child like Abhumans a story. These three made up a team who were designated to be a moving piece of cover. They were equipped with shields and power weapons. It was not entirely correct that his team was made up of former assassins. The Demiurg and the two Ogryns were all former bodyguards.

Ord and Dol were small for Ogryns but still fairly sturdy. Dol was the first female Ogryn Syra had ever seen. They had been serving as bodyguards of the same Rogue Trader Gyler and Dunster had been serving. The Ratlings were apparently not entirely without conscience.

As their master was shot down by sniper fire the two Ogryns had simply stood around screaming at everything. The Ogryns had only understood they were supposed to stand in between their master and anyone who could hurt him. No one, especially the two Ogryns had seen where the las fire had come from. The Ratlings seeing that the Ogryns were lost and confused took pity on them and brought the Ogryns with them. The Ogryns had joined Syra's team along with the Ratlings.

Lon had been working as a bodyguard for freelance Alien Traders. She had been doing this kind of work when she came to Precipice. She had been protecting a Jokaero merchant who came to Precipice to trade for archeotech. Her employer had been killed in a dispute with Lord Lucian Griffiths' cadre. Lord Lucian Griffiths had been later killed by Twocaste in a bar fight. The Jokaero's crew were already nervous about the denizens on Precipice. With their leader dead they fled the station. They were so panicked they ended up leaving Lon behind.

The problem with Syra's shield team was they didn't really have it to be a leader. Lon had formed a sort of motherly attachment to the Ogryn's, doting on them. She was a skilled warrior to be sure. However when it came to commanding she didn't really have it in her. Syra sat down with his team, he would let them relax a bit before going over the mission brief.