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"This whole place is a wreck," I said aloud and only to myself as my clawed feet moved my body around the busted-up defenses. The dwindling light meant little to the enhanced eyesight of the Tyranid Warrior. The Spore mines were essentially all but gone, the bunkers either gutted or blown, I had to spend most of my time just having Ork bodies just dragged into the reclamation pool. That thing would somewhat overflow with the ant's line of body parts and corpses. So nothing was really fixed in the following two days since the battle took place, sleep was barely a necessity for me anymore, just an hour or two of shut-eye. So most of the time was just moving the massive of my brood around to collect what they could and grow new troops. Gaunts mainly, the more time-consuming kind were put away on the back burner. As the end result of this, I had managed to bolster my numbers to around four hundred fifty, which was a far cry amount from what I'd lost over my failed attack and previous defense.

"At least both races on this world are giving me some time to reconstitute my forces."

The Orks just had their last functioning Warband torn apart by a combined Tyranid/Eldar counterattack. But why the Craftworlders or the Exodites never follow up the moment by just wiping me out I was still wondering.

Perhaps they didn't want to squander the opportunity gained in shattering the Orks and they wanted to make certain they weren't liable to rise once more. I send out Lictors to get a general impression of what was going on out there and they seemed to be reporting back the same thing. Or is being piled up and burned, none of my scouts were being attacked, yet. But these were Eldar, if the Exodites could find them then I knew the Craftworlders knew they would out there just not attacking them.

Perhaps they didn't want to provoke me that way. Or maybe there was some other reason? Tyranids weren't as hard to wipe out as Orks were, I wouldn't leave spores and certainly, they would have figured out there isn't an entire Hivefleet in orbit. Were they too just curious as to my nature? Did they want to see what I would do or wanted to be sure I was the one in command before trying to kill me again? Attacking only when they knew how to throw the Tyranid swarm into disarray?

"All the more reason for me to get off this planet within the week." Dawn tomorrow I was going to take what force I could muster and see how much of the defenses around the crash site remained. Tinker and his engineers were busy taking apart guns and armor and upgrading what they had or trying to graft crude augmetics to their bodies. So they would be more useful for taking that place.

After willing many Gaunts to take up patrols or guard positions I disconnected the synaptic links and sighed. My personal dugout still held the Eldar but I just decided to ignore her and just take my bandages off at last. They were old and itchy, having them know what my cheek and ear looked like didn't really matter. It never mattered just a convenient excuse not to feel the air on my new skin.

Besides, there was no hiding my eyes at this point.

The red hue that had appeared so long ago had almost fully taken over my pupil and iris. My eyes have taken the full glint of the Tyranid Warrior and other creatures and soon would be just like the rest.

"I would never be able to return to human society like this. There would be no chance in hell I'd find a civilized world and get some job and life there." Running from planet to planet was the fate I was consigned to the moment I got nabbed by Genestealers.

I was probably going through some sort of metamorphosis, slowly but surely my hearing and eyesight were getting better. I didn't notice it before but now that I started thinking about it things weren't as pitch black at night as on Typhon. It wasn't from the moon being up nor brighter as I suspected but my body changing. Sustenance from such small portions didn't leave me unfulfilled as I knew deep down it wasn't because I was getting used to it. Not with everything that was already occurring.

I was even thinking about myself as being in control of the Tyranid Warrior when seeing and hearing from it. I wasn't piloting it just handing out orders and it had no wait time to respond because we were so linked mentally. I was more than a Synapse creature now if that's ever what I was before. I could contact and maintain a link further than before, that think in the back of my neck was responsible I knew it in my bones. But could do absolutely nothing to stop what I barely even understood.

"Just... hope whatever this is won't change me as a human completely."

Hope... Hope.

"When the hell has hoping for anything solved any problem for me? The times when things have been okay are when I took action and make something of my current situation! I've been sizing opportunities and making something of it, waiting around for some magical solution has never worked as well!"

I still have people I orbit, infected by some Lovecraftian monster and wholeheartedly believing I was their savior. That I would provide for them and give them a grand future. It's not even their own thoughts, just twisted brainwashing by foreign genetics pumped into their veins. They were still counting on me and are still victims of circumstances or were born unlucky. I wanted a home, and it wasn't just going to be for me. I didn't know how well I could get out of this situation but I was not leaving this world alone. I was not going to run into the aimlessly black void without direction and by God, I was not going to let things fall apart because yet another complication got in the way!

I turned over to my Eldar hostage, she was fast asleep already. She had little else to do other than sleep, eat, or look at that letter from her folks. It was hard not to find her propped up against the wall breathing steadily kind of cute. She was still an assassin that came to kill me, almost killed Absalom, and is the only leverage I have. Specifically over that Elor Ororu fellow and her family which I have never met so I was barely going to count them... Or should I?

Could they be useful in getting Absalom out of, where ever the Exodites have imprisoned him? It was doubtful they'd be dumb enough to take the guy where all their civilians were hiding but it must be some serious bolt hole somewhere. I couldn't feel his mind even though my abilities have grown in range so it's either they've found a way to hide him or he was just that far away. Either one I was completely ruling out just going in spike rifles and serrated blades blazing.

"Elor is someone I am definitely going to have to work with to get Absalom back. Why did he get so friendly at the end of the battle? How come he was agreeing to look up worlds for me?"

Sure he would want me to get off his homeworld without causing more damage. Yet another conflict so soon after the Orks were completely broken and are now in the process of being mopped up. However, they had the Craftworlders here now, and with their help and my army being reduced into a paltry force should mean attacks. But no, he didn't even try bringing up trading her for Absalom at any point.

I started thinking back to all the times we've met and spoken. The knowledge the Eldar would have of me being in charge and the death of synapse creatures not disrupting the whole brood. The idea that not all the Exodites were in favor of this ceasefire plus it not even being needed anymore yet for days I've been left alone on the ground and in orbit...

Perhaps he'd been analyzing me for some time, trying to get a full picture of who I am. Then either concluded I wasn't that bad of a human or that he really could work with me rather than through or against me. To keep his home and lady friend safe that is.

"Well that works just fine for me, I never wanted a confrontation with them. So this will make leaving and getting Absalom back that much easier."

I had someone who would be willing to make a trade, just as soon as I had that ship built. Or rather after I had secured the crash site then built it and somehow come up with a plan to trade people with Elor. Her family could be useful, perhaps in getting Absalom out and into my possession. Before I did that I needed to get that ship up in running, a quick getaway after making the trade and losing my only hostage and person keeping an Eldar attack on me away.

"My Lictors have already reported things are relatively okay to move. I mean if my scouts weren't being attacked like last time that had to count for something. They seemed to be focused completely on the Eldar."

If it didn't and this was a ploy, well, I just suppose I'd have to use this force. Plus Tinker and his mechboyz guns to fight out way past so much terrain to that crash site.


Just sitting around for two more days straight waiting for more troops to trickle in was teeth grinding. I wanted enough of a force to get me through the war-torn jungle plus protect the crash site. I wasn't going to maintain a force at the landing zone anymore, what Spore mines were left were already dug up, barely a fraction of what once surrounded the rings of this fortress.

I made the call knowing full well that trying to protect two areas so far away was just not going to work. Not with the losses I sustained and especially not with the invisible time I likely had counting down for when the Eldar would attack me. I could feel the Biocrusier in orbit and knew it was fine as far as food went, the surrounded FTL ships were also hungry and after a mental thought crossed my head, were being fed by means I didn't want to look into.

The spawning and reclamations pools would be dissolved and the feeding tendril retracted. The ship would position itself over the Ork's crashed vessel so when Tinker was done we could just shoot ourselves straight up. In addition to the drop pods that would be growing even more additions to my brood. It would suck as these spawning pools made creating new 'nids that much easier but it was what it was.

I contemplated taking my five hundred-strong force to the outpost. Before concluding there wasn't much there other than still growing infected Orks. It would be a while before anything would become of them and even then the Eldar probably burned them all for safety. No, a direct beeline for the crash site and formulating a plan to take it over was the best idea I could cook up here. This wasn't strictly a do-or-die situation but I wasn't about to take anything for granted by diddling around any longer than I had to.

Speaking of which, I hopped on a Hormagaunt and sped off to meet Elor. Some of the Genestealers guarding my perimeter had spotted him coming in. He was being quite casual about the whole affair, which was likely due to the supreme confidence that I wasn't about to hurt him with Absalom still as his hostage. I decided to mimic the sentiment by just taking myself and one Gaunt to greet him on the open and blasted waste of my third line.

"Elor, I trust you have some places picked out for me?" Or at the very least no bad news to bring.

"I do here," He tossed a black slate of sorts and I fumbled with it, trying not to drop the newly arrived map. It was human in origin and I started to get suspicious as to where he'd gotten something like this before he continued. "These worlds are uninhabited but for good reasons, green are Ork controlled, red is a volcanic planet, and blue is nothing but frozen tundras."

The Ork worlds seemed like the most appealing but that was for the most shotty reasons possible. They had biomass and could sustain prolonged human life. If I had the capacity to conquer it, and that was a pretty big if.

"I might as well just head back to Aurelia and try my luck with the crazy war breaking out here."

I flipped the pad and gestured at the yellow dots scattered about. "What about these ones? What do they represent?"

"Imperial worlds, ones you wanted to stay away from." Well, that was more than true. They'd see a bunch of Tyranid vessels just floating through space and immediately send a force to hunt me down and make certain I cannot become a threat. "The minor dots should indicate a general direction to take your fleet in to reach any of these worlds."

"Where do you even get this anyway?" The suspicion I held didn't hold back in my words. Elor undoubtedly picked up on it but maintain his cool and controlled demeanor as always.

"My space fairing kin. Some of whom I know and were fortunately not too keen on wondering why I had taken an interest in the surrounding space." By surrounding space, he meant a blunderbuss of icons shot across a map.

I felt like there was more I wasn't getting but knew asking would lead to lies or just very little. So I shelved those concerned for the time being. "How is Absalom? Doing well in your care?"

"Of course, nothing untoward has occurred to his person." The man was quick to interject and I nodded graciously. I had a feeling he would ensure that but Elor was not all of the Exodites and our common case is now broken. Which was why I'm bringing this up right now.

"When I leave I am being Absalom with me and handing your friend right back. How do you fancy are our chances of that working out?"

I missed the smile he gave last time, the neutral expressions were getting harder and harder to read. Or just look at it in general, his pristine facial expressions remaining still for so long made me feel like the man was a marble statue.

"Bringing your... compatriot shall not be a simple task." Elor headed off my next question. "As you can ascertain my kin are hesitant to simply give away one you care for so clearly."

"Constant leverage, yeah that would have been my first guess to make." It made sense, they'd want something to keep me away. It was doubtful they'd believe me if I said I just wanted to live in peace. This was Warhammer 40K after all.

"Okay so this is clearly an issue but not one that has no potential solution."

"But her family certainly wants her back," I added and he raise a brow. So I continued on like this was some genius idea I put together and not yet another gamble I didn't know would work or not. "She has more people who care about her it's not just you alone. Is there any chance you could rally their aid in whisking Absalom out of whatever place your people have him in? Then, you know, being them in for a trade?"

A long pregnant pause followed as Elor was considering my words carefully. Is evident by the way he wasn't looking at me but in that manner, someone lost in thought would be. "They would yes, it would complicate matters if they did."

"Then we should do it when I'm ready to get off this planet and just leave." I cut him off before he could inquire why I couldn't do that now. I didn't want word getting out about me flying into the air on a flimsy Ork aircraft. One missile is all it would take at that point. "I have a feet things I want from the Ork Crash site for when I leave, it should take a week or more to find."

Elor stared and I could detect a note of suspicion from his gaze. If I was right though he wouldn't press this because that would be working against me. Instead, he took off the cloak he still wore from the battle and tossed it towards me. "Tie that around a branch outside of the downed cruiser to inform me of when you are ready."

"Then we'll plan for the trade, got it." I scooped up the cloth, well it was more like silk, then approached him for a handshake. "I want this to go as smoothly as you do, just a quick trade-off and then I'm going to be leaving this planet. That's all I want here."

I was being completely sincere. Wondering if wearing my emotions on my sleeve like that would help. Elor just nodded along and turned to leave. I stalled him with a word.

"Wait!" My hand held out and a look of inquiry back carried me on. "Do you know what's going on at the Ork crash site?" I already told him I was going there, so why not ask him for scouting data?

"Are the Orks gone from there or are there Eldar poking around the place? I'd rather not run into any of your kin and accidentally start a brawl."

Elor kept staring, and I assumed he was analyzing me for intent and sincerity. He still had no clue why I wanted to head over to the Ork crash site and probably realized it wasn't to kill Orks. "The den of the Greenskins has not been fully cleansed. I have heard the paltry force defending it is still merely trying to piece things together after your..." He seemed to put on a show for finding the right word, or maybe the man genuinely was I could barely tell. "Unsuccessful assault... A force of Asuryani was planning on putting the place to the torch if you are offering to complete the task."

He knew full well there was something more going on here but letting me throw my troops at the Orks over his kinsmen. Yeah, that makes sense and it would leave any unpleasant complications for later.

"Certainly," I said graciously enough, mostly for the excuse Elor was offering me. "Do you have any more letters or would like to see... you know."

He pondered this at length before making a regretful shake of his head. "I do not have the time for that. Send my warmest regards, if you will?"

I was about to swear I would before a better idea entered my brain. "Would you like her to write a letter? She still has that paper you gave and the back is blank."

"Of course," The hasty manner in which Elor replied more than told me this was a good choice. "If you find her a writing utensil I shall come to your next encampment tomorrow. If I am able that is."

There was a noticeable smile and the melody of his voice that always played took on a more warm tone to it. I decided to interpret that as a good sign it was. It how we'll this would go was up to his abilities but it was probably safe to assume he'd do everything to have this end the same as me.

"Tinker shall make good progress as soon as I get there. I just needed some time and nothing bad to occur, good thing my forces are a reasonable deterrent."