I'd like to say I have a good explanation for the wait, but I don't, I just procrastinated for large amount of time, but hey, I tried to make this an extra long chapter as compensation, so here you go, chapter five, as always comments are appreciated
I don't own 40k, if I did I'd be a lot more wealthy
It was a couple days after the two sons of the Despon family had been infected by Velz that the gates of the city of Lugan opened and out from it came Hadro and Jelk at the front of a caravan of carts. Once every month of the Riln calendar which is separated into 15 months that each last 25 days making a year last for 375 days, quite close to Earths 365 days, the Despon family sends Hadro and Jelk to trade with the other towns under the control of Lugan. The sun was just coming over the horizon as the carts and the Heltos pulling them trudged out from the city, it was a long ways to their destination.
Speaking of the destination the first place the caravan was set to visit was the oasis town of Cabra, it was a town directly to the south of Lugan. Oasis towns did not get much respect from the desert dwellers of Riln, as rivers were seen as sacred and blessed, as such oasis towns were seen as godless and as such could be raided with impunity, this attitude has not subsided much even in the time since Riln was conquered by the Imperium. Because of this the town is always in need of arms and armor for its guards so that raiding parties from other city states or just roving bands of outlaws don't destroy the town. The people of Lugan may not respect the town but the rulers of the city keep it under their control as the strong men such a hard life produces are a valuable resource and many a commander of Lugan's military has come from Cabra.
Over the day long journey to Cabra the sun beat down on the caravan and it's escorts, the guards kept a lookout on the surrounding dunes constantly for any signs of wandering raiders that could prove a threat, though thankfully no one impeded the progress of the caravan and as the sun began to set below the horizon the caravan trudged its way towards the gates of Cabra.
As the caravan passed through the gates of Cabra's sandstone wall, which while impressive for such a minor town was still pathetic compared to the great walls of Lugan. Once inside Hadro and Jelk looked around, it was a lively place with guards patrolling the streets and walls people still bartering with merchants on the side of the road despite the coming evening, people were fishing in the oasis, and one could hear the sounds of merriment coming from the taverns. Despite having a hard life the people of Cabra rarely let it show instead choosing to live their lives as happily as they could fully knowing at any point an attack could end it all.
It didn't take long for the caravan to set up in the square and people began crowding it to see what the Despon caravan had brought this time and it wasn't long before the air was filled with voices from the various merchants of the caravan all yelling out their deals to the townsfolk,
"Fine food! Fine drink! All at a premium!"
"These charms of mine give good luck! Trust me you don't want to miss out!"
"You need a good bow for your hunting? I got good bows aplenty!" As this happened a well armored guard with brown hair and a goatee along with a scar on his upper lip came up to Hadro and Jelk and started speaking to them,
"Do you have the shipment we requested during your last visit?"
"Ah, yes my good captain, we do have your shipment." Jelk replied and motion for a couple of their guards to haul over some crates, after setting them down Jelk opened one to show the guard captain it contents, weapons and armor all of high quality. "Some quality armor and weapons made by the artisans of Lugan, this crate along with four other will be yours for the cost of 500 Trel." The currency of Riln was split into four levels each ten times larger than the last, the smallest was a Det, about as much as a single dime in the United States,next was a Yej worth a dollar, then a Jek worth ten dollars, then a Trel worth a hundred Dollars. The total cost of these four crates in the United States would be fifty thousand dollars, the guard captain blanched at this and went to protest but Hadro cut him off choosing to intervene before Jelk could anger him.
"Sir you must understand that armor doesn't come cheap, neither do quality weapons, these crates could ensure the safety of Cabra for years, think of it as an investment, think of you're wives and children and ask yourself if you're willing to put them in danger over this." The captain continued to grumble but went off and came back with a hefty bag of money,
"Take you're money and give us the crates." Jelk went up and took the bag with a smile on his face, while Hadro said,
"Thank you sir, happy doing business with you." And with a bow they went back to the caravan, night had come, their customers had departed, and it was getting cold so the brothers along with their soldiers decided to warm themselves up by celebrating their earnings at one of the local taverns, where they drank, sang, and partied well into the night.
When the caravan trudged through the gates of Cabra next morning almost everyone in the caravan was dealing with a hangover. Except Hadro who decided against joining the revelry along with a few of the more disciplined soldiers serving the Despon family who were brought along. Unfortunately for everyone that day was even hotter than the last and the sun beat down on the tired, hungover caravan without mercy, the merchants sweating in their fancy clothes and the soldiers sweating in their armor. Lugan soldiers were outfitted quite disparately because the various families of Lugan are the people who give soldiers to the city rulers to fight with so quality varied a lot. Despon soldiers were in general averagely equipped with a metal cuirass covering the torso along with vambraces for their arms and greaves for their legs, under the metal was a lair of leather made from Helto skin that covered the body giving protection for joints, the helmets covered the head with an opening for the mouth and nose along with two holes for the eyes, they also had a small flexible piece of leather that connected the cuirass to the helmet and protected the back of the neck from both attacks and the sun, and lastly they had a tabard showing the wheel and bags of money that marked them as soldiers of the Despon family.
The next destination for the caravan was Frel a town on the banks of the river Sal to the south west of Lugan, this town was known for breeding Heltos, which were a prized commodity for anyone in Lugan or the surrounding areas as they were used in both civil and military uses, whether they were hauling things or being ridden as cavalry mounts. Without these hardy beasts no one old be able to get anywhere on Riln in any reasonable amount of time without using the outsiders vehicles.
It took a half day to get there and the sun was beating down in full force by the time the Heltos could be heard and the river Sal could be seen. Frel was great for breeding Heltos as it was in a bend in the river, essentially on a peninsula making a lot of land lush and watered, so once the trees were cleared there was grazing ground and a source of water and then the town cropped up and started breeding Heltos and selling them.
It became clear however as the caravan approached the town that something was off, people were quiet as they crossed the threshold into the town and everyone looked subdued, some looked scared. It soon became clear why when a couple soldiers turned the corner onto the Main Street wearing a distinctive green armor, outsider soldiers, those who called themselves the Imperial Guard, the town must have been subjected to a search as when Hadro and Jelk looked around they could see broken down doors even a couple fires made from iconography of the river gods. The soldiers had noticed them by now and were walking down the street towards them, the caravan came to a stop in front of the soldiers and one of them spoke in a gruff voice,
"Hello citizen I'm gonna have to search your carts, make sure you're not hiding any heretics or heretical iconography, not that I'm implying you are." His tone of voice was polite but thinly covered a tone of contempt towards the brothers.
"I know you weren't good sir, take a look and we'll wait." Hadro said with an obviously forced smile on his face, while Jelk looked concerned. The soldiers then went along the caravan and checked through each of the carts, although they only found various foods, some weapons, and other trinkets and baubles it was still a nerve wracking experience, especially with the distant sounds of doors breaking, screams, and the occasional shot from the outsider weapons from across town. After around ten minuets the two soldiers came back to the front apparently satisfied that they weren't hiding anything, but he did have a question to ask,
"Citizen, what is the large cage for?" He was referring to a large iron barred cage in the back of the first wagon, the one Hadro and Jelk were riding,
"We are using that cage to store a Calka that we are picking up later in our journey, we have been ordered to fetch one for a client back in Lugan." Hadro answered, the guards appeared satisfied with that answer,
"Thank you for complying citizen, well let you go on your way now, for the Emperor."
"For the Emperor." Hadro said back and the the soldiers walked away, everyone gave a visible sigh of relief at that, the outsider soldiers while few were terrifying to anyone on Riln, it seemed like they could act with impunity against anyone they considered suspect and anyone who tried to fight back soon found themselves with a smoking crater in their bodies from their strange weapons.
Business in Frel went about the same as in Cabra but Hadro went and bought a herd of Heltos from various herders in and around the town and it was around mid afternoon that the caravan got moving again to get to the final town in their current trading route, Relga, a farming town around three days away from Frel on the banks of the opposite river from Sal, the river Deltha. The Helto herds that were bought in Frel would be sold at a higher price to the farmers on the banks of the Deltha, the herders of Frel and farmers of Relga don't need to risk traveling the desert, the Despon get money, a good arrangement for everyone.
The first day of traveling went well and the caravan set up to sleep for the night, the three moons shone down on the travelers and the guards all drank and sang around the fires. Soon enough though the soldiers all fell asleep and the night watch kept their vigil over the camp.
Hadro was asleep in his tent when suddenly his ears picked up muffled sounds coming from outside the tent, steel clashing and men screaming, Hadro's eyes shot open and he scrambled from his bed and stuck his head outside his tent. All around him there was combat shadowy figures in the garb of desert raiders were killing sleeping guards and fighting those who were awake, desert raiders came from all walks of life on Riln, some were disgruntled peasants who wanted riches, some were fanatics still worshipping the river gods so were reluctantly driven out, some were even disgraced nobles from the various city states.
Hadro retreated into his tent and grabbed a box he always kept near his bed, when he opened it the sight that met him was a small weapon from the outsiders, what they called a "Laspistol", technically it wasn't legal for him to own it but it's rather easy to flaunt laws when you're family is rich. His guards were loyal and rather well trained but it was clear they were outnumbered and tired so he'd have to take the risk and use his Laspistol.
When he emerged from the tent the struggle was still going but It was clear they were losing, less guards were alive than dead and those few left were getting overwhelmed quickly. Hadro raised his pistol and sighted one of the bandits fighting one of his men, a single shot blew a large hole on his torso. For a second everyone was quiet until Hadro fired his weapon and killed a second bandit then the soldiers fought back with renewed vigor and started pushing the bandits back. One of the bandits tried charging Hadro and threw a javelin at him and Hadro clumsily threw himself to the side,
"Uff." Then as the brigand brought his sword up to end Hadro he suddenly lost an arm in a shower of gore as the sword flew from his grasp, the outsider weapons were deadly, the bandit let out a scream as he fell to the ground holding crater where his arm once was,
"AGHH." When Hadro looked up again he saw Jelk fighting two raiders and just barely holding on as he blocked and parried with his spear, Hadro shot twice and both fell dead to the ground, Jelk looked up and gave a nod of thanks and the brothers looked about. The remaining raiders had fled and the caravan was still alive but at a heavy cost, the camp was in disarray and around eleven soldiers out of the twenty they brought had died, a number of merchants had also died in the fighting. As the sun rose the camp was busy not picking up and preparing to leave but instead they were burying the fallen soldiers and dead merchants and when the caravan did set out it was much fewer in number and much lower in spirit.
The rest of the trip to Relga was peaceful and those wounded in the fighting got what helping they could in Relga, the Helto had been sold to the grateful farmers of the town and the brothers as well as the other merchants with them had turned a good profit. But the mood was still subdued, there was no revelry in a tavern the night they stayed, no one had the heart for it, too much had been lost to celebrate and the next morning they left Relga to head for home.
Another two days had past and the caravan was half a day away from Lugan when from over the top of the dune to the caravans right came a call, when the caravan looked to see the source of the call a disheartening sight met their gaze. Backed by the sun around twenty cloaked figures stood on the hill, the remaining nine guards brought their Helto's around and lined up, they were all worried, some prayed to the river gods, how much would the outsiders matter if they died here anyways? The leader of the group called out to the caravan in a feminine voice,
"Put your weapons down, no blood needs to be spilled on this day, if you surrender you will be treated well and be spared!" The guards and merchants all looked suspicious and some outright hostile, one of them yelled at the woman,
"And why should we believe an honor less cur that resorts to banditry!" Before any more yelling could break out Hadro walked up to the guards,
"Men, put your weapons down." The guards looked shocked at this,
"But sir, with your weapon we can take them." Another said,
"They are lying! The second we put our weapons down they'll kill us all!" Hadro responded by saying,
"There's too many, they'll overwhelm us, so I hid my weapon, who knows what damage they could do with it." The men still didn't like this but they slowly nodded, seeing some wisdom in his statement. A second later the sounds of fallen weapons filled the air as they all threw there weapons to the ground. The people on the hilltop descended and the guards and merchants were all lined up pushed on their knees and were knocked out one by one by the cloaked figures.
When every one of the guards and merchants were knocked out the leader walked up to Hadro and Jelk and took off her hood, revealing the face of Saradiel, and the other hooded figures took of their hoods to reveal various people from Lugan,
"Well, that went well." Saradiel said, Jelk nodded and smiled,
"Yeah, you really sold it, ever thought about leading an actual bandit band?" The three siblings all chuckled a bit before the three heard a family sound in their heads,
"Well done, all of you." Everyone looked over to see Velz cresting the dune and everyone kneeled, if anyone had been looking up they might have spotted a moment of uncertainty come over the alien features of Velz's face before going back to normal, "Thanks to you're actions we can now bring more people into the fold, and soon I will be able to enter Lugan, and our true plans can begin." Saradiel looked up slightly,
"You honor us highly great one, we are not worthy." Velz shook his head at this,
"Nonsense, I may be powerful but people fear and spite me, without you I would be powerful, but without a voice, and without allies, I would be a body without limbs unable to do anything but watch, now rise, we have work to do." Saradiel nodded and along with the others they got up from their kneeling position. In a few minutes Velz had infected the guards and merchants, Saradiel and the other citizens rose with a smile on their faces and headed back to the city in order to not raise suspicion, while Velz, Hadro, and Jelk watched over the newly infected as the Genestealer's kiss worked its way into their bodies and minds.
When the guards and merchants woke up the caravan got under way again, but this time with a new piece of cargo, Velz was inside the cage in the first cart, covered by cloth. When the caravan got back to the city in the afternoon it was quite easy to trick the guard into believing it was a Calka, as they are known to be nocturnal hunters and the guard didn't want to risk waking it up, especially after Jelk spun a couple tales about how Calka's have been known to kill people who wake them up during the day. And soon the caravan rode back into Lugan with a trunk full of coin and beast far more dangerous than any Calka could ever be.